Can the Panzerkin make a comeback?Follow

I was up talking with my fellow theorycrafting addicted priest friend and we were tossing around different ideas of what you could possibly do as a boomkin besides the general "Blow $h@t up." So I started playing around to see if it were possibly to make a panzerkin work at all in LK.

Panzerkin.

The build I would utilize. I would probably use this for my build in general. You can't spec Nature's Reach for the mere fact it will lower your aggro which is bad. I think I've picked up the talents I could possibly need. Pushback reduction, more damage on thorns, Damage Increases and an increase in armor.

Now I figure crit is going to be an important stat just for the mere fact for holding aggro is not going to be an easy thing. I figure stat stacking would something like this. Defense Rating, Stamina, Dodge Rating, Crit, Spell Power, and then Int/Spirit.

Obviously being defense capped is going to be important so you're going to have certain items be for strictly tanking. I figured a good place for this would be your rings, necklace, cloak and trinkets. You would obviously have to fill in certain areas to meet certain requirements such as gemming for more stamina. But since in BC there were stamina/spell power gems mainly utilized by protadins I'm going to assume (which is a bad idea yes) there are the same thing in LK.

I forsee the biggest problem going to be meeting either the defense cap or having enough stamina. Now if you're a leather worker you're going to have access to the Stamina Fur Linings which will add 90 stamina, this is a very substantial amount. So going with this form of idea you're enchants will most likely have to be all tanking orientated.

Of course with all of this it's going to be a challenge to find the right gear and stat ratio, the perfect build but also having the right group make up to allow this. CC is going to be a major thing you'll need and having a group who understands the mechanics of how tanking as a boomkin would have to operate. With the changes to resilience not affecting anything other than other players this style of playing is going to be much harder than it used to be.

But, I will still attempt to try it and see if it's possible. Among other builds I've really really been tempted to try out some form of a psuedo "Warkin" build where you focus on the most amount of damage you can posssibly crank out with your dots, IE: glyphing IS/MF and utilizing Eclipse to its fullest. But, that will happen another day.

The only thing I possibly see with going down into sotf is you're really really going down into the tree for the reduction. Just remember this is all speculation as to what you would need and would surely never replace any tank in a 25 man raid.

I personally just want to see if it's possible with the right gear and gems because I would love to be the first moonkin to tank anything in 10 man naxx.

Without Blessing of Salvation, I really don't see a Moonkin tank working again. All DPS will have the same DPS => TPS rate as you, barring a few talents, and you'll be doing less DPS due to stacking mitigation, avoidance, and crit-reducing stats in your gear. If you greatly out-gear the instance, your DPS can throttle back and your healers can probably keep you up long enough. It's that, or stack hunters and rogues for DPS since they have a complete threat drop.

Both of these specs seem pretty bad for a boomkin tank, especially with the 30% threat reduction. You have no Earth and moon, so that's another -12% damage in addition to the -3% spell dmg. No moonfury, so that is another -10% damage. No insect swarm, so you won't have the hit reduction. No CF for the haste/stuns. No improved mark which increases stats and armor?

So, for an extra 20 talent points in the feral tree we get:
SofT
Survival instincts

and we lose:
30% threat
22% damage
3% spell dmg
3% spell haste
ability to stun mobs
3% hit reduction(IS)
extra stats
extra armor
Forces of Nature
20%spell damage on Starfire
10%spell damage on Wrath
Omen of Clarity


I think although the idea of having SofT initially has some merit, there is just no way to make it work in a viable spec. This would be my spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xGchVIoIdhA0ohV0hZfx0z

It has all of the essential boomkin talents, feral up to the armor increase, imp. mark, and OoC for extra mana.

edit:fixed link

Edited, Nov 24th 2008 2:09pm by jeffoncom

I would go with this spec if I wanted to tank as a Moonkin. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xGcuVIocdIhuohV0hZbA0z

It includes the necessary talents from the Feral and Restoration trees. Jeffoncom the build you linked didn't include OoC. It would be nice to have SotF to be non-crit, but it's not worth the 20 extra points to get it. I agree with CamelToad that PvP gear would be the way to go. All that being said I don;t think I would ever actually try to be a Panerkin. Don't know though, I mind get adventureous someday and try it.

I would do this for a panzerkin .

Talents mainly buffing Wrath, Moonfire and Insect Swarm. With the 2 instants and my AoE being used to hold non-skull targets. As Starfire would be to long to cast after the pull.

Minimal points in resto. Just the push back and increased int as the points are needed to buff AoE spells and to get Starfall for an additional AoE. Same with feral as the only points really needed are Thick Hide to buff my armor from all that PvP gear I would want to be wearing. As crit immunity from resilience is the way to go for sure.

Would pack Int, SP and crit after getting mostly hit capped and enough HPs to have a chance. The int and crit for mana and mana regen. The SP for more boom.

Would be a crazy spec, any of the panzer specs I mean, to try when the gear is there to let it have a chance. Even then I don't think it would be PuGable ever. As the level of communication and restraint on the DPS's part just would be lacking, especially without Salv.

To get the required 5.6% of crit reduction at level 70 and level 80 requires 140 defense over the base (350 at 70, 400 at 80) so you need 540 defense.

Jeffoncon, I put the points into Naturist because when someone says tank I automatically think melee. I agree that the points would be better served in Nature's Focus and Dreamstate for the mana regen.

As for getting Starfall would you really want to use this? In the limited time I tried Boomkin I found it more trouble than it was worth in the I would pull too many adds at once with it. I think there is lack of control in using Starfall. I could be wrong though as I haven't played a Boomkin for very long.

Can you link a source for this? I haven't read this anywhere, and I haven't been able find any information on this. All of the tooltips still say "Reduces periodic damage and chance to be critically hit by X%".

Just to clarify this, you need 540 Defense to reach crit immunity. To reach that you need 689 Defense Rating (or 460 Resilience if it works PvE).

To get 689 Def Rating, you will be giving up more in stats than you lose by speccing SotF - basically neither one is an option. Resilience is the only possibilty IMO and we aren't sure it is even viable.