Comments on: Druids in WotLK and Bear Tanking Changes http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/ Your unofficial source for badass Gaming. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:54:55 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Pete http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-9981 Pete Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:37:59 +0000 http://www.spooncraft.com/?p=2955#comment-9981 Wierd comments you get here. @ Steph: As my guild's main tank (and a bear) I can tell you the polar set is fine to use for a few Ulduar fights (preferred for Hodir at least) and don't underestimate the reliability of barkskin. It's not a big saver like the other guys have but it's up every minute and that gives us some breathing room on fights like hodir where frozen blows just keep popping up. Also, do you spec into Frenzied Regeneration? If you do it becomes another very useful tanking cooldown as 20% bonus healing on top of the 10k-12k you'll heal yourself for during it is on par with any other 3-minute CD any other tank has in Ulduar. Wierd comments you get here. @ Steph: As my guild’s main tank (and a bear) I can tell you the polar set is fine to use for a few Ulduar fights (preferred for Hodir at least) and don’t underestimate the reliability of barkskin. It’s not a big saver like the other guys have but it’s up every minute and that gives us some breathing room on fights like hodir where frozen blows just keep popping up. Also, do you spec into Frenzied Regeneration? If you do it becomes another very useful tanking cooldown as 20% bonus healing on top of the 10k-12k you’ll heal yourself for during it is on par with any other 3-minute CD any other tank has in Ulduar.

]]> By: Spooner http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-9963 Spooner Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:38:39 +0000 http://www.spooncraft.com/?p=2955#comment-9963 you mean a good build? you mean a good build?

]]> By: furbut http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-9922 furbut Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:17:31 +0000 http://www.spooncraft.com/?p=2955#comment-9922 I just made a wotlk geared boomkin and felt like having a geared tank os what is a good talent tree? I just made a wotlk geared boomkin and felt like having a geared tank os what is a good talent tree?

]]> By: Spliph http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-9562 Spliph Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:07:08 +0000 http://www.spooncraft.com/?p=2955#comment-9562 Well I play a druid too, and I reached 80 as a Boomkin and was recruited to a raiding guild as a Boomkin and got some pretty good Boomkin gear, but then I decided to drop my healing offspec to go offspec Tank for guild progression, and guess what, I started out in Polar gear. I slowly worked my way around the lack of rings/necks/trinkets for tanking bears and now have quite good tanking gear, including 2 t7.5 and im wondering if it's worth going for the 4 bonus. Just this week I maintanked 25naxx and it was just fine, no major problems what so ever. My current stats without any buffs at all in bear are: 32,292 HP 26,908 Armor 36.83% dodge. That fully buffed brings me to around 43k hp (with commanding shout) 30k armor and 44% doge. To be honest, I think I am fully capable of delivering solid tanking performances in Ulduar. Obviously, more work needs to be done (as I still wear Polar Boots) but the possibility of druid tanks if quite far from gone. The only problem is that you dont really have a good dmg reduction mechanism (something like shield wall or something). Only thing we can do is pump ourselves full of HP (I reach 60k during Survival Instinct full buffed with the glyph) but that still requires the same amount of healing. Anyway, Im looking forward to the new Skins patch and I hope druid tanks are soon gonna get a break and some true druid tank gear is gonna come around. Till then, just make peace with your rogues xD Well I play a druid too, and I reached 80 as a Boomkin and was recruited to a raiding guild as a Boomkin and got some pretty good Boomkin gear, but then I decided to drop my healing offspec to go offspec Tank for guild progression, and guess what, I started out in Polar gear.

I slowly worked my way around the lack of rings/necks/trinkets for tanking bears and now have quite good tanking gear, including 2 t7.5 and im wondering if it’s worth going for the 4 bonus. Just this week I maintanked 25naxx and it was just fine, no major problems what so ever. My current stats without any buffs at all in bear are: 32,292 HP 26,908 Armor 36.83% dodge. That fully buffed brings me to around 43k hp (with commanding shout) 30k armor and 44% doge. To be honest, I think I am fully capable of delivering solid tanking performances in Ulduar. Obviously, more work needs to be done (as I still wear Polar Boots) but the possibility of druid tanks if quite far from gone. The only problem is that you dont really have a good dmg reduction mechanism (something like shield wall or something). Only thing we can do is pump ourselves full of HP (I reach 60k during Survival Instinct full buffed with the glyph) but that still requires the same amount of healing.

Anyway, Im looking forward to the new Skins patch and I hope druid tanks are soon gonna get a break and some true druid tank gear is gonna come around. Till then, just make peace with your rogues xD

]]> By: Luga http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-5973 Luga Thu, 25 Dec 2008 10:54:40 +0000 http://www.spooncraft.com/?p=2955#comment-5973 I'm pretty disappointed with the gear choices for druids in WOTLK. We get one trinket and a belt from the badge vendor for tanking - on top of that, the badge belt is trumped by the belt from UK. My Drood tank has all the heroic drop/badge/rep items that are best for tanking pre-naxx, the problem is... I don't see much naxx gear that is even that much better. I've seen a staff that has great stam, but lacks the armor - T7 gear can be tanked in, but for a stam based tank, you're better off tanking in Polar gear :-/ I'm not a LW (unfortunately) but am still sitting at 36k, 35% dodge in bear. I actually had people give me shit because I tanked OS 25 in polar gear - afterwards I asked "how'd I do? *snicker*" - they were pleasantly suprised. Unlike the first comment above - saying how we're all rogues that just tank because we can is not true in my case, I built and leveled my druid as a tank (had a healer buddy along for the ride). I want him to be a viable raiding tank and he is... but there's not much more I can do or aquire - so I play my 80 resto shaman. I’m pretty disappointed with the gear choices for druids in WOTLK. We get one trinket and a belt from the badge vendor for tanking – on top of that, the badge belt is trumped by the belt from UK. My Drood tank has all the heroic drop/badge/rep items that are best for tanking pre-naxx, the problem is… I don’t see much naxx gear that is even that much better. I’ve seen a staff that has great stam, but lacks the armor – T7 gear can be tanked in, but for a stam based tank, you’re better off tanking in Polar gear :-/ I’m not a LW (unfortunately) but am still sitting at 36k, 35% dodge in bear.

I actually had people give me shit because I tanked OS 25 in polar gear – afterwards I asked “how’d I do? *snicker*” – they were pleasantly suprised.

Unlike the first comment above – saying how we’re all rogues that just tank because we can is not true in my case, I built and leveled my druid as a tank (had a healer buddy along for the ride). I want him to be a viable raiding tank and he is… but there’s not much more I can do or aquire – so I play my 80 resto shaman.

]]> By: wild http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-5682 wild Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:58:09 +0000 http://www.spooncraft.com/?p=2955#comment-5682 My first character was a druid in the bc era, i stopped at lvl 60 and started a rogue. Once i heard my guild needed a tank i tought my druid lw, looked up some gearing cities and was 70 and geared for heroics in 2 weeks. In bc gearing for druids is so much easier then any other tanks. The fact that druids can be really flexible with gear makes tanking more fun and contributes to the classes playing style. I kno most wont like to hear this but i believe blizzard should have stuck wit the same gear concept. I didnt like def being taked away from druids, even though you needed the right talents to be crit immune. I think all tanks should have defense as a stat at all times. When being a druid tank most of their dps gear comes from drops that other leather users didnt need anymore or fight over but now that druids can tank in rogue gear, its a basic free-for-all. So yea i do believe blizzard has become lazy with the new expansion to the point where many dont play the game cause it no longer lives up to their gameplay. Im glad to see druids coming along but i rather have the tank classes different to the own content. My first character was a druid in the bc era, i stopped at lvl 60 and started a rogue. Once i heard my guild needed a tank i tought my druid lw, looked up some gearing cities and was 70 and geared for heroics in 2 weeks. In bc gearing for druids is so much easier then any other tanks. The fact that druids can be really flexible with gear makes tanking more fun and contributes to the classes playing style. I kno most wont like to hear this but i believe blizzard should have stuck wit the same gear concept. I didnt like def being taked away from druids, even though you needed the right talents to be crit immune. I think all tanks should have defense as a stat at all times. When being a druid tank most of their dps gear comes from drops that other leather users didnt need anymore or fight over but now that druids can tank in rogue gear, its a basic free-for-all.
So yea i do believe blizzard has become lazy with the new expansion to the point where many dont play the game cause it no longer lives up to their gameplay. Im glad to see druids coming along but i rather have the tank classes different to the own content.

]]> By: truid http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-5542 truid Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:20:42 +0000 http://www.spooncraft.com/?p=2955#comment-5542 I'm getting carpal tunnel syndrome from hitting swipe every global cooldown x_x I’m getting carpal tunnel syndrome from hitting swipe every global cooldown x_x

]]> By: TheeWasp http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-5501 TheeWasp Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:06:53 +0000 http://www.spooncraft.com/?p=2955#comment-5501 Its alot easier to tank now after WotLK then before, higher dmg mitigation, and we actually have dmg mirigation against spells and such. No problem holding aggro anymore, changes to swipe is great, the new talent, berserk is great not to mention the glyph that makes maul hit 2 mobs instead of one. Whats alittle bit sad is that the tank classes got closer to eachother, it not as much, this tanking class is alot better here anymore, so you are not so specialized as before, when druids came up in max dmg mitigation from armor without a problem and had loads of life, but problem with spells and aggro and such. It was nice with hte diffrence, but we became stronger so Im happy Its alot easier to tank now after WotLK then before, higher dmg mitigation, and we actually have dmg mirigation against spells and such. No problem holding aggro anymore, changes to swipe is great, the new talent, berserk is great not to mention the glyph that makes maul hit 2 mobs instead of one.

Whats alittle bit sad is that the tank classes got closer to eachother, it not as much, this tanking class is alot better here anymore, so you are not so specialized as before, when druids came up in max dmg mitigation from armor without a problem and had loads of life, but problem with spells and aggro and such. It was nice with hte diffrence, but we became stronger so Im happy

]]> By: Thunderon http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-5369 Thunderon Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:20:14 +0000 http://www.spooncraft.com/?p=2955#comment-5369 Interesting ... as a druid tank who dps's when needed, I have to say I had a visceral to the idea that most feral druids would prefer to dps. Maybe the druids in my guild are just a bunch of misfits, but our raid leader has noticed that we really prefer to tank over kitty dpsing. We dps when needed because that's our job, but those of us who tank really want to be in the MT role, and there has been some frustration with blizzard in BC over the fact that we had to work a lot harder to tank at the same level as prot warriors, or even prot pallys. We also have been relegated to the OT slot more often than not because of our flexibility, and to some degree, that's what we signed up for (unless, like me, you picked a druid as your first character and only later discovered what your "true" role was once you more fully understood the game). It looks now like Blizzard is collapsing some of the class diversity it has had in the past. As far as I can tell, bears are now as effective at aoe tanking as pallys, and as effective at single-target tanking as warriors. We're stilly hybrids, and to be sure there will be marginal advantages to the "pure" classes and builds, but consider: 1) Bears with the right build are crit proof without any +def gear 2) Bears with the right spec and glyphs hit multiple targets with 3 out of 4 of their primary bread-and-butter abilities 3) Damage output in bear is increased. More threat=more viable tank 4) Nerfs in armor and health have been matched by environmental nerfs. I think the end result is I'm tougher, relative to the mobs I tank, than I ever was. 5) Our gear requirements are a lot simpler now, allowing us to focus on stam and agi in addition to the obvious armor rating. Coupled with the mitigation and stam talents, we can increase our stats much much faster than we could for BC raiding. Couple this with the fact that other classes/builds will be more effective dpsing, and that means we don't always have to be the class that tanks only when there's room for all the tanks in the raid. Overall, bear tanks have really benefited from all of the changes, which is the point I think the Blue quoted in the OP was making (and I believe that was the original question asked in this post...) Whether the game has benefited is an open question ... obviously, it's important to maintain some differences between the various classes and specs. How well Blizz balances this with the need for viability among all classes remains to be seen. Interesting … as a druid tank who dps’s when needed, I have to say I had a visceral to the idea that most feral druids would prefer to dps. Maybe the druids in my guild are just a bunch of misfits, but our raid leader has noticed that we really prefer to tank over kitty dpsing. We dps when needed because that’s our job, but those of us who tank really want to be in the MT role, and there has been some frustration with blizzard in BC over the fact that we had to work a lot harder to tank at the same level as prot warriors, or even prot pallys.

We also have been relegated to the OT slot more often than not because of our flexibility, and to some degree, that’s what we signed up for (unless, like me, you picked a druid as your first character and only later discovered what your “true” role was once you more fully understood the game). It looks now like Blizzard is collapsing some of the class diversity it has had in the past. As far as I can tell, bears are now as effective at aoe tanking as pallys, and as effective at single-target tanking as warriors. We’re stilly hybrids, and to be sure there will be marginal advantages to the “pure” classes and builds, but consider:
1) Bears with the right build are crit proof without any +def gear
2) Bears with the right spec and glyphs hit multiple targets with 3 out of 4 of their primary bread-and-butter abilities
3) Damage output in bear is increased. More threat=more viable tank
4) Nerfs in armor and health have been matched by environmental nerfs. I think the end result is I’m tougher, relative to the mobs I tank, than I ever was.
5) Our gear requirements are a lot simpler now, allowing us to focus on stam and agi in addition to the obvious armor rating. Coupled with the mitigation and stam talents, we can increase our stats much much faster than we could for BC raiding.

Couple this with the fact that other classes/builds will be more effective dpsing, and that means we don’t always have to be the class that tanks only when there’s room for all the tanks in the raid. Overall, bear tanks have really benefited from all of the changes, which is the point I think the Blue quoted in the OP was making (and I believe that was the original question asked in this post…) Whether the game has benefited is an open question … obviously, it’s important to maintain some differences between the various classes and specs. How well Blizz balances this with the need for viability among all classes remains to be seen.

]]> By: Pantzer http://www.spooncraft.com/whatever/druids-in-wotlk-and-bear-tanking-changes/comment-page-1/#comment-5351 Pantzer Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:19:19 +0000 http://www.spooncraft.com/?p=2955#comment-5351 Funny part is that I have a druid lvl 72 now... I have been tanking from the beginning, own buffs 17.9k HP and 19k Armor, with a dodge rating of 40 percent. here comes the funny part... my DPS in Bear is Higher than in Catform. Last night i tanked the Nexus and had a DPS of 912.2!!! While in cat i cant get higher than 788.4!!! in BF I have 2.8 AP and in CF 3.1k AP!! So Druids arent nerfed :) From my point of vieuw... im very happy ith the changes they made. I have an average threatbuild of 1800 now :) so i found it highly interesting. http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Darkspear&n=Pantzer Check me out! Funny part is that I have a druid lvl 72 now… I have been tanking from the beginning, own buffs 17.9k HP and 19k Armor, with a dodge rating of 40 percent.

here comes the funny part… my DPS in Bear is Higher than in Catform. Last night i tanked the Nexus and had a DPS of 912.2!!! While in cat i cant get higher than 788.4!!! in BF I have 2.8 AP and in CF 3.1k AP!!

So Druids arent nerfed :) From my point of vieuw… im very happy ith the changes they made. I have an average threatbuild of 1800 now :) so i found it highly interesting.

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Darkspear&n=Pantzer

Check me out!

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