Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12)

Hello, Nostalrius!

I'm preparing to reroll on the PvE server and having a bit of a tough time in deciding which class to play. I'm really torn between Shaman, Druid and Paladin. I plan on primarily healing at 60, but I'm thinking it might benefit me a lot to also be able to tank during my gearing process.

If I play Druid or Shaman, I would be playing Horde and I hear that on the current server it is extremely tough to get a 5man group because of how low the tank population is. As such, I'm thinking that Druid might be the better option but I'm wondering how viable tanking is on non-hardcore content. I've read about the 0/30/21 tank/heal build that pretty much lets you do either role and that's what I'd plan on playing.

I have a few questions that I'd love some answers to, if anybody has the time or inclination to help me out!

1. How viable is druid tanking for 5-mans?

2. Does the server typically accept Druids as tanks for their groups at 60, or is there a lot of skepticism? (Specifically for 5-mans and UBRS)

3. How is Druid threat generation in both Single Target and AoE pulls?

4. Does the 0/30/21 build actually work to allow me to play both roles effectively? Can that build take me into MC and perform well?

5. How is the solo-play with that build, or similar builds?


Thank you so much for anybody who gives me some solid insight into this decision.

Cheers!

That spec 30/21 is hybrid spec that lets you switch to be heal and tank, in 10mans. In 5mans you take shit lot of dmg and if your dps is too low its hard you to keep agro, so its better to take +10% physical dmg and imp thorns from balance and furor from resto, go rest for feral. In 5mans that 30/21 is not good, you then slack on good talents that helps you and your healer and if you go to UBRS as OT, you tank only trash packs and rend, you also need to have good tank gear with lot of dodge+armor 10k+. Then that 20/31 is good in URBS. Once you have got decent gear from 5mans for resto, go for resto 24/0/27 and forget 0/20/31, its very rare to you got spot as OT in UBRS or even MC and to there you just need good gear and expensive fr gear.

ppl have own opinions, this is from my experience and what i have seen.

Etchings wrote:1. How viable is druid tanking for 5-mans?

Totally.

Etchings wrote:2. Does the server typically accept Druids as tanks for their groups at 60, or is there a lot of skepticism? (Specifically for 5-mans and UBRS)

Yes.

Etchings wrote:3. How is Druid threat generation in both Single Target and AoE pulls?

Massive single target because maul threat scales with damage (unlike warrior abilities). It looks like they fixed demo roar threat, so that is effective on aoe pulls along with swipe. It's not as good as paladins, however.

Etchings wrote:4. Does the 0/30/21 build actually work to allow me to play both roles effectively? Can that build take me into MC and perform well?

It works effectively, however you won't be topping any heal meters with it.

Etchings wrote:5. How is the solo-play with that build, or similar builds?

Solo play is fine, although you lose some efficiency from the lack of LotP

varjopuoli wrote:That spec 30/21 is hybrid spec that lets you switch to be heal and tank, in 10mans. In 5mans you take shit lot of dmg and if your dps is too low its hard you to keep agro, so its better to take +10% physical dmg and imp thorns from balance and furor from resto, go rest for feral. In 5mans that 30/21 is not good, you then slack on good talents that helps you and your healer and if you go to UBRS as OT, you tank only trash packs and rend, you also need to have good tank gear with lot of dodge+armor 10k+. Then that 20/31 is good in URBS. Once you have got decent gear from 5mans for resto, go for resto 24/0/27 and forget 0/20/31, its very rare to you got spot as OT in UBRS or even MC and to there you just need good gear and expensive fr gear.

ppl have own opinions, this is from my experience and what i have seen.

I tanked every 5 man, MT'd UBRS, and offtanked randomly in MC for months with 30/21, no problems.

I keep trying to find the old 0/30/21 build but all the links I come across are dead. Does anyone have a working one? I too keep hearing about this spec online but have yet to see it.

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#0zZxhxscbdLVgc0xo

There's a lot of points you can move around depending on your preferences. (nature's grasp, primal fury, feline swiftness, etc). The important bits are nature's swiftness, thick hide, and heart of the wild.

Etchings wrote:1. How viable is druid tanking for 5-mans?

They're excellent for 5-mans. I prefer them over warriors for dungeons. Druids deal really good DPS when tanking, have very decent AoE aggro, and bring some nice utility with MOTW, Rebirth, healing themselves between packs etc. Best dungeon tanks IMO.

2. Does the server typically accept Druids as tanks for their groups at 60, or is there a lot of skepticism? (Specifically for 5-mans and UBRS)

Absolutely. You'd have a hard time getting a raid spot as a druid tank (though not impossible), but for dungeons, people have no qualms bringing a druid. I leveled a feral druid to 60 when the PvP server opened, doing tons of dungeons in the process, and literally nobody ever complained.

3. How is Druid threat generation in both Single Target and AoE pulls?

Pretty good, though you can have some trouble if the first Maul misses. If it doesn't, you're golden. Swipe is great for AoE, although people still have to be a bit careful.

4. Does the 0/30/21 build actually work to allow me to play both roles effectively? Can that build take me into MC and perform well?

Yes, but there's little point. Once you start healing, you'll never be asked to switch to tanking. Having a hybrid build is great if one of the roles is DPS because then you can switch to that whenever you don't need to do your main job. A raid is never gonna swap a healer for a tank, that just doesn't happen. You bring the tanks and healers you need, and then you fill the raid with DPS. A guild would never ask a healer to switch to tanking.

Eventually you might cut healers for more DPS when the guild's gear gets good enough, but you don't really start cutting tanks. However, an offtank will sometimes have nothing to tank, and that's where it's great to be able to do decent DPS which other tanks can't really. Even fury warriors on offtank duty will need a full gear swap to be able to DPS, and they can't do that mid-fight. A bear tank in cat form does alright DPS.

You should tank dungeons until you have pre-raid BiS for resto, which a tank would have no trouble obtaining before guilds begin raiding, and then just switch to healing if that's what you want to do. Rest assured there'll be no lack of demand for resto druids, it's probably the most sought-after class for raid guilds as so few play it.

This is the spec to use for leveling/dungeons, allowing you to tank in groups and do your soloing in cat form. Once you're done leveling/soloing and just need to tank dungeons all day, switch to this.

20 30 40 50

5. How is the solo-play with that build, or similar builds?

Feral is one of the better leveling specs overall, but your DPS will start to fall behind a little around level 40 and then get progressively worse towards 60. It's a fairly gear-dependent spec since you rely so much on strength and crit chance, and if you can't get behind the mob for Shred, your DPS will be ass. It's still fine for leveling, but it becomes a bit awkward because kills take longer. From 1-40, it's probably the third best leveling spec right after BM hunter and affliction warlock. You just plow through a few mobs, heal yourself up, and then regenerate the mana back while you kill a few more mobs. You can kill elites using bear form. It's great.

you tank only trash packs and rend, you also need to have good tank gear with lot of dodge+armor 10k+.

Dont get scared of these numbers; they seem quite unrealistic.
My tanking items include loot from BWL & MC, yet somehow I can hardly reach 8k armor selfbuffed - surely you can tank lot more stuff than trash packs & rend, even before having gear that has +10k armor. Or all mobs I tanked so far were just misinformed & forgot to kill me.

The 0/30/21 build is viable but there's no reason to play it. If your spec can tank, that's what you'll be doing 99.9% of the time in groups. You're better off just taking all the feral talents, that helps you quest better as well. The whole resto tree will go completely unused. In groups, you'll always be the tank.

You demo roar, shred, faerie fire as many mobs as possible, rinse and repeat.

You can easily tank 5-mans. Raids usually won't allow you to tank unless it is Off-tanking adds.