Feral questions? - Page 16

Cuer · 12/09/08, 2:48 PM

Originally Posted by Daboran

Has anyone seen a Dev comment, or even the question asked about some of the glaring inconsistencies in tanking itemization as it applies to Feral tanking?

This has been mentioned by Ghostcrawler, with a suggestion that we may see something that boosts the usefulness of Defense further, in the future. In a discussion of DK tanking:

One idea we have for Icebound Fortitude is to scale the mitigation based on defense skill. This lets the ability be less of a paladin bubble in PvP for dps knights, while still letting it act more like Shield Wall for tanks. It also has the side effect of making defense slightly more attractive to death knights. (Let me add before it’s asked that yes we understand Ferals have this problem too and we are working on it.)

If bears get something that adds extra avoidance or mitigation via Defense, that would help with these itemization issues.

Harmonics · 12/09/08, 11:40 PM

What have you guys gemmed your polar sets with? I'm on the fence about going full stam gems and just making it my stam set, or adding some hit and agi and keeping it more well rounded.

Krag · 12/10/08, 12:51 AM

Originally Posted by Daboran

Has anyone seen a Dev comment, or even the question asked about some of the glaring inconsistencies in tanking itemization as it applies to Feral tanking?

What I'm talking about is:

(1) Head Enchant - sure, lots of stamina is nice, but more Def is meh. As I anticipate wanting to go away from gem/enchants with Stamina around 35k unbuffed (especially as I'm a Leatherworker), I'd also like to see a new +hit enchant or similar.
(2) Best defensive tanking Idol is the TBC badge reward
(3) Similar to the head enchant, shoulders are nowhere near ideal.
(4) Tanking enchant for Weapon - nothing better than Mongoose from TBC?
(5) Lastly, and only slightly related is the dearth of +hit non-armor items compared to the number of classes competing for it. This has always been an issue.

Overall, Feral tanking seems very much a "work in progress" by Blizzard still with regards to making items/enchants/gems truly useable by all tanks and not just "Great or viable for Warrior, Pali, DK but wasted stats for Feral".

On (2) I'm quietly praying for a new idol or two when Death Knights gets some much needed new sigils. I'm not sure how [Libram of Obstruction] measures up for Paladins, but it seems like all non-warrior tanks are staring at the massive tank gun that is available, and while I know Blizzard is going in other directions with relics, it really feels like that slot is getting shafted. Blizzard has even acknowledged that Death Knights have a hard time reaching the defense cap since they are pretty much expected to tank with a DPS two-hander, and still they get no defense oriented sigil.

I haven't seen it addressed or brought up really on the tank role boards, but I'm still hoping (being in the EU I've somewhat given up posting stuff there as it for the most part drowns in avalanches of pure stupidity).

In general it seems that bear itemization is a little bit in limbo right now as we await the armor (and possible defense) changes. With the old armor model there is be a fair number of pieces that looks well enough suited (armor/sta/def/dodge) for bears, but how they pan out (relative to other choices) we'll just have to see once the numbers gets fiddled with on the PTR.

Windchilla · 12/10/08, 1:08 AM

Originally Posted by Harmonics

What have you guys gemmed your polar sets with? I'm on the fence about going full stam gems and just making it my stam set, or adding some hit and agi and keeping it more well rounded.

I slotted my polar set full stam and locked it away in my vault after a single use. There isn't anything in the game that remotely requires resists at the expense of other tanking stats. I used it once to tank Heroic Sapphiron a week after release and shelved it the next week when I tanked Heroic Sapphiron in full cat gear after having our Warrior MT die.

Harmonics · 12/10/08, 4:08 AM

Your gear is leaps and bounds better than average though, my guild is full of slow levelers and we are just starting naxx 10. So I'd be using the polar set to tank heroics and stuff, yeah the FrR is wasted 99% of the time , but the peices have pretty great stam and decent armor. I was thinking of socketing them with agi and just tanking in them normally till I get some naxx loot.

Balroth · 12/10/08, 4:21 AM

Originally Posted by Harmonics

Your gear is leaps and bounds better than average though, my guild is full of slow levelers and we are just starting naxx 10. So I'd be using the polar set to tank heroics and stuff, yeah the FrR is wasted 99% of the time , but the peices have pretty great stam and decent armor. I was thinking of socketing them with agi and just tanking in them normally till I get some naxx loot.

That seems really unnecessary. Trollwoven belt will do you better than the Polar and the quest reward chest out of UP is great too. I just can't see you lacking stam enough to justify using the polar set. It seems that many druids at this point are trying to find ways to cut back on their stam to get more of just about anything else. I would say look through the pre raid gear thread and find the easy to get stuff and get those things. You don't want to be at a point where your dmg taken is higher than your healer's HPS and if you're all stam, that's very possible.

halmmar · 12/10/08, 5:06 AM

Originally Posted by Balroth

You don't want to be at a point where your dmg taken is higher than your healer's HPS and if you're all stam, that's very possible.

They're mostly overhealing anyway.
You don't want to be caught taking a 41846 hit from malygos and die just because Commanding Shout wore off (I would've lived if I wasn't tanking in a DPS flask). We can't always rely on DPS not fucking up at one point or another.
Stamina is useful and I sure wish I had a bit more of it (but Malygos can be hard dealing enough threat on, so Polar set is out of the question)...

Mihir · 12/10/08, 5:40 AM

Originally Posted by Windchilla

I slotted my polar set full stam and locked it away in my vault after a single use. There isn't anything in the game that remotely requires resists at the expense of other tanking stats. I used it once to tank Heroic Sapphiron a week after release and shelved it the next week when I tanked Heroic Sapphiron in full cat gear after having our Warrior MT die.

There's 1 thing, namely Heroic Sartharion with 3 drakes up. 25% hp reduction aura combined with a number of fire damage multipliers favors pure stamina gear heavily.

Changer_executus · 12/10/08, 6:00 AM

Originally Posted by Mihir

There's 1 thing, namely Heroic Sartharion with 3 drakes up. 25% hp reduction aura combined with a number of fire damage multipliers favors pure stamina gear heavily.

Keep hold of your polar set for this - it really is over powered for 3 drake Sartharion tanking.

I socketed mine mainly Stamina - except for chest (it think). With decent food, stam enchants and a [Flask of Chromatic Wonder] i was just shy of 47k HP before the pull and didn't really have a problem tanking his breaths even with Tenebron dead and Vespron adds up.

It was a bit weird tanking a fire dragon with 400 frost resistance tho!

Yaelle · 12/11/08, 5:39 AM

Originally Posted by Daboran

(2) Best defensive tanking Idol is the TBC badge reward

Just found a blue answer to this on the German Druid Board

Den Entwicklern ist bewusst, dass Bären-Druiden eine Tank-Götze für Stufe 80 brauchen und sie wollen eine einführen.
Genaue Werte oder ein Datum gibt es derzeit aber nicht.

Translation:

The developers are well aware that feral druids need a level 80 tanking-idol and want to introduce one.
However values or a release date are not known.

Pike · 12/11/08, 9:44 AM

Maybe this is a silly question, but I'm wondering about the T7 and 7.5 set bonuses. I know that normally, you can have more than 1 set bonus at a time, but the bonuses listed are the same for both T7 sets. If you had 2 pieces of T7 and 2 pieces of 7.5, do you get 6 additional seconds to rip?

• Abradix · 12/11/08, 10:03 AM

No, if you have 2 pieces of T7.10 and 2 pieces of T7.25 you get the 4piece set bonus, it counts as the same set.

Stigmata · 12/11/08, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Harmonics

Your gear is leaps and bounds better than average though, my guild is full of slow levelers and we are just starting naxx 10. So I'd be using the polar set to tank heroics and stuff, yeah the FrR is wasted 99% of the time , but the peices have pretty great stam and decent armor. I was thinking of socketing them with agi and just tanking in them normally till I get some naxx loot.

I dont agree on the gear comments, we have never used any frost res gear for Sapphiron, it just simply isnt needed, the first week we used none and a totem, the second week we used none and no totem for the achievement.

kalbear · 12/12/08, 4:00 AM

The reason to get the polar set isn't the Frost resistance; it's that it has the most stamina of any leather piece in that slot by huge margins and is a high-ilvl set. It could have spellpower instead of FrR and be just as good.

You don't need that much stamina after just a few drops, but it's a good starting set and has a couple of specialized uses down the road. Also, thanks to the total lack of good boots the Polar Boots end up being pretty good anyway.

Skoshie · 12/14/08, 7:05 AM

I'm in full 25 man Tank gear, minus blue boots, after going over the boots I'm wearing and then comparing my findings with what Rawr tells me based on my current gear. I fully plan on using Polar boots for tanking at all times, untill something better arises. Namely PvP boots.

They have a ridiculous amount of stamina with 2 gem slots which im putting stam gems in and a stam enchant. Obviously they lack any tanking stats besides the stam, but threat is not a problem and my current avoidance is good enough to leave be.

The stam is also very important as fights like Sartharion + 3 drakes are frequently a problem for me if i have to tank Sartharion and am liable of getting 1 shot by a flame breath, short of poping a cooldown or relying on somenoe elses. For this specifig situation, the only stat that matters is stam.

I've ran the numbers and have frequently revisited the possible use of the boots and keep coming to the same conclusion, that they are worth using.