New bear in dire need of assistance!

[Taei]

Hey guys, im new to the bear tanking thing and feel that i need a bit of advice/heavy criticism to move my character to the next step. Ive been a tank all of about 3 days now, and i think ive moved on quite nicely although my spec and gear could use alot of tweaking.

So this is where i turn to you guys, could you advise me on such things as Spec, Gems, Glyphs and Badge buys. I would be eternally grateful.

Armory http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Emeriss&cn=Humpybumpy


I realise i have issues such has everything about my helm, lack of enchants on chest and back and also some poor quality gem choices.

I love you all, please, be nice.

[bhuff]

Glyphs are good, i might go with the unburdened rebirth, one lest thing that you have to worry about purchasing, and you will never have one of those oh shit i forgot to buy the reagent moments. Yes you know that you head piece can be improved, the mask of lethal intent from badges is a good upgrade. also you may want to look into the bracers of swift death, they aren't pvp gear, and they come with a gem slot to go on top of your leather-working perk.

Spec. the basic spec is there but be careful a lot of people that spec imp mangle don't properly take advantage of it, instead of waiting for the .5 secs for the cd to by over after using two abilities after the initial mangle, people will try to fit in another ability thinking that they have time before mangle is up again, thus wasting the 1.5 sec reduction granted by the talent.

personally i like the idea of taking the 3 points out of imp mangle, and the 2 you have in King of the Jungle and putting them in Natural shapeshifter, and Master shapeshifter respectively.

Other than that you may want to drop some hit in favor of some other stats, you seem to be a little over the hit cap 326 is a little too much

[Deleted]

specc is fine so is glyphs.

i would get the tank trinket from frost badges, awesome item, loads of sta and a nice on-use.

a few upgrades: emblem of frost belt and back. 2p tier10 help imo alot in aoe tanking due the +20% swipe dmg bonus. you are abit low on expertise if you are lucky in voa and gets tier10 legs, then change your head to tier9 (that gives expertise). i belive expertise is the best threat stat untill hardcap (wich is around 40 or something, cant remember). the tank neck from HoR hc is better than your currently. marrowgar 10man also drops an awesome tank neck

about your chest; the knightbane charpace (leatherworking totc recipe) is fairly cheap (atleast on my server). get it if you can. the ikfirus sack of wonder is BiS before hardmodes. it gives a good chunk of expertise too.

i wish you the best luck making your bear better!!!

[tibben]

specc is fine

I disagree. If you are using Enrage during combat without Tier 10 4 Piece bonus then you are essentially trying to kill yourself and/or piss off your healers. Take the points out of KotJ and Imp Mangle and move them into the Resto tree for Master Shapeshifter. There's no reason to use KotJ as a bear without T10 4 Piece and many would argue that you shouldn't even spec into it at that point either. Enrage reduces your armor meaning if you are using that as a threat boost you are essentially trading your survivability for 10 seconds of increased threat. Threat drops to zero when you die.

Glyphs are fine for tanking heroics, but you would be better off switching out Maul for either Growl or Mangle for raiding. There are only a couple of fights in ICC where you have to tank multiple adds and other than those cases Maul is basically useless.

You already pointed out the missing enchants and lower level gems so other than that it looks like you at least have a basic idea of what you are doing. The 245 tank trinket (Glyph of Indomitability) would be a good addition. Between the extra armor and the on-click dodge bonus it's a very strong choice for a bear. You may want to consider getting an Eternal Belt Buckle on that belt for an additional gem slot

[Deleted]

I disagree. If you are using Enrage during combat without Tier 10 4 Piece bonus then you are essentially trying to kill yourself and/or piss off your healers. Take the points out of KotJ and Imp Mangle and move them into the Resto tree for Master Shapeshifter. There's no reason to use KotJ as a bear without T10 4 Piece and many would argue that you shouldn't even spec into it at that point either. Enrage reduces your armor meaning if you are using that as a threat boost you are essentially trading your survivability for 10 seconds of increased threat. Threat drops to zero when you die.

well I won't call it suicide tbh. Enrage reduces your base armor!!!.

That is NOT the same as armor.

True, it's bettee with 4p tier10. But where should you take the points elsewhere? Imp stuns, some kitty talents, feral aggression or shredding attacks? I personally took shredding attacks since I pvp as tank now and then and the reduced energy cost on shred is nice

The 18 sta gloves enchant is better (and cheaper) than the 20 agi one.

Glyphs are fine for tanking heroics, but you would be better off switching out Maul for either Growl or Mangle for raiding. There are only a couple of fights in ICC where you have to tank multiple adds and other than those cases Maul is basically useless.

I disagree I belive I saw in rawr today that mangle got the highest tpr (threat per resource) as bear, and the glyph is making it 10% better. That's nice imo.

[Auroro]

well I won't call it suicide tbh. Enrage reduces your base armor!!!.

That is NOT the same as armor.

I disagree I belive I saw in rawr today that mangle got the highest tpr (threat per resource) as bear, and the glyph is making it 10% better. That's nice imo.

Dude he is right about the enrage. Armor is armor no matter it is base or gear armor. It is a suicide to use enrage for threat for a price of armor. Bear Tank only have Armor, Dodge, and Health to tank. The only time you would use KotJ is when you have T10 4p.

We do not talk about Rawr because so many people use it like it is a bible.

Growl glyph and Mangle glyph are switchable.

There are fight in ICC where you need to have Growl glyph to not miss any taunt. When the fight does not need a taunt then you could use Mangle glyph.

[Taei]

Thanks alot for the help guys . Ive changed the spec to what most suggested, taking points from KoTJ and Imp mangle and putting them in master shapeshifter. Also, im going to pick up both growl and mangle glyphs, and switch as and when needed for each fight.

I will be crafting Bracers of Swift death tonight, just bought the pattern. Unfortunately, im not the most badge rich person at the moment, after leaving my guild where i was boomkin ive spent all of them on the boomkin gear. Im trying to pug icc but as you can expect, my Gs (cuntscore) isnt all that impressive. So at the moment, im only doing 4/12. Triumphs are easy enough to get, and i will have the head asap.

What is the hit and expertise cap for bears, i hear the expertise is quite high.

Finally, is it worth getting the triumph trinket at the loss of a large chunk of HP?

Thanks, and any more help is greatly appreciated.

[littlepiggy]

I disagree. If you are using Enrage during combat without Tier 10 4 Piece bonus then you are essentially trying to kill yourself and/or piss off your healers.

The week heroic anub was available in ToC my group and I were doing attempts and I would always hit enrage and wait until it was almost over before charging in. I was asked by my healers why I was waiting after they said to pull, as it almost caused a wipe.. trigger happy dps, and I told them I didn't want my armor to be reduced going in on the pull. They told me to just fuck it, run in and hit enrage as I was pulling.. The lack of armor for 10 seconds, even during a boss pull while they were getting into position was not life threatening. There are def. times where it could be bad to pop, but (no offense) I doubt the OP, and most of the wow community, will ever be in a fight where that little amount of armor is going to wipe them. Just my 2 cents, it's not that big of a deal

[Deleted]

If enrage is timed with the black heart procc you can't feel the difference...

[Richmond]

Lets not start another KoTJ vs MSS thread, its been talked about enough.

I will agree that using it without 4pc T10 is a bad idea though, you can argue that it is base armor and that its fairly insignificant if the grand scheme of things, but losing armor in any way, shape or form is just a stuid idea - Just because your healers can heal through it, doesnt mean its wise.

Think of Sindragosa, when your healers are trying to drop there stacks and you at some 50% HP and you pop Enrage? Thats just one fight off of the top of my head

[Infort]

What is the hit and expertise cap for bears, i hear the expertise is quite high.
Finally, is it worth getting the triumph trinket at the loss of a large chunk of HP?

264 hit and 56 expertise.
I've dropped my expertise a little so I could get a little bit more stamina. (Tanking LK25 heroic)
And yes, the triumph trinket is really good, -if- there's just high melee damage going around.
Some fights favour armor over stamina, like LK and Festergut, where there's immense melee damage flying around.
But there's noone that can tell you if X amounts of stamina is necessarily better then X amounts of armor. (ish)
One of the things that has been said is that if the armor you gain mitigates more damage then the stamina you loose, then it's a go.

[littlepiggy]

264 hit and 56 expertise.

just to clarify to the OP.. that is the hard cap for expertise, which means no more getting parried. you want to try and get at least 26 (soft cap, which means no more getting dodged). expertise is the biggest threat stat for a bear until soft cap, after that it pretty much gets tied with hit for threat.. it's still very good to get expertise past 26, but not crucial

[Taei]

Thanks for clarifying that, my exp does need increasing somewhat, but hopefully when i find a decent priced sack that will be taken care of. Just a sidenote, nobody picked up on my pun in the title, i worked on that for, well, minutes.

[Herecius]

Haha! Dire bear. I see what you did there.

[Taei]

Thank the lord, i can rest in peace :-*

[tibben]

True, it's bettee with 4p tier10. But where should you take the points elsewhere? Imp stuns, some kitty talents, feral aggression or shredding attacks? I personally took shredding attacks since I pvp as tank now and then and the reduced energy cost on shred is nice

I disagree I belive I saw in rawr today that mangle got the highest tpr (threat per resource) as bear, and the glyph is making it 10% better. That's nice imo.

I already mentioned in my first post where those points would go. The 2 points in KotJ and the 3 points in Imp Mangle go to NSS/MSS and then you sacrifice no survivability for an increase in threat.

The Glyph of Growl is mandatory for several fights in ICC where missing a single taunt = raid wipe. If you miss a taunt while Heroic Saurfang is under 30% health you probably just wiped your raid. If you miss a taunt on Festergut while your other tank has 9 stacks you very well could have just wiped your raid. If you miss a taunt on a Big Ooze on Rotface you may have just wiped the raid. If you miss a taunt on Heroic Putricide during P3 you probably just wiped the raid. If you miss a taunt on a Shambling Horror on LK fight you may have just wiped the raid depending on who gets aggro. If you miss a taunt on Sindragosa Heroic you may have just killed your other tank depending on his cooldown situation, and most likely wiped the raid. But yeah, Glyph of Mangle is great for threat...

[littlepiggy]

mangle doesn't have a threat modifier I thought.. maul is definitely the highest threat move. i would assume after that is mangle and FFF, as they produce about the same amount of threat followed by 5stack of lacerate and then swipe?