druid tanks

[Catamer]

what kind of gear do I look for on a feral druid tank?
I've seen druids tank in a few raiding situations like OC and I happend to have an RAF gifted up druid so I thought I would use him as my tank for a level 60ish team I have.

i.e. what's best to go for first? the typical tank stuff like
defense?
strength
agility
stamina

what gives a druid more avoidance if any?
any links to a druid site would be helpful ( my initial searches of the internet have yielded somve very old or outdated talents, etc )

I've run the first instance in helfire and the druid seems to be working fine but I'm kind of stunned he holds aggro, I'm just using a castrandom on the bear related attacks

[Svpernova09]

Druid tanks want AGI -> Stam -> Crit -> Dodge

With 3/3 Survival of the Fittest, you're already crit immune, so defense is not necessary, don't go after it, but don't pass it up as usually this gear will have some dodge on it. Theres a big debate over stam and agi. some simulators rank stam higher, some rank agi higher. In my experience in end game tanking you're better off with AGI > Stam > other stats.

http://elitistjerks.com/f73/ <-- EJ druid forums
http://thedailydruid.com/ <-- General Druid Blogroll. Links to most of the well known druid bloggers

[Ualaa]

Kind of second what Svpernova said...

Crit immune is your first priority, can do that talents alone.
Crushing Blows are only by mobs 4 levels above you, instead of 3... so that never happens at max level now.

You'll end up with impressive armor, just by being a bear.

I'd go with Sta over Agi, until you reach a point where you're not dying too quickly for your healer to react.
Once you reach a healthy pool of hit points, prioritize Agi over Sta because that is avoidance and crit and to a lesser degree armor.


*Edit*
Also http://www.emmerald.net/ is a very good resource for Feral gearing.

[elsegundo]

what kind of gear do I look for on a feral druid tank? Leather. Stack stam, agi, str, crit.
1. Leather is your highest proficiency. It will give you the most armor as well. Bear form has a multiplier to armor. Note: Enchancements do not benefit from your multiplier. ie. armor to bracers or armor to cape.
2. Stam is your most important asset as your only form of avoidance is dodge. you do not parry or block. keep enough stamina to soak up about two large hits, i do not know what the standard HP should be in bear form while leveling up. i only know level 80.
4. Agi will increase your armor, dodge and crit. this is a very important stat once you get enough stam. i dont like stacking stam above a certain amount but this is just my preference. others like to stack stam and hope the healers can heal through everything.
5. Str increases your damage which increases your threat. you'll want to keep that up also.
6. Crit is last since i'd rather gain crit through AGI. AGI will give you avoidance as well. so when choosing between something with agi or crit, i'd pick agi. I've seen druids tank in a few raiding situations like OC and I happend to have an RAF gifted up druid so I thought I would use him as my tank for a level 60ish team I have.
What raid is OC? Sorry im not up to date.
i.e. what's best to go for first? the typical tank stuff like
defense? Through talents. no need for defense unless you want to increase your dodge, but get dodge from agi. ignore def and ignore any know-it-all priest who cant heal and mentions that your def is too low.
strength This is your third priority.
agility This is your second priority.
stamina This is your first priority.

what gives a druid more avoidance if any? Agi= dodge/armor. Def=dodge/parry/block. go for agi as you dont parry or block. plus you get crit.
any links to a druid site would be helpful ( my initial searches of the internet have yielded somve very old or outdated talents, etc ) Not off the top of my head.

I've run the first instance in helfire and the druid seems to be working fine but I'm kind of stunned he holds aggro, I'm just using a castrandom on the bear related attacks His damage has a threat multiplier. I'd start a fight with Roar or Feral Charge, then Roar. Then swipe if i have multiple mobs. you can basically hold aggro swipe-tanking with AoE dps. If your dps is single target, swipe once to establish aggro on all mobs (roar does the trick at first, but will not hold up after several heals), then mangle to start your "extra bleed damage" multiplier. then lacerate. stack to 5 if your mangle is glyphed. or stack to 3, then mangle again to renew mangle, then stack lacerate to 5. keep lacerate at 5 and mangle should always be up. this is your single target threat staple. swipe every now and then. keep roar up as well. if you can remember, feral faerie fire your main target as well. ...... On bosses, swipe only to pick up adds. you'll maintain much better aggro through mangle/lacerate +maul as your rage dump. lastly, dont use bash as an emergency spell. it should be used every chance you get. this will stop one mob from attacking for several seconds. think of it as damage mitigation if you're fighting several mobs.

glad to see more bear tanks. they're pretty friggin awesome if you ask me.

[Svpernova09]

This is my IWIN Bear tanking macro:

/cast maul
/castsequence reset=3 Mangle (Bear)(), Faerie Fire (Feral)(), Lacerate, Mangle (Bear)(), Swipe (Bear)(), Faerie Fire (Feral)(), Mangle (Bear)(), Lacerate, Swipe (Bear)()

I use this when boxing for bosses, otherwise I just swipe spam on trash.