I agree that Imp LOTP is usually underrated--I have a hard time considering giving it up. The problem is, what do we give up to keep it? Threat? Rage? Avoidance? Cat viability?

I'd say the core bear talents are:
Ferocity (5)
Naturalist + OOC (11)
Thick Hide (3)
Feral Instinct (3)
Sharpened Claws, Primal Fury, and Primal Precision (10) (really too valuable to rage and threat gen to give up)
Feral Charge (1) (again, too much utility to give up; I use it constantly in raids as it is)
Savage Fury (2)
Predatory Strikes + Heart of the Wild (8)
Survival of the Fittest (3)
LOTP (1)
Mother Bear (3)
Mangle + Imp. Mangle (4)
Berserk (1)

That's 55 points total, leaving 16. Even in a purely bear spec, we have to choose between:
Feral Faerie Fire (1) (I suppose I can always pull with moonfire, but I'd have a hard time giving FFF up, and I'd need a boomkin in my raid to even consider it)
Feral Aggression (5)
Imp LOTP (2)
Infected Wounds (3)
Feral Swiftness (2)
Natural Reaction (3)
Shredding Attacks (2)
Primal Tenacity (3)
Predatory Instincts (5)
Rend and Tear (5)
King of the Jungle (3)
Intensity (3)
Master Shapeshifter (5)

That's 42 points I'd consider just for bear, with only 16 available.

I suppose one could rely on all the cat stats loaded on our gear currently to provide us with good rage and threat, and therefore dump entirely the great rage/threat management talents like Rend and Tear, Shredding Attacks, King of the Jungle, Intensity, Master Shapeshifter, and Predatory Instincts--which ends up with the same it'd-be-nice-but abandonment of Primal Tenacity that I made in BC, etc.--but without any cat viability whatsoever, when currently I can both tank and DPS quite well.

I feel that the feral tree still needs to be streamlined a bit. I understand the desire to make room for a "bear spec" and a "cat spec" in order to make cat DPS viable without totally overpowering bear tanking, etc., but at the moment there are too many bear-oriented talents to choose from.

I wouldn't give up Savage Fury for Rend and Tear, but it's still a great threat talent, and the 10% shred damage hurts to pass up if one ever wants to be DPSing.

Oh, regarding stuns and dying--Corrupting Strike on Kalecgos and the Abominations on Hyjal trash are two places stuns have killed me, even with liberal use of Free Action potions. It also used to happen plenty in heroics. Stunned = no dodge = roughly twice as much damage taken.

Previously, your typical AOE fears (e.g., Archimonde, dragons since forever, etc.) didn't get a stacking bonus since Primal Tenacity gave you a chance to resist fears and Predatory Instincts gave you a chance to resist AOE. Primal Tenacity has now been changed so that it reduces the duration when feared, so theoretically it should stack with Predatory Instincts as a sort of companion talent. (Doesn't mean I'd necessarily take either when push came to shove, but I can see the value.)

As a main tank the two primary concerns are maximizing survivability and maximizing threat. Yes 10% maul dmg is expensive for 5 talent points but its still a non trivial threat increase. As is +10% crit damage.

Aye, exactly. Those 10 talent points are a lot of the reason I feel there's just too many bear options at the moment. From our first heroics in blues, to Bloodboil, through Brutallus, threat has remained important.

You spend 7 points to get 30%

RnT: At best it's about a 3% increase in threat for 5 points. I'm not really sure that's worth it.
PI: This will provide around a similar benefit in threat, but at least it gives you a bit of AoE avoidance along with it.

It's worth noting here that Master Shapeshifter gives a reliable 4% threat increase for 5 points even in low-rage situations where Maul is left out of the cycle, and even in blues where our %crit will probably be low. So, if you've extra points in Feral (ha!) that you want to spend on threat, Master Shapeshifter is worth a look instead.

It's somewhere less than 4%. We also gain threat from other things like the static modifier to lacerate and maul and rage gains. Similarly, it's less than 4% damage in cat form, because not all of our moves can crit and we have more than 0% crit to start with.

Personally, I can't seem to fit 16 points in resto in any tanking build I come up with.

You're right, I'd discounted the static threat component of lacerate in particular, so it probably comes out closer to that 3% on the other two, though I still feel it will be higher (might be worth running the numbers to see exactly where it lands versus RnT and PI). I think all three talents can be considered in the same category, and it just depends what side effect you want to get out of those 5 points (AOE avoidance? Less mana-intensive form-switching? The best cat raid DPS alongside?); what your other talents are; which cycle you are using (Mauls or no? Lacerate or Swipe?); and on how good your gear is. The higher your crit is, for example, the more valuable PI is compared to MS; and if you don't have shredding attacks, I suspect RnT's cat component is weak since (I think) a mangle-spamming cycle would honestly be more DPS.

Unfortunately, I keep ending up with bear builds that have none of the three.

Did anyone else have a geargasm when they saw:
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/...0_loot_081.jpg

Staff of the Plague Beast
630 Armor
68 Str
89 Agi
135 Stam
1845 FAP

According to wowhead, the Mangle (cat - bear is the same except for damage differences) debuff reads

while the Trauma debuff reads

Which means cat druids - regardless of Trauma - will still need to be applying Mangle to get the Shred bonus.

(unless someone in beta can confirm that Trauma boosts Shred as well)