Can a boomkin tank a heroic?

[Owltoid]

I'm curious if others think a boomkin could tank heroic 5-man instances. The only requirement is that they stay in moonkin form, but can use whichever gems and gear they choose. First, can they survive? Second, can they hold aggro? I'm interested in a 5x boomkin group where aggro can bounce around, but whatever group composition is needed is fine for this exercise (obviously having 4 healers isn't really practical).

[shaeman]

I think wotlk changed the way bonus armour worked on items so I think the panzerkin has fallen by the wayside.

Certainly, anything I've seen relating to panzerkins is all burning crusade related.

Is there any reason you are set on the panzerkin? Any reason why you would want to avoid bear tanking?

[Owltoid]

Other than just seeing if it can be done, no particular reason. I'll likely just have a bear tank, and possibly tree healer, but I'm curious how far 5x moonkin could get. I think they removed the benefits from resilience in PvE (no crit reduction... could be wrong and please correct me if I am) so it probably wouldn't be possible to have a moonkin in full PvP gear tanking 5-man heroics.

[Bigfish]

I think they removed the benefits from resilience in PvE (no crit reduction... could be wrong and please correct me if I am)

That was just a rumor. It still works.

[pinotnoir]

No way a boomkin can tank heroics.

[puppychow]

Its possible on certain bosses imo, just not every single (or the vast majority probably) of them. For example in halls of stone the issue is more AOE tanking and killing than any single mob for the Brann event, so if your team is really, really good at AOE killing AND healing then it would be possible. Of course you wouldnt be able to tank any other boss in HoS including the last one, they hit too hard I think.

Same with violet hold, you may luck out and get some boss combos that are boomkin tankable, but I don't think some would be. Trollgore hits too hard, Eck is kinda squishy but you have to down the boss before him to get to eck, and Rabi hits crazy hard.

Only one way to really find out, go out and do it :)

[elsegundo]

armor bonus is still there. but you wont get stamina bonus like in bear form. also you dont get aggro-rich abilities as in bear form. also you dont get crit mitigation through talents unless you go that far into feral. in which case, why not just go feral?

just try it and tell us how much of the battle is you healing yourself x4.

[weeep]

1. I tanked a few heroics with my shamans team, including such hard-hitting bosses as Trollgore and rhino boss in Gundrak.
2. My boomkins are still in mid-70s, but I see approx. the same armor mitigation as on my shammies: ~50%
3. While I have to keep all my shammies with decent dps gear as every of them has a chance to tank boss, I can use pure stam\mitigation gear on my designated moonkin tank.

So I do not see any reason why properly geared moonkin cant tank heroic bosses. I believe there will be some impossible bosses, but the majority of them should be doable.

[Multibocks]

why bother? Just make one a bear and you can dps to your hearts content...plus with dual-spec coming out you can be feral for instances and boomkin for pvp. I feel you would be resurrecting a lot without a dedicated tank and that's just wasting your time. Unless you enjoy that kind of thing =)

[shaeman]

1. I tanked a few heroics with my shamans team, including such hard-hitting bosses as Trollgore and rhino boss in Gundrak.
2. My boomkins are still in mid-70s, but I see approx. the same armor mitigation as on my shammies: ~50%
3. While I have to keep all my shammies with decent dps gear as every of them has a chance to tank boss, I can use pure stam\mitigation gear on my designated moonkin tank.

So I do not see any reason why properly geared moonkin cant tank heroic bosses. I believe there will be some impossible bosses, but the majority of them should be doable.

The key difference between the shamans and the moonkins is that the shamans armour mitigation doesn't disappear the second they throw a heal.

I can't see this working without a dedicated healer. Even then It is going to be a real struggle.

Might be fun to try it though.

[weeep]

The key difference between the shamans and the moonkins is that the shamans armour mitigation doesn't disappear the second they throw a heal.Of course tanking moonkin does not heal, the other 4 do it.

[Owltoid]

I have put this idea on the backburner and spec'd one druid a tank and one a healer. I may try this down the line, but that will likely only be if I'm bored and seriously outgear the instance.

I'm finding out that a resto druid kicks ass. Wild growth is much better than chain heal, being able to heal while running is nice, though missing fear protection is a huge disadvantage.

I'm finding out that feral druid tanking is decent, but nothing compared to the easy mode of a pally tank. The nice part is that everyone has fairly high armor (for non heroics) so if a mob goes after a moonkin or tree then they can take a couple hits and wild growth helps. Also, 3x typhoons gets them off the group and back to near the tank pretty nicely.

[genocyde]

I took a swing at balance tanking, I decided until my team is seriously overgeared it just isn't worth it. My bear has gone an entire boss fight without taking a hit and puts out about 2k dps on short burst fights and about 1.5k on longer fights

Threat was not an issue. If you choose to not spec the druid into nature's reach (threat reduction) the only thing that would be able to get aggro off of them is a tank or another DPS that didn't spec threat reduction. As for living. My moonkin can tank normals just fine with no healer but he only has 21k health and 26k armor so heroics are pretty much kill or be killed.

I tried dropping my trees behind the tank and giving them a second or two to get aggro and then burning the boss down as fast as possible but you need some serious DPS for the harder hitting bosses.

Caster bosses like 1st boss in UK and UP are not an issue as they die so fast even if your moonkin dies the boss will as well. But a boss like the final boss in UK will gib you bad. I made it past the first phase but his opening savage roar in 2nd phase put me at like 8k and I was done on his first swing.

[Stealthy]

Or you can wait until the next patch is released and dual-spec one to Feral...that's what I'll be doing with my Druid team...



Cheers,

S.

[daviddoran]

I'm waiting for dual spec for my druid team. Ill keep boomkin form until I hit 80 and hopefully ill be able to run instances like that (maybe even in bear form, but balance spec)

So many teams to level, so little time...