Bear Tanking AE pulls in instances while leveling (Help pls!)

[Chestur]

I'm using the new LFG tool for groups, which is awesome. It's also GREAT if you have a heal/tank spec.

But I can't hold threat and I STAY rage starved while Bear Tanking.

Armory = http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...d&n=Coldnbland

AE rotation = Demo shout > Swipe > Tabbing between mobs, putting Maul, Mangle and Lacerate up where I can

Here are the issues I face:
1. Healers with small mana pools/off spec/inexperienced that need to drink between pulls (rage drains to 0).
2. Overeager DPS jumping the gun and/or pulling threat, using my rage trying to pull it back, failing, then having to basically depend on my auto attacks for rage generation.
3. Insufficient TPS to maintain agro; not getting hit = not getting rage
4. Disc priest (the most popular priest leveling heal spec, in my experience) shields blocking any rage gains for their duration.

Of course, once I get going (agro lock), I have no problem. The mobs pounding on me and the rage returns from crits/swipes is hot. The problem is the getting going, or getting it back once it's lost. I try to use Enrage and AE taunt abilities when appropriate/available, but they don't seem to cut the mustard.

In juxtaposition, my DK tank of a similar level holds threat (and pulls back if lost) no problem in the same dungeons. This could be because she's Blood (high threat) spec tank?

Armory = http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...uzad&n=Cobwebs

I'm worried, because I hear most people say that druid tanking is an easy face roll of three to four buttons and forget it, but I tried that too and failed. :P

Any advice would be appreciated!

[Sunshine]

1. Healers with small mana pools/off spec/inexperienced that need to drink between pulls (rage drains to 0).

This will improve as gear improves, on both sides. Right now you're wearing some non-optimal tanking gear, so I wouldn't blame it always on the healers. Save rage as you can at the end of the pull, and save Enrage if possible for the beginning of the next pull.

2. Overeager DPS jumping the gun and/or pulling threat, using my rage trying to pull it back, failing, then having to basically depend on my auto attacks for rage generation.
3. Insufficient TPS to maintain agro; not getting hit = not getting rage

Not getting hit because the dps pull off you? If they really go in and hit it before you, then let them die. They'll learn eventually. On a side note, to get it back, growl -> FF is a really nice combination. Make sure the FF comes after the growl, so that you start at their threat and then build up over it.

Other than that, get the maul glyph, which will help a ton, and the challenging roar glyph as well. You could also go back and pick up the swipe/maul idol from Strat to help you out with your initial TPS. Realize that when you're tabbing through mobs, you should be mauling constantly, since it's off the gcd (as long as you have enough rage). Swipe and maul alone should be enough to hold AoE groups, with a mangle or two on any single-target dps targets within it.

Your spec could be adjusted too, if you want to do that -- remove points from Predatory Instincts and maybe some of King of the Jungle, Infected Wounds, or Thick Hide so that you have room to put points in Rend and Tear, Primal Gore, Berserk, Furor (3/5), and Naturalist. Then pick up those other ones as you have points for them. (No, I'm not suggesting you run without those talents at max level; these other talents will just give you more bang for the buck at early levels.)

4. Disc priest (the most popular priest leveling heal spec, in my experience) shields blocking any rage gains for their duration.

Shields no longer block rage generation. Don't blame this on the priests.

[Chestur]

so, TL;DR version = I'm bad.

Thanks for the advice. :P

[Chestur]

One other question-- should it be hard at that level? (late 60s).

I've leveled a warrior and a Dk thru those levels as tank specs, and it wasn't as hard. Wondering if that's just a difficult time, or if it's just because of the advice you gave that I'm having struggles.

[Friekshow]

If you are specced for it, you should gain 5 rage anytime you crit. Basically while you AoE tank, crit is the lifeblood of a druid tank
Go for as much Agi and Sta, those are your main tanking stats. And when your crit is 25%+ you should have no prob staying raged up.
That is if you are spamming swipe in AoE pull ofc. Normally Swipe whenever available, and put Maul on Prime Kill target (Mark it Skull)

[axxey]

Mark a skull, tell dps to kill skull before AoEing.

Before a pull shift in and out until furor procs your 10 rage, hit enrage, then pull. Don't demo roar first thing, let mobs hit you harder and spend your early rage on swipe, demo is terrible threat/rage, it's a mitigation debuff.

[Chestur]

Advice on what to pull with? Faerie fire or charge is usually what I use. Charge uses rage, tho, so i kinda stopped using it.

[Sulika]

What helps a lot with rage is if you stop spamming abilities when it is only the last few mobs in the pack remaining. If you have omen or some other threat meter then you can easily see which you are ahead on threat by. If you are ahead by enough that you don't need any more threat and the mob will stick to you until it dies then stop using rage abilities. This means you will end each pack at full rage which means you have tons of rage to dump on initial aggro for the next pull.

[Oweena]

I see 2 problems straight away.

1. Your spec.

If you're getting rage starved.. simple solution.
OMEN OF CLARITY! Also you get furor in this spec so 10 rage can be got from shape shifting.
That would be a better spec.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#0ZxGGscr0ceoc0dhZbA0z
2 free points to put where ya want.

2. If you're having trouble holding threat well.. first of you need the maul glyph.. no bear tank can be aoe tanking without it.

You have 2 free slots so stick it in there..

Faerie fire pull and if you have rage charge if not just let them come to you or LoS pull.

[Sunshine]

so, TL;DR version = I'm bad.

Thanks for the advice. :P

I didn't mean to sound like that! I'm sorry if it came off that way; it's really just getting used to the class and some minor changes that could help.

I usually end up pulling with FF as I'm running in, then having a mangle or swipe ready for as soon as the mob/s get in range.

I'll also agree with everyone else here -- marking one target in an aoe pack for dps and then using mangle/lacerate on that can help save the cases where every dps class picks a different target to go full out single-target dps. There's not really any other hope in that case, I think.. it's just dps being bad.

What's getting you down with the leveling? Is it just slow, or is there dying or what?

[Cattava]

get the glyph of maul

if you have rage issues, don't use demo roar at all

spam swipe/maul (glyphed) for AE pulls, maybe a mangle every now and then for your focus/kill target

spam lacerate/maul and keep mangle up for bosses/single pulls

you can macro each of these to one button for AE and one button for single (i have three macros, one that includes mangle in the AE and one without)

[Pope]

The best you can do is to level the last level, hit northrend, collect a pack of starter gear, and then tank the shit out of all the instances in northrend.

Outland-Gear is total crap in comparison to Northrend-gear, you will notice a big difference.

[Kreth]

I didn't mean to sound like that! I'm sorry if it came off that way; it's really just getting used to the class and some minor changes that could help.

I usually end up pulling with FF as I'm running in, then having a mangle or swipe ready for as soon as the mob/s get in range.

I'll also agree with everyone else here -- marking one target in an aoe pack for dps and then using mangle/lacerate on that can help save the cases where every dps class picks a different target to go full out single-target dps. There's not really any other hope in that case, I think.. it's just dps being bad.

What's getting you down with the leveling? Is it just slow, or is there dying or what?

One thing you may consider for tanking instances is to bind skull to your FFF. Pull with that, and you'll have solid initial aggro on the mob you have targeted, and the dps should be attacking it first.

[Borakh]

To sum up the useful advice:

- Use shifting and/or enrage to gain rage if you are at zero before pull.
- Mark primary target, pull with faerie fire.
- Tell DPS to hold it a second.
- Forget demo roar for low level instances, for aoe tanking just spam swipe from the start and maybe mangle primary target if there's also a lot of focus damage.
- Get glyph of maul.

I should add, in case it's not obvious: If you're rage starved, stop using maul! Even without maul you should be able to hold the threat of aoe damage from equally geared + leveled DPS (or healing threat) by just spamming swipe and keeping mangle up on the primary target. Don't forget taunt and challenging roar if you loose aggro. Also, note that faerie fire provides good threat and does not consume rage.

[Chestur]

Wow, great advice; thanks guys! I think I can handle most of this, but I do have some dumb questions about macros (sorry, my main is a healer!)--

1. How can I bind a mark into a macro? So I can hit a button for FFF and also mark that target with a skull?
a. Per Kreth's comment (I fail @ the internet and dunno how to quote)
2. How do you do macros for "spamming" abilities? I'd assume a cast sequence macro, but does that get out of whack if you don't have sufficient rage?
a. Per Cattava's comment

@ Sunshine--
It's OK, pal. I know I'm bad, that's why I came here to ask questions. The groups actually succeeded, they were just ugly. A few wipes, a few deaths, agro was pinging like crazy and I had no rage.

This is in comparison to my DK, which was a benefit to groups instead of a impedement, so it was more a guilt factor than anything else. I don't like being carried, unless it's my friends carrying me and they are aware of it in advance. ;-)

[Sunshine]

1. How can I bind a mark into a macro? So I can hit a button for FFF and also mark that target with a skull?
a. Per Kreth's comment (I fail @ the internet and dunno how to quote)

#showtooltip
/cast Faerie Fire (Feral)()
/script SetRaidTargetIcon("target", 8);

I have the icons I use frequently keybound to things in easy reach instead -- the problem with macroing it to an ability is that any time you use the ability, regardless of what target it's on, the mark will be applied. So if you'd growl->ff a runaway, it would then get a skull.

2. How do you do macros for "spamming" abilities? I'd assume a cast sequence macro, but does that get out of whack if you don't have sufficient rage?
a. Per Cattava's comment

#showtooltip
/cast Swipe (Bear)()
/cast !Maul

That works for swipe and maul; similar things for other abilities. If you don't have sufficient rage, either the swipe or the maul will go off, but not both. Something you can do about that is add a modifier for maul or for no maul:

#showtooltip
/cast Swipe (Bear)()
/cast [modifier:alt] !Maul <-- this will maul if you hold alt down

#showtooltip
/cast Swipe (Bear)()
/cast [nomodifier:alt] !Maul <-- maul if alt is *not* down

[hemdal]

bind eveery single attack to maul in bear for example: mangle maul, swipe maul, bash maul (yes even that) enrage maul, etc

[Chestur]

I wanted to thank everyone; I took your advice and ran an instance with TONS of rage and no agro issues, whatsoever.

Only one weird thing-- when I made Maul macros for Lacerate, Mangle and Swipe, for whatever reason the #showtooltip for swipe didn't work. It stayed constantly greyed out and when I would hover my cursor over it, it didn't show me the tooltip. I copy pasted the macro given by Sunshine for all three macros and the other two work like a charm. I thought it was annoying and weird, but not gamebreaking. I figure if my other stuff is available, then swipe is too. :P

Again, thanks for the help!

[gonterf]

Coupla thoughts:

In a macro, you'll want to call it Swipe (bear), not just Swipe. I think that got changed in 3.3. I usually DO NOT macro Maul to any other ability however, because especially in five player dungeons it isn't infrequent you just don't want to use it. Maul uses a lot of rage, and while it generates good threat for that rage, it isn't as important as Swipe on AE pulls even if glyphed. Finally, if your healers are running OOM, I don't think that forgetting about Demo Roar is entirely fair - use it only after you have secure agro on all targets though.

[Sunshine]

In a macro, you'll want to call it Swipe (bear), not just Swipe.

Good point; fixing my macros above.