Bear Tanking 101

New to tanking? Haven't done it in a while and need or refresher course? Or maybe you're just willing to take whatever advice you can get. Whatever it is, perhaps you could benefit from a little Bear Tanking 101.

Pulling

Tanking always starts with the pull. This is what starts the fight and it's essential. There are, in the main, two different ways to pull: bring targets toward you, or rush up to them. Most bears achieve this through Faeire Fire (to pull back), or Feral Charge (to rush right in). Either way, even when you use your charge you should still hit your targets with Faerie Fire for threat-building purposes.

How you pull depends on the rest of the room and the placement of the mobs. If other mobs are likely to pat toward you while you're fighting, you want to pull your targets back toward you. In some cases you might even need to move forward, pull your targets and move backward to reduce possible interference from added enemies.

Placement

At all times, face what you're fighting. Only when absolutely necessary (because you literally have to run away quite quickly) will you ever turn your back on a target. This is because you'll take very heavy damage if you ever turn your back to a mob - it also reduces the effectiveness of your attacks (the only one that will even work, in fact, is Swipe). There may be times when you're required to kite a target around (to kite is to move. This means you'll maintain threat and keep up attacks even as you move the target from place to place around the move), but even so face what you fight.

Unless there are special circumstances involved, it's a good rule of thumb to run in front of your group to pull and attack any target. Then, turn around so that the target is facing you, with the rest of your group arrayed behind the mob. Even trash mobs might do damaging attacks that could seriously harm your group, so try to always place yourself so that you're the only one in front of the enemy (or enemies).

Building and Holding Threat

Being a bear tank is no walk in the park, and you should be doing something every single second. There's no time when all your cooldowns will be spent all at once, so you can always attack or cast a debuff. If you aren't busy as hell, you aren't doing your job. There are lots of little tricks you can use to build and hold threat, so learn them all to tank successfully.

Mitigation

Crisp pulls, good placement and threat management are all part of tanking, but don't ever forget about your mitigation. Even when a healer or multiple healers are assigned only to you, it's possible that you'll die. Keep one eye on your own health even as you watch your threat meter, keep up your damaging attacks and pay attention to the mob you're fighting. Remember, bears can take potions, use warlock stones, pop trinkets and take advantage of important abilities such as Barskin and Frenzied Regeneration. You've got healers, sure, but you've also got personal responsibility to keep yourself up. That's why you have certain abilities and items in the first place.

Leading

A tank is very much a leader in any sort of group. This means you have to be aware of everyone else even as you're aware of yourself. As a tank, you will very often find yourself in front of the group and controlling the pulls. Pay attention! Make sure your dps players and healers have mana before you start a new fight, and pop a Ready Check before boss fights to be sure that everyone is prepared and well-armed for what's to come. This doesn't mean you should move at a snail's pace, however. Maintaining a good speed through dungeons and raids is part of your responsibility as a tank, so always be pushing forward. Just remember to include pauses to be sure everyone's up to speed before you fight.

Be Prepared!

Whatever you do, don't show up for a group or a raid unprepared. Make sure you've got potions, bandages and food so that you're capable of self-healing. You might not always have an excellent healer or a friendly mage, so always have what you need to take care of yourself even if you're just going on a quick dungeon run that should be a cake walk. Keep your regeants stocked and double-check to be sure you've got on the right gear (everyone's accidentally walked into a raid wearing their fishing pole or some other item, but you don't want to start a fight that way). Also, check your own buffs to be sure you're good to go before everything begins.

Building Your Threat

First things first: you are a bear. This means will always have more trouble building and maintaining your threat than warriors, paladins, death knights...and every single dps in the raid. With your spec and your skill, however, you can still tank and get the job done.

It can be very frustrating to struggle with maintaining threat, but remember that every tank has the same problem (it's just more acute for bears). It's dps-class players who need to watch their own aggression and achieve the delicate balance between doing a lot of damage and not pulling threat. Sometimes, you may lose threat through no real fault of your own. Remind the dps that their job isn't just spamming AoE or throwing all their best tricks as fast as they can - it's about not pulling off you.

As long as you're doing everything right, everything else is up to them.

Spec for Damage

Building your threat begins with your spec. The more damage you do, the more threat you're going to build. Naturalist 5/5 (resto tree) increases your damage in all forms by 10%, not bad when you should be putting 11 points in your resto tree already. Savage Fury 2/2 increases the damage of your Mangle and Maul by a whopping 20%. Predatory Strikes 3/3 increases your damage by 150% of your level and 20% of any attack power on your weapon - this is an absolute must-have. King of the Jungle 3/3 increases your attack power by 15% when you Enrage (which you should be doing every minute). Rend and Tear 5/5 increases the damage of your Maul on bleeding targets by 20%.

If you spec yourself to do more damage, you will - and you will have less trouble maintaining your threat. Unfortunately, maintaining threat as a bear is a full-time occupation...and there's lots more to learn.

Using Your Taunts

Okay, you've got two taunts - and neither one of them is all that wonderful. But they're what you've got, so learn to use them to their fullest.

Growl
Instant, 30 yard range, 8 second cooldown
Taunts the target to attack you, but has no effect if the target is already attacking you.

Challenging Roar
Instant, 3 minute cooldown (see Glyphs)
Forces all nearby enemies to focus attacks on you for 6 seconds.

You should always use Growl as part of your pull (more on that later), but it's going to be pretty ineffectual for the rest of the fight unless you find yourself losing threat. If you do lose threat, immediately cast Growl to get it back.

Challenging Roar, on the other hand, can be dicey. If you're in a raid situation it's likely another tank will be fooling with another mob somewhere nearby. Casting this taunt could cause them to loose aggression and then your biggest problem is no longer losing threat (you'll want to lose the threat from the rest of the raid at that point). If you're tanking everything there is to tank, however, or if shit starts to hit the fan, go ahead and cast this AoE taunt. Better to have all the mobs than to lose every target.

Using Your Debuffs

There's more than one way to create damage, and you can do more than taunt to capture the attention of a mob. You should be using your debuffs at every available opportunity, even before they wear off in some cases. If you're having trouble with threat, popping your debuffs can give you a little extra boost.


Demoralizing Roar
Decreases all nearby enemies' attack power for thirty seconds. Amount of damage determined by ability level (at level 80, it's -408).

Faerie Fire (Feral)
Decreases the target's armor by 5% for 5 minutes.


Both these debuffs should always be a part of your initial pull. It's best to pop your Faerie Fire in a macro with Growl, then cast your demoralizing roar as the mob nears. The roar is a great way to gain the attention of all enemies at once - a quick swipe or two helps you ensure that you have more than their attention. Any AoE you can use is helpful if you're tanking multiple targets, and demoralizing roar actually helps build threat - so pop it often. Faerie fire lasts for five minutes, but you want to pop it at every opportunity. It does damage and it helps you maintain threat - so keep this one close to your main action bar.

Use Your Rotation

Okay, so you need to pull with Growl and Faerie Fire. You need to pop Demoralizing Roar as soon as the mob is within range. You want to keep up your debuffs as much as possible and you want to keep checking your threat to be sure that you're holding well. So when the hell do you get to damage?

Make your debuffs a regular part of your rotation, and keep your damage-building abilities and bleed debuffs up at all times. A good bear should be clicking or pressing buttons like crazy, and that's no joke. If there's a second where you don't have something to click, then you're failing.

An AoE mob rotation is going to end up playing out something like this (side-by-side abilities are macroed together):

Faerie Fire/Growl
Demoralizing Roar
Swipe
Swipe
Maul
Mangle
Maul
Swipe
Swipe
Maul
Demoralizing Roar
Mangle
Maul
Swipe
Swipe

Get the idea? You should absolutely have Glyph of Maul regardless (see Glyphs), so you should have little trouble tanking two targets at once. If you're tanking three or more enemies at once, you're going to want to switch targets. Watch your threat meter - when you have a decent amount of threat built up on your first target, switch to your third target but keep your rotation the same.

If you're tanking a single target, you can pretty much forget about your Swipe. It doesn't do a whole lot of damage, and you'll benefit much more from your Lacerate. Keeping the same pull and debuff principles in place, your rotation will wind up looking more like this:

Growl/Faerie Fire
Demoralizing Roar
Mangle
Maul
Lacerate
Lacerate
Maul
Mangle
Lacerate
Lacerate
Mangle
Maul
Faerie Fire
Demoralizing Roar
Mangle
Maul
Lacerate
Lacerate

Get the idea?

Going Berserk

You must not forget the best bear ability of all: Berserk. This burst damage, AoE mother is so badass, you've just got to have it - so spec for it. Glyph of Berserk is absolutely wonderful for threat-building - so get it. Whether you're fighting a larger mob (no more than three, because this ability only hits three targets) or a single target, go Berserk when you can. There are some pulls where you'll want to time this out, saving Berserk for certain occassions. For instance, some bosses may offer a buff where damage is increased. There are also times when the raid will use Heroism to boost damage. When possible, save your Berserk for these occassions. Otherwise, the dps will find it all too easy to pull threat right off you.

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.

Best Bear Enchants and Enhancements

You've got the gear, but is it good enough? With the best enhancements and enchants, you can take even good gear to the level of greatness. Always soup up your gear even when you don't have that perfect piece. You should constantly be padding your stats with the very best in gems, enchants and enhancement items.

Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector
Binds when picked up
Requires Level 80
Requres Argent Crusade - Revered
Adds 37 stamina and 20 defense rating to a head slot item
150 gold

Greater Inscription of the Gladiator
Binds when picked up
Requires Level 70
Adds 30 stamina and 15 resilience to a shoulder slot item
10,000 honor

Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle
Binds when picked up
Requires Level 80
Required Sons of Hodir - Exalted
Adds 20 dodge rating and 15 defense rating to shoulder armor
100 gold

Enchant Chest - Super Health Reagents: Infinite Dust (20), Greater Cosmic Essence (4)

Permanently enchant chest armor to increase health by 275. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats
Reagents: Dream Shard (4), Abyss Crystal (4)
Permanently enchant chest armor to increase all stats by 10. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Enchant Boots - Greater Fortitude
Reagents: Lesser Cosmic Essence (3), Infinite Dust (3)
Permanently enchant boots to increase Stamina by 22. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Frosthide Leg Armor
Requires Level 80
Permanently increase a pair of pants by 55 stamina and 22 agility.

Enchant Bracers - Major Stamina
Reagents: Greater Cosmic Essence (4), Abyss Crystal
Permanently enchant bracers to increase Stamina by 40. Requires a level 60 or higher item

Enchant Gloves - Major Agility

Reagents: Greater Cosmic Essence (4), Dream Shard
Permanently enchant gloves to increase your Agility by 20. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Heavy Borean Armor Kit
Requires Level 70
Permanently increase stamina to a pair of gloves by 18.

Enchant Cloak - Major Agility
Reagents: Infinite Dust (8), Greater Cosmic Essence (2), Dream Shard (2)
Permanently enchant a cloak to increase Agility by 22. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Enchant Weapon - Mongoose
Reagents: Void Crystal (6), Large Prismatic Shard (10), Greater Planar Essence (8), Arcane Dust (40)
Permanently enchant a melee weapon to occasionally increase Agility by 120 and attack speed slightly. Requires a level 35 or higher item.

Enchant Weapon - Mongoose has often been the source of debate among feral druids. Before post-Wrath patches, Mongoose didn't even work for bears. Now, however, the effect does work and works well. The +35 Agility enchant is still widely used by many bears, but I personally find Mongoose to be the superior enchant.

Defense and resilience don't do a whole lot for bears, unless the player is into PvP. Bears who use their talents points correctly don't have to worry about defense stacking, which makes some of the bonuses from these items superfluous. Any enhancements and enchants offering stamina and dodge (or agility), however, are to be desired. I've personally found that the above item enhancements offer the best stat results for tanking bears. Check me out on wow-heroes to see what enchants and enhancenents I personally use.

Crafted Epics Can Help

You don't always have to grind rep, farm honor or wait for lucky rolls to get that epic gear. Bears can always get a little bit of help from the leatherworkers. Turn to crafted epics. It may take a little extra time to farm mats, grind gold and find someone with just the right recipe, but it's better than waiting for a good group, a lucky drop and random chance.

Polar Vest Binds on equip Chest 578 Armor +169 Stamina +115 Frost Resistance Requires Level 80 Red Rocket Yellow Socket Blue Socket Socket Bonus +12 Stamina

Durable Nerubide Cape Binds on equip Back 150 Armor +75 Stamina +41 Strength Requires Level 80 Increases dodge rating by 49. Increases expertise rating by 21.

Trollwoven Girdle Binds on equip Waist 317 Armor +72 Stamina +66 Agility Requires Level 80 Increases attack power by 132. Increases expertise rating by 38.

Trollwoven Spaulders Binds on equip Waist 423 Armor +79 Stamina +72 Agility Requires Level 80 Increases attack power by 114. Increases expertise rating by 28.

Footpads of Silence Binds on equip Feet 406 Armor +64 Stamina +69 Agility Requires Level 80 Blue Socket Red Socket Socket bonus +6 Agility Increases hit rating by 48. Improves critical strike rating by 56. Increases attack power by 114.

*recipe drops in Ulduar

Death-warmed Belt Binds on equip Waist 333Armor +73 Stamina +69 Agility Requires Level 80 Blue Socket Red Socket Socket bonus +6 Agility Increases hit rating by 40. Improves critical strike rating by 56. Increases attack power by 112.

*recipe drops in Ulduar

Bear PvP Gear

Not quite raid-ready? With a few pieces of PvP gear, you might be soon be prepared for bigger instances.

Wintergrasp

Titan-Forged Belt of Triumph Binds when picked up Waist 325 Armor +67 Agility +85 Stamina Requires Level 80 Blue Socket Socket Bonus +4 Agility Improves resilience rating by 49. Increases armor penetration rating by 42.

Titan-Forged Boots of Triumph Binds when picked up Feet 388 Armor +58 Agility +76 Stamina Requires Level 80 Yellow Socket Socket Bonus +4 Resilience Rating Improves resilience rating by44. Increases attack power by 66. Increases armor penetration rating by36.

Titan-Forged Leather Helm of Triumph Binds when picked up Head 458 Armor +73 Agility +103 Stamina Requires Level 80 Meta Socket Red Socket Socket Bonus +8 Critical Strike Rating Improves resilience rating by59. Increases attack power by 58. Increases armor penetration rating by 44.

Titan-Forged Leather Tunic of Triumph Binds when picked up Chest 578 Armor +84 Agility +115 Stamina Requires Level 80 Red Socket Yellow Socket Socket bonus +6 Resilience Rating Improves resilience rating by66. Increases attack power by 102. Increases armor penetration rating by 51.

Honor Points

Hateful Gladiator's Armwraps of Triumph Binds when picked up Chest 247 Armor +50 Agility +57 Stamina Requires Level 80 Improves critical strike rating by33. Improves resilience rating by 32. Increases attack power by 50.

Hateful Gladiator's Belt of Triumph Binds when picked up Waist 325 Armor +67 Agility +85 Stamina Requires Level 80 Blue Socket Socket Bonus +4 Agility Improves critical strike rating by 36. Improves resilience rating by 44. Increases armor penetration rating by 66.

Hateful Gladiator's Boots of Triumph Binds when picked up Feet 388 Armor +58 Agility +76 Stamina Requires Level 80 Yellow Socket Socket Bonus +4 Resilience Rating Improves critical strike rating by 36. Improves resilience rating by44. Increases attack power by 66. Increases armor penetration rating by 66.

Rep Gear for Bears

The fact of the matter is, you aren't going to be tanking anything if you haven't got the gear. You may not win the loot rolls, but you can always grind the reputation. This rep gear will tide you over until you upgrade:

Argent Crusade

Cloak of Holy Extermination Binds when picked up Back 140 Armor +39 Agility +57 Stamina Requires Level 78 Requires Argent Crusade - Honored Increases attack power by 52. Increases armor penetration rating by 25.

Boots of the Neverending Path Binds when picked up Feet 388 Armor +51 Agility +49 Stamina Requires Level 80 Requires Argent Crusade - Exalted Improves hit rating by 66. Increases attack power by 122.

The Kalu'ak

Whale-Skin Breastplate Binds when picked up Chest 474 Armor +38 Agility +57 Stamina Requires Level 76 Requires The Kalu'ak - Honored. Improves haste rating by55. Increases attack power by 114.

The Kirin Tor

Stave of Shrouded Mysteries Binds when picked up Two-Hand 392 - 589 Damage (169.1 damage per second) Speed 2.90 1600 feral attack power 315 Armor +117 Stamina Requires Level 80 Requires The Kirin Tor - Revered. Increases your dodge rating by56. Increases attack power by 155.

The Sons of Hodir

Spaulders of Frozen Knives Binds when picked up Chest 395 Armor +34 Agility +51 Stamina Requires Level 78 Requires The Sons of Hodir -Honored. Improves haste rating by52. Increases attack power by 100.

Wyrmrest Accord

Dragonfriend Bracers Binds when picked up Chest 247 Armor +49 Agility +38 Stamina Requires Level 80 Requires The Wyrmrest Accord -Exalted. Improves critical strike rating by38. Increases attack power by 100.