Bear tanks

[Nicbennett]

So, I realize this has been brought up before, but most of the other threads I read condemned it because swipe only hit a limited number of targets. Since that restriction has been lifted and swipe hits everyone in front of you, does anyone have any thoughts on bear tanking for the 5-boxer? I'll probably level a pally to go with my shaman team, but after that, it might be nice to have some variety while making other groups. What do you guys think? are they unavoidably worse than paladins, or that much harder to manage while boxing?

[Fuzzyboy]

I don't see any reason that bears wouldn't be viable tanks now. Compared to my paladin, I think I'd miss the BoW for my casters though :-)

[Gadzooks]

So, I realize this has been brought up before, but most of the other threads I read condemned it because swipe only hit a limited number of targets. Since that restriction has been lifted and swipe hits everyone in front of you, does anyone have any thoughts on bear tanking for the 5-boxer? I'll probably level a pally to go with my shaman team, but after that, it might be nice to have some variety while making other groups. What do you guys think? are they unavoidably worse than paladins, or that much harder to manage while boxing?

They're not harder to manage, they're just different. Kinda boring, to be honest. Shapeshifting will be annoying if you're used to playing a pallie (you have to shift sometimes, like to use certain heals). Bears are good tanks though, especially with this new change - if you were around in the beginning of BC, bears were the shit then, when they out of the blue (or so it seemed) became this new uber tank class.

I'm gonna be looking into this with duel spec, whenever they release it, so I can have my boomkin tank as a bear, or try to - gear is going to be an issue, as I've been getting Boomkin gear, and I passed on some good bear quest rewards. But it'll make my druid even more valuable to me!

Funny, I started my druid as a guild joke (don't ask,not worth telling), she sat as a level 10 for 2 years on my toon list, and now she's become my favorite character!

[Dominian]

BoW and auras > Leader of the pact (5% meele critt) since most run tank+4 casters.

Bears have higher stamina pool but also requires the most healing of all tanking classes i belive.

The ugly bear look no near as awsome as my paladin when she's well geared either!

[shaeman]

Druids are great - my favourite class for solo play. My main is a level 80 feral druid.

For multiboxing however I would go with a Paladin. Front loaded aggro generation means you can start dps that bit quicker.Decent number of emergency buttons and the varied buffs swing it for me. Unfortunately it leaves my druid out in the cold for my team (although I am RAFing up a second druid to use as a moonking or resto).

[Svpernova09]

As a zealot feral:


NEWSFLASH THIS JUST IN

Bears have been viable tanks since BC launch!


Back to your regular scheduled programming.


Pre Swipe change you had to tab target a lot to hold aggro, it wasn't easy like lolpaladin afk tanking was/is, so not many people did it. Now? I just started a brand new team running Druid +4 shaman with the intent to use the druid as a tank.

[Bena]

I've been playing bear on my druid team. You might need to wait a few swipes in before you start dpsing but I find the extra health and 30%+ dodge nice. I've been reading on wow forums that bear tanks are the worst to heal but I find the opposite. He takes less spikes and is actually easier to heal than my paly.

[elsegundo]

believe it or not, Warrior vs Paladin has some info on bear tanks.

also, bear tanks? i've been bear tanking for a long time. sorry, but swipe hitting more targets just makes things super easier and has nothing to do with viability. i tank with swipe on multiple mobs always. before, when swipe-multi-mob-tanking, i would swipe, tab, swipe, tab, swipe, tab, etc, just to make sure everyone got hit their fair share of swpies. now no one gets left behind.

[Stormweasel]

My main team is a combination of 1 x druid tank, 1 x druid healer and 3 x locks. Originally, I hated this team and I struggled like a bastard for all it's fiddly-ness - but I have come to love them and I can't imagine playing without them now.

(Only recently on here I was bemoaning my ability in wrath instances but I'm now doing great having streamlined and re-visited every aspect of the team, talents, rotations etc. Perseverance and all that)

Anyway, back to bear tanks. I find now that a faerie fire pull, then a Demo Roar when all are in range followed by Swipe/Maul (with 2 target Maul glyph) is enough to keep aggro on all mobs very comfortably. The kill target gets a mangle or two on it as well to get the benefit of extra talented Maul damage. I only use Lacerate on bosses now.

So yes, easy peasy mode tanking now, I'm in love with it.

From the perspective of my group composition I'm finding it all very handy now. Having two Innervates means a free mana top up every 3 minutes which means my healer never has to drink. My locks Lifetap to full mana when necessary of course. Three soulstones is also a godsend for getting back into action and those felguards have saved many a wipe after the occasional inevitable bear death

[valkry]

Bears don't take as much dmg anymore because of the removal of crushing blows, which they could never avoid but other tanks could. But blizzard didn't remove their high hp and armour along with the crushing blows so Bears are awesome :P