◊ Farstrider

[Band of the Abyssal Lord] is from Supremus, and I think Dukes is using that in his tanking set up. You could also take the physical dps reward for MH rep which gives some nice dodge via agility - see here - the eventual reward is [Band of the Eternal Champion] but even the friendly version is very nice for dodge/stam. If you're not that far into endgame [Ring of Sundered Souls] from Morogrim could do the trick?

In general though I'd say that there are better slots to go low on armour in - the rings for tanking druids are generally pretty nice - swap in more high stam but normal armour gear, like for example [Girdle of Treachery] as I was saying 2 posts back.

 

Malazaar

Girdle of Treachery is not really an improvement in any way if you have Belt of Natural Power. I considered the Hyjal Ring - i'm only honored yet so it would take a while. My DPS Rings (Ring of Lethality and Ring of Deceitful Intent) offer reasonable AGI and STA values with hit on top.

I just wondered about some secret 40 Agi / 50 Stamina Ring i might have overlooked but it seems i better stay with my armor rings or the aforementioned DPS rings.

 

Daenerys

So I finally have enough points to buy my first piece of S2 gear (yes, I got into the whole arena thing a bit late =P). Right now my focus is PvE obviously and in raids I'm mostly tanking trash, OTing on boss fights and occasionally I will MT, though I do that less and less these days. So my gear has evolved from being totally focussed on tanking to be more a hybrid set. Right now for tanking I'm using 4 pc Malorne and the t5 legs.

My goals for my hybrid tanking set are to remain uncrittable, boost my dodge and stam a bit and also increase my DPS. To that end, I plan on keeping 2pc T4 for the rage and the T5 legs for the +hit. So, it looks to me like the best Merc. Gladiator piece for me to pick up is the Head, since it is a pretty big Stam upgrade over T4 and I would only lose 5 Agi, but of course the big bonus is the 25 Resil. Next I'm thinking Gloves, since there again I get some good Stam/Resil without losing much Agi. I was looking at chest, but it's only a 12 Stam upgrade while you drop 12 Agi compared to T4.

Anyway, I guess I'm just scared of clicking the button and regertting it later on. I'm only doing 3v3 with PvE-spec friends for points (in other words, about 350-400 pts per week max), so it's not like I have tons to throw around. For those that have already trodden this path, which pieces of S2 gear did you find the most useful in PvE gearsets and the hardest to replace? Does it make the most sense for me to get the Merc Glad Head first, followed by the Gloves in a few weeks?

Thanks!

 

• Astrylian

Beta 4 of Rawr, my program for bear theorycrafting, has been released!

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oldmandennis

The head is the best piece for tanking in my opinion. I'm not sure that I'd use the gloves - they seem pretty inferior to 4pc T4. With the head and the Veteran bracers you should be close to crit immune.

Do you have the mace? It's the best cat one in the game, and the resil is good if you are going from OT to DPS.

 

Larisroth

Yeah the head is good, especially if Prince drops are hard to come by, by my ranking the shoulders are also good, but the T5 are pretty easy to get.

Sadly all my (400 points a week, lol) arena points are being saved for the S2 maul.

The feral druid is a different beast altogether.

 

• Tinhay

[Band of the Abyssal Lord] or [Phoenix-Wing Cloak] are both decent upgrades if you're hitting the cap. Otherwise you could always take 1-2 points out of Thick Hide and put them elsewhere, although the benefit of this is questionable.

//edit: aiee, im way late. Pagination tricked me there and it's late here, my apologies.

 

Daenerys

I ended up going with the head, and I'll probably get the gloves next. I already broke 4pc T4 with the head (using T5 pants cause I love the +hit for tanking). I don't have the maul because it would take me a very long time to get, and I know I can get some benefits from the armor pieces right away. After the gloves I'm probably done with the armor though, so I'll start saving for the mace.

 

Tasonir

My guild's been working on Kael'thalas with SSC cleared, so today I took a look at t6 loot. As far as I can tell, the upgrades are tier 6 (obviously) as well as a dps staff [Pillar of Ferocity], some jewelery which was probably designed for warriors [Pendant of Titans] [Band of the Abyssal Lord] and one good ol' trash drop [Treads of the Den Mother].

I'm starting to wonder if they're ashamed to put feral loot on bosses, so it ends up being trash drops/LWing patterns. No luck on any of the t6 leather working patterns, sadly.

My question here is what to do about the missing slots: cloak and bracers. Since the tier armor is constantly increasing, I was thinking about dropping +armor on these slots and using a warrior cloak/rogue bracer.

[Phoenix-Wing Cloak]

[Insidious Bands]

Are these our best high end options? Are these our only high end options? I'm starting to wonder if we need this thread anymore since there seems to be -exactly- one item per slot with no choices involved. What would you socket in the bracers? I'd probably pick enduring talasite (or the epic version of it), because I'm usually pretty fond of getting the socket bonus, and would like stamina instead of pure defense. It'll depend on what my defense is looking like at the time, I'm sure +12 stamina (or 15 by this point) will be a common choice also.

Edit: updated links. I swear I tried the item tag before, don't know why it didn't work then.

 

dukes

Insidious are good if you can be crit immune without the PvP bracers.

I'm using the [Razor-Scale Battlecloak] for tanking, just because I much prefer having the dodge and DPS stats over a defence-spec cloak (consider that it's 1.7% or so dodge with kings).

And yes, until the Sunwell comes out we're very limited on choices (and there's no guarentee we'll get upgrades there either, although I dearly hope there's a new weapon). It's basically Tier slots, and then one PvE item or possibly a PvP item for each slot. It's pretty lame to be pigeonholed into having no choice and wearing gear that is terribly under ilvl, but considering we use two sets (dps and tanking) for one spec of one class, it's not surprising (1/27th of all loot should be assigned to ferals according to that split, then split to dps/tanking).

You also managed to get the links the wrong way round, and you could just use item tags.

 

seminarca

So, in light of the conclusions that are being reached in the weapon skill discussion, is anyone tempted to switch back to [Earthwarden] over [Wildfury Greatstaff] or [Pillar of Ferocity] ? 3% hit is a non-trivial boost in tanking gear, specially as it's so cheaply budgeted .. and Earthwarden is no slouch at mitigation either (although certainly well behind the other two). It might even allow you to drop crit reduction in other slots to make back some of the lost stamina and dodge.

This is without considering the impact of weapon skill on enemy dodge, block and parry as this is still mostly unknown/unconfirmed.

The other option would be to drop an armor ring for [Shapeshifter's Signet], but doing so means a dent in the crit reduction department, which would have to be made up elsewhere.

edit: Added item tags.

 

dukes

(826+(47x2))-556 = 364.

364 is not a small amount of attack power to lose (if you're using the Pillar, although it's only 200 AP in the case of Wildfury). When the Pillar gives 1k more health on top of the AP gain, I'd rather use the pillar and swap out one of my rings for the Shapeshifters (which I often do, although it means swapping Moroes Pocketwatch to the Timelapse Shard, which is not a great loss whilst tanking trash/early mobs). I'll be switching back to Wildfury post 2.2 due to the buff they gave SSC/TK stuff, unless they do something about buffing the BT/Hyjal items.

 

Daenerys

Might be a bit off-topic, but I'm curious what bosses in T6 you're tanking, Dukes (or any of you others out there)? We are starting to down bosses in Hyjal (BT starts tonight =), and I'm trying to make the best use out of myself as I can, but we also tend to have a lot of Prot Warriors available at raids. Next up is Azgalor, and as he hits hard but doesn't crush, is he a boss where it's actually easier if you have a feral tank? Thanks.

 

dukes

Trash, Anetheron (infernals - fire res), Azgalor (Doom spawns).

Trash, Supremus (offtanking hurtful strikes), Akama (one side spawns), Gurtogg (MT, shared with prot warrior), RoS (cat gear but tanking p1/offtanking p2), Shahraz (afk tanking lash), Illidan (elementals - fire res). Also have tanked in Council before but I don't do it normally now.

We normally run with 1 prot and 2 ferals for all encounters now, apart from illidan when a DPS warrior specs prot as he has fire res too (which is the main reason why I'm the anetheron tank as it means he doesn't have to respec).

 

Malazaar

With T5/T6 a Defwarrior with Ironshield Potions is (unfortunately) superior to a feral druid in terms of mitigation, even on non-crushing mobs. Defstance and blocking do count for a lot - and they got shield wall, last stand and the ability to use healthstones in their tanking form on top of that. They also got abilities like Berserker Rage and Spell Reflect, which (contrary to druids) allow them to tank certain bosses on the first place.

On the other hand, druids absolutely destroy defwarriors in terms of threat generation, especially with 2T6+. We can also deal around 1200 DPS when not needed for tanking, which a defwarrior is (not yet) capable of.

So you don't want druids to tank the boss itself, you want him offtanking some add or helping with threatbased encounters like gurtogg. We are especially good at tanking a focus target due to our superb threat generation.

To answer your initial question - you will have to look hard to find a feral druid tanking any boss in BT/MH (although i heard about some alliance guids using druid tanks on archimonde).

 

CD

In my experience Azgalor is easier with a feral tank. Maybe a warrior in mostly t6 would survive the silence periods more comfortably, but as a guild with mostly t5 on tanks our healers definitely prefer a druid on Azgalor.

 

Junakit

My list looks the same as Dukes', though it stops at RoS. :P

Last Hyjal I MTd Anetheron 'cause I don't have FR yet and the prot did; didn't seem to make much difference who tanked what. Our RoS tactic uses a bear OT in p2 and that's probably one of the finest threat lines I've ever had to walk. I'm still trying to decide if that makes it fun or not.

I'd be tempted to tank Azgalor but the lack of emergency buttons for silences is mildly offputting; although I can hit avoidance trinkets for some silences I could end up royally screwed during others. Besides, Doom tanking is pretty decent as a bear, you've got FF/mangle snap aggro and if all else fails travelform etc to catch the runaway faster -- plus you get to use your rez.

Can't wait for 2t6 to see the effect on TPS firsthand, though even the threat sensitive fights I offtank seem to rely more on controlled threat rather than maximum threat generation (staying below a prot MT, yum). Even though I offtank quite a bit it seems t6 would be best gemmed for dps; heaven forfend I end up in a proper tanking situation where I take damage anyway. :\

 

Darkkazul

My list is the almost the exact same as dukes but I don't OT Anetheron nor OT Illidan. I have the fr for both and have tanked both but recently I've gotten to dps on both, fun times ! One big thing to note on EOS, I get secondary on p2 EOS. With 2pc T6 watch your mangle and deaden threat... 3.2k Mangle crits = 5k threat ish... I almost ate the second deaden before our mt got it back. 2pc T6 does make a HUGE difference on any fight where you are offtanking or not taking direct hits.

 

Junakit

Even without 2pc T6, mangle and deaden on EOS = immense threat. Omen's inaccurate enough (was pulling from MT at 85% of his threat) that I wouldn't want to risk the t6 bonus screwing things up more :P

 

dukes

I normally wear DPS gear, get salv off a paladin and go all out in P2 which generally leaves me about the right amount after the MT on threat. After the first deaden I cancel salv and start walking the thin line past that point - before that point it's too easy to overagro with just one ability if you don't have salv.

Socketing T6 for hybrid-ing is pretty obvious imo, considering the utility that pure agi, agi/hit, or agi/stam gems give both roles.

 

Boevis

Arguing with our warrior MT about Azgalor, our current problem on him is lots of people dying to the fire so my suggestion was putting our "tank" druid as MT. He doesn't seem to think that more armor is going to counter lack of cooldowns and shield block, I kinda want to slap him, especially since I've been pulling aggro off of him in cat.

Is there anything in particular that makes Druids better for Azgalor? Or are we just better off going for more in BT until we get more healers keyed?

 

CD

I think he's more suited to a druid because there's the possibility of large damage spikes throughout the fight and warrior cooldowns can't catch them all.
The worst case scenario is having all healers silenced for 5 seconds and facing 2 melee swings, a cleave and some RoF ticks- the gear threshold for a druid to survive that isn't very high at all.

If you know your tank can't be burst down it's easier to allocate more healers elsewhere and keep dps alive/ end the fight before doom kills more people than you can res. We usually use 7-8 healers and overall I'm not so sure the fight is more healing intensive than Anetheron.

 

dukes

Switching tank won't solve your fundamental problem of people dying to RoF, it's only if silence is killing your tank that it's a problem. We've used a warrior since the start, and first kill was a one-shot (which was surprising, to say the least). If you are having problems with silence, you should probably be using shadow res on a couple of MT healers to try and make sure theres at least one person who can heal through the silence.

If you want the easymode way out, put melee on Doomguards, make sure the Doomguard tank stands well back out of RoF range, and have all ranged people at max range. Make sure the tank turns Azgalor so that the NPC's that agro at the first silence are attacking from behind (parry strings are evil) at max range, and the only people who will ever eat the fire are the NPC's if you do it right.

If you want the "proper" way - have all casters stand IN range of RoF (more targets = more spread out) and make sure the tank turns it so the NPC's are just behind to one side while the melee are the other side. Doomguards are offtanked (we use 2 ferals for it) and people are soulstoned/combat ressed as they get doomed - we normally get 3-4 spawns before he dies. People HAVE to be aware of RoF and their consumables. If a melee is on low health with no consumables up, they need to take care of themselves (and if that means running away and bandaging, so be it).

If you're pulling agro off him in cat with salv, you need to get a new tank. If you're pulling agro without salv, get salv.

 

• sordee

Q: I'm a bored 70 non-raiding druid (aside from the occasion pickup kara/gruul) with plenty of cash. Are [Boots of Natural Grace] that much better than [Veteran's Dragonhide Boots] such that its worth/stupid to train up LW (and probably pickup the moonkin/healing gear with Tribal). But the strength/stam/agi is just so similar, that the 140 AC and 1% hit just ok i guess.

 

Tarlitz

I see a lot of druids use [Scarab of Displacement] that are exalted with Keepers of Time, and I've been wondering for a long time why they use it over, in my opinion superior, [Timelapse Shard]. The 'on use' on the Scarab doesn't do much, since it gives a mere 5.5% avoidance and greatly lowers threat generation for the time being.

[Timelapse Shard] gives 0.58% -crit, as opposed to -0.7% on the [Scarab of Displacement], and unless you specifically need 0.12% from the trinket slot (as a comparison: 8 defence rating on a gem gives 0.13% -crit), I see no reason to use the Scarab over the Shard. Clearly 27 stamina is better than 0.13% -crit? Is there something I am not seeing?