One of my biggest complaints about playing a Druid is that when I tank, I have to have a gigantic furry bear ass filling my screen, and trust me, when you’re backed into a corner while tanking, it really IS what you see.

At level 10, I was excited and pleased to be able to transform into my first animal, a bear. I was sturdier and it was a lot of fun and whetted my appetite for my panther form to come at 20.

On my way to 20, Bear Form was really of limited use (I did this prior to the 1.8 Feral overhaul), but I used it. I wasn’t fond of the visual, but I figured, “I won’t be spending all my time in that form!”

How wrong I was.

As it happens, I am only effective when in a form. The same applies to dps Druids (whether Cat or Moonkin) and healers (Tree of Life, to be sure). So when we play, we look like fat-assed bears, purple panthers, malnourished saplings or giant laser-chickens from space. In and of itself, this is not a problem. We’re turning into something, after all. Animals or laser chickens or trees.

The problem comes, especially for Ferals, in that you spend all your playtime in this form. At least Balance and Restoration Druids have some of their leveling time able to see their character and that character’s gear, but even they eventually find that all their time is spent in a single form in order to do their job.

Maybe that’s the real reason for the popularity of a Dreamstate healing build.

Regardless, one of the fun things about all of the MMOs I’ve played is the ability to play dress up. I know that sounds silly but hear me out.

One of the draws of this sort of game for me and for many others, is the ability to take on this fantastic persona, to pretend to be a different person with pointy ears and massive swords and particle effects, maybe a different race or gender. As characters in these games progress, the gear they wear gets progressively more spectacular. It is used as a gauge of competence, bragging rights, and personal vanity. It is integral to the experience of the game.

Sadly, Druids largely miss out on this unless they want to spend a lot of time standing around posing for the masses. Aside from speccing Dreamstate Healer, though, Druids can — and typically do — spend the vast majority of their playtime looking just as they did at level 10. They look about enviously as their compatriots get neater and neater gear they get to adventure in while they wonder if some epic waterproofing gel will drop for their fur, feathers, or bark.

Are there solutions to this? Most likely.

First, find a way to display armor on a Druid in forms.

This is likely the most problematic. In spite of watching the Golden Compass and wondering why I can’t have badass bear armor like that I understand that Malorne shoulders might be hard to skin onto the bear model and if a healer dropped into Bear while wearing the [Panties of the Naaru]* they might look a bit silly.

It would require the most effort from the art team and is hence the least likely option.

At least one friend of mine said that it would also put more strain on the systems running the game by bumping the models per zone…but I see so many effects and models and such that I have a hard time buying that.

So what about basing appearance on level, and at 70, changing appearance based on total iLevel of the gear worn by the Druid?

This enforces some standards while still allowing a form of progression.

Suppose every 10 levels, each form gets an overhaul with flashier effects or more accoutrements and so on. Who wouldn’t want their bear to look something like this?

Then at 70, certain iLevel totals would be assigned a new look, allowing for Druids to continue progression of appearance just like other characters busily fighting for life and loot.

Additionally, this provides quick identification of a Druid’s potential capability, something you can eyeball with any other class in Arenas and BGs.

A third option would be allowing Druids to, at the point of getting each new form, to select the animal they like from a list. While the least capable of fulfilling the request, it would be the easiest to implement. Beasts already have models and animations necessary for their use and it’d be easy to slap a Druid sigil on their shoulders for identification.

For example, Bear form could be re-described as Tank form with Dire Bear becoming Dire Tank. Players could select a Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Boar, Turtle or Crocolisk. At 40 with Dire Bear, they could again select from this list, but with larger and possibly slightly more ornate versions of those animals. True ambition might include a Worgen as an option…but that one could wear gear…and show weapon animations… gah, I’m getting sidetracked.

Cat Form could be re-labeled Melee form. Options would include the standard panther, snow leopards (yay!), raptors, spiders, lions, wolves, or hyenas.

Travel Form would include the standard cheetah, foreststriders, talbuks and so on.

Aquatic Form seems pretty self explanatory.

Moonkin Form could be given the option of selecting a furbolg or maybe one of those big trolls from ST.

Tree of Life… treants or small ancients?

Sadly even this option would require a rather sizable code implementation that is unlikely to ever occur.

Until and unless we see a new form or WoW 2.0, I seriously doubt that Druids will look any different at 80 with Wrath of the Lich King than they do now at 70, or than they did at 60, or 50, or 40… you get the picture.

So there you have it. The real reason Druids whine… we don’t get to look as cool as you.

*Not that there’s anything wrong with the Panties of the Naaru.

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So apparently the official forum search function blows today. Therefore you’ll have to take my word on the following statement:

It is generally considered that the [Wildfury Greatstaff] is better than the [Earthwarden] for tanking.

When my guild went on their first trip into Serpentshrine Cavern, I wasn’t able to go, but another Feral Druid did. While she was there, the Greatstaff dropped for her. She linked it, and all were happy.

I checked it out (as I couldn’t remember the stats on it at the time), and I came to the realization that I didn’t really want it. For months and months I’ve been reading from other Druid tanks that this is the best tanking stick they’ve found and many claim to have vendored their Earthwarden within moments of leaving the Caverns.

People that speak in favor of the Earthwarden are frequently belittled and marginalized.

The thing I can’t understand is: why?

I understand it brings significant dodge, that it has almost 500 more health than the Earthwarden, and that it’s significantly more Feral AP. These are all good things for a tank.

When I considered what I’d lose, though, I couldn’t bring myself to use it as my tanking stick.

First and foremost is the Defense rating. While a great many Druids are engaging in PvP for the Resilience gear with high armor and mitigation stats, not all do. I am doing some arenas for gear (as my Armory likely shows), but this really only reinforces my point. There just isn’t enough other gear in the game to abandon a stick like the Earthwarden without very careful consideration. For a PvE-only Druid, there is no other viable option for this slot if you are using the Defense.

Before 2.3, there was Feral Combat Skill, but since that’s no longer in place, we’ll deal with its replacement, Expertise.

My GM is a tank and as such we occasionally lament tanking issues. One thing that both of us agreed was extremely high on our wishlist for tanking gear was +Hit. Now, with recent additions to the game via Heroic gear and Feral PvP-re-itemization, there’s a lot more of that available than there has been in the past. That said, the Expertise on the Earthwarden is extremely appealing in spite of it.

Expertise provides a reduction of 0.25% per point to your target’s chance to dodge or parry attacks. Earthwarden has an Expertise rating of 24, which becomes an Expertise of 6. -1.25% chance for all my targets to dodge or parry when I tank.

Best of all, it’s immune to Defense skill. That’s HUGE.

I’m not sure I can express how vital this is especially if you deal with undisciplined dps or run Heroics where healing aggro (due to the major heals required) can be fatal to your lifeline, your healer.

The Wildfury Greatstaff gives me none of that. There are times, no matter how rare they appear to various individuals, when that missed attack can mean the difference between keeping aggro and losing it to someone that can’t survive the attention.

So in spite of the dodge and health buff, the rest of my gear isn’t yet at the point where swapping out the Earthwarden for the Greatstaff makes any sense. Until I do some math with a gear list, I’m not sure that day will ever come. I’m incredibly durable as it is, and while I never scoff at mitigation stats, I’ve come to realize that there are some items that may — at first — look outdated, but that retain value due to factors often overlooked.

I tend to think back to when people were complaining in the early days of the Burning Crusade that the Kara epics were sidegrades rather than upgrades for the lion’s share of gear. Back then I learned to realize some rares were better than epics and that’s a philosophy I’m trying to hold to. Just because the iLevel is higher doesn’t mean the item is necessarily statted appropriately.

Maybe I’ll use the Greatstaff for a resist fight but I can’t see any other place for it right now. For me, the Earthwarden has a continuing role as my primary tanking stick.

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…it still comes with fries.

So wow. After all my bitching and whining about terrible idols…very little has changed. On the other hand, everything has changed. Things are looking better for Bear Tank itemization.

First of all, with the publication of 2.3 to the PTR, we have a plethora of new gear available for Badges of Justice. One of them… wait for it… is an Idol. A tanking appropriate idol. I very nearly fainted from excitement when I saw it.

So here’s a quick look at some of the gear a Bear Tank may be interested in with some comments and maybe a few comparisons.

Let’s start with the big news, the Idol.

The [Idol of Terror] now stands as my newest best target for badges. While the 85% proc rate being reported seems a bit over the top the linked page shows several mitigating factors. Still, 4.4% dodge and about 3.25% crit — even with unreliable uptime ‐ is a monstrous buff both to mitigation and threat. I’m guessing all the popular Bears will be wearing this the day the patch launches. After all, it’s only 20 badges!

While this is less an actual fix to general itemization, it sure does take some of the sting out of it. This is a good idol that still uses the design conceit of 1-2 narrowly focused abilities being buffed.

Next up, for a mere 35 badges, is [Slikk's Cloak of Placation]. Now the name is bizarre, and several jokes have already been made about placating the Bears, but the stats on this are… nice. Very nice, making this an outstanding alternative to the Illhoof cape.

The new cape offers somewhat lower armor and Defense, but adds 7 STA and 25 Dodge rating. While Agility would have been preferrable, this cloak can still stand up as a very fine tanking cloak, especially for those unable to readily access and defeat Illhoof.

According to some, if you don’t need the Defense Rating it’s even better than Illhoof’s.

Next up is the second 35 badge item, the [Band of the Swift Paw]. Sporting more armor, Strength, Agility, and Stamina than either of the other PvE alternatives ([Umberhowl's Collar] or [Forestheart Bracers]), this is a clear upgrade that I’d recommend to any Bear tank. It has 6 less Int than the Forestheart (Oh Noes!) but sports a Yellow socket for added customizability.

Now come the pricey items.

Earlier, I discussed some boot options you could go for should you find you don’t need the Def from the HCH boots. Two options were from Kara, and another was a Heroic drop. I don’t know about you, but my luck with Heroic drops is pretty spotty. I got my [Forestwalker Kilt] my first trip to the Mana Tombs, but I haven’t been able to score the Heroic Ramparts belt for anything.

Coming up are the [Footwraps of Wild Encroachment]. These are so far and away better than the [Barkchip Boots] that it is more appropriate to compare them to the [Treads of the Den Mother].

Now, no one can realistically argue that the badge boots are better, but they’re FAR easier to obtain and can be socketed to grant more health than the LW alternative, or may be socketed for Defense should a Bear find themselves short. Very nice. If I can make up the Defense elsewhere, I’ll be upgrading to these.

Right now, I’m wearing the lovely quested [Manimal's Cinch]. In Heroic Ramparts, there is the [Tree-Mender's Belt]. With 2.3, we’re getting the [Waistguard of the Great Beast].

Setting aside that it’s socketable and a clear upgrade in every way from the green item and in many ways to the epic drop, this thing has +Hit on it. Many many times I have lamented the lack of +Hit on my tanking gear. A few unlucky misses at the beginning of a pull coupled wtih dps that won’t wait or feels that it’s somehow your fault you can’t hold aggro when they’re the only ones hitting something and you immediately start wondering if you can swap in some Cat gear instead of mitigation gear.

Never fear, 60 Badges of Justice will get you what you need! It isn’t a lot, but it’s something and I’m taking it.

Finally, there is one rather questionable item. The [Vestments of Hibernation]. Obviously a dps piece, it may tempt people with its high armor to think that it is a viable tanking piece. I’d advise against that line of thinking. If you’re well geared enough to not need the stamina a real tanking chest would provide, then you likely don’t need the armor or other stats from this item either. Still, I can see there may be setups where it becomes viable to use this, and lets face it…sometimes you just want out of your last few blues.

On the plus side, this can make a very nice chest piece for Cat to Bear work. That isn’t common but it does happen and it’s nice to be geared for the eventuality should you find that’s something you encounter with any frequency.

Sadly, this is one slot where I almost have to advise you to hit the Arenas to find an upgrade from HCH if you haven’t managed to get the T4 alternative or, like me, don’t stand a good chance of doing so in the forseeable future.

But lets suppose I manage to upgrade my belt and bracers as noted above. Gemming the way I do (all Solid Stars) this nets me +46 Stamina. Switching to the Vestments, I actually gain 1 Stam over what I have now. Hmmm…

While I don’t like dumping Stamina gained, I sport a large health pool as it is, and the added mitigation and threat from this item… is tempting. Maybe it’s a tanking chest after all…

I can make up the lost Defense with enchantments for my head and shoulder slots.

If, however, I decide to swap out my boots instead while using the Defense enchants, I gain significanly in mitigation and lose a mere 2 Stamina. I’ll have to sit down and do some math on which option is better.

One thing I’ve learned is that sometimes, making a sacrifice of Stamina is required for a nice upgrade in other areas. That said, give yourself a benchmark to operate from, a minimum you won’t fall below while gearing and go from there. For me, that’s 14k Health in Dire Bear while only self-buffed.

However, it looks like one way or another unless I grab a piece of PvP gear, I’ll be stuck with at least one piece of HCH for some time to come. Now to farm up 285 badges… and that doesn’t even count the dps gear I want.

Hmmm… this blog isn’t running the way I wanted it to. I’ll tell a story next time… or something.

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I just had to plug this because it cracked me up:

Valenna the Rogue Tank!

I’m going to have to whip up a Rogue tanking talent spec soon.

In the meantime, what are the mandatory talents for a Bear?

It is often said that Druids are overpowered due to our Feral tree combining our Cat DPS options with our Bear tanking options. Disregarding two mostly separate gearsets and competition for the DPS one, what ARE the differences between a Cat and Bear spec?

Maybe rather than do a spec comparison, I’ll outline the baseline talents any good Bear should have and why, before discussing some of the optional talents.

First of all, let’s cover the counter-intuitive: the Restoration Tree.

For any serious Feral Druid, this part of their spec will look extremely similar. There are only 3 requirements, though.

First is Furor. Valuable for both specs, it grants a much needed resource immediately upon shifting. You cannot — I repeat: cannot — skip this one. If you do, you will find yourself lacking in situations where you need that resource, be it Rage or Energy.

Next is Naturalist. I cannot count the number of new Druids that stop reading at “Reduces the cast time of your Healing Touch…” The critical part is the 10% damage boost you can get from this talent when specced 5/5. Damage is what Cats are all about, and Bears use it to generate threat. Critical talent.

Finally there’s Omen of Clarity. Regardless of its proc-rate, any clear-casting effect is a good one, and that this applies specifically to melee attacks makes it a vital tool for holding aggro and dishing pain.

Now, this isn’t all you’ll find here of value for the Feral. Two other choices present themselves but both are purely optional.

Some Ferals like picking up Intensity to further the Hybrid nature of the Druid class. After all, Naturalist boosts healing power and Intensity provides that all-valuable mana regeneration, further boosting healing power.

Personally, I like to Power-Shift. What’s that? Well, it’s popping into caster and back into Cat or Bear for the Rage or Energy. When I’m scratching things with wild abandon, sometimes it’s faster to shift out and back for Energy than to wait for the ticks. In Bear it’s trickier. Still, it’s doable with macros and more practically, between pulls. Both of these habits make Natural Shapeshifter a happy target for my talent points. I can also state with no apologies that many times I’ve only been able to shift at a critical point due to this talent. Maybe Intensity works just as well, though.

So on to Feral.

At Tier 1, Feral Aggression is crap. No druid interested in DPS will be using Ferocious Bite over Rip… maybe a PvP Feral but we aren’t dealing with masochists in this post. The Demoralizing Roar boost looks impressive, but when you realize that it only boosts the AP reduction from 240 to 336, it becomes an obvious waste for Bears.

The obvious choice then is Ferocity. Reductions in costs are always nice to have.

In Tier 2, the critical choices are Feral Instinct and Thick Hide. Feral Instinct gives us the threat modifiers we need to stay competitive with Protection Warriors. This is a talent you cannot skip.

Thick Hide may not look like much, but as Druids cannot mitigate Crushing Blows in any practical way, high armor is the only avenue we have to minimize the impact when we take one. Someday, when your armor gets to insane totals, you can spec out of this, but most of us reap significant benefit from armor increases. Don’t forget, if you have 4000 armor from items in caster form, when you shift to Dire Bear this talent will net you over 2000 more total armor. That’s big.

Tier 3 is all mandatory for a serious Bear Tank. Feral Swiftness adds mitigation through dodge (critical since we cannot parry or block). Feral Charge emulates a Warrior’s Charge and Intercept abilities in one beautiful talent. This talent alone is what made me a viable off-tank for Gruul.

Sharpened Claws, like Naturalist, may appear to be more of a dps talent than one for tanking. Remember, damage=threat. While our reliance on damage for threat has gone down, it hasn’t gone away, but most importantly for this talent is how we use it with the subsequently available Tier 4 talent, Primal Fury.

Primal Fury gives a 50/100% chance to gain 5 rage on a critical strike. So yeah, you guessed it, Bears want Agility not just for the mitigation. Bears want to be crit monkeys for the Rage generation, too.

Predatory Strikes has value not just for opening later talents, but because added AP is added dps is added threat. Savage Fury is valuable for the same reason*.

Feral Faerie Fire is one that might be contested, but here’s why I think it’s valuable: If you have a significant rage bar (i.e. ,more than 10 Rage) it can be advantageous to pull from Dire Bear Form. Feral Faerie Fire allows this option to be practiced at range. While pulling with Moonfire or Starfire/Moonfire and then switching to Bear will usually offer more inital threat, having a viable pool to work with can make a FFF pull from Dire Bear more feasible. The lowered armor on the target is gravy.

Now we get to the juicy stuff.

First is Heart of the Wild. In Dire Bear this is a 20% Stamina buff. Coupled with the natural 25% boost, this talent is what gives Bears their reputation for crazy health totals. The bigger cushion you can provide your healers, the better off everyone is.

Next is the talent that enables us to stare a raid boss in the face: Survival of the Fittest. 3% to all attributes is nice, and can’t be overlooked, but the real reason we all take this is for the Crit reduction. This provides 3% to our ability to avoid critical hits, meaning we only have to make up another 2.6% crit reduction through gear in order to stand toe to toe with a Level 73 Big Bad. Given the horrific Defense itemization in leather, this talent is not optional.

I’ve seen a few Druids that skip it and go full Resilience, but I have no idea how it works in practice to do that. I wouldn’t recommend it, offhand.

Leader of the Pack. Crit, crit, crit. Not only does this help your rage generation, but it helps dpsers in your groups dish more damage. Coupled with Improved Leader of the Pack and you even show up on the healing meters! It isn’t much, but sometimes that little bit of healing is all the cushion your Healer needs to keep up or avoid catastrophe.

Predatory Instincts offers two bonuses. One is to damage and threat. Like the other talents of this nature, it doesn’t seem like much by itself, but look at all the other things we’ve done to increase our damage on the way up this ladder and you can see that the additive benefit is impressive. The secondary benefit is in the avoidance of AoE effects. It isn’t much, but given the damage potential of some AoE effects, PI can be a life saver.

Last, but certainly not least, is Mangle. In Cat this replaces Claw. For that alone, it’s worth having. But in Dire Bear, when tanking, it becomes even more fun. First, it’s instant. On a 6 second cooldown, the instant nature of it offsets the percieved drawbacks because unlike Maul, it won’t be spending rage on a swing you could be generating it. It’s cost can be additionally mitigated by the significant chance that it will crit, resulting in an effectively reduced rage cost for significantly more damage and threat. It also has the relatively minimal benefit of boosting Lacerate damage.

Rogues, however, will love you. Those that pay attention will throw bleeds on any target sporting a Mangle debuff… and EVERY Bear Tank’s target sports this debuff… or should.

Bleeds already ignore armor, and this adds 30% to their damage potential. The magnitude of that benefit cannot be understated.

So after all this, you’ll still have 8 unspent talent points. What do you do with them? Well, ideally, you should have some ideas and it will depend on how much time you forsee either healing or spending in Cat Form.

If you’re like me, you might decide that tanking really IS what you want and will work to maximize that with talents like Natural Shapeshifter for power-shifting, or Primal Tenacity for Stun and Fear resistance. Brutal Impact is also popular.

If you are looking for more Cat time, Brutal Impact is still good, and some PvPers find value in Nurturing Instinct. But if you’re going to spend a lot of time in Cat, you’ll want Shredding Attacks. Certainly there is some Bear benefit there, but the advantages it provides to a Feral dpsing in raids is measurable. Smarter people than I have done the math on it, but if you’re a serious Cat, don’t skip this one**.

So for the record, this is what I think the baseline Bear spec should look like, leaving 8 points for customization: BEAR TANK MINIMUM SPEC

As always, feel free to pick and choose, and not every talent will work for every person dependent on skill level, gearing, and situation, but this seems to be the best baseline I can find, the most universal and utilitarian.

* Savage Fury used to add to Bear talents as well as Cat and I wrote this with that still in my head, even though it’s been quite some time since that was true. One of my readers pointed out that it’s a Cat-only talent. So it is!

** The same reader that caught my Savage Fury error pointed out that in that light, Shredding Attacks becomes a more baseline talent for a Bear. Any and all Rage adjustments are valued to a tank, and since we use Lacerate as one of our staple moves (even on non-bleeding mobs), this shouldn’t be overlooked. In fact, I need to go respec.

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Last night I was priveleged to be with my guild for yet another downing of Gruul the Dragonkiller. I get swapped into raids when people need to leave since I rarely make start times, but I’m okay with this. I do what I can.

Long story short, we got him after several attempts (we seem to only marshall ourselves after several wipes to a big bad and then go, ‘Okay, this is our last shot for tonight’ which true to tradition, worked again last night).

I was the lucky Druid to score the [Leggings of the Fallen Defender]. Afterward, a quick trip to the Scryer terrace and the [Greaves of Malorne] were mine! Finally, if and when I upgrade to T5, I won’t lose my T4 2-piece bonus!

But wait… is all as rosy as it could be?

As anyone who knows me can attest, I’m a Stamina whore. For a very long time, I stacked Stamina and little else in an effort to exploit the strengths of my class as a tank. I couldn’t do anything about Crushing Blows, so I decided to stack Armor and Health. Many Bears prefer AGI and the dodge and crit it brings, but I’ve always looked at that more as a luxury for the mostly or all-epic Bear. I still wear quite a bit of Blue.

As a result, I wore my [Heavy Clefthoof Leggings] for a long time, and every gem socket I have is packed with a [Solid Star of Elune].

This gave me roughly insane health totals, especially when raid buffed. I was a happy and contented Bear.

But when I got a new cloak with Defense on it and realized I could get rid of a different piece of gear with Defense on it, I picked my legs and got myself a [Forestwalker Kilt]. The gods of the random number generator smiled on me and I got it on my first trip to Heroic Mana Tombs. I was ecstatic. Not only did I get a pair of legs that only minimally dropped my armor and Stamina (these things have 3 sockets on them, after all) but they added threat and mitigation through STR and AGI. Hell, I even got a small INT boost for my feral mana pool.

In all, very nice.

I was wearing these up until last night, when I got the Greaves. After kitting them with a [Nethercleft Armor Kit] (still need a Nether for that), I’ll be losing even more Stamina (21 points to be exact, as I’ve Netherclefted the Kilt), but I’ll be gaining significantly in Armor (around 900 in Dire Bear, putting me just shy of 30k), and a small amount of AP, dodge, and crit.

It is an upgrade given that the Stam I’m giving up isn’t even a single trash mob hit, but sometimes that sliver of health is what gives your healers time to catch up, that proves the difference between surival and wipe.

But… and there’s always a but… the added survivability from Armor and Agility are also impressive. I’m too lazy to do the math, so instead, I’ll be keeping my Kilt (and indeed I have yet to dispose of my HCH pants) for Stamina fights, fights where perhaps I don’t have the best resist gear, but where my armor and dodge are less valuable.

Once again, the upgrade involves more of a consideration of playstyle and situation than in the past game, perhaps adjusting that playstyle to fit the gear. But it is also in part, a significant source of the fun in that there are so many factors to consider.

Plus, I’m out of my skirt… for now.

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