Bears are about to see a boost for tanking.

What’s that mean? Well, we have no numbers, but I can tell you that threat is not something I have an issue with. I tank for people that far outgear me: the iLevel totals of their gear makes mine look anemic.

At first glance one might think that means I have problems holding aggro, but that’s not really the case. My GM is an amazing tank, and is about as well-geared as an early-T5 Warrior can be. When we race for aggro on the same mob such as for Gruul, he’s always asking the Hunters for misdirects while I stop using abilities and just auto-attack for long periods.

My aggro is continually through the roof. On a single target, no one in my guild can match what I put out (at least according to MY meter, and discounting the crit-happy dps at the beginning of a fight).

So… what’s the point?

Well, first of all, it isn’t a change I NEED as a Bear. As I said above, my threat is nothing shy of awe-inspiring so long as the dps isn’t retarded. With that said, anything that gives me threat independent of a hit roll is still a nice addition. So…maybe I’m wrong? Bleeds are already a staple of Druids both as Bears and as Cats, and this gives us a source of armor-ignoring damage that scales with our AP, hence also increasing our threat by default.

Thing is, the bleed damage from this ability is so minimal as it is that any increase from AP is likely to be equally unnoticable. From a PvE perspective, I just don’t see the point unless this is a really big increase.

Secondly, this should have been in place since day one. Rip scales with AP, why hasn’t Lacerate? Oversight? I don’t know but it’s silly that it’s taken this long to do it.

Third, could this be — as stated by several posters in the thread linked above — a PvP change intended to help Ferals in BGs and Arenas? Well that’s going to depend entirely on how well it scales.

If it scales like the [Idol of Ursoc] helps threat, we can safely pretend no change was made at all. On the other hand, if it scales well, perhaps the bleed will be significant and notable… perhaps a further change to the Idol is coming, but I doubt that. Mine is still in the bank collecting dust on the off chance something DOES change.

As a tank, I’m doubting I’ll see much of a change. Perhaps when I hit the arenas and spend more time trying to kill another player in Bear form this will become a staple of my arsenal rather than something I use only desperately to get a Rogue to waste Vanish. After all, PvP gear carries more AP with it than tanking gear typically does(blame Primal Fury for part of why we like AGI so much as bears).

On the bright side, at least some attention is being paid to Ferals, and even if it isn’t the right kind of buff, I seriously doubt this change will do any sort of harm in spite of some of the proclamations. Then again, maybe I’m wrong and maybe… just maybe… there’s more to this than we know.

Related Posts

• Don’t Poke Fun at Thorns (They Hurt)
• Baseline Bear… Freebase Feral?
• Leveraging Insect Swarm as a Healer

I used to be so die-hard Resto4Life (haha) that I refused to even map my shapeshifting abilities. If I turned into a Bear, it was only to /dance. Fortunately however, PvP has opened my eyes to a whole host of advantages to our various forms, and I’m happy to say that I’m now never more than a thumb movement away from turning into a happy woodland — or underwater — creature. Here are a few of the tricks I’ve learned for each form:

Cat Form

• Prowl + Dash past groups of enemies the rest of your group or raid has to carefully avoid.
• Bravely leap from ledge to ledge on the ramps in Karazhan.
• Dash back to your raid after being the victim of an ability that signficantly displaces you (ex. waterfalls on Morogrim).
• Dash back to your raid (wait for a straightaway like that of Curator’s hall in Karazhan) after a wipe so you can blog — I mean, buff — after a wipe.

Bear Form

• Mob out of control and running to bash your skull in? Turn into a bear and Bash his skull in instead, giving your tank 3 seconds to mosey over and give you a hand. PvP-specced Druids often have the Brutal Impact skill, making this a 4-second stun instead of 3.
• Impending doom from a Gruul Shatter? Pop Barskin and turn into a Bear. You’ll get more hit points and take 20% less damage than you would otherwise.

Aquatic Form

Turning into a seal lets you travel through water faster than everyone else. This is great for getting back to the circular platform that surrounds The Lurker Below in SSC after a Whirl, Geyser, or ill-timed Spout. And does anyone else get really annoyed by the fact that a few random AIR bubbles knock us out of Aquatic Form on our way through the drainpipe to Coilfang Reservoir?

Tree of Life

Use Tree of Life form on Blackheart the Inciter (possibly any mob that charms; I’m not sure) and during the phases where he charms your whole group, you’ll wander around ineffectually slapping your groupmates with your branches.

Flight Form

• Die in an unsafe spot? Click the “Resurrect” button and hit your Flight Form button for a quick getaway!
• One of my favorite things to do in game is to leap off Aldor Terrace, drop halfway down, turn into a bird, glide into the bank, and shift out so that I’m thrown across the room and land beside the mailbox. Sometimes, I even /bow. Not exactly combat-focused, but tremendously entertaining.

All-Terrain Travel Form Macro

Rather than creating and using multiple buttons for your various forms, consider creating a macro that will use Travel Form, Flight Form, Aquatic Form, or your mount based upon your current conditions:

/cast [swimming] Aquatic Form; [flyable,nocombat,noswimming] Swift Flight Form; [noswimming,outdoors,combat] Travel Form;
/use [noswimming,outdoors,nocombat,noflyable] Reins of the Swift Frostsaber

So what special form-based tricks do you use?

Related Posts

• /cancelform to Work like /dismount in Patch 2.3
• Too Sexy for My Bark
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I try to limit my community-based posts to at a maximum of 1 out of 5 posts — no more than one on the front page at a time — but I’ve been working hard on a few exciting changes and wanted to draw everyone’s attention to them (especially you RSS readers that might otherwise miss them). First of all, I’ve added two new sections to my sidebar: Recent Additions and Blogroll Highlights. “Recent Additions” spotlights the five newest additions to my blogroll. “Blogroll Highlights” displays three randomly selected blogs from my blogroll that aren’t currently listed among my “Favorites.”

In addition to these changes, I’ve added OPML files for the Druid blogs on my blogroll, allowing you to download and subscribe to all of the currently updated Druid web sites that I’m aware of. I’ve named this project The World Tree.

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There is some exciting news about Patch 2.4 from Community Manager Drysc today:

Although not terribly relevant to your discussion I thought I’d jump in and let you know about some Spell Haste changes in the upcoming patch.

In 2.4, Spell Haste will reduce the global cool down on spells, down to a minimum of 1 second. It won’t apply to melee and ranged abilities though however.

Ironically, this news comes just days after an e-mail from Sydera of Vek’nilash (US) in which she inquires:

I have been wondering about something for a while and have no other resto druids to ask. Why do you think there is so much spell haste on the Zul’Aman and T6 content items? What are we going to be doing in Hyjal and Black Temple that makes spell haste necessary? Is this bad design, or is there something to be learned here?

My healing style relies almost exclusively on instants. My guild is 1/4 TK and 3/6 SSC right now, and I tend to use regrowth about once per boss fight and healing touch pretty much never. If I use HT, it’s with nature’s swiftness every time. My general rotation is rolling lifeblooms and rejuvenation on tanks. Is something going to change this for the T6 stuff?

In responding to her question, I generated a list of spell haste items that would be appropriate to a cloth or leather-wearing healer by filtering the armor on WoWHead. Those previously scoffable eight items are now looking a lot more attractive. Because in the now immortal words of reader Zackoria:

HAHA! LIFEBLOOM! LIFEBLOOM LIFEBLOOM!!! Castable healing? BAH! ONLY THE ACCURSED GLOBAL COOLDOWN CAN RESTRAIN US FROM WORLD HEALING DOMINATION AHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!

(Endgame-equipped) Druids just got (up to) 33% closer to World Healing Domination.

Read about 2.4 details as they arrive at ElitistJerks.com.

Related Posts

• Impressions Solicited: Spell Haste
• Mailbag: Zul’Aman Healing Chests
• Armor Values on PvP Gear