The Bear Guide - Cataclysm Edition

[Deleted]

Running Porce Crab and Vial of Stolen Memories atm. Got Tia's Grace HC and Left Eye. Best combo?

Going Cho'gall today too, I'm the Add tank. Is there any better combos for that boss?

[tangedyn]

Running Porce Crab and Vial of Stolen Memories atm. Got Tia's Grace HC and Left Eye. Best combo?

Going Cho'gall today too, I'm the Add tank. Is there any better combos for that boss?

There's no real "Add tank" against Cho'gall. The tank that tanks Cho'gall first also becomes the add tank, because the add spawns at the same time as Fury is cast, and that is when the second tank takes over tanking Cho'gall. The second tank spends half the time DPSing, so a Feral may be better as second tank.

Avoidance trinkets work well against Cho'gall, because the big incoming spell damage comes from Flame Orders which is extra Fire damage on top of Cho'gall's melee. Avoidance the melee attacks will also avoid the spell damage.

So I'd go with the Vial + H Tia's Grace. Activate Vial when Flame Order is up.

[Deathfairy]

On Chogal stack sta imho, especially while learning the fight you will see boss with 5-8 stacks after MC. We have him on farm for over a month now i still see 5 stacks once in a while. So you need HP + cds to survive his damage.
As for no add tank.. ON 25 there is on 10 yes you have to do with just 2 tanks but on 25 3 tanks is better.

[Arielle]

On Chogal stack sta imho, especially while learning the fight you will see boss with 5-8 stacks after MC. We have him on farm for over a month now i still see 5 stacks once in a while. So you need HP + cds to survive his damage.
As for no add tank.. ON 25 there is on 10 yes you have to do with just 2 tanks but on 25 3 tanks is better.

You should never be forced to gear to make up for your raid sucking.

[bavarcarus]

what happened to having a new updated guide?

[Meleti]

On Chogal stack sta imho, especially while learning the fight you will see boss with 5-8 stacks after MC. We have him on farm for over a month now i still see 5 stacks once in a while. So you need HP + cds to survive his damage.
As for no add tank.. ON 25 there is on 10 yes you have to do with just 2 tanks but on 25 3 tanks is better.

It's better to gem Agi (because every other fight requires Agi) and just ask for a Pain Suppression if something goes wrong like that. External cooldowns exist for a reason.

[Stevoman]

For which bosses do you replace your agility trinkets with stamina trinkets for that ~20k+ hp boost?
Or...which boss does enough spell dmg to warrant stamina > agility/dodge ?

It entirely depends on your and your healers' gear levels. The only boss right now that has a high instagib chance for bears is soaking double-attacks Chimearon, since you won't have a SD bubble for one of the hits and pretty much have to pray you dodge or get a heal in time. I would hope you've got a DK tank soaking, since their self-heals are overpowered on that fight and make the double-attack mechanic completely trivial, and bears are better suited tanks for a steady stream of damage.

Myself, the only fight I use my stamina trinkets on is Nefarian, and that's because I'm MS DPS and still have a few blues in my tanking set, so I'm dangerously close to being below the instagib survival cap. If your tank set has a higher gear level than mine, as it likely does, then I think good old Tia's+Fluid is still the best trinket combo.

[tangedyn]

If you are in full R346s, you have enough Stamina to be the DA soak tank, even without Stamina gems/enchants/trinkets. You only need Savage Defense for the first hit, and as long as you have 10k hp remaining after the first hit you will survive the second hit. Except in heroic mode, but you will be using a CD for the feud DA anyway.

In most cases, it's more a matter of whether your healers can get you high enough in time, rather than whether your max hp is high enough.

[Arctagon]

What's the word on reforging currently? I see people reforging to nothing but dodge although this guide is only saying mastery, expertise and hit. And are expertise and hit really viable for bears nowadays? According to EJ expertise and hit rank even below haste.

[Barawr]

This guide is completely outdated, but the moderators are currently talking/looking for someone to update a new one. You should be reforging to dodge still at this point unless you need hit for a 10 man raid comp until the big patch changes to interrupts not missing.

[tangedyn]

What's the word on reforging currently? I see people reforging to nothing but dodge although this guide is only saying mastery, expertise and hit. And are expertise and hit really viable for bears nowadays? According to EJ expertise and hit rank even below haste.

That list on that EJ thread is not ranked by order of priority.
If you'd like to know your stat priority, you can use a theorycraft tool, e.g. the bear spreadsheet linked in my sig.

[bavarcarus]

expertise and hit are for threat only, you probably want a bit of it but not very much. Reforge everything to dodge, ideally get an item with crit and mastery and reforge crit to dodge.

[Kazlehoff]

Quick Question: now that Windwalk does not stack anymore, how does it compare to the flat 130 agi?

[Arielle]

Quick Question: now that Windwalk does not stack anymore, how does it compare to the flat 130 agi?

It's worse.

[Auroro]

If anyone want to help me with the updated Bear Guide, pls sent me a message.

I think I got about 60% done. 17 pages on Words, I am wipe out.

[Djuntas]

Just a question on gear. As you know PvP gear is kinda nice, and our tier set-bonuses maybe aint that needet... Its my off-spec so I cant really get the gear so fast, but no matter..

I think this could be BIS on normal mode correct? PvP gloves + chest are better than tier/Chiamoroen gloves and Antramedes chest/boe world drop without counting 70 AGI set bonus if you ask me. Each to there own, I just like the addet migation over threat stats or avoidance. Also with pvp gloves kick is only 5 rage... awesome.

Tsanga
Theriona necklace
Omnitron shoulders
Maloriak cloak
PvP chest
Magmaw bracer
PvP gloves (5 rage to kick only then + 70 AGI set bonus)
Tier leggings
Halfus boots is best (cause yellow socket + tier leggings yellow), but valor BOE is okay to.
COW ring mastery/crit
The earthen exalted rep ring
Valiona stam trinket
Magmaw stam trinket
Halfus weapon
PvP relic (Its better than valor if you ask me, haste does littel difference)

Yellow socket inn PvP relic if no halfus boots + always yellow in tier leggings. Else stam gems all the way for me. Meta req 2 yellow.


Hope I can ask gear advise in the sticky, thanks for replies.

[Arielle]

http://dkkitty.blogspot.com/2010/12/...pt-3-post.html

[Gootgot]

Just a question on gear. As you know PvP gear is kinda nice, and our tier set-bonuses maybe aint that needet... Its my off-spec so I cant really get the gear so fast, but no matter..

I think this could be BIS on normal mode correct? PvP gloves + chest are better than tier/Chiamoroen gloves and Antramedes chest/boe world drop without counting 70 AGI set bonus if you ask me. Each to there own, I just like the addet migation over threat stats or avoidance. Also with pvp gloves kick is only 5 rage... awesome.

Tsanga
Theriona necklace
Omnitron shoulders
Maloriak cloak
PvP chest
Magmaw bracer
PvP gloves (5 rage to kick only then + 70 AGI set bonus)
Tier leggings
Halfus boots is best (cause yellow socket + tier leggings yellow), but valor BOE is okay to.
COW ring mastery/crit
The earthen exalted rep ring
Valiona stam trinket
Magmaw stam trinket
Halfus weapon
PvP relic (Its better than valor if you ask me, haste does littel difference)

Yellow socket inn PvP relic if no halfus boots + always yellow in tier leggings. Else stam gems all the way for me. Meta req 2 yellow.


Hope I can ask gear advise in the sticky, thanks for replies.

I have everything rest BiS and i am also using PvP relic, and PvP chest + gloves (70agi bonus).
I still haven't seen gloves from chim and chest from atramedes.

Relic wins by exactly "1" point over valor relic...so it doesn't rly matter what you get.
PvP gloves are just insanely good...it makes you not worry about your rage, when interrupting, at all.
Now...i am thinking that i will be replacing the set bonus only when i get both parts i am missing...until then (possibly even after ? not sure) PvP is better.

[lamrith]

If anyone want to help me with the updated Bear Guide, pls sent me a message.

I think I got about 60% done. 17 pages on Words, I am wipe out.

There is not much I can contribute to the guide other than a request from a guide user and "new" cata bear player. I played a bear TBC and some of WOTLK, back then there was always a guide and "cliff notes" around so those of us that don't have the time to spend days reading theorycraft, and crunching numbers at least had some base stat/gear targets to go for.

If possible it would be nice to have a bit of a summary with some of the key targets a bear needs for say heroics, 10man, etc raids. Just some basic Min requirements. On my MM hunter I know I have specific points to reach to be "raid ready" beyond the base item level. (Hit to 8, haste 760...)

The stat rankings as always is a huge part and normally builds to the required caps and softcaps, but it is nice to know what your final target is, so you can stop "gearing" for it and go to the next one and Gem/enchant to reach caps. Saddly thus far in Cata I have not seen anything like that for bears, everything I find is pre-Cata release, based on the beta.

[Auroro]

There is not much I can contribute to the guide other than a request from a guide user and "new" cata bear player. I played a bear TBC and some of WOTLK, back then there was always a guide and "cliff notes" around so those of us that don't have the time to spend days reading theorycraft, and crunching numbers at least had some base stat/gear targets to go for.

If possible it would be nice to have a bit of a summary with some of the key targets a bear needs for say heroics, 10man, etc raids. Just some basic Min requirements. On my MM hunter I know I have specific points to reach to be "raid ready" beyond the base item level. (Hit to 8, haste 760...)

The stat rankings as always is a huge part and normally builds to the required caps and softcaps, but it is nice to know what your final target is, so you can stop "gearing" for it and go to the next one and Gem/enchant to reach caps. Saddly thus far in Cata I have not seen anything like that for bears, everything I find is pre-Cata release, based on the beta.

The problem is that if i did that, there will be couple people that will be not happy.

Stats rankings been up in the air and it is harder to pin each one.

I do know that Agility and Stamina are the top two stats that we do want. It is a matter of how much do we want is the problem.

Like for example, let have two druid that share the same profession LW/JC.

Druid 1 use three [Solid Chimera's Eye] and enchanted his Bracer with [Draconic Embossment - Agility]

Druid 2 use two [Delicate Chimera's Eye], one [Solid Chimera's Eye] and enchanted his Bracer with [Draconic Embossment - Stamina]

Which one is wrong?

It is a matter of choices. Many of us are trying to break away from the "Best Druid's stats build". The best druid is stacking stamina and the druids in this forum is trying to find that sweet spot.

160k for 359 raid sound good enough, where as 130k is good for heroic. there is a 20k health different.

30% dodge ok

We do not even know the sweet spot for Mastery or when to start reforging for it.

Another example:

Hit rating

In 10 man, you need couple gears with hit if you on interruption, skull bash may not need it once 4.1 hit.

In 25 man, you do not need hit rating.