The PvP Bear

So, a lot of WoWers want to say tanks - especially bear tanks - can't PvP successfully. Patently, this is not the case. Bear tanks are amazingly hard to take down and, at given times, they can do a helluva lot of damage. In fact, bears who raid can be ideal in PvP. Here's what you need to make your presence known in the battlegrouns and arenas:

-A healer.
No self-respecting tank would be caught in a Wintergrasp battle without one.

-Resilience gear.
What? Are you serious? Yes, that's right, resilience gear. It's true bears are naturally uncritable, but in PvP resilience isn't used as a defense replacement. This stat has merit on its own, only don't expect it to do a whole lot for you outside the battlegrounds. You'll find some pretty good epics for sale in Wintergrasp and near Champion's Hall in Stormwind. Aim to have about 700 resilience, all told, to really deflect those attacks. Remember, in PVP clothies are your worst enemies (strange as that may sound).

-Pots, flasks, consumables and buffs.
Every little bit helps. Be sure to bring your bandages, mage food, healing pots and all the reagents you can carry. If you're looking for a PvP session, you want to be fully stocked. Bears can take a lot of damage, but you don't want to have to pop into caster too many times to get healed up. You know how small your mana pool is - bring some food!


Bear PvP Tricks and Tips

Remember, you can stealth when you're in kitty. You can also get an extra stun and one strong bleed attack out of this. Stealth, strike with Pounce and then throw a Shred. You can even finish it out with Maim to interrupt your target. Go into bear form and you've got another stun already on deck.

Don't forget to use your cooldowns. Bust Barskin. Use your bear healing ability. Go Berserk. Fight to kill!

Always, always, turn your entangling roots buff on. You can use it without switching forms, and you can really aggravate your attacker.

Druid Changes in Patch 3.2

The player test realms have been open for a while and the whole of the World of Warcraft seems to be on the brink of anticipation. Patch 3.2 is getting closer and closer to being released all the time!

So...what can druids expect to see as far as their characters are concerned?

Druid Changes in Patch 3.2

The answer is, very little. Everything that druids will see for themselves has long since been released. Some Balance abilities may be tweaked, some Resto spells might change...and the bear gets absolutely nothing new to talk about.

The only 3.2 change that might matter to druids (other than the appearance, of course) is the possible change to shapeshifting cost. There has been a lot of talk about the amount of mana is takes to change forms, and even more talk suggests that this could change in the upcoming patch. Many rumors say that it will no longer cost mana at all to change forms.

But seriously, how much does that matter to bears?

World of Warcraft Movie Update

Bruce Campbell,whom you'll recognize from the Evil Dead movies (he's also, apparently, in a series called Burn Notice), recently spoke about the upcoming World of Warcraft movie.

Campbell is still friendly with his old director Sam Raimi, who worked on the Evil Dead and Spiderman movies, and says he'd be happy to play a part in the upcoming flick. Sources say the film will center around Azeroth, the stage for much in-game drama and leveling activity.

A director. Casting buzz. A plausible setting. Sounds like we've got all the makings for the big WoW movie, a project that's already been years in the making.

Bear Tanking Visual Aids: AoE Mobs

Seriously, reading just isn't everyone's thing. If you prefer a visual aid for bear tanking, take a gander at this video. The smooth and cultivated voice of someone whom I can only assume to be Australian guides us through bear tanking on AoE mobs. You'll notice in the video he used Swipe, Berserk and Entangling Roots to help get his point across to the bad guys. The bear you're watching in the video uses Glyph of Maul, a strip of parchment I suggest to any and every bear whether or not you ever set foot in a raid.

Check back for more visual aids as time wears on, and take your tanking to the next level.

World of Warcraft Movie in the Works

The World of Warcraft movie has hovered somewhere between gaming myth and media rumor for years now, but now it seems the project has been given the green light.

More than that, it's been given a big-name director - one that's sure to delight WoWers of all types. Sam Raimi originally gained attention for the Evil Dead films, which endure as must-see cult classics. He also directed Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, not to mention working on a whole host of other films. Raimi's name brings a certain amount of panache to any project, and indicates that a big-budget WoW movie is certainly in the works.

Very little plot or scripting information is known at this point, and Blizzard seems to be playing their cards pretty close to vest. This leaves the door wide open for speculation. Will the film feature a single hero as its main character, or an ensemble where different playable WoW classes are present? Will the movie showcase the classic conflict of good vs. evil (in this case, Alliance against Horde)? Are we talking live action or high-octane animation?

What do you want to see from the first-ever World of Warcraft movie? Sound off in the comments section below!

Druid Tier 9 Designs

MMO-Champion has unveiled the new tier 9 pieces. Personally, T7 is still my all-time fave - looks-wise, anyway. What do you think of the new look?

Alliance

Horde

Why Be a Bear?

It's harder for bears to get gear than any other tanking class. Bears are different from all other tanks in more ways than one. They don't hold or build threat as well as others, they've only got one kind of mitigation (dodge) when others get to build lots more stats and they can be slow as all hell.

So...why be a bear to begin with?

I Adore Being a Bear

Sure, bears have their drawbacks, and Blizzard absolutely seems to hate them (or at least, if you want to be kind, overlook them). Bears have to viciously fight rogues to get any kind of gear, don't get cool ground effects and have to worry about building and maintaining rage (and threat) at all times. But even in the days of Wrath, I personally maintain that bears are the best.

Why be a bear? Let me count the ways:

1. Hit Points, baby.
Put a warrior and a bear in the same level gear, and the bear should always have higher health. Since the earliest days of WoWs, the bear tank was made to take damage - and how. As a bear tank you'll enjoy impressive health that puts those conceited pallys to shame.

2. Versatility.
Is there anything a bear can't take? Pallys are said to stumble on Malygos and warriors are known to have trouble in OS, but the bear can go anywhere and do anything if they've got their act together. There isn't a single fight you can't do because of the class you are when you're a bear, so run in there and attack your claws off.

When they aren't tanking, bears can also easily switch forms and go cat to do faster attacks. Once your target is dead and your tanking services aren't needed, it's possible to run over to the other tank in the raid and go melee crazy in cat form. Who else can do that? No one, that's who.

3. Self healing/self saving.
Bears absolutely have some of the best self-saving and self-healing abilities out there for tanks. Frenzied Regeneration, Barskin, Berserk - a bear can survive a hell of a lot of damage, and isn't that what raid groups want? Learn how to use your abilities well, spec yourself correctly and you could be the baddest tank out there - gear notwithstanding. Even an under-geared bear can be a badass if they know what they're doing.

4. Visibility.
Get twenty-five people together and at some point, it's going to get damn hard to tell what's what and who's who. But it's always easy to spot the bear in the group, which makes it great for the healers and dps.

5. Extra abilities.
Because all bears are also druids, you come stocked up with a whole slew of added, highly useful abilities. As a druid you've got a great raid buff (Mark of the Wild), a battle rez (an incredibly wonderful ability), a regular rez, and plenty of healing spells you can use when you're out of combat. What other tank can do all of that? Not a one.

Be a Bear!

Put it all together and what do you got? Hands down, the best tanking class in the whole damn World of Warcraft - though the paladins are liable to fight that particular theory. When you compare all your extra benefits to their silly self-buffs, however, it's easy to see why you should be a bear.

Blizzard's New Bear Look

For the first time since the game began, Blizzard is finally introducing new skins for bears...but are you pleased with the look?

Night Elf Bears

Tauren Bears