my thoughts on reaching noob tankage status

[Oilslick]

1)  Crit immunity is cake!  I managed to get it by socketing a couple resil/stam gems instead of def/stam gems as +4 resil is roughly equal to +6 def rating is roughly equal to 0.1% crit immunity (2.6 combined from resil/def is the goal if i understand correctly).  This meant that in nothing but greens, a couple blue reg dungeon drops picked up on the long road to 70, and just 12 resil, i hit crit immunity.  I can't wait to get just one piece of pvp gear and resocket the uber-cheap res/stam gems i have in my gear now.

2)  CE rep grinding stinks...if you guys think it's tough getting groups for heroic sv, you should try finding groups for reg sometime. 

3)  Despite being crit immune, the punks in heroic blood furnace hit HARD!  I don't know how much armor is recommended for that place for a druid tank, but whatever it is - I'm not there yet.  A note to other noob druid tanks: hold off on heroic blood furnace while doing the initial gearup.  LOL

[Arcdelad]

LOL...at least you are trying man...that matters a lot =)

When I was repping up for the earthwarden, we hadnt even set foot in karazhan (in fact, the day I got my mace was the very first kara run for our guild)...the schedule was filled with 5 man NORMAL mode instances...if you can imagine, our schedule was filled with steamvaults, shattered halls, and botanica instead of TK: The Eye, SSC, and BT

I put up a SV run like 4-5 times a week until I hit exalted...gren, ty, and some others ran it with me and I burned them all out on it I think lol

being crit immune IS easy......................when you have crappy druid gear =P The better gear you get, the harder it becomes to stay that way...none of the tiered pieces or any of the good boots, belts, or bracers have any +DEF on them...the two best weapons and those you should be using situationally DONT have any +DEF on them...so...enjoy that now while your gear is still low level =)

I dont know how much armor is the min, but I tank heroics with 30-32k depending on what trink / weapon im using...you should be at least 24-26k im guessing though...

[Rocknlock]

I'm in the same boat as oil, seeing whats the best/easiest way to start a tanking set. I was lookin to get mats last night for the clefthoof set but noticed I'd be gaining hp and armor but losing a lot of AP, crit and dodge. So I held off till I could get more info about druids. Is there a lvl at which ap/crit/dodge should at?

[Tolwen]

this is for like BT, Hyjal and stuff but was the only one i knew of
(Quoted from Arc)

Bear Form - tankage

Recommended Minimum for Twilight End Game raiding:

STA - 20k fully raid buffed (imp, fort, kings, motw, food, pot)
Armor - 28k
Dodge - 41%
AP - 2250 (you gotta build aggro you know =)


Optimal for the content we are pursuing:

STA - 22k-23k
Armor - 32k (this is the maximum - at this point you mitigate 75% of all physical damage that hits you)
Dodge - 46-50%
AP - 2800

you can find the original link here: http://forum.twilightonalex.com/index.php?topic=5158.0

[Oilslick]

That's one of the issues i'm dealing with right now rock...

There's some resocketing and chanting i can do right off the bat to boost survivability alot, but i'd lose ap.

Basically what i've found grinding out and pugging these regs is that anyone over about 500 to 600 dps is really really a challenge to hold aggro at this point.  That's where the earthwarden comes in.

I'm also running into the problem where the more tankish i become, the harder it is to do anything solo...again, a problem that should be helped immensely when i get the earthwarden.


So...solution i propose is we run sv together.  Alot.  

[Oilslick]

Think when the servers get back up i'm gonna resocket, rechant, then either try to knock out dailies or put myself in lfg while upping my fishing skill.  I want a pair of the 2 rings.  (sorry, i have no idea how to link it...but the epic non unique boe +22 to stats ring...turns out it comes from the fishing daily as a very rare drop).

[Arcdelad]

the best and most effective means of starting a tank set would be crafted gear...the clefthoof set, the sylin' hat, the belt of natural power from ty - all top notch, in fact that belt is THE best in the game.

http://www.emmerald.net/Bear_Mitigation/Head.html

This is the best druid gear site out there, bar none. Read it, live it, love it.

As with any class, its a balancing act of stats, but honestly crit and AP should be your LAST WORRY imo...bears gain threat better than any other tank class if you are on a mangle, lacerate, swipe rotation, maul...naturally if your trying to tank with gren, mel, and panzer at THAT gear level your screwed, but for people in a similar stituation as you youll be fine...dont worry about AP or crit...focus on STA, dodge, and armor...

to tank kara im thinking your stats should look something like:
30-35% dodge
17-18k health (buffed)
24-26k armor

just throwing those out there...thats just my best guess thinking backwards...

right now I am at:
46% dodge
21k health (buffed)
32k armor (cap)

For mitigation stat effectiveness, look at:

Used attribute values for Mitigation Points are:

Stat   Value
+1 Agility   3.5344
+1 Stamina   4.2454
+1 Expertise   0.9527
+1 Defense   2.3541
+1 Dodge   2.4912
+1 Resilience   1.2412
+1 Armor   0.5043
+1 Armor Bonus   0.0917
+1 Health   0.2748

You can see that one point of STA and AGI contribute a lot more than other stats...

In terms of AP we are lucky becuase bear form inherently increases your AGI, which also ups your AP, and AGI is one of the stats you should be stacking, so youll get the AP without even trying. As a bear threat generation shouldnt be an issue.

[Arcdelad]

If you are struggling to solo remember that (right now) druids are no one trick pony...I have main tanked a 25 man raid boss one fight, then dpsed the next boss and come in the top three in DPS...the beauty of being a druid is knowing what stats belong to cat gear and what to bear and keeping two sets on hand...no need to respec...just switch sets =)

EDIT: here is my latest gear sheet too if it helps you guys

[Oilslick]

that's the biggie right now arc w/ the taking longer to solo stuff comment - just too early to have two sets on me, haven't gotten enough drops to pull it off yet.   

As certain gear gets replaced though, the old will most likely be resocketed for kitty dps...it'll come, just takes time.

And i should rephrase...it's not a struggle to solo stuff, it just takes longer.

[Airtotem]

Heroic BF is hard for some reason.  With my druid in full epix, my epic pally healer spent the whole instance just spam healing me the whole time.   IDK what's up with that place.

[Melonni]

I've healed it a handful of times now (H-BF) ... the Adepts in the beginning and scattered along the instance hit REALLY hard, and come in groups of 1-2 (+1-2 casters), the Technicians' bombs explode for like 3500 fire damage, so eating all the bombs (and any melee dps) makes the pulls tougher to heal. And of course, the felguard annihilators at the very end are brutal without a warlock (hunter trap may work too, but would seem less reliable).

It's not an instance I'd recommend for tanks-in-training. 

[Nixphire]

Bleh! I tanked H BF last night starting in the room of the second boss. It was definitly pretty crazy and probably wouldn't have been able to do the boss waves with the 5 with out an off healer and Oil fearing one of them. Didn't find it too horribly hard after that point however, but yes, a few close calls with the 2x fel guards.

[Arcdelad]

I was retired from heroic BF for a long time becuase once gren, myself, lynn, and some others went in there...we didnt have any issues..........until the adds started coming out of the gates on that eyeball boss...as they were coming out, we all tried to target them - but COULDNT...they were non-targetable...

unfortunealy, they had no problems targetting US lol....happened twice I think and then we as a group said **ck it and I reitred from that instance lol

[fiere redfern]

Just to reiterate what Arc said:

As a druid I've two sets of gear - one that focuses on AP/STR/(and to a lesser extent)hit and crit/AGI for DPS, and one that focuses on dodge/AGI/armor and STA for tanking. Defense isn't something I've even glanced at since I hit the def-cap (415). Even if you only have a few pieces of dps gear to swap out, it'd benefit you in the long run to use those instead of going all-tankage. Hit up our LWs for [item]Shadowprowler's Chestguard[/item] and [item]Cobrascale Hood[/item] (Fiere can make the chestpiece, and I think Arc or Tyban can do both) - both of those will do a lot for your DPS starting out.

As for tanking gear, even without the additional white stats, the Heavy Clefthoof set is really the best thing to start out with so that you're def-capped and able to start running heroics. You can pop +agi gems in there, though +sta gems wouldn't be remiss if your HP is a little low. AP and crit aren't all that important for bear-tanking - you just need enough so that you're able to do enough damage per swing to keep the mob's attention on you. AP has the same importance as +hit for tanking - you have to be able to hit the mobs in order to keep their attention on you 

On a different note, hit me up on Fireheart for SV runs when I get back up and running - she has her own reasons for needing CE rep >.<