Feral Druid tank: The basics.

[[Soul Eater]]

Hi all, [Soul Eater] here. Today I am going to tell you the basics of Druid tanking. This guide is based on my own experience as a Druid tank, so some may agree or not agree with the contents. That said, his guide is more of a read-through guide rather than one with pictures. So if you are still interested in reading a quick overview about Druid tanking, be my guest

Table of contents:


1) Small overview about Druid tanks
2) Druid tank spec + glyphs
3) Druid tank stats priority list
4) Druid tank enchants + Gems + Professions bonus
5) Macros
6) The basics of Druid tanking

1) Small overview about Druid tanks

What is different about Druid tanks when compared to other tanks?


The main difference is that Druid tanks do not use a shield and cannot wear plate. That is being compensated by giving Druid tanks a Dire Bear Form, which increases your armor by 370% and increases your stamina by 25%. Druids also often use leather DPS gear, and on those type of gear there is one stat that increases your armor by additional points: Agility. Agility provides you more critical strike chance but it also gives you more armor. So technically it is possible for a Druid to have lots of armor and also lots of HP.



Another fact is that Druids cannot parry or block an attack, that is being compensated by your talent points that gives you X% more dodge chance. In total, if specced correctly, you gain 10% more dodge chance. Additionally, agility gives also more dodge chance. Considering leather DPS items contains tons of agility it will also gives you more avoidance.


Druids also don’t need any kind of defense rating items. This because they have a talent which makes you uncrittable. So you do not have to stack defense rating to be immune for critical blows.


A Druid also attacks with his “paws” , so weapon skill is not really important for a Druid. But a Druid still have a chance for his attacks to be dodged or parried.


In a short summary, a Druid tank is mostly effective against any type of bosses who hits most of the time hard. Because a Druid tank have a lot of HP, so it takes a while longer to kill him, but they also have a lot of armor which decreases the damage done to them and also their high dodge chance gives them a chance of not being hit, thus they are not receiving any damage, where as in if a Paladin tank blocks an attack, they only decreases the damage they receive.

2) Druid tank spec + glyphs

First of all, a tank spec is really a tank spec. If you want to go hybrid (being cat dps and feral tank at the same time) then this is not the right guide for you. A tank needs survivability and need to hold threat, while as in a DPS need to do as many damage as possible and have good mobility as a melee. There is in no way possible for feral Druids to have a spec that does good DPS and at the same time enables you to tank greatly in all situations.



That said, the spec I made enables you to tank both in heroics and raids efficiently. For now, here is the spec I made:


Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft


Some notes about it:


While it’s debatable to put 5/5 in Feral Aggression or not, I found it unnecessary to put 5 points in it. It depends on your current type of gear, what your raid setup is and if you can withstand the amount of damage you sustain. For example, if you have a retribution paladin who got 2/2 in Vindication, it reduces the exact amount of attack power like a druid would do, so instead, you can spend those talent points to increase your damage so you will get more threat generation. Also, a druid tank can withstand lots of melee damage thanks to their high armor and health pool, so that also saves the healer some trouble. But if you are in a situation that you get a lot of damage, no one is applying an attack power reduction debuff and your healer can’t keep up with the damage you take, then you can remove the points from Master Shapeshifter and Natural Shapeshifter and spend them into 5/5 Feral Aggression.


Since you need more damage for more, talents like Ferocity, Savage Fury, Predatory Strikes etcetera are necessary. Fortunately, you need those points anyway to get further down in the talent tree so you don’t really need to think about it.


Talents like Survival of the Fittest, Thick Hide etcetera should be a no-brainer. You want to be an tank so of course you need talents to reduce your incoming damage. Else you are not very much different as a Fury Warrior who tanks


All in all, this spec is viable for both AoE tanking and Boss tanking. It provides AoE support by increasing your swipe damage by 30% and it got all the necessary talents that reduces your incoming damage and increases your own damage.


About the glyphs:


Druid tanks are lucky, because there are only 3 real main glyphs which helps out tanking. Here is a quick summary of what use these glyphs have:


Glyph of Maul - Item - World of Warcraft : With this glyph, your maul will hit an additional target. It is very efficient in most situations, especially in Heroic dungeons where you will most of the time do a lot of AoE pulls. Also, maul causes a high amount of threat, with this glyph, you basically generate a high amount of threat on 2 targets for the price of 1 spell.



Glyph of Survival Instincts - Item - World of Warcraft :This is usefull for the “o dang I don’t wanna die” moment, where you hit Survival instincts so your HP is increased drastically. This glyph enables you to get more HP so you can withstand longer than usual.



Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration - Item - World of Warcraft :This glyph will help your healers efficiently during the “o dang I don’t wanna die” moment, because all healing effects (including Frenzied Regeneration itself) will have 20% more healing, so your healers don’t need to cast a lot of healing spells just to keep you up, and can spend those healing for incoming raid damage or whatsoever.


While Glyph of Growl - Item - World of Warcraft can also be used, it is really an situational glyph where taunting matters. There are only a few situations, like Saurfang, Festergut and the first boss in Trial of the Crusader, but most of the times you will hold steady aggro so this glyph is not really necessarily. If you are in a serious raiding guild however, be prepared to have at least this glyph in your backpack then for those Saurfang and Festergut fights, especially at Festergut were taunting matters or otherwise your whole raid whipe.


Minor glyphs are not really debatable, it is naturally that you chose Glyph of Thorns - Item - World of Warcraft for longer thorns uptime damage, Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth - Item - World of Warcraft so you don’t have to bring your seeds with you, and Glyph of Challenging Roar - Item - World of Warcraft is luxury for those AoE pulls.

3) Druid tank stats priority list

A Druid tank, like all other tanks, need to be able to survive for a long time but also hold threat for a long time.

For survivability stats, the priority list are as follow:

-Stamina: Dire Bear Form gives you 25% more stamina. Before that, you got talents that increase your stamina also, like Survival of the Fittest gives you 6% more stamina, Heart of the Wild gives you 10% more stamina, Improved Mark of the Wild gives you 2% more stamina. So overall, Druids gets tons and tons of more stamina so stamina is the most desired stat you want as a druid tank for survivability. The larger your health pool is, the more hits you can receive.



-Armor: Dire Bear Form gives you 370% more armor. So technically you want as much armor from items as you want. Do note that items from rings, trinkets and necks aren’t affected by the Dire Bear Form, but although that isn’t the case, armor is your 2nd desired stat to go for.


-Agility: Agility provides more armor and more dodge chance. Considering you use leather armor (which you should as Druid tank) that contains decently an amount of agility most of the time as a stat, it isn’t necessarily to gem or enchant for agility so you don’t have to worry about that.

For threat stats, the priority list are as follow:

-Hit: You need 263 hit rating (8%) so you yellow attacks won’t never miss. Considering you use Mangle, Lacerate and Maul as your main threat generation abilities, 8% is enough. Do note that Faeri Fire is treated as a spell and thus is on the spell hit table, so you will see sometimes a resist or even a miss. But since Faeri Fire is usually used as an opener rather than an main threat generation ability, you don’t stack more hit rating then 263.



-Expertise: You need 132 expertise rating (4% less chance to be dodged) so that your attacks won’t be dodged. The reason you only need 132 is because of your talent, Primal Precision, which gives you 10 expertise. You need an additional 16 expertise to make sure bosses won’t dodge your attacks, and 16 expertise is equal to 132 expertise rating. This is only for dodge, for parry you need 443 expertise rating. But you won’t go for that amount of expertise, instead go for more stamina and armor so you can take more hits and mitigate more damage.



-Haste: After you are hit capped for yellow attacks and expertise capped for dodge, haste is more favorable as a DPS stat. The reason is because the more haste you have, the faster you attack. Because Maul is triggered by your auto attack, and Maul is also your number 1 biggest threat generator, getting more haste means getting more Maul triggers which also results in more threat generation.



Other DPS stats like Attack power, Agility are always found on Leather type DPS gear so you do not have to worry about those stats. As in, you don’t need to Gem or Enchant it necessarily to boost your DPS. Agility enchants however is debatable because it also gives you more armor and higher % chance to dodge.

4)Druid tank enchants + Gems + Professions bonus

-What to enchant


Most tanks are enchanting most of the time survivability stats. For a druid it is also appropriate because they can hold steady aggro for a long time, they need to build their threat first up but afterwards it’s a piece of cake to hold the aggro.


So what enchants we need are the following:


Head: Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector - Item - World of Warcraft
This is the only head enchant which gives you stamina. Unfortunately it also gives 20 defense, a stat which is not really needed but it increases your dodge chance a bit.


Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Gladiator - Item - World of Warcraft
For increasing your health pool more.


There is also an alternate from Sons of Hodir

Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle - Item - World of Warcraft

While the dodge rating can be quite good, the defense rating is making it less desirable. 30 more stamina is way more effective then more dodge for a Druid.


Chest: Scroll of Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats - Item - World of Warcraft is the best of what’s around


Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle - Item - World of Warcraft

but that should be a no-brainer. Put a 30/51 stamina gem in it.


Legs: Frosthide Leg Armor - Item - World of Warcraft
More stamina means more health, and 22 agility gives us more armor and more % chance to dodge. Of course this is the enchant we need for tanking.


Boots: Scroll of Enchant Boots - Greater Fortitude - Item - World of Warcraft
While Tuskarr’s Vitality provides minor run speed increase and 15 Stamina, 7 more stamina can be more beneficial. Movement is also an important key role, but with the addition of Feral Charge and the choice to go Cat Form > Sprint for a limited time, I found it very redundant. It is up to you whether you want more movement or more health.


Bracers: Formula: Enchant Bracer - Major Stamina - Item - World of Warcraft
No-brainer, we need more stamina.



Gloves: Scroll of Enchant Gloves - Major Agility - Item - World of Warcraft
It increases your armor and dodge chance. But as your gear improves further, as in, you get more into ICC content, you will notice that you will get lower % dodge chance from agility, so after you notice it, you can just swap that enchant with Glove Reinforcements - Item - World of Warcraft

Cloak: Scroll of Enchant Cloak - Major Agility - Item - World of Warcraft
We can also go for haste, but I think more armor and % to dodge is more beneficial.


Weapon: Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Mongoose - Item - World of Warcraft / Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Blood Draining - Item - World of Warcraft

It is very debatable which one you want. But to make your choice simpler, if you can afford Blood draining, go Blood draining. If not, go for Mongoose. Both enchants are very good for tanking. Mongoose gives you a chance to proc 120 agility which will mitigate what damage, and blood draining could be used as a mini-heal when you drop below 35%. The only thing is that you need to Lacerate for bleed damage, which is fortunately also one of our great threat generate ability.

Gems

The only gems what you want to use are the agility and the stamina ones. Both are great survivability stats. As a bear tank however, I found it more beneficial to stack stamina over agility, because Druids are known for having a large health pool, so you want to fulfill that role by stacking stamina.
You want to use a Nightmare Tear - Item - World of Warcraft if you want a socket bonus that you don’t want to miss (6 agility for example) , and for also enabling your Meta Gem: Austere Earthsiege Diamond - Item - World of Warcraft . For the rest, just stack Solid Majestic Zircon - Item - World of Warcraft which gives you plenty of stamina. If you are in a situation where both agility and stamina are needed, go for Shifting Dreadstone - Item - World of Warcraft . Do note that it is beneficial to enable socket bonuses if you are going to gem Shifting Dreadstone - Item - World of Warcraft .

Professions

For myself, I found the combo of using Jewelcrafting - Skill - World of Warcraft and Enchanting - Skill - World of Warcraft as profession bonus for a Druid tank beneficial. Jewelcrafting allows us to get access to the 51 stamina gems, which you can socket 3 times max. Considering the normal stamina gems are 30 stamina, you will get( 51 x 3 = 153) – (30 x 3 = 90) = 63 more stamina, which is further increased by talents, enchants and buffs. A huge health buff total. The same could be said about enchanting, you can enchant your rings for an additional 2x 30 stamina. In total 60 more stamina. So in total you get 123 additional stamina which is really beneficial for any Bear tanks.

5) Macros

Macros are not necessarily needed, but it makes tanking more efficient. Below are the macros I currently use and what benefits they have.

Single target macros:

Maul + Lacerate

#showtooltip
/cast lacerate
/cast !maul

What this macro does is using Lacerate, and enabling each auto attack to be Maul. The real benefit of it is that you don’t need to press Lacerate, and then you also need to press Maul. Because Maul is a next-attack spell, it will be triggered by your auto-attacks. So you can basically spam this macro to do both Lacerate and Maul whenever it is possible.

Maul + Mangle

#showtooltip
/cast mangle
/cast !maul

Same story with lacerate, but this time it is for mangle. Do note that this macro is more beneficial to use when you do a Berserk, because you can then spam Mangle infinite times for the duration. If Berserk is not up, use the Maul/Lacerate macro.

AoE target macros:

Maul + Swipe

#showtooltip
/cast swipe
/cast !maul

Same story with the above macros, this way you can spam Swipe and Maul at the same time, which is beneficial during an AoE pull. Basically, you can spam this macro during an AoE fight.

Maul + Mangle

#showtooltip
/cast mangle
/cast !maul

Same story with but do note that this macro is used when you do a Berserk, because you can then spam Mangle infinite times for the duration and hitting 3 targets at the same time. If Berserk is not up, use the Maul/Swipe macro.

Misc. macros:


Grizzly Bear tanking Mode

#showtooltip
/cast Survival Instincts
/cast Frenzied Regeneration
/cast barkskin
/use 13
/use 14
/rw Used all my cooldowns, ROAR
/yell Used all my cooldowns, ROAR
/Raid Used all my cooldowns, ROAR

Basically, this is your “I don’t wanna die” macro. You need to spam (which I undoubtfully think you will do) this macro to enable everything. It also gives a warning in the yell/raid warning/raid chat. The /use 13 and 14 are used for your trinkets, if you have any use trinkets.

Instant Dire Bear Form

#showtooltip
/cast !dire bear form

This macro will shift you immediately into Dire Bear Form, even if you are shapeshifted. The benefit of this is that when you are frozen/rooted in place, and you press this macro, you will shift instantly, removing all movement impairing effects. This is an situational macro for when you ever get impaired by some kind of effect.

Kitty-is-also-useful

#showtooltip
/cast !cat form
/cast dash

Same story as with the Dire Bear Form, this will shift you into Cat form immediately. You need to spam the macro to enable Dash though. The benefit of this macro is that whenever you need to run away you can spam this macro for speed boost in Cat form, and when you reach your destiny, you can either continue to run (if you know that you are wiping) or, you can use the macro above to instantly shift into Dire Bear Form and continue tanking on the other side. This is also an very situational macro, where Feral Charge is not possible in that situation.

6)The basics of Druid tanking

Now that you know something more about Druid tanks, it is time to put those knowledge into something good.

-Rotations

There is none. Druid tanks are acting on in which situation they are. There is however a sort of “start” rotation you can use.

-Single target pull

When you pull 1 mob, you often open with a Faeri Fire. NOT a Growl. Taunt in beginning only enables that the mob will attack you guaranteed, but do remember that the mob needs to walk to you and during that time the taunt duration is also ticking further, so in the end it you wasted a taunt just to let the boss walk to you. Besides, Faeri Fire is also a range attack, AND it deals damage + it creates a high amount of threat. So basically, that is the kind of spell you want to use in the beginning. Save your taunt for when you lose aggro instead of using it for a pull.

Afterwards, when you pulled the mob, auto-attack him. 1 auto-attack should generate enough rage for you to use a mangle. Use it. After a mangle, you will get some damage/dodge an attack, which gives you even more rage, thus use the Maul/Lacerate macro I listed above. You now got your initial threat attacks. But this isn’t enough. As I said before, Druid tanks need to build up their threat. So what you do is, after your Faeri Fire is off cooldown, you will use it again in your rotation. Normally, especially for a boss, I use Faeri Fire 2-3 times at the start. After that, I just use regularly the Maul/Lacerate macro as a filler. Use Mangle when it’s off cooldown too, it deals high damage on it’s own and refreshing the Mangle debuff benefits also your DPS’ers bleed damage, so they don’t have to worry about it.

Like I said, this is in a normal pull. But, let’s say for example, you do a Faeri Fire, BUT the mob resisted it. What to do then?

Normally if I see that the mob resisted it, I immediately use Enrage. It gives you initial rage, and generates rage over time. With the initial rage I immediately use a Mangle so that I have at least done some aggro damage. But if my mangle is parried, and I see that the mob is going for the impatiently-aggro-eating-warlock, then I wait a few seconds and taunt it (this is where you use Growl, it is a second ranged pull with a guaranteed chance that the boss will attack you and thus you get rage), afterwards if I have enough rage, I use the Maul/Lacerate macro to generate more threat by doing damage, and when Faeri Fire is off CD then I use it again. Same for Mangle, if it is off CD, I use it. Practically, use Mangle everytime when it is off the CD.


So in a nutshell, this is the rotation:

Faeri Fire > Auto-attack > Mangle > Maul/Lacerate macro > Faeri Fire when it’s off CD > Mangle when it’s off CD > Spam Maul/Lacerate macro

If you are fighting a boss, you might want to use Berserk. Yes, it allows you to hit 3 targets at the same time which is not really useful if you are attacking 1 mob, but, it also removes the cooldown of Mangle for the duration. Mangle is our 2nd highest damage spell, thus, combining that and Maul spam, you will get significantly more threat. For that, use the Maul/Mangle macro I mentioned earlier. But use it wisely. I would say, use it during a Bloodlust where other DPSers will nuke very hard, or when you notice that you are losing aggro.


-AoE pull

AoE pull is, and will always, be a little trickier. For example, if I know the group is made mostly of melee mobs, then I will just Faeri Fire one, use Enrage to generate rage, and hit the mobs with the Maul/Swipe macro. But if there are ranged mobs, then I need to aggro the ranged mob first by using Faeri Fire, use Enrage and then I need to attack the melee mobs that are rushing me, and then I Maul/Swipe macro my way back to the ranged mob.

But you know those spiders in Ahn’Kahet Kingdom? There is one mob that will deal 80% damage of your max health, 6 seconds cast. Unlike a DK tank I can’t Death Grip him, but, I can first aggro him by using Faeri Fire, use Enrage, and then immediately press Feral Charge while spamming the Maul/Swipe macro to get the other spiders attention. If the spider is against casting his 6 second nuke, just bash him. During that time just Maul/Swipe macro the whole time.

AoE pulls are really situational. But most of the time you can spam the hell out of it. Unlike an Paladin 8 second Consecration where mobs need to stand in, Death Knights Death and Decay, and Warrior 6-second Thunderclap cooldown, an Druid tank is free to spam his AoE ability and move around. Which is why you must make the best use of it.

Another way to AoE pull is by using Berserk. Berserk allows you to hit 3 targets and removes the cooldown of Mangle. Of course you need to get some rage first, so you can either go for Enrage at the start, or, Maul/Swipe macro the mobs for a bit of aggro and then use Berserk and go Mangle spam. Do note that when you spam Mangle you can make use of the Maul/Mangle macro I mentioned earlier.

Also a side-note, do remember that Swipe can be activated when you have targeted an enemy. With that I mean, for example you target a mob that is out of your melee range, it is still possible to use swipe. So watch out with spamming Swipe because you will lose rage, even if you are not hitting enemies with it.

So in a nutshell you got 2 ways for AoE tanking:

Faeri Fire > Enrage > Maul/Swipe macro and walk to the mobs. Play a bit with it, jump and walk backwards facing the mobs not to your group.

Enrage > Berserk > Mangle/Maul macro. Efficiently when there are only 3 mobs. When there are more mobs, you need to either tab through them, or, use the Maul/Swipe macro.

That’s it for single-target and AoE pulls. Now about the cooldowns. Maybe it’s a bit redundant, but if you find yourself ever in a losing situation, always use the Grizzly Bear Tanking Mode macro. Maybe some don’t know what situations those are, so I list some of them here:

1) A situation where all your healers need to focus more on raid healing than on the tank. By increasing your survivability you make it easier for the healers.
2) When you are dropping below 30% HP. Most of the time, 30% HP is really the limit, especially for bosses. Take no risk and just press the macro, even when you know the healer could heal you up. You never know if the healer gets interrupted by something or the heal wasn’t enough.
3) During the Festergut fight, when you need to taunt. Festergut will hit like 2 trucks on steroids, so when you taunt be sure to use the macro to reduce the damage.
4) When all your healers are dead somehow, and you see that you and some DPSers are the only ones alive while the boss is around 3-4%, don’t give up. Every second matters, and every second that you survive is another chance to down the boss.
5) Any situation where you need to survive for a couple of seconds or even minutes.



This was the end of it, if you got any questions left about Druid tanking feel free to ask here

[Jackie Moon]

Pictures would be a nice addition but it's not needed. Great explanation on why you should choose what and why, this is how a feral druid tanking guide should look like. +Rep

[Rockr]

Thanks! I just got my Druid to 80 and tanked a ToC 25 with him, And It was a lot easier then tanking with my main using this guide!