Tank vs. Healer
I have crawled all over the net looking for some very specific advice. I am currently a feral spec druid at level 66 (leveling fast) and would like to re-spec for resto. Here is my problem.
Question 1. How effective will a restoration druid be when asked to tank at my level? Will keeping a spare set of tanking gear (focused on strength, armor, and stamina) be enough to tank when asked to? The reason I ask is that I am usually called to do either healing or tanking and would like to be able to do both well. I am never asked to DPS, and that should come as no surprise, so I am feeling that while the feral spec was great for leveling, it is not very useful for grouping.
I also don’t feel that any hybrid spec is very effective. So I am either going down one tree or the other. I don't mind spending some points in other trees, but my understanding of the game is that one should really focus on one. This leads me to my second question.
Question 2. Since I won’t be spending a lot of points on the feral side (if any), what do I focus on to maintain agro. Let’s assume that epic gear doesn’t grow on trees, and I can’t get that gear that has + everything, which stats then do I really need? Can I ignore agility in favor of pushing strength as high as I can? Healing spells also generate agro, are there any tactics that a rest-tank can use that takes advantage of this?
The reason I wanted to know is that I (obviously) lack the experience needed to fully understand all the nuts and bolts of this game. I have researched the numbers, but what I want are opinions from people who have the experience that I lack.
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Tank vs. Healer (can i be both?)Follow
A warrior can tank pretty well even if not specced prot. Paladins can tank to some extent if they put some points in prot. Druids...unless you're going to go with a 0/20/41 resto build (picking up JUST ENOUGH resto talents and then grabbing feral), you really need all the points in feral that you can get. The stamina bonus is huge, the crit and dodge is huge, the incoming crit reduction is huge, mangle is freaking insane (highest TPR ability a druid has)...you pretty much need to be feral or be way over-geared for the content in order to tank once you hit that level.
Healing, on the other hand, you can do an okay job of it as feral, probably enough to heal any of the non-heroic 5-mans if you got some decent healing gear (decent meaning blues, which are easy to get).
If you're not comfortable with healing in feral spec, though, just tell people you're tank specced. The thing about druids, paladins, and shaman, is that each tree provides huge buffs to different abilities or attributes. The reason is that you start off inferior to the other classes, and the talents bring you up to par in that one aspect. So while an arms warrior may be able to tank 80% as well as a prot warrior, a balance druid will tank about 60% as well as a feral druid. The feral talents just give a bigger bonus.
For example, per talent point a druid gets double the crit chance that a warrior would. Per talent point a druid gets double the avoidance, more incoming crit reduction, more stun/fear reduction, etc. It's the bigger buffs that bring the inferior abilities on par with the warrior.
Healing, on the other hand, you can do an okay job of it as feral, probably enough to heal any of the non-heroic 5-mans if you got some decent healing gear (decent meaning blues, which are easy to get).
If you're not comfortable with healing in feral spec, though, just tell people you're tank specced. The thing about druids, paladins, and shaman, is that each tree provides huge buffs to different abilities or attributes. The reason is that you start off inferior to the other classes, and the talents bring you up to par in that one aspect. So while an arms warrior may be able to tank 80% as well as a prot warrior, a balance druid will tank about 60% as well as a feral druid. The feral talents just give a bigger bonus.
For example, per talent point a druid gets double the crit chance that a warrior would. Per talent point a druid gets double the avoidance, more incoming crit reduction, more stun/fear reduction, etc. It's the bigger buffs that bring the inferior abilities on par with the warrior.
I don't know why you'd say that feral is bad for grouping. I think it's wonderful for grouping. I tanked Heroic Mana-tombs and Heroic Underbog last night on my feral druid.
That said, I wouldn't tank as resto.
That said, I wouldn't tank as resto.
Quote:
I don't know why you'd say that feral is bad for grouping.
oops! I meant DPS geared (agi heavy) feral. Still having trouble holding agro as a tank, but then I probably don’t have enough strength in my current gear set. What I also meant was that people are looking for tanks and healers more then DPS.
Sorry about that, lol. You are completely correct when you say feral is good for groups.
You can do well enough if you have a good healing set. Just don't expect miracles. I got 1200 heal set with 11k mana pool I never use. Because I mainly specialize on tanking and cat dps, but I still have it just incase.
haldan wrote:
Quote:
I don't know why you'd say that feral is bad for grouping.
oops! I meant DPS geared (agi heavy) feral. Still having trouble holding agro as a tank, but then I probably don’t have enough strength in my current gear set. What I also meant was that people are looking for tanks and healers more then DPS.
Sorry about that, lol. You are completely correct when you say feral is good for groups.
Agi is just as much of a tank stat as a cat stat. Strength shouldn't be your focus as a tank. Tank focus = getting uncrittable, getting lots of armor, health and dodge. Strength is found on a lot of tanking pieces, but it's just a threat gaining bonus, and not the reason why I take those pieces.
The biggest issue you wiill have tanking without specing feral is threat. Mitigation is acomplished almost entirely through gear but all the gear in the world won't make it easy to generate threat unless you have the tools to channel it.
So it isn't that you won't be able to take the hits well enough to tank, it's that you won't be the one taking the hits alot of the time that will cause issues. Heroics are completely out of the question, but you could tank normal instances if everyone in your group has a threat meter and knows how to use it. You'd need heavy CC and you won't want to do any instance that requires you to tank more then 2 mobs at any time, but it is possible if you and your group are willing to make it work.
On the other hand, it's probably easier for a feral to heal a normal instance in healing gear then a resto to tank a normal instance in tanking gear.
Beyond normal instances you'll have to focus on one or the other though, since the level of difficulty rises beyond the point that playing a hybrid is functional.
Edited, Feb 3rd 2008 5:31pm by SirJac
So it isn't that you won't be able to take the hits well enough to tank, it's that you won't be the one taking the hits alot of the time that will cause issues. Heroics are completely out of the question, but you could tank normal instances if everyone in your group has a threat meter and knows how to use it. You'd need heavy CC and you won't want to do any instance that requires you to tank more then 2 mobs at any time, but it is possible if you and your group are willing to make it work.
On the other hand, it's probably easier for a feral to heal a normal instance in healing gear then a resto to tank a normal instance in tanking gear.
Beyond normal instances you'll have to focus on one or the other though, since the level of difficulty rises beyond the point that playing a hybrid is functional.
Edited, Feb 3rd 2008 5:31pm by SirJac
I really wouldn't reccomend tanking w/o being feral. Depending on what you're doing, though, you can main-heal with feral spec and good healing gear. I've healed SL, SV, and a lot of group quests. The extra 23% Int from SotF and HotW helps a lot. I would reccomend putting 3 points in Intensity if you plan on healing a lot.
Or, once you unlock your daily quests from Sha'tari Skyguard and Netherwing, you can do a couple quests every day and have plenty of cash to respec.
Or, once you unlock your daily quests from Sha'tari Skyguard and Netherwing, you can do a couple quests every day and have plenty of cash to respec.
7 posts
I too would like to mainly heal but tank if need be. Would this build work? It focuses mainly on healing with healing touch with swiftmend. Then on the feral side, many of the tanking talents are taken. Survival of the fittest is missing so there is a need for higher defense. Also, LotP is gone so the crit isn't quite as high. And then mangle is gone so will have to rely standard bear attacks. Other than having to compensate some for these talents, what else is precluding me from tanking and healing?
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxhGsfboxZVxIzxqM0o
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxhGsfboxZVxIzxqM0o
haldan wrote:
Question 1. How effective will a restoration druid be when asked to tank at my level?
I've tanked the easier heroics with resto spec with pretty good tanking gear. It just doesn't work well. The problem is agro and your inability to maintain it. I imagine it would be even worse in a non-heroic 5-man where you generate a lot less rage and you often have to tank multiple targets.
On the other hand, feral makes a much better 5-man healer than resto does a 5-man tank.
A guildy of mine asked me to tank Nexus Prince Shaladar (I think that's the name) - the group quest in Netherstorm. I am specced resto at the moment as we have been short healers in 25 mans, but I decided to give it a go.
Damn it was hard!! I was raged starved so I couldn't use maul as it costs so much rage. I had to try and tank using just swipe & lacerate! Thank goodness the mob was tauntable - I had to taunt it probably 5-6 times during the fight.
Do not try to tank without Mangle, it just is not worth the effort required. If your gear is good enough for the encounter it will stop you generating enough rage to effectively build agro.
It is much easier to heal as feral than it is to tank as resto!
Damn it was hard!! I was raged starved so I couldn't use maul as it costs so much rage. I had to try and tank using just swipe & lacerate! Thank goodness the mob was tauntable - I had to taunt it probably 5-6 times during the fight.
Do not try to tank without Mangle, it just is not worth the effort required. If your gear is good enough for the encounter it will stop you generating enough rage to effectively build agro.
It is much easier to heal as feral than it is to tank as resto!
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