/edit/ april something 08 - i quit wow. feel free to copy/paste/modify/whatever this information as you wish, just link back to this thread or something i guess. i dont care anymore.

/edit/ 12/3/07 - I do not wish to update this any longer. It was written from the perspective of an entry level tank going into heroics and karazhan. So please understand that was my level of knowledge while writing this. I do not think people will need a guide about tanking hyjal and black temple because if they made it that far, they know what they are doing. So I apologize about not fixing things that are clearly wrong or answering any new questions in the thread. I am glad so many found this useful and I appreciate the gratitude.

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So you want to be a bear tank? Wanna know how much defense you need? How much armor you need? If your current set is good enough for tanking Heroics or Karazhan? Need to know what you should be doing to put out a large amount of threat or how to tank multiple mobs at once? If so, this guide is for you!

Table of Contents
Section 1 - Basic gear to get you started
Section 2 - Gems & Enchants
Section 3 - Obtaining Crit Immunity
Section 4 - Crushing Blows
Section 5 - Talents
Section 6 - Macros
Section 7 - Tanking strategies
Section 8 - Misc Q&A / Closing

Section 1 - Basic gear to get you started

If you just hit 70 or just changed your talents to be a bear tank, then you are going to need some basic gear. The 3 main stats for a druid tank are Armor, Stamina, and Agility (Dodge). Many will argue which is the most important but the general consensus is to get your armor to the cap (around 35k ) and then worry about stamina and then dodge.

These figures are not 100%. Skill will always overpower gear and even an undergeared tank can do fine in a heroic with a solid healer behind him.

The basic gear you want to aquire should give you a minimum of the following stats in bear form:

12k Health
20k Armor
25% Dodge

These figures are unbuffed and should be easily obtained. You also want to be crit immune which is explained in the next section.

The best place to find feral gear is with the following link:
http://www.emmerald.net

***NOTE*** 1/16/08 - Emmerald updated his lists and they are now located on the above website. ***/NOTE***

This website takes all the TBC leather items and rates them based off of their stats for tanking. Please only use this link as a guide. It is not the druid bible that some people claim it to be. Everyone tanks differently and may want to focus more on dodge than armor or stamina. It is your choice as a tank to go in whatever route works for you.

Here is a basic list of easily obtainable gear to get you the above figures for starting out in Heroics and Karazhan:

Head
Stylin' Purple Hat
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25680
Crafted by a Leatherworker (350)

Neck
Strength of the Untamed
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29173
Requires Revered with CE

Mark of the Ravenguard
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29336
Quest reward from Brother Against Brother

Shoulders
Shoulderpads of Assassination
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27776
Drop from Talon King Ikiss in Sethekk Halls

Back
Thoriumweave Cloak
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28256
Drop from Mechano-Lord Capacitus in Mechanar

Chest
Heavy Clefthoof Vest
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25689
Crafted by a Leatherworker (360)

Wrists
Umberhowl's Collar
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30944
Quest reward from The Cipher of Damnation - The Third Fragment Recovered

Hands
Verdant Gloves
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30943
Quest reward from Akama's Promise

Wastewalker gloves
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27531
Drop from Warchief Kargath Bladefist in Shattered Halls

Waist
Manimal's Cinch
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30942
Quest reward from Enraged Spirits of Air

Legs
Heavy Clefthoof Leggings
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25690
Crafted by a Leatherworker (355)

Feet
Heavy Clefthoof Boots
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25691
Crafted by a Leatherworker (355)

Rings
Iron Band of the Unbreakable x2
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27436
Drop from Lieutenant Drake in Old Hillsbrad Foothills

Weapon
Earthwarden
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29171
Requires Exalted with CE

Braxxis' Staff of Slumber
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31186
Auction House (Normally < 100g)

Trinkets
Badge of Tenacity
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32658
Auction House (1000g-5000g)

Mark of Tyranny
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=13966
Quest reward from Ony Attunement Series

Adamantine Figurine
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27891
Drop from Blackheart the Inciter in Shadow Labrynth

Commander's Badge
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32864
Requires Revered with Netherwing

As you can see, most of this gear is easily obtained through the auction house, faction, leatherworker friends, or quests. There are only about 3-4 items you need from normal 5 man dungeons to get you started. This is why so many people want to bear tank because it is so much easier to gear up vs a warrior. If you already completed the above quests and chose different rewards, look at Emmerald's guide and see if there is an item rated close to what I listed that you can obtain easily.

Trinket slots are really up to you if you need more defense or more stamina. Some fights are easier with the pvp trinket to get you out of a fear. It is truly up to you. If you are a jewelcrafter, enchanter, alchemist, engineer, etc... You will have many more trinket options.

Note: Easy upgrades/replacements for different slots can be found from the PvP vendors. The PvP bracers and belt are easily aquired with some time in the battlegrounds and are both hard to replace. Other pieces such as the pvp shoulders may be desirable if you have trouble getting the items above to drop from the dungeon boss. Of course the new Arena gear is on par with Tier5 so if you can get in a good arena team you can pursue that. The non-arena gear is much easier to obtain though since you do not need a premade group to participate and there is no penalty for losing.

Section 2: Gems & Enchants

Gems

Solid Star of Elune - Blue Gem +12 Stamina
Shifting Nightseye - Red/Blue Gem +4 Agility and +6 Stamina
Enduring Talasite - Yellow/Blue Gem +4 Defense Rating and +6 Stamina

Other Choices
Delicate Living Ruby - Red Gem +8 Agility
Rigid Dawnstone - Yellow Gem +8 Hit Rating
Glinting Noble Topaz - Red/Yellow Gem +4 Agility +4 Hit Rating

Powerful Earthstorm Diamond - Meta Gem +18 Stamina & 5% Stun Resist
Relentless Earthstorm Diamond - Meta Gem +12 Agility & 3% Increased Critical Damage
Tenacious Earthstorm Diamond - Meta Gem +12 Defense Rating & Chance to Restore Health on hit

The above gems are the only gems you should be looking at as a bear tank. Most socket bonuses are not worth worrying about. It is pointless to gimp your gear in order to get an extra 4 stam. You can put any color gem in any slot (except for meta gems) so ignore the bonuses and gem your gear to fit your playstyle. Some like all Solid Star of Elunes to give them high health. Others like Shifting Nightseye to help out with armor/dodge more. You should only use Enduring Talasite or Tenacious Earthstorm Diamond if you need more defense to reach crit immunity.

Note: It was suggested to add the other gems listed above. Some may want more straight agility or may want to get their hit rating up. Hit rating is nice but I do not suggest worrying too much about it until you gear up more.



Enchants

A full list of enchants can be found here - http://www.wowwiki.com/Enchantments_by_slot

Helm
Glyph of the Defender (Requires Revered with Keepers of Time)
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29186
+16 Defense / +17 Dodge

Shoulders
Greater Inscription of Warding (Requires Exalted with Aldor)
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28889
+10 Defense / +15 Dodge

Greater Inscription of the Knight (Requires Exalted with Scryers)
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28911
+15 Defense / +10 Dodge

Cloak
Enchant Cloak - Greater Agility
http://www.wowwiki.com/Enchant_Cloak_-_Greater_Agility
+12 Agility

Chest
Enchant Chest - Exceptional Stats
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24003
+6 All Stats

Wrists
Enchant Bracer - Fortitude
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=22533
+12 Stamina

Hands
Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=20731
+15 Agility

Legs
Clefthide Leg Armor
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29534
+30 Stamina / +10 Agility

Feet
Enchant Boots - Fortitude
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=22543
+12 Stamina

Weapon
Enchant 2H Weapon - Major Agility
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=22556
+35 Agility

Some will say to get +150 health on your chest is better than +6 to all stats. Some will say go with agility on boots instead of stamina or even with one of the ones that give you less stam/agi for the run speed bonus. These are just the basics though so use the enchants that compliment your gear. If you need to, put the +12 defense to bracers instead of +12 stam to help obtain crit immunity.

Next patch will reintroduce AQ40 enchants that have mats scaled to level 70 which will make the +agi to gloves enchant much easier to get. These enchants will require exalted with the outland factions.

Note: The armor bonus you get from +120 armor to cloak or any armor kits on your gear is not multiplied by the 400% modifier in dire bear form. These enchants will provide the same armor in bear form as they do in caster form.

Section 3 - Obtaining Crit Immunity

This page describes defense and what it does quite well - http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Defense

Level 73 mobs have a 5.6% chance to crit a level 70 player with 350 defense.

To obtain crit immunity you will need a total of 490 defense. This is equivalent to 331 defense rating. (1 Defense Rating = 0.423 Defense) This is almost impossible to get on leather gear unless you completely destroy your other stats.

The talent Survival of the Fittest (SotF) reduces the chance to be crit by 1% per point (3% total)

If you max out this talent, Level 73 mobs will have a 2.6% chance to crit a level 70 druid with 350 base defense.

To obtain crit immunity you will need a total of 415 defense. This is equivallent to 155 defense rating (1 Defense Rating = 0.423 Defense) This is easily obtained with Heavy Clefthoof and other items listed in section 1.

Not only does defense give you crit reduction, it also improves your chance to be missed and improves your chance to dodge. Stacking anything over 415 (with 3/3 SotF) is not recommended because the bonus to miss/dodge is not enough to sacrifice other stats.

Resilience is cheaper on the item budget than defense but gives no bonus to dodge or your chance to be missed. Resilience is only needed once you replace heavy clefthoof and Earthwarden. Some good fill-ins that have resilience are the PVP bracers/belt/boots.

39.4 Resilience = -1% chance to be crit

You would need 102.44 resilience to be crit immune with 3/3 SotF

Resilience and Defense Stack - as long as your combined defense + resilience equal 2.6% (with 3/3 SotF) you will be crit immune.

Note: Some raid bosses have a higher chance to crit than 5.6%. There is also said to be a 0.01% to be crit even with crit immunity. It is also said that you can be crit if your back is to a mob or if you sit down. Please do not post screenshots showing how you were crit with 415 defense and 3/3 SotF. It is very rare but it does happen.

Section 4 - Crushing Blows

Crushing Blows are always brought up when druids ask to tank raid bosses. So what exactly are Crushing Blows?

http://www.wowwiki.com/Crushing_Blow has a good explanation of what Crushing Blows are.

To a druid, a crushing blow is an attack that does 150% damage. A druid cannot prevent crushing blows. Warriors and Paladins can get their avoidance high enough to avoid them, however we cannot. The way we survive crushing blows is by having an incredibly high armor rating and high health and just absorbing them.

Only level 73 mobs can perform a crushing blow (Raid Bosses). There is a 15% chance to be crushed and the attack cannot miss or be dodged (unless your dodge rating is over 85%) Sometimes a bear tank will have bad luck and be crushed 5 times in a row. It happens. It is hard for even a warrior to live through an unlucky string of crushing blows.

This does not leave us as a gimped tank. We are just different. Just to show how crushing blows affect us here is an example:

Level 73 Boss
Hits for 10,000
Crushes for 15,000

Druid with 70% DR (easily attainable with the items listed above)
Gets hit for 3,000
Gets crushed for 4,500

Warrior with 60% DR
Gets hit for 4,000 * 0.9 (def stance) = 3600
Gets crushed for 6,000 * 0.9 (def stance) = 5400

I am not an expert on warriors. I know that they can shield block and get rid of some damage and that they can prevent crushing blows with the use of shield block. Neither is showin the above example. I did read that for them to obtain 60% DR it takes pretty good gear (T4 or better) while the druid model I am using is in blue's so keep that in mind.

This is not a warrior vs druid debate just showing how much less damage a druid takes. Druids also have more health when starting out because the gear is easier to obtain. It is very common to see a new raiding druid fully buffed with 20k hp and a new raiding warrior fully buffed at 15k hp. This does change as both classes gear up and warriors can obtain higher stamina while keeping other stats healthy but if you are just beginning, druids have the advantage.

Warriors do have more "OH NO" buttons to help survive through such unlucky times. Druids lack this unless you count Frenzied Regeneration which is pretty useless. Druids can simulate an "OH NO" button by getting the Pocketwatch from Moroes and the Badge of Tenacity and activating them at the same time to form an evasion effect. This might not help against crushing blows but it will help dodge normal attacks in between the crushing blows so that healers can top them off.

Section 5 - Talents

There is basically one cookie cutter spec for druid tanks with variations depending on your playstyle.

This is the basic spec 0/42/11
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MZxhGsfboezioVx0z

This leaves you with 8 points to do with as you wish.

Some people do not take Shredding Attacks as they think the rage reduction to lacerate is not high enough to justify 2 points. Instead they put the 2 points into Brutal Impact or Savage Fury. Some put points into Natural Shapeshifter or Intensity. Some put points into Nature's Grasp for PVP. People will argue if Primal Tenacity is worth 3 points or not.

This is the spec I tank with: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MZxGGsfboeuioVxcz

Intensity really works well with Furor and gives me a good amount of threat to grab aggro right away as soon as the battle starts. Personally I have found Primal Tenacity to be worth it as we have no other way to avoid fear other than the PVP trinket (or a pocket shaman) Yes I know alliance druids get ezmode with Fear Ward but we are not going to go there ;) Savage Fury definitely helps with solo'ing but I find it worthless in any group situation as I am using Shred primarily.

Any variation of the above basic build is fine as long as you enjoy the way it plays. Just please do not take up nurturing instincts unless you are prepared to explain why you picked up a useless talent.

Section 6 - Macros

A nice list of druid macros can be found here
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=74337875
http://borkweb.com/story/wow-druid-macros


Here are a few good macros you can setup to make tanking easier:

* Mangle/Lacerate Spam Macro - This macro will use mangle when it is ready and then lacerate when it is on cooldown.

#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=1 Mangle (Bear)(Rank 3), Lacerate, Lacerate, Lacerate

* Mangle/Lacerate/Maul Spam Macro - This macro will do the same as above but also queue up Maul. Only use this in an endless rage fight as maul will drain your rage fast

#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=1 Mangle (Bear)(Rank 3), Lacerate, Lacerate, Lacerate
/cast Maul

* Lacerate on Mouseover - This macro will cast a lacerate on whatever mob you have the mouse cursor over. This is useful when you dont want to change your primary target but want to throw some threat on another target. (You can replace this with Mangle, fff, or any other instant ability. It works well with innervate and battle rez as well if you mouseover a party frame, shift out, hit the macro, then shift back in bear form. This is useful on fights like moroes where he vanishes and you have time to use some of your druid utility.

#showtooltip
/cast [target=mouseover] Lacerate

* Use Healthstone / Potions in Bear Form - This macro shifts you into caster form, consumes a healthstone and health potion, then shifts you back into bear form. This is a button spammer and you have to keep mashing it for it to work. As long as you are not lagged you should only be in caster form for half a second or less. Most of the time you cannot even see when you shift.

#show Super Healing Potion
/castSequence [stance:1] reset=3 Dire Bear Form, Lifebloom
/stopcasting
/use Super Healing Potion
/stopcasting
/use Master Healthstone
/stopcasting
/cast [nostance] Dire Bear Form

Section 7 - Tanking strategies

There are many different strategies for tanking single and multiple mobs. Every druid is different which makes your choice in strategy different.

Single Mob Tanking - Mangle whenever it is up, Lacerate when Mangle is not up. If you have over XX rage, maul.

This is the basic strategy for single mob tanking. Mangle generates a large amount of threat and amplifies your lacerate damage so you want to use it whenever you can. Lacerate generates a large amount of upfront threat and gives bonus threat while it ticks. Both of these skills use the global cooldown.

Maul steals your rage. As long as you are just spamming Mangle and Lacerate, you will continue building rage with your white hits and with the hits you take from the mob. If you maul, your next hit will become yellow damage and will not generate any rage. The XX amount above is at your own discretion. I like to have at least 40 rage in reserve in case something adds or if CC breaks early. That gives me enough to charge + mangle + maul to get the attention of that mob right away.

Feral Faerie Fire and Demoralizing Roar are not threat generating abilities and should only be used when the debuff expires. If a warrior is in your party/raid, you may want to ask if they are talented for Booming Voice and Improved Demoralizing Shout. They may be able to reduce the AP of the surrounding mobs for more and for a longer duration.

See below for comparison:

Demoralizing Roar
Untaleneted AP Reduction 240
Talented AP Reduction 336
Lasts 30 seconds

Demoralizing Shout
Untalented AP Reduction 300
Talented AP Reduction 420
Lasts 30 seconds (45 seconds with talent)


Multi Mob Tanking - There is a lot of debate over multi mob tanking. Some pull off tank targets with starfire and moonfire to help add a small amount of upfront threat. Others just pull like normal and tab through with lacerate. Others spam swipe.

I have had the most success with pulling normally with fff and mangling the primary target and then tabbing and lacerating on off targets. As long as your dps gives you a few seconds to get everything under control, there is no problem with this strategy. You only need to get enough threat on the off tank targets so that they do not go for the healer. Usually 2 lacerates is enough to cover most up front healing aggro.

Swipe is useful and can give you a good bit of rage if all 3 targets are crit but I find it to not be as effective as just throwing lacerates while tabbing. Many will argue though and even say swipe on single mob pulls. Do what works best for you.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Druids_as_Tanks is a very useful guide that explains the threat bear tanks can produce with different abilities.

User Strategies

*** From Kugrette of the guild Elysium on the server Gnomeregan: ***

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Q u o t e:

Lacerate can crit, which helps generate rage (from the talent), but its up-front threat does not crit.

Swipe can crit, which generates rage, and will produce far more total threat per global cooldown than lacerate as long as you have 2-3 targets.

Hence, to hold several hard-hitting mobs when I don't want the healer to get healing aggro:

swipe, swipe, mangle, swipe, lacerate, lacerate, mangle, swipe or something like that. Tabbing through targets to lacerate them is far from being efficient threatwise.

The thing about the starfire + moonfire on the 3rd and 2nd to be dps'ed mobs is it 'forces' the dps to wait. It also means the healer wont get threat when your first swipe misses a target but he had to heal you because of the huge incoming damage (in a heroic). Thus, it works great not only for well-trained groups (where even tabbing-lacerating works), but for pugs as well. Starfiring the mob to be sheeped means when sheep breaks the mob targets you rather than one-shotting the mage who forgot to re-sheep.

---

*** From Tappin of the guild Blood Rain Cavalry on the server Hyjal: ***

---

Q u o t e:

---

Q u o t e:
Maul steals your rage. As long as you are just spamming Mangle and Lacerate, you will continue building rage with your white hits and with the hits you take from the mob. If you maul, your next hit will become yellow damage and will not generate any rage.

---

I believed this and expoused this until this morning. This morning I decided to do the math. Unless I made some mistakes, it appears that for single target threat and threat per energy mangle > lacerate just enough to keep up a 5 stack > maul > lacerate spam > swipe.

My plan when rage starved will now be mangle + maul (snap aggro), get to 5 stacks, then maul and only lacerate to refresh a fading 5 stack or if I have spare rage.

The numbers I came up with are here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=442933641&postId=6555191910&sid=1#21

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*** From Melange of the guild Learn To Play on the server Stormrage: ***

---

Q u o t e:
Two points. First maul > lacerate (without the bleed) meaning that the correct way to maximize threat is to spam lacerate, then spam maul, only lacerating to keep up the fivestack. We have done the math to see this on this forums many times. Second, FFF causes some threat. as does Demo. Demo is very bad Threat per rage, but FFF is FREE, and is therefor the best Threat per rage ability we have. It should be used whenever it is CD and you have a free GCD.

---

Section 8 - Misc Q&A / Closing

Q. Does attack power matter?
A. Short answer - not really. Long answer - Most threat generating abilities are *based on direct damage output and as such* scale with attack power. Druids are known for their large amounts of threat per second, *and this can mainly be attributed to larger threat coefficients on druid abilities*. I had the occasional trouble tanking heroics/karazhan with the Braxxis Staff but once I upgraded to Earthwarden the bonus AP was enough to get rid of any trouble. *If you happen to lack in the AP department, you still shouldn't see much of a problem holding aggro.* As long as you have smart DPS that slows down when they get 3 crits in a row, you should never lose aggro. Long story short, once you get a staff with a nice amount of feral ap on it such as Earthwarden, you should no longer have problems with holding aggro especially with intelligent DPS.

(Edits in Stars performed by Drewsdruid)


Q. Should I get the 2% threat to gloves enchant?
A. See above. Druids dont need any increased threat.


Q. Rate my gear/talents!
A. NO! As long as you have the basic armor/dodge/health and the basic talent spec, you will be fine. Have more confidence in yourself.


Q. Is badge of tenacity worth it?
A. Debatable. I think it is worth buying for 1000g. I do not think it is worth it to farm for months and going crazy when you killed Shartuul a dozen times without seeing it drop once.


Q. Should I use Lacerate on bleed immune mobs? (Such as in Karazhan)
A. Yes. The majority of threat that comes from Lacerate is from the damage applied when you use the ability. It is still more effective than swipe in terms of threat when tanking a single mob.


Q. Should I enchant my rings?
A. Sure, why not? The +2 weapon damage really wont help with threat but sometimes you have to go cat form when off tanking and you will still be in tank gear so it helps then. +4 all stats is optimal but if you are just beginning to tank, you will not see that enchant for a while. Note: Only enchanters can enchant their own rings. Also note you will lose the enchant on your violet eye ring when you turn it in for a faction upgrade.


Q. Do I want +Dodge?
A. Yes and No. Some items like Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch increases dodge and is very popular amongst the druid community so it is common to use it. However agility will always be better than dodge for druids.

1% dodge = 18.9 dodge rating = 14.7 agility.

Agility also gives you crit (25 agi = 1% crit) and a smal amount of armor (2 armor per 1 agility not modified by dire bear form). So not only do you get more dodge per point of agility but also you get nice bonuses on top of it. Bottom line? If you can get agility, go with it, but do not avoid an item completely if it only has dodge. Just replace it with an agility item later if one becomes available.


Q. How do I calculate my total armor?
A. Druid Wiki shows the following formula:

Without Thick Hide: Armor = ((GA) * 5) + MA + Agi * 2
With Thick Hide: Armor = ((GA) * 5.1) + MA + Agi * 2

Agi = Amount of agility on your druid
GA = Gear Armor (amount of armor from your gear. Note that this does not include armor from enchants or armor kits)
MA = Magic Armor/Enchant Armor. Armor from potions, other buffs and enchants/armor kits


Q. What is this armor cap I hear about?
A. The maximum Damage Reduction you can have against a mob is 75%. Once you hit this cap, any more armor you get will be wasted. Look at the following info for the actual figures to obtain 75% mitigation.

Against Level 70 Mobs 31679
Against Level 73 Mobs 35886



Closing
I thank you for reading this guide. Hopefully it will help answer some of the new players' questions that pop up repeatedly. Feel free to correct any misinformation or spelling/grammatical mistakes. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Also if you have anything to add let me know and I will do so. I will do my best to keep this guide as up to date as possible. See ya in game <3 /bearhug






Special thanks to:
Linathe, Emain, Endcat, Mikala, Grynx, Kugrette, Cloverhorn, Bobbeque, Kindness, Tappin, Skywind

Druid Facts

Taken from Druid Wiki
It might not fit in the tank guide but it is useful information for new druids

http://druid.wikispaces.com/Druid_Facts

* The stun and fear resistance from Primal Tenacity does NOT stack with Predatory Instincts against AoE stuns or fears.

* Lacerate applies the innate threat and debuff even when the attack is blocked. A blocked Lacerate can also proc Primal Fury.

* Omen of Clarity has a procrate of 2.5 procs Per Minute

* Omen of Clarity does not get 3 chances to proc on Swipe

* Feral Faerie Fire, Growl and Demoralizing Shout, (as well as the AOE Taunt) are considered spells, and thus are affected by spellhit rating, and can't be cast while silenced.

* Most elementals and Undead (exceptions exist) are immune to bleeds, remember that.

* Cyclone has diminishing returns in PvE as well as PvP

* Cyclone diminishing returns 50%, 25% (6 seconds, 3 seconds, 1.5 seconds), NOT 6 seconds, 4 seconds and 2 seconds as some people believe

* Roots don't break on their own damage. Forget what you heard in this regard of people telling you otherwise. Roots break early because the target receive external damage or because it (like other CCs including Polymorph and Sap) have heartbeat checks where they have a chance to break early.

* When your target gains more nature resistance, he also increases the chance of roots breaking early.

* The more spellhit you have, the smaller the chance of roots breaking early is. Spell penetration has no effect in this regard.

* Paladins and mages can't bubble or Ice Block out of a Cyclone.

* Un-shifting is actually not a spell casting operation not even an action. You can do it while doing something else like running, gathering herbs, speaking to NPC's, or even under the effect of sleep or other crowd controls like stun and fear (especially useful to cast Barkskin during a stunlock).

* Any shifting can be cast while being polymorphed. While you expect to be unable to act at all, druid morphing breaks other polymorph effects (it's in the tooltip, but a lot of people don't realize it). It's extremely useful in PvP (mage's sheep) but also in PvE, for example vs Hex cast by witch doctors or Jindo in ZG, sheep cast by spellbinders in BWL, or mage elite guard in black morass.

* The rogue ability blind is considered a Poison. While Abolish Poison can't be cast while blinded, it can be cast before (if you expect to receive one).

* Barkskin can be cast while being stunned. Rogue and Paladin stuns comes to mind, yet it also works on Hunter freeze traps, and other mez effects. Barkskin is not useable while shapeshifted except for Moonkin and Tree of Life form.

* Barkskin only prevent interruption due to damage, not counter or silence abilities like Counterspell or Earth Shock.

* Faerie Fire, Cyclone and Thorns are Nature spells, they are susceptible to Nature resistance and immunity.

* A 6th (and above) Lacerate does refresh the bleed stacks, and does apply the innate threat.

* Feral Charge does not silence, it only interrupts the spell being cast.

* If Gift of The Wild (applies to group) is cast on a group made of various levels, it won't be applied to targets too low level. The automatic rank downgrade only applies to the target your mouse cursor hits, might require a lower rank reagent, and that rank will then be applied without other downgrade to other members of your group (they won't receive it if they are too low level). The level cap is 10 levels below the spell level.

* A Bear under Mind Control can't be polymorphed (strategy used on some bosses in PvE to prevent a controlled player to damage the group). Use Fear or Hibernate.

* Despite the fact that it costs mana, the act of Shifting is not considered a spell, can't be interrupted, and is not affected by silence.

* Swiftmend can only consume Rejuvenation and Regrowth. No it can't consume Life Bloom (The tooltip works exactly as it says).

* Tree form is considered an Elemental. Warlocks can Banish you.

* Moonkin form is still considered a Humanoid. While you can't be polymorphed, because you are shapeshifted, you can still be Sapped or Mind Controlled.

* Travel, Flight, Aquatic, Cat and Bear forms are considered Beasts. Hunters can fear you, Druids can sleep you. You are immune to Priest Mind Control and Polymorph, but you still can be Mind Controlled by mobs because most of their abilities are not limited to Humanoids.

great guide! *request sticky*

Very well put together.

1 note however.

Lacerate can crit. And in fact it does crit a lot since we spam it a lot.

Good shiz!

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Very well put together.

1 note however.

Lacerate can crit. And in fact it does crit a lot since we spam it a lot.

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never noticed :o thanks though took out that line. =D

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never noticed :o thanks though took out that line. =D

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Thank you.

Again, this is very well put together and does cover a lot of the basic "what gear do I need? how much defense? how to hold aggro" questions. As such, putting in a request for a sticky.

One more addition you may think about is:

Epic PvP belt, bracers and GM Blue Dragonhide Shoulders make fine tanking pieces. (if people find any of the listed gear unattainable - Assasination Shoulders didn't drop for me - so I turned to GM shoulders for tanking...) And they just need about a week's worth of PvP (2 at most) to get.

I was gonna flame you about some small, minor fact that I disagree with, but I've already forgotten about it. That said, this is a pretty awesome guide, and it has a lot of info new to me. Two thumb-claws up. Reported for stickying; our CM is a trashy PoS, though, so you're better off googling the Druid Wiki and posting this guide there (druidwiki.wikispaces.com or something).

Aah yes, I remember... I'm absolutely sure that, while enchant/patch armor is not amplified in bear form, -ALL- +stamina is, including enchant/gem/patch stamina. Do you have any info proving your point?

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I was gonna flame you about some small, minor fact that I disagree with, but I've already forgotten about it. That said, this is a pretty awesome guide, and it has a lot of info new to me. Two thumb-claws up. Reported for stickying; our CM is a trashy PoS, though, so you're better off googling the Druid Wiki and posting this guide there (druidwiki.wikispaces.com or something).

Aah yes, I remember... I'm absolutely sure that, while enchant/patch armor is not amplified in bear form, -ALL- +stamina is, including enchant/gem/patch stamina. Do you have any info proving your point?

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+agility, +stamina both get factored into modifiers (like Heart of the Wild).
+armor does not beneift from Dire Bear form. It's static.

I'm 100% sure on these.

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+agility, +stamina both get factored into modifiers (like Heart of the Wild).
+armor does not beneift from Dire Bear form. It's static.

I'm 100% sure on these.

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So I am correct? In that case, OP, you should modify that - last point, first post. Only armor is restricted to "white" armor values from gear pieces (armor, trinkets, rings, etc.); magical, 'on use', 'on equip', armor patch, and enchant buffs (along with any others I might have missed) are NOT affected by the bear form multiplier. Stamina, however, is affected, no matter what the source.

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So I am correct? In that case, OP, you should modify that - last point, first post. Only armor is restricted to "white" armor values from gear pieces (armor, trinkets, rings, etc.); magical, 'on use', 'on equip', armor patch, and enchant buffs (along with any others I might have missed) are NOT affected by the bear form multiplier. Stamina, however, is affected, no matter what the source.

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That is correct.

As a sidenote:

Potions (e.g. Elixir of Major Defense, 500AC) are also static and not subject to bear form multipliers.

+sta food however does get the multiplier from bearform.

Very well written. I am forwarding the link to all the druid tanks in my guild.

Awesome thread, I've been tanking with my durid for a long time but its always nice to learn something new. :)

Tagging for future use until this thing gets stickied!

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[u]A raid buffed druid has between 18k-22k health. A raid buff warrior has between 13k-16k health.

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While the Druid number is correct for moderately geared people, the warrior number is wholly inaccurate. My guild MT has 19k+ health raid buffed, warriors have no more trouble getting high health than druids do. In fact, warriors gain more health than druids do by upgrading their gear in most cases.