That is a ludicrous statement, and the only reason they are saying this, I assume, is due to the 4piece bonus. The Tier items, and clearly druid-oriented tanking items, are all loaded with the exact same stats: High AC, high Stam, high Strength, moderately high Agility, and in rare occassions, some hit rating. I fail to see how Tier 4 is any different than T5/6 in that sense. Yes, our Tier sets are 'missing' some traditional tanking stats, def being the most obvious, but due to talents, it's very easy for us to make up the difference in non-tier slots, and to a lesser degree, sockets.

If you have a druid refusing to relinquish the T4 4pc bonus, and you're at the end of T5 zones, then they really need a wake-up call, and start to re-examine their prioritization of tanking stats.

We are actually not even in SSC/TK yet, and I am the MT for our guild, and I was asking the druids about these questions (in comparison to our OT Warrior's set bonuses versus benefits/etc)

I just now looked at the T4/5/6 set bonus for Druids and I think they were referring to the actual set bonuses, could you explain to me why they are itemized the way they are? I kind of see why she was saying they are not good, and it was the actual set bonuses rather than stats.

Ultimately, are the sets geared out to where a Druid can fill the MT role or are they forever OT?

I'm asking all these dumb questions because I honestly don't know what druids are beyond the standard tanking stats.

Thanks.

Druids will always be able to perform an MT role except on fights which require spell reflect, pretty much. They are just built towards an OT role much much more due to being able to switch form without losing anything and having a spec which caters for both damage and tanking.

The set bonuses are very good at T4 for both tanking and damage, the T5 set bonuses are worthless (except 4 piece for dps, which is outclassed by 2t4 anyway) and the T6 set bonuses are awesome for both tanking and damage.

The only bad thing about the tier sets is they're over-itemised on Intellect. In a purely PvE sense theres no way we need anything more than the base mana pool, for either tanking or DPS, and it would be much better if they'd split those points into hit (distinct lack on all sets except 5/6 legs) and maybe a bit more agility.

Set bonuses are a weak point for druid gear, always have been.... Mainly being we haven't had any up until BC. Set bonuses are pretty mediocre on everything tanking wise, and only tier 4 has a decent dps set bonus. Other than the tier 4 bonus all account for about 2% - 3% damage increase, with the tier 4 only being slightly over 3%.

The tanking bonuses are a joke though, without any actual mitigation or survival bonuses other than 4p tier 4, I am really not impressed with that itemization.

They may not have been designed with ranged slots in mind initially, but given that all of the gear we are currently wearing or will wear any time in the future was designed after the introduction of relics our gear most certainly is designed with ranged slots in mind. Any choice to start adding stats or any overall redesign of relics will likewise include the overall effect on the affected classes and balancing with unaffected classes.

I think there are two reasons why druids are prefered as OT:

1. Druids can produce more threat without having aggro (= low rage).
2. Druids make more damage than an Protection Warrior.

Druids can be used as MTs without penalty on most fights. But, compared to Protection warriors, they are much better OTs.

I have to disagree with this. There are very few encounters where I feel I can perform as well as an equally geared prot warrior, and these are pretty much limited to encounters where the boss cannot crush (e.g. Azgolar, Archimonde) or where the boss doesnt hit hard enough for spike damage from crushings to be an issue.

While I can tank most of SSC and TK adequately in my current gearset there are still exceptions, such as Morogrim, where crush immunity will always give a huge advantage. Further on in BT, basically anything past Akama, druids really can't MT effectively as an unlucky string of crushings is fairly inevitable at some point and it's just too much burst for healers to reliably react to.

Like Melthar said, there is crush immunity for Warriors on Morogrim. Earthquake eats a Shield Block charge and the boss can thrash. The Warrior *will* take crushings for up to 8k damage then. If you have a Boss that can crush both your Warrior and Druid to an extent, it sometimes is just better to use the Druid because he can mitigate the crushes alot better than the Warrior can.

In my experience Druid tanks have been preferred by our healers on Morogrim. Warriors take huge spike damage from a crushing, and they can't stay immune on this boss.

I'll pile on the Morogrim thread to say that we have found feral Druid tanking to be successful. However, it does seem to require a solid healing core.

We've found that keeping HoTs up on me while I tank really smooths out the limited spikiness from crushes. In a typical kill, I rarely go below 50% health, which is the only time the fight is ever dicey, since at that point (about 10k health), a crush and a normal hit may do me in.

As to a "solid healing core," my guild's experience has been that the healing core has to be even more solid when a Warrior is tanking. =P Basically a Warrior takes more spike damage here. My combat log reads:

4k
4k
6k (crushing)
6k (crushing)
4k
6k (crushing)
4k
4k

Yes, some spikiness, but not bad. A Warriors is more like:

5k
5k
5k
8k (crushing)
5k
5k
5k

Yes, I just made those numbers up, but you get the point. Healers are healing nice, steady damage on the Warrior until they get a big spike. On me, they are healing less steady damage, but the spikes aren't as rare, and therefore they are already healing with them in mind. In other words, a crush on the tank is a shock the healers have to quickly adapt to; on me, it's just part of healing on that fight.

I think it comes down to your healers. Some groups may prefer being surprised by an 8k hit once in a while, while other groups might like the more predicatble damage from 4k and 6k hits intermingled.