Thread: Bear Tanking?

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  1. #1
    High Overlord Trinafer's Avatar
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    Bear Tanking?

    I have been looking for something fun to do with my druid, but healing just isn't as fun as it used to be. I still want some way to gear her up, have fun and really enjoy what I'm doing. I have been resto and balance ever since I made my druid, so tanking will be a huge difference in play style. I have a few questions for the more experienced bear (feral) tanks, so I know where to start and whether this change is worth it.

    1: Do YOU enjoy tanking and a bear? Is it something you will continue doing?

    2: Is gear hard to obtain, especially for someone who has been playing a caster for a very long time? (I don't expect gear to be handed to me, I just want to make sure that I won't be running countless dungeons and not finding the gear I need)

    3: What are the flaws to bear tanking? (Do you have a hard time keeping aggro? AOE problems? Low amount of aggro spells? Ect)

    4: Which gear stats should I be looking at? I'm guessing stamina, dodge rating, maybe mastery and agility?

    5: And the wonderful rotation, is it hard to follow or is it simple? Does it require quick fingers and nimble hands?

    Thanks to those that respond! I'm really looking forward to reading your comment and tips. Any tips, tricks and help are welcome!

    This is not a "Which class/spec should I choose" thread. I am only asking about one spec, in which I need help with.

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Hydrex View Post
    I have been looking for something fun to do with my druid, but healing just isn't as fun as it used to be. I still want some way to gear her up, have fun and really enjoy what I'm doing. I have been resto and balance ever since I made my druid, so tanking will be a huge difference in play style. I have a few questions for the more experienced bear (feral) tanks, so I know where to start and whether this change is worth it.

    1: Do YOU enjoy tanking and a bear? Is it something you will continue doing?

    Yes and yes.

    2: Is gear hard to obtain, especially for someone who has been playing a caster for a very long time? (I don't expect gear to be handed to me, I just want to make sure that I won't be running countless dungeons and not finding the gear I need)

    no different then any other class with the exception as a tank you have instant queues to the LFD so much quicker to obtain jp and gear in general.

    3: What are the flaws to bear tanking? (Do you have a hard time keeping aggro? AOE problems? Low amount of aggro spells? Ect)

    none, all tank are equal in cata. As long as dps is attacking the same target you are then threat is not an issue.

    4: Which gear stats should I be looking at? I'm guessing stamina, dodge rating, maybe mastery and agility?

    Dodge and then dodge, followed by dodge. Look for all agility leather gear and reforge to dodge...did I mention dodge?

    5: And the wonderful rotation, is it hard to follow or is it simple? Does it require quick fingers and nimble hands?

    there is no rotation in cata, its a priority system like all classes now.

    Thanks to those that respond! I'm really looking forward to reading your comment and tips. Any tips, tricks and help are welcome!

    go to wow forums and you can lookup the spec and all other details needed, or many other websites for that matter no sense in repeating someone else work here.

    This is not a "Which class/spec should I choose" thread. I am only asking about one spec, in which I need help with.
    Enjoy, a bear tank like any other tank class are fun to play if you like that role.

  3. #3
    1: Bear 4 life. it is fun and I really feel the concept of the druid class ties in with my personality. My nickname from my fiancee (not due to WoW) is bear so it fits.
    2: I found gearing up to be quick, especially with the insta queues for tanks! Lots of gear on the AH, too for pretty cheap these days for slots you can't seem to fill.
    3: Aoe can be tricky with trigger-happy DPS laying AoE. It should be fixed in 4.1 with the 3 second swipe CD, but tanking now will just make you even better then! Savage Defense changes will make us easier to heal come 4.1 from a mitigation standpoint.
    4: sta (till 155ish self buffed), agi and dodge seem to be main priority at the moment (in that order). Healers say I am easy to heal so it must be good. Build yourself an assortment of trinks!!! double sta for heavy magic dmg fights, switch in an agi/mastery trink otherwise. Do not roll double sta trinks at all times or you will be annoying to your heals.
    5: Single target, mangle on CD, keep 3 lacerates up. pulverize at 3 only. keep FF and roar up. Multiple, mangle, claw, thrash, lay a lacerate, roar when you have good hold, rinse repeat.
    Last edited by Barezrfortank; 2011-04-06 at 01:57 PM.

  4. #4
    I'm kinda wanting to play my druid as a bear tank as well..... though I have been hearing that bear aoe tanking is kind of lacking, so I've been holding off. next patch I heard it's going to be a little better with the cd on swipe being lowered.
    Quote Originally Posted by Malgru View Post
    Lorewise... how is it possible for a rogue or a warrior to res someone? A hunter ressing a feral druid I can understand but.. eh.
    Quote Originally Posted by Blood Crusade View Post
    Clearly the rogue stabs them with a poison that revives, and the warrior yells at them until they get up.

  5. #5
    Tanking is my offspec but I'll give it a go.

    1: Do YOU enjoy tanking and a bear? Is it something you will continue doing?
    I enjoyed it more in Wotlk. I enjoy playing as kitty more now. Yes, I will continue doing it.

    2: Is gear hard to obtain, especially for someone who has been playing a caster for a very long time? (I don't expect gear to be handed to me, I just want to make sure that I won't be running countless dungeons and not finding the gear I need)
    Contrary to cloth casters you only have to fight against rogues and other ferals about your gear, so I'd dare say it's easier to gear.

    3: What are the flaws to bear tanking? (Do you have a hard time keeping aggro? AOE problems? Low amount of aggro spells? Ect)
    Our Savage Defense is a bit flawed, which will be fixed in 4.1 but still.

    4: Which gear stats should I be looking at? I'm guessing stamina, dodge rating, maybe mastery and agility?
    Agility. Perhaps Stamina if you tend to get bursted down alot.

    5: And the wonderful rotation, is it hard to follow or is it simple? Does it require quick fingers and nimble hands?
    Incredibly boring, compared to kitty rotation. I don't like the way of sacrificing Lacerate for Pulverize.

  6. #6
    Extra stamina isn't really needed for most fight. Generally you'll want to gem with:

    Agi > Dodge or Mastery > Stamina

    The question between dodge and mastery is a bit of a strange one. I image mastery becomes the superior when you have high levels of gear due to DR.

    This low priority on stamina is what most of the tanks are up to at the moment. As a bear you can feel quite lucky that Agility is boosting your offensive stats too, which makes fights shorter, hence solving part of the healer mana problem. This effect can really be felt in 5s and 10s.

    - - - - - - - - - - - -

    As for "is it fun?" Do the camel boss in HoO and tell me its not the greatest bit of bear action. And then to top it off, the elemental mini-boss that impales you is hillarious too.

  7. #7
    Oh and one more thing use your survivability CDs as appropriate. If you aren't going to roar for a while on pull due to trigger happy dps with AoE, make sure to pop either bark or a dodge trink or something to make life easier for your heals.

    A nice HUD addon will help with knowing when to pop your cds. It is very important in cata to manage these!!!

  8. #8
    Deleted
    In my opinion (Ive got some experience at 85 - in heroics and a few raids - with three of the four tanking classes) bear tanking is rather amusing.

    Like a DK singletarget threat is pretty moot, make sure to keep pulverize up, mangle and maul and lacerate. The roation is pretty simple and does quite alot of threat. AoE threat is another thing altogether, and even though you can use berserk every two or three packs, aoeing without berserk is just a pain. Swipe/Thrash kind of suck. But then again, I love charging, zerking, mangle tabbing and doing some 30k+ dps for that pack

    Gearwise: when it comes to dungeons gear is pretty decently spread. There arent many staffs (there's the one from TolVir... and thats the only one I can think of out of the top of my head) and you only have one rep-epic (gloves from Dragonmaw) and the ring from Earthen Ring. Compared to plate tanks who have bracers/boots/cloak. Then again nothing stops you from getting the str-tanking cloak.

    By the way, if you do your research into the different items faction-quartermasters sell at revered and the JP vendors, you'll be very far on your way to have a complete set (of ilvl 346)

  9. #9
    Warchief
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    Why do I feel like im being interviewed ?

    1. I love bear tanking. It was the first toon/spec I chose to play when I first started playing wow.
    2. You dont compete with tanks for loot, just rogues and the odd annoying hunter who thinks your staff weapons belong to them.
    3. check the bear guide at the top of this form or on the druid form on the battle.net site for some amazing information.
    4. check the bear guide at the top of this form or on the druid form on the battle.net site for some amazing information.
    5. Simple but you need to pay attention to your entire surroundings while doing it

  10. #10
    1: Do YOU enjoy tanking and a bear? Is it something you will continue doing?

    A: I reasonably enjoy bear tanking but I wont be continuing because I hate being in forms and not seeing my character's armor all the time.

    2: Is gear hard to obtain, especially for someone who has been playing a caster for a very long time? (I don't expect gear to be handed to me, I just want to make sure that I won't be running countless dungeons and not finding the gear I need)

    A: Gear is not hard to obtain but the stats you will find on any gear is miserable because there are so few Hit/Exp + Mastery pieces (which would be ideal). Crit/Haste add to our tanking output in a roundabout way but are not nearly as easy to consider as Dodge/Parry are for other tanks

    3: What are the flaws to bear tanking? (Do you have a hard time keeping aggro? AOE problems? Low amount of aggro spells? Ect)

    A: I have no troubles with any part of bear tanking EXCEPT our gearing situation which feels extremely un-fun always sorting through which piece of cat/rogue loot will be the best of the worst and our interrupt. Our interrupt (skull bash) can't be talented to be free (or is already free) in that it costs a rage resource and I have a REAL problem with that because sometimes when you need to interrupt you could not have the rage to do it (compounded by the mental difficulty of trying to sit on rage when MAUL is "on next attack" and togglable through macros). Now our interrupt is also a bit better than others because it has that "minicharge" component that lets us be standing not at melee range of our target when we cast it (I think up to 13 yards). This helps a great deal when you are moving a target that you need to interrupt (like Arcanotron or Corrupting Adherents). People complain about Bear AOE but I have no problems what-so-ever and am in a 5/13 heroic 10m guild.

    4: Which gear stats should I be looking at? I'm guessing stamina, dodge rating, maybe mastery and agility?

    A: Don't be a stam stacker, this isn't WOTLK. Focus on your Agility and Mastery first and foremost. Other tanks disagree with me but I also like to be HIT/EXP capped to avoid threat issues and increase your personal dmg output which is an excellent thing for any raid.

    5: And the wonderful rotation, is it hard to follow or is it simple? Does it require quick fingers and nimble hands?

    A: No our rotation is not complex. The really super important things are to keep mangle on CD, macro maul into your other abilities and try to keep a 3-Lacerate Pulv up at all times (particularly important with our 4.1 Savage Defense Change). From there you have a couple of other "nice to haves!" including keeping up FFF 3 sttack and always having at least 1 stack of Lacerate on as many targets as you can (for more mangle).

  11. #11
    High Overlord Trinafer's Avatar
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    Thanks everyone. I will have to get on my druid today and get things figured out and hope for the best!

    ---------- Post added 2011-04-06 at 06:08 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by rated View Post
    Why do I feel like im being interviewed ?

    1. I love bear tanking. It was the first toon/spec I chose to play when I first started playing wow.
    2. You dont compete with tanks for loot, just rogues and the odd annoying hunter who thinks your staff weapons belong to them.
    3. check the bear guide at the top of this form or on the druid form on the battle.net site for some amazing information.
    4. check the bear guide at the top of this form or on the druid form on the battle.net site for some amazing information.
    5. Simple but you need to pay attention to your entire surroundings while doing it
    Because you secretly are, shhhhhh. Don't tell anyone.

  12. #12
    i dont buy this aoe tanking crap at all. shudnt have a problem keeping adds on u using thrash and swipe on cd. glpyphed maul too. if u really need aoe threaat use the beserk. im usually on maloriak adds on my bear and have no problems whatsoever keeping them on me.

  13. #13
    Dreadlord
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    I have 3 minor complaints about bear tanking personally.

    1) Rage generation has felt low in cataclysm; especially after the infinite rage bears would get in WoLK. My war tank not only generates rage much more quickly, but even spamming cleaves he never runs out. This is far from the case with the bear.

    2) Silencing a caster mob in an AoE group next to a CC mob basically involves a skull bash, move away from the group and then do some AoE work. Trigger happy DPS will often tank a mob or two for a bit after a pull like this (an example is in Throne of the Tides, where you have {melee}{caster}{caster}{melee}, and you CC one of the casters and it'd be best to pull the other one out so you can use AoE moves).

    3) The Lacerate/Pulverize setup is funky at best in my opinion, and works poorly in AoE situations where you tab around; it can take a while to get to 3. Contrast this with a protection paladin which builds Holy Power on himself and can use it regardless of target; given lacerate's lackluster DoT damage, I don't see the point of pulverize using the stack up and would just as soon have one of our abilities build up some sort of combo points on ourselves (holy power style) or have Pulverize boost your crit 3% each application (capped, and timing out if not refreshed) without using up stacks.

    Other than these, I really like the RAWR factor of the bear. It's not the most technical (I'd say the DK is right now) but running through a dungeon or raid as a bear.... you can't beat it. I mean, ... you're a bear. Just make sure you get yourself a Dun Morogh Cub to tag along and watch you bash some mobs.
    Last edited by tyggyr; 2011-04-07 at 06:17 AM.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by hellboyy View Post
    i dont buy this aoe tanking crap at all. shudnt have a problem keeping adds on u using thrash and swipe on cd. glpyphed maul too. if u really need aoe threaat use the beserk. im usually on maloriak adds on my bear and have no problems whatsoever keeping them on me.
    You're talking about a fight where aggro is not an issue. I mean, you just pick the adds up while DPS keep nuking the boss, you have no competition at all for aggro. The only issue on that fight as Bear is Savage Defense not being up enough while tanking the adds, making you harder to alive than other tanks.

  15. #15
    Deleted
    With all the objectivity that I am capable of (and please don't take this the wrong way, everybody is free to disagree)...

    Both feral specs are considerably more fun and amazing than the "mana specs". I have played all 4 for extended periods of time over the last 4-5 years... and let me tell you that:

    - Speed
    - Stealth
    - Survival

    are 3 magical words when it comes to having fun playing WoW in whatever you do. PVE, PVP, solo play, questing, achievements, etc.

    Sure, I enjoyed playing lots of characters and specs, but let me tell you, Feral... You're going to love it. It's a brilliant spec. Especially now that Blizzard is addressing the silliness of Savage Defense to make it better.

  16. #16
    If you are new to tanking, i would advise you to tank with a paladin, it's a lot easier and less frustrating. If you want a challenge read ahead

    The main issue in my opinion is the lack of utility you are having while tanking, as a druid you have so many tools on your class, you can count them as: Soothe, Innervate, Rebirth, Remove Curse, Hibernate, Entangling Roots, Thorns & more. You have so many tools which can help in certain situations, the only problem is you can use your utility only while you are not tanking.
    If you try to use any of these tools you are going to lose all your rage and leave your bear form which leaves you in a dangerous situation where you are more suspectible to damage and death.

    The next main issue is the multiple add department, druids have at the moment some problems with threat and mitigation in situations where you tank multiple adds. Generating enough threat and mitigating damage in comparison to the other tank classes underpowered. But blizzard is working on it, with patch 4.1 they are reducing the cooldown of swipe to 3 seconds, this will hopefully be enough to bring our threat in line with the other tanking classes. Our block mechanics are being worked on too, there are at the moment some really bugs with it, but eventually they will fix it in future.

    If you ever played a warrior as a tank, a feral tank is like a light version of the warrior without the mobility and tools. You don't have as much ressources as a warrior for rage. If you want to tank 5man dungeons, it feels like the better your gear gets the more you are going to have rage problems. Your only rage source is Enrage, which is on a 1 minute cooldown and leaves you a debuff which you take 10% more physical damage. Waiting for the Enrage cooldown pre pull can be frustrating sometimes.
    You have don't have a real in form heal ability. Enraged Regeneration is often glyphed so you get more heal while active, but you don't heal yourself

    The perks are as mentioned, you can switch to so many roles, you can go heal, range dps and melee. You can tank in your cat gear, because there are not much difference in gemming.
    Last edited by Findme; 2011-04-07 at 04:16 PM.

  17. #17
    Deleted
    Hm...well in comparison to warrior and paladin tanking, i'd say bear tanking is rather dull.
    Though it has its advantages over paladins (the health increase temporarily) or the warrior (applying a bleed damage increaser while tanking)

  18. #18
    Yes, I enjoy my bear far more than I enjoyed my protection paladin.

    Gear is "harder" to obtain because you are rolling against rogues, hunters, and shaman. Your guild needs to be understanding of this and give you tank priority, but you might not be liked by some DPS for it.

    AOE threat/mitigation and magic damage are a bear's weakest points right now. The AOE problem is getting fixed. Magic damage not so much.

    Agility, dodge, mastery, then crit or expertise depending on how close to the crit cap you are.

    Keep Pulverize and Demoralizing Roar up at all times. Mangle and FFF on cooldown, and keep as many stacks of Lacerate up as you can without letting Pulverize fall off. Maul or Thrash with any extra rage/globals.
    Last edited by Stevoman; 2011-04-07 at 05:50 PM.

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  19. #19
    Magic damage not so much
    Er, what? We still have the highest passive magic mitigation of any tank. And all of our CDs help with magic damage. Warriors are the worst off when it comes to magic damage right now.

    Maul or Thrash with any extra rage/globals.
    Thrash before FFF.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Stevoman View Post
    Yes, I enjoy my bear far more than I enjoyed my protection paladin.

    AOE threat/mitigation and magic damage are a bear's weakest points right now. The AOE problem is getting fixed. Magic damage not so much.
    Thats not true, ferals have 18% passive magic damage reduce, thats as far as i know the highest, with bark skin and tb resist trinket we are in a good spot in regard of magic damage.

    The most problems had the warrior with magic but they are getting a buff for incoming magic damage, so in this regard all tank classes are in a relative good spot with patch 4.1.

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