What You Don't Need for Tanking

The warrior yelps. The pally drools. The death knight cried "I want that!" And the bear stands quietly off to the side, waiting for a different piece to drop. There's a lot of tank gear that feral tanks can't use. Know exactly what you don't need for tanking, and avoid creating a riot on vent when you type /roll on an item you can't really wear.

Many druids new to the tanking game repeatedly ask about the same stats. Remember this: you can't use parry. You can't use block. You can't use defense.

And you don't need hit, expertise or a lot of armor penetration. In fact, there's a lot of tank gear that's absolutely not made for bears. So...what do bears use?

Rogue gear. That's not a tongue-in-cheek response, either. Since WOTLK, druids and rogues have a lot of reasons to compete. They share the same tier class, they both wear leather (come to think of it, they're the only two classes which do) and they both want plenty of agility - albeit for different reasons.

So as that +parry, +block, +defense gear rolls by, the bear sits and waits for something providing plenty of stamina, dodge and agility (which gives you dodge). That doesn't mean, however, that some of that "other" tank gear won't still appeal to your gear needs.

In fact, it's pretty hard for a bear to find necklaces, trinkets, rings and capes for tanking that don't offer unusable stats. If gear drops that is well and truly an upgrade but contains some extra stats (defense, for instance, which commonly appears on tank-friendly items), tell the raid you're still interested in the piece. Since many guilds and groups lump all tank gear into one category, you may not ruffle too many feathers by rolling on items which offer parry, block and/or defense. State your intention to roll before you do so, however, as some groups are more strict and exacting than others.

Stack items which offer lots of stamina, even if you have to pick up some unnecessary stats along the way. Meanwhile, keep looking for the +dodge and +agility that provides the bear's only gearable mitigation. While pallys, warriors and DKs enjoy block and parry, the bear must rely on dodge. So tell the rogue in the raid to watch out, because you're in the raid now. Grrr.

A Word on Defense

You've got three points in Survival of the Fittest, and you've got all the defense you need. Does that mean defense won't benefit you at all?

It's true that bears don't need defense, but that doesn't mean they can't get a little something out of it just the same. Defense will give you a minor dodge increase, nothing like what you'll get from agility and straight dodge, but you will get something. If something drops that gives you an upgrade, you don't necessarily have to move out of the way for the pallys, warriors and DKs - though agility or dodge gear is obviously preferable.