Tank Druid 1.12 (Classic)

[Valks 2,373]

This thread is for comments and feedback regarding our Tank Druid guide for World of Warcraft: Classic.

[Guest Dieselwarden]

In regards to your Pre-Raid BiS,
Recommend adding the following items to pre-raid BiS list:
Head Slot: Mask of the Unforgiven
-reasoning:  In favor of 2% hit and 1% crit   (Hit is hard to find at this stage without sacrificing too much)
Neck Slot: Verek's Collar
-reasoning: Higher Threat value and Higher Effective Health Points

Regards,
A fellow Theorycrafter

[Dieselwarden 0]

Hybrid Feral DPS/Tank Talent Guide:

Recommend dropping the 1 point in feral aggression and sticking that point in Primal Fury.
Recommend using un-added point in Primal Fury as well.

Regards,
Fellow Druid Theorycrafter

[Impakt 25]

Thanks Dieselwarden!

 

The Feral Tank/DPS Hybrid build has been revamped a bit and should be up now. I'll take a look at the gear changes as well. Thanks again!

[Guest Dieselwarden]

On 9/2/2019 at 3:05 PM, Impakt said:

Thanks Dieselwarden!

 

The Feral Tank/DPS Hybrid build has been revamped a bit and should be up now. I'll take a look at the gear changes as well. Thanks again!

Absolutely!

[Guest Bundle]

Will this be updated with Dire Maul?
https://classic.wowhead.com/item=18413/cloak-of-warding for prebis

[Guest Jiffypop]

Hey just a quick notice on your section about cooldowns: Barkskin doesn't reduce magic damage. Also, it increases time between attacks by 25%, so your threat generation will be adversely impacted for its duration.

[Guest Loriella]

I was wondering why the Blademaster Leggings are not listed as a possible BiS piece for pre-raid.  It comes from UBRS The Beast, and has 154 armor, +5 agi, +1 to hit, +1 to crit, +2 to dodge.

It is relatively equal to Warstrife.  Differences being -150 hp, -12 ap, +1 hit, +1 crit, +48 armor.  Both have the +2 dodge.  As far as I can tell it would be the middle ground between Devilsaur and Warstrife, retaining the defensive +2 dodge for the defensive side, and getting +1 hit and crit for the threat.

[Impakt 25]

On 10/17/2019 at 3:55 PM, Guest Bundle said:

Will this be updated with Dire Maul?
https://classic.wowhead.com/item=18413/cloak-of-warding for prebis

Yes, the pre-bis guide has been updated to include Dire Maul!

[Impakt 25]

On 10/20/2019 at 5:20 AM, Guest Jiffypop said:

Hey just a quick notice on your section about cooldowns: Barkskin doesn't reduce magic damage. Also, it increases time between attacks by 25%, so your threat generation will be adversely impacted for its duration.

Definitely worth noting. Feral Tank threat is pretty high on single target though, so it shouldn't be too big of an issue as long as you are not using it on pull.

[Impakt 25]

2 hours ago, Guest Loriella said:

I was wondering why the Blademaster Leggings are not listed as a possible BiS piece for pre-raid.  It comes from UBRS The Beast, and has 154 armor, +5 agi, +1 to hit, +1 to crit, +2 to dodge.

It is relatively equal to Warstrife.  Differences being -150 hp, -12 ap, +1 hit, +1 crit, +48 armor.  Both have the +2 dodge.  As far as I can tell it would be the middle ground between Devilsaur and Warstrife, retaining the defensive +2 dodge for the defensive side, and getting +1 hit and crit for the threat.

I included Devilsaur since it's a much more damage oriented piece, and should really only be used if you have the 2 set with the gloves. That's not a terrible option for tanking dungeons or off-tanking if you are a Feral DPS main. Warstrife are the BiS though since the Agi/Str/Stam is more valuable than the hit/crit. 

 

That being said, Blademaster leggings are still very strong and a great alternative if you don't have Warstrife yet. I'll add those as another option.

[Ladan 0]

There is an error in the talent description: Swipe swipes in front of you, dealing damage to all targets.

In fact (and you can mouse over the talent itself to check) pre-WotLK druid swipe only hits 3 targets. 

[Guest Eld]

While I do love a good guide, this is not one of them good or a guide. I've been watching and waiting to see if you caught even a few of the mistakes you have made, but you haven't. Out of your tanking types you have Mitigation and Avoidance, druid is avoidance. They have never had defense rating, and are not likely to have much of it, it is not a necessary stat for them. While some is Defense rating is nice and slightly helpful, it is not worth trying to stack it. Dodge is their stat always has been, your primary stat is AGI first foremost and above all else. For your Best tanking gear you'll be robbing rogues later in the game because the stats they want, are what you want.

[Impakt 25]

On 12/6/2019 at 2:35 PM, Guest Eld said:

While I do love a good guide, this is not one of them good or a guide. I've been watching and waiting to see if you caught even a few of the mistakes you have made, but you haven't. Out of your tanking types you have Mitigation and Avoidance, druid is avoidance. They have never had defense rating, and are not likely to have much of it, it is not a necessary stat for them. While some is Defense rating is nice and slightly helpful, it is not worth trying to stack it. Dodge is their stat always has been, your primary stat is AGI first foremost and above all else. For your Best tanking gear you'll be robbing rogues later in the game because the stats they want, are what you want.

Hi Eld,

Thanks for the feedback, but this is a common misconception with Feral Tanking and has no mathematical basis. Armor provides excellent damage mitigation, and Druids are able to reach armor cap much faster than Warriors. This guide doesn't get into the nitty gritty on the math behind damage mitigation and stat values, but you can check out the Druid Discord for some great resources. Specifically, the Feral Tanking spreadsheet linked there includes the effective values of every piece of gear in the game, which includes the relative values of avoidance and mitigation stats.

[sazzer 0]

Maybe its just me, but i cant cast Barkskin in Dire bear form. are u using a macro or something

 

[Guest Turboboom]

Blooddrenched mask is not listed in the tanking helm section after phase 4?  It is superior to mask of the unforgiven in every way and became available with ZG

[Guest Matador]

The only way to get Rumsey Rum Black Label in Classic is through fishing. The barkeeper does not sell the rum until TBC, and even then only inside the Old Hillsbrad dungeon.

[Guest Madness]

This gear is good and all but don't you need more than 2% hit to keep aggro?

[Impakt 25]

On 8/11/2020 at 12:40 AM, Guest Madness said:

This gear is good and all but don't you need more than 2% hit to keep aggro?

I'll edit the stat page to explain better, but the answer is yes/no. Your overall threat will be fine in longer fights, i.e. 1m+. If you're not in a guild that speed runs or is doing early content while extremely over-geared, you will be fine. In shorter fights, single missed hits matter much more than when compared to the whole fight. If you get unlucky and miss 2 mauls on the opener, you've essentially forced your raid to wait the extra few seconds before starting their DPS because of some bad RNG, which is a big deal if the fights are only going to be 20-30 seconds long. In that case, you should absolutely go for the hit cap. In longer fights where you're normally waiting a few globals to let the tank generate threat anyways, missing the hit is totally fine. If you still would rather be hit capped, that's also a perfectly viable gearing strategy.

[Guest Nepeta]

This guide is not good. Your advice to focus on mitigation instead of threat is very poor advice, especially for the horde side that lacks Salvation and can't benefit from Windfury. Even on alliance side many bears will have threat issues in the gear you post, especially since you don't even mention pummelers?

One issue with your build that you might not realise is that Maul isn't flat threat - It's a multiplier of the damage dealt, in comparison to things like Sunder Armor or Revenge. If you go full mitigation, Maul is much worse than you imagine.

For the gear you've got posted in Mitigation & Alternative -
- Outrider Leather Pants don't exist until Naxx.

- Genesis Trousers come from Ouro, not from C'thun.

- The Defiler's Boots only require Revered. But they are also pretty bad.

- Why are you suggesting Styleens on a druid??? We can't block, is this only for the +13 defense?

- I can't believe you're suggesting Gloves of the Immortal? All they have is +28 stamina and a bunch of armor. It's so weird.

 

I'd love to get in touch with you and help polish the guide, if you'd like. I've got a guildie who insists on only reading it and it made me decide to take a look. If you have the time, add my Discord and I can point out what needs to be added/changed in the different pages?

 

With respect,

Nepeta - (Redfurs#4842)

[Impakt 25]

On 9/4/2020 at 9:28 AM, Guest Nepeta said:

This guide is not good. Your advice to focus on mitigation instead of threat is very poor advice, especially for the horde side that lacks Salvation and can't benefit from Windfury. Even on alliance side many bears will have threat issues in the gear you post, especially since you don't even mention pummelers?

One issue with your build that you might not realise is that Maul isn't flat threat - It's a multiplier of the damage dealt, in comparison to things like Sunder Armor or Revenge. If you go full mitigation, Maul is much worse than you imagine.

For the gear you've got posted in Mitigation & Alternative -
- Outrider Leather Pants don't exist until Naxx.

- Genesis Trousers come from Ouro, not from C'thun.

- The Defiler's Boots only require Revered. But they are also pretty bad.

- Why are you suggesting Styleens on a druid??? We can't block, is this only for the +13 defense?

- I can't believe you're suggesting Gloves of the Immortal? All they have is +28 stamina and a bunch of armor. It's so weird.

 

I'd love to get in touch with you and help polish the guide, if you'd like. I've got a guildie who insists on only reading it and it made me decide to take a look. If you have the time, add my Discord and I can point out what needs to be added/changed in the different pages?

 

With respect,

Nepeta - (Redfurs#4842)

Hi Nepeta,

 

Thanks for the post! I appreciate the feedback and am always happy to talk more. It sounds like we have a lot to discuss, so I'll add you on discord and we can chat there.

[Guest Kannabis]

Cloak of Warding would be a good addition to pre raid BIS list. Crafted with tailoring, recipe in Knot's Cache, DM north.

[Guest Vendank]

What about the polar FR set it has some nice stamina, agility and armor

[Bogdanov89 0]

Thanks for the guide.

On spell summary it says Swipe hits all targets in front but in game the tooltip says it only hits up to 3 targets?