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Heya, its been a while since I've posted on Alla's forums. Well last time I was ehar I was a proud as hell Boomkin. But Alas times change and my guild needs a tank for our next kara group and it seems our server is tank starved all the sudden. So they came to me asking that I respecc. Was very reluctant but I decided to go ahead with it.

Anyways my problem is that I need a tanking weapon besides Earthwarden. In my mad rush to 70 I did not follow the guide on how to best get rep for Cenarion. Besides I never though I would be tanking and theres nothing that Cenarion's quartermasters have that balance druids must have. I'm sitting at about 3/4 honored with every single quest completed. Thats just way to much instancing and I only have about 2 weeks to get fully geared anyways. So heres the weapons I have decided on, and I would appreciate if you tanks give me some feedback. Also keep in mind that i have already considered each of these weapons usefulness with a 35 agility enchant on them.

Braxxis' Staff of Slumber

Personally, I despise this weapon. The 39 stam is easily replaced and the FAP is downright pitiful. Theres druids on my server whose gone into Kara with this wep and have done mediocre, but I simply do not like it. Now the only problem is I am armor starved at the moment. I'm still in some greens but I plan on getting some PvP gear to boost my armor. Still I dont see how I'm gonna make 20k+ armor by the time I'm finished. Soo that 2k extra armor sure is nice...

Fleshling Simulation Staff

This is what I am currently leaning towards. Fact is I already have it and when you slap that 35 agility on it that a lovely amount of dodge and crit (not to mention that tad bit more armor). It has less 12 less stam then Braxxis but like I said before, thats easily replaced. All I need is for someone to say, "Yes, you can MT/OT Kara with that" and this is what I'm going with no matter how much better the other staves are. Time is of the essence :/

Greatstaff of the Leviathan

This was originally the staff I was going for. Something always goes wrong so I can never reach the boss. I have pretty much given up on getting this staff, so I will attempt getting it again ONLY if it is not possible to tank with the other to staves.





Edited, Mar 24th 2008 8:35pm by Setai

Link. To. Allakhazam!

Wowhead is neat and all, but if you use Allakhazam links to items, like JeeBar did, it will show the item's info when you hover the mouse over the link. Waaaay cooler.

As for weapons, I personally need Braxxis', because my armor rating is laughable.

Maybe you didn't notice, but Braxxis and Earthwarden both have +39 Stam. Also, Braxxis gives 3k armor in bear with 3/3 Thick Hide. (550 + 550 x 4) x 1.1 = 3025 bear armor. Anything with no armor bonus isn't a tanking weapon, especially past normal 5-mans*. 3k armor at the level you're at is ~9% more damage taken.

20k armor is 63% mitigation, so you're taking 37%
23k armor is 66% mitigation, so you're taking 34%
37/34 = 1.09%

Or, if the boss is hitting you for 2k white damage with Braxxis, he'll be hitting for around 2180 without it.

If you're worried about threat problems, make sure you have at least 1 paladin for Salv. Beyond that, the 4 most common DPS classes (Hunter, Mage, Warlock, and Rogue) all have either a 50% (Soul Shatter) or 100% (Feign Death, Invisibiliy, Vanish) aggro dump.

Bottom line, I can't reccomend anything for entry-level tanking besides Braxxis or Earthwarden.

* Unless you drastically outgear the instance. If you're over 30k armor, I can see using a DPS weapon to make clearing farm content faster.

Growl has zero effect if you're at the top of the threat meter. It simply sets your threat to that of the highest on the list, which would be you if you've got aggro.

At least that's what I've been told.

(note: my only 70 is a Kara+ geared hunter, so I have no direct experience)

Do you have problems with aggro on single targets (when enough CC is present, which should always be the case in kara)? It's almost always the other case with feral tanks that i have grouped with... They muster the MOST initial aggro compared to Warriors and Pallies.

I'd definetly go braxxis, it was tied for first on my tank item list when I hit 70 along with the heavy clefthoof set.

I picked up the Braxxis as soon as I was the rigth level for it. I just recently picked up the EW and was just like you in my case of doing all of the CE rep quests while leveling and was stuck with running SV a crazy amount of times. But before I had the EW I tanked everything in Kara (Except Nightbane) just fine using the Braxxis. So throw my vote that way!

Not entirely true Camel.

Go tank the champions in heroic sp. When they use a fear effect on you (I assume its a fear effect - although i've never entirely checked), the aggro is put onto those who have not got feared.

Quite annoying if you have dps that are gimps and can't stun/cc it.

The effect that you're talking about in heroic SP isn't atually a fear effect on the main tank. It's an incapacitate, like Gouge, on the mob's target, and an AoE fear on everyone else. It works exactly like the warrior ability Intimidating Shout. This is being changed in 2.4 I believe to be a fear effect on everyone.

Yep, here it is:

There's a difference between Growl/Taunt and Mocking Blow/Challenging Roar/Challenging Shout that there seems to be some confusion over. Here's how it works.

A mob will choose a new target any time someone in melee range has 10% more threat than the current target, or when anyone else has 30% more threat than the current target. So, it's possible for the person with aggro to not have the most threat.

Tank: 10,000 threat
Melee DPS: 9,500 threat
Ranged DPS: 9,500 threat

As long as the tank had aggro to begin with, the mob isn't going to go after anyone else.

Tank: 10,000 threat
Melee DPS: 11,001 threat
Ranged DPS: 10,500 threat

Now the mob turns to hit the melee DPS. Tank uses Growl/Taunt to get aggro back. He is equal to the melee DPS in threat and forces the mob to switch targets.

Tank: 11,001 threat
Melee: 11,001 threat
ranged DPS: 11,000

Right after the tank uses taunt, however, the ranged DPS does something to generate 4k threat.

Tank: 11,001
Melee: 11,001
Ranged: 15,000

Even though the tank just used taunt, the mob will run after the ranged DPS. Why? Taunt and Growl force the mob to change targets, but the mob doesn't have to stay there. Mocking Blow and Challenging Roar/Challenging Shout force the mob to change targets and stay that way for X seconds. Challenging Roar/Challenging Shout don't actually increase the tank's threat, they just give him a few seconds to spam aggro-generating abilities.

First a mere intro to get everyone on a similar level of understanding... For me, wether it's actually called "Fear" or it's called something else doesn't really matter to me. It makes my character go run all over the place with the same animation just the same as a warlock would and it's lumped into a generalized name of "fear" for me. I guess as long as I understand how the varying opponent's vary in their versions is all that matters to me and not the exact name. Just stating this because I think a lot of people are in the same boat as myself when they call a certain mechanic "fear". Sure it might not be "fear", but it's close enough that the average person is probably going to call it that.

The specific example of a fear mechanic I was actually talking about would be the Fel Guard things in Shadow Labs. The ones that have the aoe fear that resets threat and then wildly goes and chases whatever it feels like. On those targets the fel guards rarely, if ever, continue attacking the tank after they've used their mechanic unless you've placed a lucky taunt before the mechanic was used.

Other fear mechanics like the first boss of shadow labs, it doesn't matter if you taunt prior to being feared (or at least not near as much), because that particular case of the fear mechanic doesn't reset threat and assumming you have a comfortable lead over everyone else on threat, that boss is going to attack you regardless of your use of taunt prior to the fear. Not only that, but the first boss of shadow labs version of fear doesn't break until it's duration has worn off (or some other intervention), where the fel gaurd's version will break simply by them hitting you.

There are other similar situations with Wing Clip effects and such that work the same if you taunt prior to the effect landing on you.

So as I before said, I have found use for taunting even when I'm alread on top of the threat, though it's not something that's overly reliable, it's more a lucky fortunate accident, but an accident that only happens if you taunt even though you're already on top and probably best reserved for single target pulls.

Edited, Mar 26th 2008 5:40am by Torzak

I've MT'd Kara with Braxxis.

Killed everything but NightBane.

So don't bypass it just for the lack of FAP, it's still a stellar Druid Tanking weapon.

You're clearly playing a different game.


Go pick a fight on something in bear form, and taunt it. You will clearly see an icon buff/debuff pop up on your enemy that lasts probably exactly 2 seconds.



And if you taunt before they use it... guess what? The opponent breaks the crowd control mechanic by hitting you, and you get to keep threat without it running off for someone else.

I know you already decided to go with the consensus but i'm throwing my vote in with Braxxis'