Druid Dilemma - TankingFollow

I am a 70 feral druid who has been ramping up for Karazhan. I got my 415 defense which lowered my armor to 16k, health to almost 12k, and my dodge absolutely sucks at 13%.

I have been tanking as a feral for a full year (well before TBC when it was a novelty) and used to enjoy it but have been burned out. The problem is, I'm the MT for my guild. I still enjoy tanking for my guild. I absolutely despise tanking for PUGs though.

Speaking of which, I can't seem to find a spot in 5-mans for PUGs. They only seem to want resto druids and will take me as a tank only after all available warriors and pallies have been sought out. I can go an entire evening with no invites but several whispers asking if I am resto.

I have a warrior up to 56. I was thinking of raising him to 70 to eventually replace my druid since we have some protection pallies but no warriors ready to tank. The warrior or my druid would be ideal. I think getting my warrior up would free my druid to take on other roles....perhaps PVP or such.

My druid has always been feral. He is Moonkin on the PTR and I have another Moonkin I haven't played since TBC on a different server. I don't know what I would really use my druid for if he doesn't tank. I just know I am burning out using him to tank every single day in PUGs when I can find one that'll take me.

This is not a whine post. I love my tanking abilties on my druid. I was just wondering if others who have warriors and druids prefer tanking with one over the other.

Also, have any other feral druids had problems getting into PUGs at 70?

One thing I might consider is respeccing to resto temporarily to get my druid into some 5-mans. Then I can do rep runs through SV and maybe find a group in Botanica nice enough to let me keep the Feral Staff of Lashing if it drops despite me being resto since only druids can make use of it. It might be a nice change of pace for me. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any advice, insights, opinions, etc that could help me find my spark with my druid again :)

Are you in a guild? Do you have game friends?

My druid gets random tells to tank and/or heal pugs all the time. I'm low 60's.

It may be a server thing. Druids can tank - some players are close minded. You may need to advertize to others how good a tank you are.

By "without Dire form", you mean in simple Bear form or in caster form?

Simple Bear form is quite alright. Well, 37-40 is kind of a dead zone in which Warrs might have better armor than you but you can still tank fine. Armor isn't *that* important at lower levels. It is, just much less. I mean, most instances can be tanked without a shield if the Warr is a bit high level for the instance. Like a 44-46 Warr in SM.

If you meant caster form, then no, just no. But I'm sure you didn't mean that so I don't think I need to elaborate any further. :P

Nah, not at all. The contrary would be so much more closer to the truth.
I've actually heard Druids say "Damn I can't tank this yet cause I don't have my Dire Bear form yet!" and I've always wondered if those people think Warrs get created at level 1 all wrapped in nice shiny plate. Just try to ask a Warr in your party how much armor/health he has. Make sure he has the same kind of gear though. (i.e. Average greens if you have average greens yourself or instance blues if you have those yourself) You'll see there isn't much of a difference and most often than not the Druid will have either more health, more armor or both.

About that BG dilemma of yours, the only easy way to solve this is ask yourself: Do you wanna hit the Outland as soon as possible or do you wanna stall in all PvP backets to do lots of PvP? If your goal is to get high level as soon as possible, skip all that crap and level/quest your way to 58/60. Otherwise you'll spend 3-5 days PvP'ing to get some item, then you'll resume questing/leveling and will outlevel the said item in about 5 more days. Plus, it doesn't cover all of your gear so you still have to run a few instances and buy some stuff from the AH from time to time. You save nor time, nor money. ;P

I'm assuming it's a server thing when a feral druid has difficulties getting to group after reaching level 70. I have people asking me to tank for them all the time now, whereas when I was in the 30s and 40s people wanted me to heal.

I think the problem with groups is that there are so many dungeons now at the same level, and everybody seems to be grinding for a different faction and/or item. It seems to take forever to get 5 people together, regardless of what class you are.

Leave your talents alone. Just start your own groups.

As far as PUG's go, just make a point after tanking one, of letting the members know that you are often looking for groups and they should feel free to add you to their friends list for when they are looking for a tank. Assuming you know what you are doing (and it sounds like you do), you greadually work up a decent pool of players who know you are a good tank.

Then you start getting too many whispers when you want to do something else :)

I currently avoid PUG's as much as possible (maybe have 1 PUG in a guild run). I prefer knowing the people i'm with are competent.

I've been in a PUG with a 70 mage who did not know what AoE stood for and had to have keeping a target sheeped explained to him. And a 70 Warlock who finished the instance with an average of 128dps (the tank - me - had over 200dps and even the healer beat him by wanding in between heals!).

Ah never thought of it that way, I like that. Thanks.