Pre-moonkin tanking as a druid + 4 shamans. Opinions/suggestions welcomed.

Well, team Nætureforce is up, running and lvled to 16.

The goal is to have the druid as Panzerkin spec (high armor spelldamage tank - threat management talents). The idea being that since you cant block or dodge while casting, High armor makes for more effective damage mitigation. Also, druids have a 70% pushback reduction talent on wrath so i should be able to ge tmore casts of and still hold aggro. Insect swarm also reduces the targets chance to hit by 2%, and cyclone is a real CC and is 100% resistant to knockback with talents.

Leveling through questing has been a breeze so far. But the druid has some major mana problems. Since his cast is alot faster, and he is alwase the first to start casting, he gets a wrath off before the shamans start casting. Then another 2 while the shamans get off their LBs(2nd LB dosnt usualy get to finish casting). Though, i'm sure that mana will be come less of an issue as gear improves and i get some enchants.

My concern is that when i start using instances, having my "tank" in leather with no shield wont work well.

I've been doing a little experimentation, and i've come up with 2 possilbe solutions. I'm open to opinions and suggestions.

1. I tank switch to feral tree until 40, and tank in bear form. I have been somewhat unsucsesful with this since a bear cannot generate rage fast enough to hold aggro if you are just button mashing. I may need to change my key configuration so that i "pull" in bear and establish aggro first and then start spamming 2 keys (swipe on one and LB on another). Or possibly just turn key broadcasting off for a few seconds while i pull.

2. I move 1 shaman to my main machine, and the druid to the alternate box. Then i'll need to set the druis macros up with castsequence and have some dead spots, so he isn't chain casting and pulling aggro anyway.

I'm guessing that #2 is probobly easier for playstyle adjustment (both now and later on when i switch to moonkin tank) but takes alot more setup time. But getting #1 to work may help me learn to manage a melee tank better.



This summer buff is INSANE for leveling. I'm killing every single mob with 1 set of strikes since at least 1 character will proc the bonus damage (30% chance to proc [lvl x 10] fire damage every time you deal melee/ranged/spell damage. including lightning shield and thorns).



As a side note. I'm having fun with some aoe action. It turns out that since totems are technicly type 2 pets (damage reactive) they cannot be the sole source of damage or you will not recieve credit. so, what i do is run around with the druid and tap a bunch of targets with moonfire, and pull them together. Then I go to bear form, drop 3 stoneclaw totems (enough to immediatly pull agro) and 1 stoneskin totem (which i have found actualy effects the stoneclaw totems even though it dosnt display the buff) and drop 4x fire nova totems. This is usualy enough to kill a 13 (i'm lvl 16) and works on an unlimited number of mobs (well. as long as you have mana to tap them all with moonfire AND shift to bear). most places dont have a fast enough spawn time though. Remember. shaman mana efficiency means nothing if the druid has to drink anyway. But its useful to clear and area so you can loot collection quest stuff.

I'm finding that i'm actualy spending about as much time stopping, to explain what i'm doing to the people following me around as i am actualy killing stuff. I have a few friends who say that people are broadcasting my locations to the city trade chanels so people can come see me. I have between 5 and 50 people following me around just about all the time. most are cool. but my ignore list is filling up quick too. I actualy made 3 macros just to explain how i was doing this after the 100th or so time typing it out (before lvl 8 actualy).

I'll be working on getting fraps up and running to make some videos, and i'm planning on documenting my entire lvling experience.