Season of Discovery Feral Druid Tank Stat Priority

Before we begin, it should be said that gear in WoW Classic tends to be very unique, and as such, you will often be chasing very specific items, rather than simply following a stat priority list. Still, a more detailed explanation on each of a Druid's relevant stats will help you understand why those pieces are so sought after.

1. Defense (4 Attack Power for each point above 300 with Mangle and increases chance to avoid attacks);
2. Hit Chance (9% is the cap for special attacks against Molten Core bosses which are treated as being your level +3);
3. Haste;
4. Strength;
5. Stamina (more health per point);
6. Agility (grants crit, dodge and armor);
7. Critical Strike (200% on normal swings);
8. Attack Power (includes Feral Attack power from items such as Automatic Crowd Pummeler);
9. Armor (less physical damage taken per point);
10. Dodge % increases (more likely to avoid damage altogether).

In Phase 4 Mangle was changed to grant 4 Attack Power for each point of Defense above the default cap of 300 at Level 60, making it a very strong offensive stat on top of its defensive properties.

Defense determines your chance to get critically hit, missed or crushed, among other things. WoW Classic's combat is table based and while Druid is unlikely to ever be pushing crushing blows off the table due to the lack of Block or Parry, it can instantly push off critical strikes by just using the new SoD Survival of the Fittest rune!

Hit allows your attacks to land more often, which can often be the difference between having Rage or being Rage-starved, and between quickly establishing threat on an enemy or having a quick wipe, due to eager DPSers pulling aggro on pull.

While rare in WoW Classic, there are a few Haste effects that are valuable, for example the 50% attack speed increase of Automatic Crowd Pummeler or Catnip.

These have traditionally been great for Feral due to weapon damage not being counted towards Feral damage and more Haste allowing for extra Rage and Mauls to be dished out.

Stamina is the only stat that will help you survive all types of attacks, and as such, should always be highly valued, especially for Feral Druids who get extra Stamina due to Bear Form's scaling.

As a Druid, Agility increases your dodge, your armor and your critical chance. This makes it a rather valuable stat for tanking.

Your weapon is a large contributor to your damage, although not as much as most other physical classes, as you do not use the damage range on the weapon directly, and thus only benefit from stats and special abilities associated with it such as the one on Automatic Crowd Pummeler.

Weapon Skill allows you to hit enemies more often and, more importantly, for a lot more damage when you land a Glancing Blow. Glancing blows are regular hits that deal reduced damage. Molten Core bosses are counted as being your level +3, which means 40% of your attacks will be glancing blows, which deal 35% reduced damage if you have the default maxed weapon skill.

Level Difference	Chance to Occur	Base Damage Penalty
0	10%	5%
1	20%	5%
2	30%	15%
3	40%	35%

Having at least +5 skill is a huge damage increase against end game bosses such as the ones in Molten Core as it massively increases your Hit chance and lowers the Glancing Blow chance and penalty. Make sure to use the new Feral Combat Specialization Rune in order to massively decrease your penalties, as displayed below:

Defense / Weapon Skill Difference	Glancing Penalty	Miss Chance	Hit Cap
15 (baseline vs Molten Core Bosses)	35%	8%	9%
14	31%	7.8%	8.8%
13	27%	7.6%	8.6%
12	23%	7.4%	8.4%
11	19%	7.2%	8.2%
10 (with Feral Combat Specialization)	15%	6%	6%
9	11%	5.9%	5.9%
8	7%	5.8%	5.8%
7	5%	5.7%	5.7%
6	5%	5.6%	5.6%
5	5%	5.5%	5.5%
4	5%	5.4%	5.4%
3	5%	5.3%	5.3%
2	5%	5.2%	5.2%
1	5%	5.1%	5.1%
0	5%	5%	5%

There are also items that increase your Feral Combat skill, such as Aged Core Leather Gloves, which can be used to further increase your skill and reduce combat penalties accordingly.

Critical Strike for Feral Tanks grants more Rage from Primal Fury procs, increased Rage generation and Threat, but is not a particularly powerful stat for tanking.

Resistance, while inherently niche due to different bosses dealing different magical damage types, can be very useful while progressing specific bosses. Wearing resistance gear of a type makes you take less damage or even completely avoid damage when hit by that type of magical damage.