Druid tanking 101

[taallonn]

Updated for Wrath

Advantages of a druid tank

* The Survival of the Fittest talent allows druids to become immune to critical hits at level 80 without the need of additional Defense or Resilience from gear.

* Although not an advantage nor a disadvantage, bear druids are different from the other 3 tanking classes regarding stats. Generally a bear tank will have more hit points, a higher dodge chance and slightly more armor than other tanks, but these extra stats are a balance for the inability to parry or wear a shield.

* Feral Charge allows the druid to quickly close in on the enemy at a very low rage cost. This ability comes in handy in many situations, allowing the druid to instantly re-engage a mob after getting knocked back or when picking up a loose mob (even though Growl can take care of that too now).

* Druids are immune to Polymorph and Humanoid Mind Control effects but these are extremely situational.

* Bear abilities (i.e. Maul,Mangle) scale very well with gear.

* Although bears can be disarmed, they only suffer the loss of the stats from the weapon whereas another tank could temporarily lose their ability to use abilities that require a weapon to perform.

* Previously, a druid using Swipe was only able to hit 3 targets, thus greatly limiting the druid's ability to AoE tank. However, version 3.0 has removed that limit, allowing Druids to AoE tank any number of mobs quite effectively.

Disadvantages of a druid tank

* One very important difference between Swipe and other AOE Tanking abilities is that most other AOE tank abilities are Point Blank Area of Effect while Swipe is a forward-facing Cone Area of Effect only. The disadvantage is that you must keep all mobs you are tanking in front of you and must always have your target within melee range. This can make Swipe a little tricky to use at times and can even lead to a wipe.

* One of the disadvantages of bear tanks is their limited set of last resort options. However version 3.0 has dramatically reduced issue. Frenzied Regeneration now restores a percentage of maximum health (instead of a fixed quantity as previous) and, if glyphed, increases healing received by 20%. Bears now also have the Survival Instincts ability which temporarily grants 30% of maximum health (like Last Stand). Barkskin and healing potions are now usable without reverting to caster form. Many bear druids supplement their last resort options with trinkets such as [Valor Medal of the First War].

* Version 3.0 has also added the talent Protector of the Pack, which helps mitigate magic damage somewhat, but still doesn't meet the measure of other tanks' magic damage reduction abilities. Barkskin can help mitigate, but only for some seconds out of a minute, so high magic damage fights generally don't favor druid tanks.

[taallonn]

Pulling

* First and foremost, druids are a hybrid class and are not limited to what bear form can do, the use of the caster form spells are an excellent choice for establishing initial threat. The use of damage spells helps in the establishment of threat on a single mob, and the use of heal over time spells helps establish threat on an entire group. It also gives your healer some downtime where she or he will not need to generate threat by healing.

* In Bear form, mobs can be safely pulled from the maximum range of Faerie Fire (Feral), which now does spell damage. If this is the method of choice to pull a group of mobs, Demoralizing Roar is a good next move as it will get the attention of the whole group as they run up to you, but beware it's area of effect, it will agro neutral mobs if present.

* In some situations, where the pack of mobs you are about to pull contains both casters and melee and there is no way to take advantage of Line of Sight it is often better to use Feral Charge and start swiping right away. Although this is not usually a issue, make sure not to pull nearby groups by getting to close to them.

Maintaining threat

* Against single targets and bosses; Maul, Lacerate and Mangle should be used to maximum effectiveness, Fearie Fire (Feral) should also be used as often as possible. Swipe is a secondary attack and should only be used when Mangle is on cooldown. If, and only if, the mob or boss doesn't summon reinforcements or fear, Berserk can be used to increase damage output and therefore increase threat generation. A feral druid can easily equal or even surpass a warrior in threat generation, so be careful if offtanking, you may pull threat from the main tank.

* Against multiple targets, the use of Swipe is highly recommended. Also of great use is the Glyph of Maul, which allows your Maul attack to hit two targets instead of one, this will help boost your overall damage output and help to keep agro on more than one mob. The effect of the glyph is not under your control and there is no way of telling which target it will hit. Berserk can also be used in the same way, hitting 3 targets for a large burst of damage, it has the same drawback as the Glyph of Maul.

[taallonn]

Various aspects of druid tanking

Druids have tanked raid instances and boss encounters such as Nefarian in Blackwing Lair (despite the druid Class Call), Gruul in his lair, Magtheridon and/or his adds, and even more advanced raid bosses. A Druid in Bear form is a very viable tank.
Mitigation, avoidance and the defense cap

Since druids cannot parry or block, they must rely on their armor and higher dodge values to mitigate and avoid physical damage and their large hit point pool to provide a more comfortable buffer for their healers. As such, they must specialize their gear differently from other tanking classes to play to their advantages. Consequently agility, stamina and armor became the most important stats for feral druids.

Druids have the highest dodge per agility ratio of all playable characters, making agility an important avoidance booster for them. However, dodge comes on a diminishing return scale since 3.0 (like armor), so it doesn't have the same value as it did previously.

A unique advantage of feral tanks is that they do not need any extra defense to become immune to critical strikes; Survival of the Fittest takes care of that. This means that druids need not concern themselves with the defense cap.

Healing a druid tank

Healers general consensus on healing a druid tank is commonly, "less spike damage, but more mana required". Druids tend to be hit more often, lacking the overall avoidance of other tanks, however their armor and stamina makes them more able to withstand very large physical damage attacks. On the other hand, when a short-duration large damage output period can be anticipated (i.e. a boss enraging) the druid's lack of a shield wall ability makes them harder to heal than a protection warrior.

(Some of that may be outdated - suspect these comments date from pre-BC)

Snap aggro

Druids have both a single target Taunt and an AOE Taunt. In times where a Druid must generate a lot of threat in a short amount of time, the use of Mangle and Maul together can establish a high amount of threat within the period of one attack. It should be noted that both of these abilities can crit, generating around double the threat.

Another useful tool for feral druids is Faerie Fire(Feral) which requires no rage and assists in initial aggro establishment as well as allowing a druid to perform a ranged pull without having to shift out of Bear form and use a mana based ranged spell. Faerie Fire also has the benefit of not having any travel time, which allows for better control of when a mob will be pulled.

knockbacks

Feral specialized Druids can almost immediately recover from many knockbacks using Feral Charge.

Fear

Some encounters, notably High King Maulgar, Nightbane, and various trash in Gruul's Lair and SSC, are made easier with fear-eliminating abilities. Groups with a Druid Main Tank in these encounters must either use Fear Ward or Tremor Totems. Druids can also use fear-dispelling trinkets such as Insignia of the Alliance/Horde or use the ability Berserk, although these are all on relatively high cooldowns.

In addition, Primal Tenacity reduces the duration of fear effects and the damage taken while stunned by 30%.

Disarm

Druids are affected less by being disarmed than other classes as their attacks are made with claws and teeth. This means that often they may be affected by the "disarmed" debuff, but it doesn't change their attack power or prevent them from using their special attacks. This can be rather useful in encounters such as General Rajaxx. On the other hand, sometimes the "disarmed" debuff is enough to trigger an effect, as with the Ethereal Thief mobs in Karazhan.


Emergency buttons

Druid's have many more options for Emergency buttons than ever before since Wrath of the Lich King. Some abilities and items no longer remove feral forms, making them viable Emergency buttons.

* Frenzied Regeneration can restore 30% of a druids current maximum health with the [Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration]. This ability is on a 3 minute cooldown. It should be noted the Frenzied Regeneration consumes a lot of rage, so a bear using it will be constrained to use their threat generating moves less, particularly maul.

* Survival Instincts (added in 3.0) is a talent, which when activated, temporarily grants you 30% of your maximum health for 20 seconds.

* Barkskin (now usable in feral forms) can be used to reduce damage taken by 20% for its 12 second duration and is on a 1 minute cooldown.

* Potions and Healthstones can (finally) be used in feral forms without the need for a "Bearpot" macro, that most druids were unwilling to use, because of the possibility of being 1-hit while in humanoid form.

* There are various trinkets that can be used in emergencies, one example of which would be [Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch].

* Lifeblood(Herbalism) can be used in feral forms and will provide you with 2000 health over 5 seconds, for those herbalist druids.

* Nature's Swiftness and Healing Touch can be used in a dire situation, but most serious tanking druids won't have the required 24 points in the Restoration Tree to do so, and it is not recommended in anything more than a normal 5-man, as raid bosses would surly deal enough damage to kill you before you can return to Bear Form.

[taallonn]

Links to gear:

www.wowwiki.com/Wrath_tanking_equipment_(druid)
*good starting gear for gearing your tank and good basic info*

forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=6791099676&sid=1&pageNo=1
*list of all gear available and what instance they drop in*

www.emmerald.net/WotLK_Beta/Bear_Mitigation/Head.html
*this site doesn't have all the gear and puts a high emphasis on stamina and hit rating, if you are hit capped then you may want to look at other stats such as agility*


www.wow-loot.com/druid.htm
*Kaliban's class loot is by far the best to let you know if that piece of raid gear is better for a feral tank or a fury warrior* (seriously sometimes you have to tell plate they cant roll on leather)

[taallonn]

and nothing has really changed...just lower dodge now...blizz hates dr00d tanks, I am certain of it