Feral tank pre-raid gear - Page 4

kalbear · 08/22/09, 10:19 AM

How do you figure 153 Agi from mangles (+18% from talents / kings, so 180 agi) is better than 200 dodge rating from lacerates / swipes? Both will be up almost all the time, 200 dodge rating is 4.4% dodge before DR, 180 agi is only 3.8%.

Because that 153 agility also provides 306 armor and a couple % of crit. The mutilation idol certainly does provide more avoidance (even with Kings/SotF), but the other parts that make agility so good are still around.

Cluey · 08/24/09, 9:50 AM

Originally Posted by kalbear

Because that 153 agility also provides 306 armor and a couple % of crit. The mutilation idol certainly does provide more avoidance (even with Kings/SotF), but the other parts that make agility so good are still around.

Something I haven't seen mentioned by anyone is the up times of each.
[Idol of Mutilation] has the advantage of not proccing on an attack with a cooldown, having just tanked General Vezax with NeedToKnow watching the buff from [Idol of the Corruptor] it wasn't up for a fair amount of the fight. I don't have Improved Mangle in my Tanking spec which would help a little.

I did some testing of [Idol of Mutilation] while trying to get a mount from Anzu, I pulled a couple of times using Shadowmeld to reset it. While the Evasion buff doesn't refresh its duration it didn't fail to refresh on the next Lacerate or Swipe. Further testing during the raid showed it not always refreshing as it dropped off but unless it overlaps with refreshing Demo Roar or Mangle cooldown it comes up again very quickly.

Having said all that it will vary depending on your gear setup, in my threat suit the [Idol of the Corruptor] has better up time because of the more aggressive stats.

Qurai · 09/01/09, 1:04 PM

Kemi, when you update this post to reflect the many changes since you first wrote it, please add something along the lines of this for levelling players:

The Road to 80
Level your character up to Outland whatever way you want. From Outland onwards, a little planning may save time later on.

Once in Outland, consider if you want to do BC heroics or raids in your low seventies. Even though you can skip the [Idol of Terror] now and head straight for [Idol of the Corruptor], it is still a good idol until you get your emblems, and it's a nice exercise for the bigger work at level 80.

If you want to do heroics, consider the reputation requirements for BC, and make sure you hit Honored with the factions where it's most easy to find a group for. In practice only the Hellfire instances are generally useful in this regard, so do enough quests there to get your reputation. As far as raiding goes, only Kara is still run often enough to be sensible, so try to quest for the key.

Once you hit Northrend, quest for [Idol of the Plainstalker] if you haven't got Terror yet. Otherwise, focus on your tradeskills or some achievement you want, since there's not much to do yet for a few levels.

At level 73 you can go to Grizzly Hills. Make sure you get enough Venture Coins to get [Idol of Perspicacious Attacks] and head to Zul'Drak when you hit 74.

In Zul'Drak, do all Argent Crusade quests for a good head start on their reputation. Once you're done you probably can't quest in Storm Peaks right away, but continue there as soon as you can.

Once in Storm Peaks, start the Sons of Hodir quest line, do their dailies, and start the Argent Tournament dailies in Icecrown as well. If you play your toon long enough per day to have time left, do the Argent Crusade quests in Icecrown, or start doing level 80 non-heroic dungeons. See Kemi's original post for pointers on that.

Hope this helps for new druids to save some time.

• Polynices · 09/03/09, 12:18 AM

Originally Posted by Qurai

Hope this helps for new druids to save some time.

If you're trying to save them time I can't imagine anything worse than sending them into TBC heroics. Leveling is SO fast these days, even through Outland, that they'll be 68 and ready for Northrend by the time they finish Nagrand if not Terokkar. Wasting time worrying about TBC factions or heroics is a really, really, really bad idea.

Likewise, with the great gear dropping in Trial of the Champion and Conquest badges dropping in all heroics, there's almost no point in bothering with Northrend factions other than Hodir for the shoulder enchants any longer. By the time a new character is exalted with a Northrend faction and able to buy the epics they'll almost certainly have far better from Emblems or ToC runs.

Working on Hodir in Storm Peaks early is about the only useful advice in there.

EDIT: barrettj is totally right. Argent Crusade is needed too. They did make it much easier to get that one though since just doing the Tournament dailies gives you tons of it so you can probably focus on those and not mess with Argent Crusade dailies elsewhere.

barrettj · 09/03/09, 8:54 AM

Originally Posted by Polynices

there's almost no point in bothering with Northrend factions other than Hodir for the shoulder enchants any longer. By the time a new character is exalted with a Northrend faction and able to buy the epics they'll almost certainly have far better from Emblems or ToC runs.

Don't forget Argent Crusade Revered for [Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector]

Qurai · 09/04/09, 9:51 AM

Originally Posted by Polynices

If you're trying to save them time I can't imagine anything worse than sending them into TBC heroics. Leveling is SO fast these days, even through Outland, that they'll be 68 and ready for Northrend by the time they finish Nagrand if not Terokkar. Wasting time worrying about TBC factions or heroics is a really, really, really bad idea.

Likewise, with the great gear dropping in Trial of the Champion and Conquest badges dropping in all heroics, there's almost no point in bothering with Northrend factions other than Hodir for the shoulder enchants any longer. By the time a new character is exalted with a Northrend faction and able to buy the epics they'll almost certainly have far better from Emblems or ToC runs.

Working on Hodir in Storm Peaks early is about the only useful advice in there.

EDIT: barrettj is totally right. Argent Crusade is needed too. They did make it much easier to get that one though since just doing the Tournament dailies gives you tons of it so you can probably focus on those and not mess with Argent Crusade dailies elsewhere.

I know grinding for TBC rep is useless, that's why I *only* mentioned the three Hellfire instances as being feasible, since pretty much everyone will be honored with those from questing alone when they hit 68 and head to Northrend. Assuming you want [Idol of Terror] at 80 to start heroics, you need 20 badges, which is like 3 consecutive days of heroic Ramps + BF; That's 3x2 fast runs well spent.

Likewise, the other parts I mentioned all cover Argent Crusade rep. While you can *easily* get their rep with the Tournament and championing from level 77 onwards, you still have to quest to get there in the first place. For that, my point was that your time is way better spent in Zul'Drak so you get rep that actually makes sense, rather than stick in Grizzly Hills or head to Sholazar. Mind that I didn't refer to DAILIES in those areas, but the normal quests that you can do only once -- they give quite a bit of rep.

(And yes, I am aware that you can get to 80 without questing by doing BGs or instances all the way, but not everyone will want to do that.)