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How do you guys think a Druid in bear form would tank?
A Druid can tank well in Bear Form.
We tank just like a Warrior would tank when we are in Bear Form. We have the basic tool, which is Growl. Just keep Growling as needed to keep the enemy on you and keep doing damage to keep attention with the other Bear abilties and you should do fine.
The Bear Form's armour and damage dealt will be dependant on your gear's stats. So keep that in mind. You may not want to be using 1-handed weapons when in Bear Form since they are weaker than the 2-handed ones.
A powerful way to tank is to play caster at the same time. While tanking, switch into caster and cast a few heals on people. This will help get hate back onto you. Then just switch back into Bear Form and take it while Growling and what not. It is good to have the talents Swiftshifting and Nature's Focus for tanking like this, since they let you cast faster between shifting and help avoid interruption. No Warrior has a hate tool like this.
We tank just like a Warrior would tank when we are in Bear Form. We have the basic tool, which is Growl. Just keep Growling as needed to keep the enemy on you and keep doing damage to keep attention with the other Bear abilties and you should do fine.
The Bear Form's armour and damage dealt will be dependant on your gear's stats. So keep that in mind. You may not want to be using 1-handed weapons when in Bear Form since they are weaker than the 2-handed ones.
A powerful way to tank is to play caster at the same time. While tanking, switch into caster and cast a few heals on people. This will help get hate back onto you. Then just switch back into Bear Form and take it while Growling and what not. It is good to have the talents Swiftshifting and Nature's Focus for tanking like this, since they let you cast faster between shifting and help avoid interruption. No Warrior has a hate tool like this.
44 posts
I myself dont use bear form. I am level 36 and have never used bear form in the last 20 levels or so. To tank, you don't need bear form. The best way for a druid to tank would be the famous rejuv / regrowth / healing touch combo. It works wonders in parties as well as solo.
As soon as you hit 40.. oh wow tanking gets useful... I currently have over 3400 armour in dire bear form.. which works out to approximately 50% damage reduction... quite nice really. Now if only our AOE taunt didn't have a 10 minute cooldown time
What is this 10 min cooldown, AoE Taunt you speak of? That is a Warrior ability, not Dire Bear ability.
Using a two-handed weapon does absolutely nothing to boost your damage while in feral form, since weapon dps does not carry over when shifted. Something to keep in mind: dps and weapon procs are irrelavent. They will go off while meleeing in caster form, not while shifted. However, +stats do carry over and should probably be your main focus when choosing a weapon.
Actually, we get this ability too… long before dire bear form. At level 28, I believe. It's called Challenging Roar and lasts for the standard six seconds.
As for bear tanking in general, I was not a believer until I tried it myself. You don't even need dire bear to tank effectively. I main tanked SM armory in my mid 30s and didn't have any problems at all, even on Herod (which was something I was concerned about before starting). With dire bear, my AC is on par or higher than a same-leveled paladin or warrior (depending on 2h wield or shield), and I don't think that will really start to change until those classes start picking up epic shields with massive AC. Just remember to make sure your party understands to attack the same monster you are (keeping aggro on multiple monsters while they are all being attacked is nearly impossible, I've found), Engrage between fights if possible, and use growl as often as needed. Having a str/stam/agi related set of equipment helps emmensely too. Personally, I carry two sets of gear, but I guess if you wanted to, you could round out your stats somewhat evenly.
The main difference between druid and warrior/paladin tanking is the lack of parry and block, and yes, it will start to hurt as monsters start hitting much harder. I don't have any experience with post 50 instances though, so I can't say firsthand how well Druids tank from then on. But from level 10 to 40+, the class is very capable.
Edited, Thu Jan 20 12:17:21 2005 by kouren
Quote:
What is this 10 min cooldown, AoE Taunt you speak of? That is a Warrior ability, not Dire Bear ability.
Actually, we get this ability too… long before dire bear form. At level 28, I believe. It's called Challenging Roar and lasts for the standard six seconds.
As for bear tanking in general, I was not a believer until I tried it myself. You don't even need dire bear to tank effectively. I main tanked SM armory in my mid 30s and didn't have any problems at all, even on Herod (which was something I was concerned about before starting). With dire bear, my AC is on par or higher than a same-leveled paladin or warrior (depending on 2h wield or shield), and I don't think that will really start to change until those classes start picking up epic shields with massive AC. Just remember to make sure your party understands to attack the same monster you are (keeping aggro on multiple monsters while they are all being attacked is nearly impossible, I've found), Engrage between fights if possible, and use growl as often as needed. Having a str/stam/agi related set of equipment helps emmensely too. Personally, I carry two sets of gear, but I guess if you wanted to, you could round out your stats somewhat evenly.
The main difference between druid and warrior/paladin tanking is the lack of parry and block, and yes, it will start to hurt as monsters start hitting much harder. I don't have any experience with post 50 instances though, so I can't say firsthand how well Druids tank from then on. But from level 10 to 40+, the class is very capable.
Edited, Thu Jan 20 12:17:21 2005 by kouren
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