Scared BearFollow

Don't think I've posted much on the druid forums before, but hi!

I have an alt resto druid that's pretty well geared, and I seem to be competitive if not ahead of other healers I end up running with. I had a boomkin offspec, but my guild currently has boomkins coming out the ***, so I figured I'd respec to something that the guild really doesn't have....a bear tank.

I've picked up a few feral pieces throughout ICC, so I've been able to piece together a semi-decent set, throw a few crap gems/enchants on, and make my way through tanking HPoS(why, oh why did I get that as my first random...). We cleared it with a few wipes, but considering the deaths were to dps on pursuit and poison nova, I figure that wasn't exactly my fault. The healer (resto druid) was in a mix of 200/219 gear, along with some crafted 264, and he seemed to have a hard time keeping me up, which kept all my cooldowns, on, well, cooldown. The tank deaths were on the ramp after the second boss, which I know is a nasty pull, so I'm not sure if it was just a new/undergeared healer, or if my gear/spec is too horribly screwed up.

Our dps was also nothing special...I was pulling 2-2.5k, and topping the charts. Hunter was at 1.5k, warrior at about 1.7, and rogue topping out at 2k. Rotation-wise, I was typically charging into the mob/group, throwing up a FFF on a caster or other mob, swiping to get initial aggro on everything, putting up mangle, a few lacerates, and then alternating between swipes and lacerates, and keeping maul up when I had rage.

Long story short, I'm wondering if I need to wait on tanking anything until I can do something differently, or if it was just a bad group. I'm still in my feral gear for the moment, and I know it needs some work. Brewfest starts tomorrow, so I'm hoping to pick up the trinkets from there (mine are horribad), and then upgrade my gems/enchants, end up with some more tank-based jewelry, and work on getting my tier gloves.

Link to my noob bear is: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Whisperwind&n=kerawyn


Tl;dr: Do I suck, or did my group suck? Halp!

AP/Stam is a bad gem. Don't use it, ever. Go Agi/Stam if you want a red socket bonus. Stam in blue and yellow.

+18 Stam chest, do that.

Get the honor Stam shoulders thing.

Wrists is +40 Stam.

Mongoose to weapon.

Tuskarrs on boots. Run speed is awesome for everything but shines while chain pulling.

Frostscale Leg patch.

Get a belt buckle, put in a Stam gem.

+18 Stam to golves.

Assuming you have the armor meta as armory no like show.

Blue gems are fine if you're doing heroics but chants are cheap these days. Especially if you're doing heroics as DE mats flow like water.

Spec and glyphs are fine.

FFF/Mangle threat the hardest then Maul, followed by 5 stack Lacerate, Swipe and lastly Lacerate.

For trash just Maul and Swipe. Mangle if your bored, same deal with FFF. FFF can be used to keep a caster on you over healer aggro, DPS not so much but healer aggro easily.

Bosses get Mangle and FFF up first, then Lacerate up to a 5 stack. You should Mangle/FFF still while stacking if threat is an issue otherwise get stacks up and running. Then just keep Mangle/FFF on CD and Swipe unless stacks will drop <4 seconds if that may happen Lacerate. The <4 seconds is based on you being hit capped and having a good expertise level, two misses in a row are highly unlikely. Adjust this accordingly based on hit/exp and experience.

You should be fine in all the heroics 5 mans. Was more a matter of most everyone being low end for the instance. Healer being on the low end will show way more if the DPS is low. Same idea with tank vs heals. Also people taking unnecessary damage never helps, either can cause death or loss of healer DPS. I'm thinking it was more them than you.

The ramp pulls suck if no one interrupts the Hellfire. A good interrupt to start can also help group the pull much better if you have trouble finding your Swipe sweet spot where you can hit all the mobs.

Good luck.

Unlike Horse, I'm a strong follower of the +10 stats on chest thing. I know it's more expensive, but hey, I'm a high roller. My argument is that +10 stats gives you +10 agility (dodge, crit and armor) and +10 strength (attack power) at the cost of 8 stamina.

8 stamina, with talents, Kings and ICC buff, turns into ~16 stamina, or 160 health. When you have 60k health unbuffed in ICC, 160 health is basically just a drop in the ocean. While the bonuses gained from 10 agility and 10 strength are equally small, I have scientific proof that more crit, dodge, armor and attack power will triumph over 160 health.

Fight the power, man! Don't go stam, go avoidance/threat, yeah!

Edited, Sep 20th 2010 8:01pm by Mazra

Thanks again for the tips, all. Was able to pick up both trinkets from Brewfest, and will be getting all enchanted later tonight. Tanked a Violet Hold run earlier, kept aggro and everything without a problem, shammy healer said that all they had to do was keep Earth Shield up on me and we were good. Thumbs up from a bunch of random strangers works for me...druid forums ftw :)

Ah yes, good times. Once you get into that T10 gear, you'll see your DPS skyrocket.

On 3 mobs with Berserk running, I can push out 5-6k DPS. With 10 mobs, I'm at around 7k from just Maul and Swipe spam.