Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12)

Hello there Druids.

I've been heavily considering leveling a druid, because I've always wanted to try out kitty in PvP and Bear tanking in PvE, but my entire guild told me that there is no way a bear can tank raids. 5 mans, sure, but never raids. And that was kinda disheartening, because I would truly love to play a bear tank, but if it locks me out of raid content I really don't think it's worth the leveling process.

But before I made my choice I thought I would write on the forums, just to be sure. So yeah, my question is: Is it possible for a bear to tank raids? Would it require gear above the raid-tier you're tank (like BWL gear to survive MC) or do they follow the gear curve? And if the answer is "it's not possible", then I ask why?

Thank you for reading the post and have a nice day.

I tanked UBRS at lvl 58 (true story), MC in dungeon blues and BWL in a mix of blues and pvp epics(reputation gear). Not only is it possible, it's not a problem. But you have to know what gear to get for effective bear tanking. There are plenty of guides on that here.

It's 100% completely possible for a Druid in Bear Form to tank all current content, BWL might require a lot of gear and consumes. But it is possible and fine to do.
The main reason why you don't see it is, warriors are better at mitigation with last stand and shield wall. We have nothing like that unless you count barkskin, which you can't use in bear form and coming out of bear form in a raid while tanking is suicidal.

You just need to find a guild that'd let you do it, hell if you're going feral dps which is somewhat "wanted" for it's crit aura, you'll probably be expected to OT inside of raids on some fights that require a lot of OTs. Though this is probably not much of a problem anymore if tanks are geared they can handle more adds like say on Garr, Sulfuron, Majordomo, Lucifron, Gehennas in MC require mutiple targets to be tanked, but the fact is with better geared healers and tanks OTs aren't much wanted anymore. More dps instead of a feral tank would mean faster clear times and that is the only thing that matters to guilds anymore.

I've only tanked MC and dungeons with my bear form, but I've seen and healed other druids in BWL & ZG.

Bear tanks are the 2nd most effective overall tanks. I haven't played one in this server, but did do so in retail years ago. The mechanics are fairly similar to warrior. Rage use, single target delayed high threat move (HS/Maul), Demo shout/roar. The real issue you face is loss in avoidance due to not being able to parry as well as consistently taking more damage due to no blocking, and not being crit immune. Having a ton of armor and HP partially compensates but not quite.

I know there are a few ferals out there raiding all content. They aren't many and some guilds don't have any, but with those I've had a talk, it seems the expectation is for you to be flexible and do both cat dps and bear tanking, and when tanking for you to understand warriors get the MT job. There are some fights where you get the upper hand though, like Jin'do due to bear form making you immune to hex.

All in all, very possible, provided you do your best
Protection/Retribution paladins can't say the same in current raiding environment.

26/3/2016. The day I joined the Druid ranks.

Thanks a lot for your responses, guys. I can't wait to get a druid to high level and try it out. Let the leveling begin!

Ziru wrote:26/3/2016. The day I joined the Druid ranks.

Thanks a lot for your responses, guys. I can't wait to get a druid to high level and try it out. Let the leveling begin!

Best of luck. If you can revisit this thread every now and then and post your experiences and impressions as you level up and try out bear tanking, I'd be glad to read it. I'm doing that myself with shaman tanking.

Dr. Doom wrote:

Ziru wrote:26/3/2016. The day I joined the Druid ranks.

Thanks a lot for your responses, guys. I can't wait to get a druid to high level and try it out. Let the leveling begin!

Best of luck. If you can revisit this thread every now and then and post your experiences and impressions as you level up and try out bear tanking, I'd be glad to read it. I'm doing that myself with shaman tanking.

You want me to do that? Because I will. But only if you do the same, Shaman tanking seems really interesting.

As a bear leveling up you are > than a warrior in tanking low level instances. You will have much more armor and an easier time at aggro than they will.

Enjoy the fun.

Ziru wrote:You want me to do that? Because I will. But only if you do the same, Shaman tanking seems really interesting.

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=33076
I keep a sort of log here, it includes most of the work I've done, calculating talents, and asking for feedback, talk about what spells to use or not use, and how dungeons have gone so far (I'm level 31 with my shaman at the moment).

Ziru wrote:26/3/2016. The day I joined the Druid ranks.

Thanks a lot for your responses, guys. I can't wait to get a druid to high level and try it out. Let the leveling begin!

You will get a lot of haters, people who want you to regret playing a druid because it is sub-optimal. Don't let them get to you. I raid every week as feral in both MC and BWL, as both tank and dps. I tank raganaros regularly, and my dps falls in about the middle of the pack (ahead of virtually all of our hunters). PvP same story, come Wednesday I will be rank 10.I'm not saying this to brag I'm saying it because people will tell you that it's not possible to play end-game as feral, and they're wrong. You have to work twice as hard to get half as far, but there is no part of the game that will be shut off to you because you are a feral druid. Good luck mate and always come by the forums with questions.