PVE Feral Druid Tank Guide (TBC 2.4.3)

Welcome to the Feral Druid tank guide for World of Warcraft the Burning Crusade 2.4.3. In this guide, you will learn about playing a Feral Druid in dungeons and raids. The guide includes Talents, Gems, Enchantments, Gameplay & Skill rotation tips.

Talents

Below we have a standard spec for tanking, which has all of the required survivability and rage talents. Not much room for changes, but points can be transferred from Intensity to Savage Fury for more DPS as an off-tank. Natural Shapeshifter is also an option to save some mana during pulls (see Rotation section).

Gems

• Meta: Tenacious Earthstorm Diamond or Powerful Earthstorm Diamond
• Red: Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst
• Yellow: Rigid Lionseye or Thick Lionseye to meet requirement, afterwards just fill with Red / Blue
• Blue: Solid Empyrean Sapphire

Note: gemming heavily depends on your current gear and role in a raid. Main tanks should go for pure Stamina using Solid Empyrean Sapphire. Then again, a good tank usually has several item sets for different encounters. If you are just starting to gear up or an off-tank – go for a mix of Agility and Stamina with Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst as it will help you to deal more DPS when it’s needed.

Enchants

• Head – Glyph of the Defender
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Warding or Greater Inscription of the Knight
• Cloak – Greater Agility or Dodge
• Chest – Exceptional Stats
• Bracers – Fortitude
• Gloves – Superior Agility
• Legs – Nethercleft Leg Armor
• Boots – Boar’s Speed over Fortitude
• Weapon – Major Agility

Enchanters can also benefit from Stats on both of the Rings Note: procs like Mongoose don’t work while shapeshifted, therefore we use a +stat enchant

Professions

Leatherworking is a great option. Not only is it useful for your group with Drums of Battle & Drums of War, but you can also craft armor on almost every stage of your progression.

Jewelcrafting can be used to create Figurine – Empyrean Tortoise (will be replaced) and epic gems. Also, jewelcrafting is a profitable profession.

Enchanting will mainly be used to make your armor enchants and unique ring enchants, like Stats.

Gameplay & Rotations

Rotation

Keeping Demoralizing Roar and Faerie Fire (Feral) on the targets is essential. As for keeping up the threat – always use Mangle (Bear) and try to maintain 5 stacks of Lacerate. Use Maul as a single target rage-burner (over 60 rage). While pulling multiple enemies, it would benefit to use HoTs on yourself before the pull, a combination of Regrowth + Rejuvenation + Lifebloom (don’t forget to get hit, so that the HoT would start healing – that’s the moment you generate threat from it). Some players have suggested using Hurricane and Moonfire. Once in Bear form – use Swipe to maintain the threat. Furor talent will provide you with 10 rage to maintain the threat after shapeshifting. Of course, Growl and Challenging Roar as a last resort, once the enemy has switched to someone else.

Consumables

• Flask: Flask of Fortification
• Elixir: Elixir of Major Agility or Elixir of Mastery combined with Elixir of Major Fortitude or Elixir of Ironskin
• Potion: Super Healing Potion, Elemental protection potions
• Healthstones
• Food: Warp Burger, Grilled Mudfish, Spicy Crawdad or Talbuk Steak
• Drums (LW): Drums of Battle, Drums of War

Stat Priority

First of all, don’t go for items that have Parry Rating, or Block Rating. If you have such items – replaced them ASAP, as they do not contribute to your survivability at all. Druids can’t parry or block. It’s hard to single out a priority list so we will divide the list of needed stats into two groups.

The first group – required

A combination of Stamina, Armor and Defense Rating for survivability.

• Armor cap is 31,672 against level 70 mobs and is 35,880 against bosses (level 73). That’s a 75% damage reduction.
• Defense rating cap is 415 (total Defense, you will need to add 154 Defense Rating) which equals 2,6% crit reduction – leaving you immune to critical strikes.

Agility is good on the main tank stat and is even better on an off-tank.

Expertise is used to reduce enemy chances of dodging or parrying your attacks (which results in more damage and treat).

Hit cap is 9%.

Dodge Rating will also be useful, no need to focus on it though.

The second group – optimal

• Crit rating – for more damage and treat
• Strength – also increases damage and scales with buffs
• Armor Penetration – a great stat to increase damage, can be found on higher-tier gear