Tanking talent build

Monedula · 11/20/08, 11:04 PM

I just dinged 80 and my guild is planning naxx 25 on Sunday. Very likely I will be tanking. But since my gear is not that super yet (I had t4/bage gear before WotLK) I want to have the best tanking spec available.

This is the spec I would prefer:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Here I put 4 the last 4 "free" talents I had in rend and tear since I find maul is a really nice thing to use on groups of mobs which you are mainly swiping. and have more rage then you want.

However since my defense is not the best (and I should really look towards surviving a bossfight) I might want to remove some offensive abilities and rather invest in defensive ones.
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Because Predatory Instincts is for catform only and assuming Infected Wounds does not apply to bosses, Feral Agression (which is nearly worthless in bearform in my opinion) is the best talent since it at least has some defensive ability.

At this moment I don't think I should be looking at threat done, TPS. DPSsers should take care not to overagro me. A misdirect can help, and those hunters doing 3.5k TPS... well let them FD then.

I would appreciate any input on this.

Torosso · 11/20/08, 11:45 PM

Unless you have a warrior Thunderclapping for you then you should have infected wounds, as it does effect bosses (or should).

My current planned MT build is something like this

WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Druid -> Talent Calculator

Jone · 11/21/08, 12:31 AM

Does anyone know yet how much AP a boss has? In previous expansions, fully removing boss AP cut incoming damage 30% -- this used to require two points in imp demo shout.

We don't have to worry about added AP from Recklessness because FF is better, but it's unrealistic to expect a warlock to use CoW instead of a damaging curse, and given the shout strength is the same for warriors and druids this expansion, it's quite likely you'll need to keep this up in raids with no warriors of appropriate spec. Infected wounds's attack speed debuff, on the other hand, can be replaced by warriors, paladins, or death knights when specced appropriately, so it's more likely you'll be able to talk your co-tanks into speccing it if you can't find the points yourself.

Grubsnik · 11/21/08, 5:23 AM

As people have pointed out, you've skipped both Feral Agression and Infected Wounds. Both offer redundant debuffs that drastically lower incoming damage. If you have those covered from other people in the raid, no problem, otherwise i'd suggest dropping the resto-tree points to get those.

You haven't told if you are going MT or OT/DPS.

Primal tenacity might also be a good idea to pick up, while 30% less damage while stunned might seem situational, it will always apply in situations where you are stunned, meaning a 95% chance of getting hit on every boss-swing.

• Abradix · 11/21/08, 6:04 AM

There isn't really one set 25man MT raid spec, because it depends on the rest of your raid. This is my base spec, which has just one point free for primal tenacity or feral aggression or basically whatever you want. You could take out Imp LotP and go for Infected Wounds, but in my case there will be TC up on every boss anyway, making Infected Wounds a waste.

Having said that, Rend and Tear and Maul are not "Nice", they're borderline overpowered and Maul will be the source of 50-60% of your threat and damage on any fight you main tank, making RnT much more powerful then Master Shapeshifter (5 points for a 2% damage buff per point, vs 5 points for 0.8% damage buff per point if you include the 3 points in Natural Shapeshifter).

Monedula · 11/21/08, 8:56 AM

I did not say MT or OT because I simply don;t know.
Though new at raid tanking in this expansion I will most likely be OT.

Thanks for pointing out which talents are pretty useless if you are in a raid (other debuffs will be stronger).
All that remains is to know whether I'll be stunned a lot in Naxx 25 to get those last points into primal tenacity or not.

Deathwing · 11/21/08, 9:25 AM

I believe it only takes one rank in improved demo shout/feral aggression to reach the AP cap on mobs.

• Caniki · 11/21/08, 9:45 AM

This is what I'm running right now, and I'm pretty happy with it. I usually OT with a Warrior MT, but like having Infected Wounds and Improved LOTP for questing and 5-mans. Five points in Furor is wasting one point, and I like having Improved Mark of the Wild, so I keep just three points there. It's never been an issue for me.

Stigmata · 11/21/08, 9:50 AM

Originally Posted by Deathwing

I believe it only takes one rank in improved demo shout/feral aggression to reach the AP cap on mobs.

Any details on this, I currently have 5 points in it for the increased debuff, I would hate to think im wasting 4 talent points.

Cluey · 11/21/08, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by Monedula

Here I put 4 the last 4 "free" talents I had in rend and tear since I find maul is a really nice thing to use on groups of mobs which you are mainly swiping. and have more rage then you want.

Others have commented on specs and different talent points but I thought I would add a bit to this.
Rend and Tear increases damage on bleeding targets.
In a raid AoE situation there is a chance of a bleed being up via one of the warriors with Deep Wounds Whirl Winding but keep this in mind when choosing the talent.
In smaller group settings the chances are fairly high that the mobs Maul is hitting won't be bleeding, the talent is still worth taking if you ever expect to do DPS in cat form on a tanked mob though.

This aspect of our 45-50 point talent does irk me a bit and I thought I would bring it up.

Originally Posted by Deathwing

I believe it only takes one rank in improved demo shout/feral aggression to reach the AP cap on mobs.

Believing something doesn't make it true, I and many others would like to know what leads you to think this.

• Abradix · 11/21/08, 11:44 AM

The bleed aspect of Rend and Tear nothing but an extremely minor inconveniance. There's hunter pets with rake, rogues with garrote, warriors with deep wounds and of course there is lacerate. If you're going to be discussing tanking builds then let's not assume it's for 50k health mobs in a 5man group because you could tank that with a full moonkin spec if you would really want to.

Deathwing · 11/21/08, 3:21 PM

Originally Posted by Cluey

Believing something doesn't make it true, I and many others would like to know what leads you to think this.

I had read it here somewhere. I had hoped my comment would provoke someone to post a link because I just spent a half hour trying to find it myself.

Unless boss AP has jumped considerably, you won't need 5/5. Boss AP was ~300 at level 60 and ~340 at 70. The only reason people went 5/5 before is effectively gone.

Regigulus · 11/21/08, 3:35 PM

My build, which is more focused on tanking.. I'm open to feedback. I have ~150 experise rating (15 experise) from gear alone. So I bi-passed Primal Precision. My build didn't fit Shreding Attacks either, but seems like a minor loss.

kalbear · 11/21/08, 3:45 PM

My build, which is more focused on tanking.. I'm open to feedback. I have ~150 experise rating (15 experise) from gear alone. So I bi-passed Primal Precision. My build didn't fit Shreding Attacks either, but seems like a minor loss.

Unless you are maxed out on expertise - and by maxed out, I mean you have enough to negate parries entirely - skipping primal precision for master shapeshifter will be a net loss. Each point of primal precision gives 1.25% fewer parries and dodges. Even if it is 1.25% fewer parries, that means each point is worth 1.25% more hits. Which is basically the same as 1.25% more DPS and TPS (not exactly due to FF not being part of it, static effects, and keeping lacerate stacks up - but closer). If you are below the dodge cap (and with your current gear, you are), you're looking at 2.5% damage per point. And you are reducing the chance of parry gib by 1.25% per point as well, so it adds some mitigational effect.

Master shapeshifter increases your physical damage by 2% per point, but it costs 3 useless points to get there. Even if you didn't factor in those three points, it still is not as good as primal precision on a per-point basis.

Nightstryde · 11/21/08, 5:42 PM

Question?

Looking to be a Off tank /dps in raid settings. Is thick hide needed attribute anymore? Since the massive down grade in druid armor and the lack of high armor items for druids these days makes beleive that armor is very low on the totem poll. Agi and STa seem to be the rising fad that everyone will strive to obtain.