How to bear in Cataclysm

So, i've been doing a lot of talk about bears lately... and i'm going to talk about them more now, so deal with it. This is going to be more of a comprehensive "how to" guide for people who want to start bearing it up, but it's mostly focused on the 80-85 experience. To be perfectly honest, bears were relatively weak while levelling BEFORE the swipe cooldown was implemented. I'm not saying it's impossible for bears to tank in low levels now, but things are a lot harder that way... and honestly you'd have a much more difficult time of it. So... First thing I am going to look at is the talent spec. I know I posted about this a few weeks ago, but after having experienced the new content, I feel like I am pretty sure of my talent tree decisions now.

This will be the level 85 talent tree you want to shoot for. I seriously underestimated the importance that Perseverence would have, and I definitely feel that 6% is indeed worthy of 3 of those precious talent points you're given between 80 and 85. You'll notice there's 1 open point here... Not a lot of leeway to go with, I know, but it's better than nothing. I think I am going to put mine in Stampede for a bit of extra threat generation. Personal preference, of course.

This will be the tree you start off with at level 80. You can finally spec into Master Shapeshifter again! I know you've been eyeing it for weeks. Sadly, Master Shapeshifter is really a decent talent, but having it tied to Natural Shapeshifter is absolutely horrible and I hope that Blizz reconsiders it at some point, but nonetheless, your first point at 81 should probably go there.

I didn't specify any minor glyphs because really... there's not much to choose from. I pick Demoralizing Roar for the reduced cooldown, but otherwise you can do whatever. Prime glyphs really offer no customization... pick those 3 because they're the only ones that are of any use in bear form. Major glyphs are a bit more tricky. Maul is a definite must-have. Rebirth is damn nice if you actually get a chance to USE that ability... the 3rd major glyph I used is Frenzied Rengeration. I would rather hang on to my own rage stockpile and have my healer's heals hit harder (unintentional alliteration for the win?), than not be able to keep threat because I was suddenly rage-starved and had more health... your mileage may vary.

Now before you queue up to tank anything in Cataclsym, there's one thing you should do first.Hit... level... 81. Honestly, whoever decided that bears should only have 1 real AOE ability before 81 should be forced to tank Blackrock Caverns and Throne of the Tides at level 80 until they renege... but I digress. Seriously, do yourself a favor and wait till level 81 before even thinking about tanking. Thrash really does make THAT MUCH DIFFERENCE in your ability to tank.

The second thing you want to do is familiarize yourself with your damaging abilities and your offensive/defensive cooldowns. Unlike most times in 70-80 dungeons, you should be ready to use your cooldowns a lot. Especially once you hit 85 and start looking towards heroics, but that's jumping the gun a bit. I'm going to give a brief rundown of your major abilities, and when you should use them.

AOE

Swipe - Low rage cost, low damage, moderate aggro. 6 second cooldown. 360 degree swipe, no target limit. Use judiciously when out of range of CC'd targets (8 yard range)

Thrash - High rage cost, moderate damage + bleed, moderate aggro. 6 second cooldown. Also 360 degree swipe w/no target limit. Best used in conjunction with swipe to ensure solid aggro on groups. (8 yard range)

Demoralizing Roar - Very low rage cost, does no damage, and thus does very little threat as well. Best used in larger groups to reduce the damage you take. Lasts for 30 seconds.

Challenging Roar - Low rage cost, long cooldown (3 minutes baseline, minor glyph reduces by 30s), produces no actual threat, just force-focuses* target's on you for 6 seconds. This is a sort of extreme situational use with patrols and unexpected adds.

Single target -

Mangle - Low rage cost, very high damage, very high aggro, 6 second cooldown. Your bread and butter single target ability. This should forever be on cooldown.

Lacerate - Low rage cost, low/moderate damage + very low damage bleed, no cooldown. Stacks 3 times. Your main filler ability. This has no cooldown other than the GCD, so use it often. It's also a good idea to tab target and lacerate mobs on groups in between swipe/thrash cooldowns. A nice way to keep extra threat, as well as proc rage-free mangles (which i'll get to in a bit)

Pulverize - Low rage cost, moderate/high damage, moderate/high aggro, no cooldown. New ability as of 4.0. Consumes lacerate stacks to increase your crit chance 3% per stack for 10 seconds. For single target boss-type encounters, this is an amazing ability for you. More crits = more Leader of the Pack heals, and more Savage Defense shields, and it does a good bit of damage to boot. I personally use this as soon as my Lacerate is stacked to 3 on bosses because, usually, by that time the buff is about to wear off.

Maul - High rage cost, moderate damage, moderate aggro, 3 second cooldown. Maul is no longer the king of the road that it used to be. I listed it as a single target ability because, baseline, it is. It can be glyphed to hit a 2nd target for 50% damage, and you definitely SHOULD do so, but generally you won't use it much in multi-target situations. This is your excess rage-bleeder ability more than anything else. It's off the GCD so throw it in anytime you're sitting above ~60 rage.

Faerie Fire - No rage cost, low damage, low/moderate aggro, 6 second cooldown. This is one of your only ranged abilities, and gives the target a debuff reducing their armor by 4% per stack (up to 3 stacks). Great way to make line of sight pulls, or tag a target who might be casting off in the distance. This can be talented to instantly stack 3x with one application.

Skull Bash - Low rage cost, zero damage, 1-minute cooldown, unsure of aggro generation but it's a spell interrupt off the GCD! /cheer. Druids have been aching for an actual non-stunning interrupt for who knows how long... 4.0 delivered with this blessed ability, talented down to a 10-second cooldown... there's nothing negative I can say about it. Oh... did I mention it charges too?

Charge - Very low rage cost, zero damage, zero threat generation, immobilizes mob for 4 seconds, 15 second cooldown. Nice way to get a "runs away in fear", or to get a mob chasing after your healer awfully quick. 30 second cooldown is... annoying at times, but more than fair as you shouldn't have to use it TOO much in-combat. This no longer interrupts spell casting like it used to, but we have skull bash for that now.

Bash - Low rage cost, zero damage, unsure of threat generation, 1 minute cooldown (talented to 50 second cooldown). Stuns a mob for 4 (talented up to 5) seconds. Decent secondary spell interrupt, and last-resort crowd control. I believe I remember reading that it would still interrupt a stun-immune mob, but don't quote me on that.

Growl - No rage cost, no damage, taunt* mechanic. Be sure to actually hit a mob after taunting him, or they'll just turn around again.

*I should clarify the difference between a taunt mechanic and a forced-focus briefly. Challenging Roar forces the target(s) to focus on you, but does absolutely nothing to the threat table. If you don't hit them in that 6 second time span, they'll go back to whomever they were looking at before. Growl on the other hand is an actual taunt. It will put your name on top of the aggro list just above whomever had current aggro.

Cooldowns - (both offensive, defensive, and otherwise)

Frenzied Regeneration - 3 minute cooldown. Baseline, it increases health by 30%, and converts 10 rage/second into health for 20 seconds. Glyphed, instead of converting your rage into health, it increases the effectiveness of all heals on you by 30%. I personally went with the glyph, because I like keeping my rage to actually generate threat on the mob(s). Feel free to try it either way and see which you prefer though.

Survival Instincts - 3 minute cooldown. Reduces damage taken by 50% for 12s. Basic shield wall like all classes have now.

Barkskin - 1 minute cooldown. Reduces damage taken by 20% for 10s. This should be used OFTEN. 20% makes a huge difference... and at a 1 minute cooldown, can you really afford to NOT use this all the goddamn time?

Enrage - 1 minute cooldown. Instantly gives 20 rage (talented to 32), and generates 10 more over 10s. Best used in between pulls, but you need to be careful as this makes you take 10% MORE physical damage while it's active.

Berserk - 3 minute cooldown. When I mentioned "otherwise" under the cooldowns part, I was referring to this. This is an offensive cooldown, with an added benefit of a random proc when you don't use it. When lacerate deals damage to a mob, it has a chance to refresh the cooldown of mangle, and make it rage free... that's a berserk proc. But, when you USE berserk, it makes your mangle have no cooldown, and it also makes it a 3-person cleave for 15 (glyphed to 20) seconds. Great way for insanely high threat at the start of a fight.

Take a minute and go to some older, yet semi-challenging content, to play around with your abilities and get a feel for how your cooldowns work. Perfect place to do that would be BC dungeons. Go try and solo Hellfire Ramparts or Sethekk Halls... or if you're up for a challenge, try turning them up to heroic, provided you have the respective keys. I've found that soloing these have given me a real great way to learn what kind of damage I can handle, when to pop my cooldowns, how much healing I can take from Leader of the Pack, and what kind of mechanics to learn to watch out for... maybe that's just me though.

Next thing I want to look at is gear. I'm hardly a theorycrafting expert, and ElitistJerks tends to make my head hurt when I go read through it, but this is basically how I feel about gear right now.

Agility and Stamina are king... Strength also gives us 2 AP per 1 point, but strength gear is generally saved for plate wearers. Parry is a useless stat for us so try to avoid it, unless the piece is SUCH a significant upgrade as outweigh useless stats... AND unless no one else really wants it. Poorly itemized upgrades for you do not give you priority over someone's offspec... please don't be a dick about your gear.

As far as "green stats" go, I don't have specific weights, but I figure it will be something on the order of: Dodge >= Mastery > Hit/Expertise > Crit > Haste

Other stats like resilience or parry give us zero benefit from a tanking perspective, so they have very little business being on any gear we pick up.

There has been discussion in some camps about taking Strength items with dodge rating (cloaks, rings, and necklaces primarily), but this will still end up coming farther behind taking an agility item without dodge rating. Here are a couple images to prove my point... taken with my very own bear, completely unbuffed, in bear form.

Now, as you can see in the first image, I picked up a strength ring with dodge rating on it, and in the second shot I have an agility ring with no dodge rating. Both rings are the same item level... they even came from the same reputation faction, so they're even budgeted comparably. Yet, the agility one comes out with more dodge, and it can even be reforged with the excess hit rating into more dodge rating. So unless the item is a MAJOR upgrade for you, then there's no reason to pick strength items over agility items.

Now that you've got a basic handle on your abilities and what they do, grabbed yourself some gear to work with... and you've made it to at least level 81 (you HAVE made it to 81, haven't you?) it's time... Press that random dungeon finder! Better yet, ask some guildies if they want to run with you. Guildies tend to be a lot more forgiving if they know you're just learning.

"Your dungeon group has been found!" /flail OGAWD WHAT DO I DO!

Well... Part two will get into that! I'm breaking this up for the sake of walls of text critting you for 800 million overkill.

Form of - a BEAR!

Well, i've done a ton of rambling and ranting posts. I've talked about my guild and how we've raided, or about my titles and achievements... I've tooted my own horn quite a bit, and I figure now it's time to finally put something *useful* on this blog. What can I talk about that's useful? Hmm... that's a tough one. OH! Druids! I'm quite a good druid tank!

Well! Obviously the first thing to look at is how to spec your druid for maximum... tanking... awesomness! So for level 80, there are basically two different talent trees you can go with.

This is the spec I run with. It is pure tank, no kitty-ing about. Pretty straight forward. Glyphs are all but a no-brainer because they're really the only ones that will have ANY effect on our tanking. I actually just switched to this spec from a VERY slight (2 point) differential, and I'll explain why after the 2nd screenshot.

So the only difference between these two specs are the points I moved out of Feral Aggression and into Primal Madness... currently I am running with the points in Primal Madness. Initially I liked the idea of having a 1-time three stack of Faerie Fire for the DPS increase... I still do like that, to be quite honest, but the reason I moved to Primal Madness is for trash packs and 5-mans. The extra rage generated by our Enrage ability makes it so we can almost swipe as soon as we pull a pack. It also makes it so we can start our rotation more quickly on boss encounters.

I've been questioned a few times on my choice of the points in Brutal Impact. I suppose you could make the arguement that the extra interrupts are situational but DAMMIT if I don't like having them, because i've spent so much time tanking WITHOUT having worthwhile interrupts... and no, an interrupt with a stun DOES not count, because you can't pull mobs towards you when they're effing stunned. The other thing you may ask about is why I only put 2 points in Fury Swipes... Druid threat isn't in a place that's hurting in any way right now on single targets. 2 points procs plenty enough, and our threat is insane after the first 5-10 seconds on a mob.

So, assuming all of these things (and assuming Brutal Impact, if you're like me) then let's move forward into tanking at level 85. Not a lot is going to change from your level 80 spec. No real need to change specs unless you want to test weird things out, so I came up with basically 2 different level 85 specs.

This first one you'll see that I have a spare talent point available. The reason for this is I figure it's kind of your "do whatever the fuck you want with it." If you want to go with max TPS For that point, put it in it should probably go into Stampede. Honestly, though, the TPS generated by 2 points in Stamepede, let alone 1, is hardly worth the poinst from a pure tanking point of view. A point in Feral Aggression could be handy to 2-stack FFF instead of 1-stack. One point in Perseverance (in the resto tree) for a bit of extra spell damage reduction, but that's properly a bit situational... which brings me to my second tree below.

This tree doesn't have any spare points, and honestly I wish it had just one more talent point to finish out Perseverance in resto... but as I mentioned earlier, this could be a very situational setup to have. It really just depends on how many bosses in Cataclysm deal random magic damage, and whether 4% will really make that much of a difference.

Now.. With all of this stuff I want anyone reading this to realize a couple things.

First - I am not in the beta. My lvl 85 druid builds are purely hypothetical based on my experience with druid tanking post 4.0, and with what I know about how the theorycrafting works behind it.

Second - I am no 100% expert. I could very well be proven wrong about some of my ideas. They're not set in stone by any means, and I am not proclaiming them as such.

Thirdly - I am not responsible for your fuckups. I *can* help if you'd like, but if you tell me that my spec sucks and you can't get shit to work with it, then well.... your mileage may vary. I'd be more than happy to compare notes with you as long as you're not a shit-stain about how you approach it.

Spoil the surprise?

I'm going to try to not be like everyone else. Cataclysm is coming. Any fool knows that. Beta is on it's way. If you haven't opted in for it, and you want in on the beta, be sure to do it now. I'm going to bring up a less-discussed topic. How do you fight these "end of expansion blues"? Some people roll alts. Some people take breaks from the game. Some people satisfy their time by devouring every single tidbit of information about Cataclysm that they can. Here's the question though, and it's something that was brought up in portion by Brigwyn on his first podcast earlier this evening.
The question is, should we obsess over every piece of Cataclysm we can get our greedy little claws on? Is it right for us to play the beta into an endless oblivions so we know all the content backwards and forwards before the live release? Or, when we do these things, do we cheat ourselves from the surprise? Do we deny ourselves the wonder of seeing the finely polished product as Blizzard intends it to be seen, when we see the beta "warts and all"? It's honestly something I hadn't thought about previously, but it really is something to consider.
Now, I've only been playing for a couple years, towards the end of Burning Crusade, and I was never involved with the beta for Wrath of the Lich King. I will never forget the first time I took my mage, Achloryn, aboard the boat from Stormwind and stepped on the shores of the Borean Tundra. Hell, even playing through the scourge invasion events prior to the launch really gave you a feel for what was coming. Read through the text of the first few quests when you arrive in Northrend. Blizzard does a magnificent job of giving you the sense that the first soliders really breathe a collective sigh of relief that you are there. YOU. The generals and commanders of the spearhead are glad to see you there.
I'm getting off topic more than I intended, but I think you get the point. Are we doing ourselves a disservice by spoiling all the surprises? Well, there's no real right or wrong answer to that, of course, because it's all in personal preferences. I'm as guilty as the next man, and probably everyone else, when it comes to reading up on the spoilers and all the other goodies. Now, however, after a lot of thought, I think i'm going to hold myself back a little bit. I want to be able to experience the new quests with my hunter on the day of the launch and experience it as amazingly as I felt when I first stepped onto Northrend.
Now, if i'm given a beta key, you better believe i'll be there.... let's not get crazy.

OMG you guys... Guys.. You guys!

CATACLYSM! Holy crap. The powers that be at mmo-champion have released an ENORMOUS amount of Cataclysm spoilers from the closed alpha. I repeat.. THERE ARE SPOILERS. Screenshots, and professions, and more screenshots. Over 200 screenshots. I went to check it out because I am a sucker for these things and I am purely drooling over the upcoming expansion to our beloved WoW.

Keep in mind, the info listed on mmo-champion isn't complete, and is highly subject to change (read: most likely WILL change at least some) between now and release.

Also - I have taken up the hunter columnist position at Hordereview.com, which is a beautifully designed website for everything wow-related. Feel free to stop by and poke around.

The death of raiding...?

So, a couple days ago I posted about the found here) but I haven't posted on the updates yet.. Why? I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the changes. A lot of people on the mmo-champion forums apparently are crying out that these changes are the absolute death of 25 man raiding, but I think the opposite is true. If anything gets killed by these changes, it's going to be the 10 man raids.

"Why?", you ask? Well, I was hoping you would.

In condensed form, the changes are this:
10 man raids are sharing a lockout period with 25 man raids.
The bosses will be roughly the same difficulty (both offering heroic modes, of course)
10 man and 25 man raids will be dropping the same item levels of loot. (IMO, this is why the major fuss over the death of 25 mans, but my next point swings the pendelum the other way)
25 man raids will drop more loot, more hero points (the new version of the badge system in place currently), and possibly even more gold.


Now then... If 25 mans are going to drop more loot for the same boss kill, but will share a lockout with 10 man raids, wouldn't you think people would try to spend that extra 20 minutes or so finding 15 more people? Perhaps, perhaps not. Here's the rub though. Blizzard has set this up in an attempt to equalize the progression field between guilds who raid 10 man content (almost) exclusively, and guilds who raid 25 man content (almost) exclusively. Some guilds are only large enough to have a solid 10 man group, and they shouldn't be held back from progression simply because they're a smaller guild.

That is a point I whole heartedly agree with. Not every progression guild has to have 300 members on at any given point in time to be able to.. well.. progress. The backdraft of this, however, falls in the fact that 25 mans, while dropping the same -level- of gear will still drop more gear. "Why exactly is this a problem," you ask? "Surely it would make sense to have 25 mans drop more gear, as there's more players and likely a broader set of classes within the raid.".. Well of course, that's absolutely true, on both points. But again, if they're trying to equalize how quickly a guild groups up, then there's more likelihood that a 25 man group will gear up faster simply because.. well.. more loot drops, and more valor points. More points per kill means you can buy your tiered items faster, letting you get to the next progression path quicker... Right?

So, while I am still reserving final judgement, I am waiting to see what it is that Blizzard does to equalize this problem a bit more. Already, they have stated that there will be a cap on the number of points you can earn from raiding/heroics/whatever in a week. If the cap isn't obscenely high, then this problem might not be as bad as I was expecting... However, if it's too low then people will complain (you KNOW they will) that they can't get their gear fast enough, and can't progress fast enough.

But then... I suppose, for some people, nothing will ever stop the ... Thanks for reading.

Cataclysm Beta upcoming?

SO! The ever-informed geniuses at mmo-champion have informed the rest of the world mere hours ago that the PTR (Public Test Realm) Character Copy feature is running, however it's not currently available for the moment. Instead of the normal Anasterian (PvE) and Broxigar (PvP) realms on the PTR, it would appear there's a realm entitled "Blizzcon Event (PvE)".. Could this be a sign that the Cataclysm beta is finally on it's way? Let's hope so. Here's the source

I definitely want to get my beta key, but nothing has been officially stated yet.

Let me say that again...

NOTHING HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY STATED YET

If you get an email or in-game message about an invite to the beta it is a scam. I hope any of you who are reading this know this already, but it can never be repeated enough.

If anything's officially announced regarding the Cataclysm beta test, i'll be sure to let everyone know.

Raiding changes...

So, the big news today is the changes that Blizzard announced for Cataclysm. Here is the full story as officially posted. Initially, I had several pros and cons to list, but I got sidetracked by one thing or another, and Blizz has since added a list of clarifications after the initial posting. This seems to be a recurring theme with major upcoming changes, and it's really a smart idea for the powers that be to quash some of the loudest complaints as soon as possible. Thumbs up for their clarifications.

My kneejerk response is to say that their decision makes sense to some extent. 10 and 25 man raids dropping the same loot? Sounds great to me! WotLK has far too many different sets of gear. "Current" tiers are basically ToC 10, ToC 10 heroic, ToC 25, ToC 25 heroic, ToC 10 Tribute, ToC 25 Tribute, ICC 10, ICC 25, ICC 10 heroic, ICC 25 heroic (and I think that's all of them). Now, here the tricky part. ToC 10 heroic is better than ToC 25, and ToC 25 tribute i better than ICC 10. I'm not entirely sure how this makes much sense, but maybe that's just me.

Blizzard's attempt with Cataclysm, as far as I can tell, is to cut down on the different "sets" of gear you have to pick up from raiding. Does having 10 and 25 mans drop the same loot accomplish this? Of course. Does this also allow smaller guilds to progress in the same way that larger guild can? Absolutely. Will this work out exactly the way Blizzard thinks it will? I don't think so, and here's why. " 25-player versions will drop a higher quantity of loot per player (items, but also badges, and even gold), making it a more efficient route if you're able to gather the people."... If 25 mans are going to drop more badges than 10 mans, then people are going to feel it's necessary to put together 25 man groups for that reason. Especially as each new set of content comes out.

To apply this to a current situation.. Imagine if Toc 10 and 25 each dropped the same gear (say Ilvl 245), but you got 3 badges per boss in 25 man but only 2 badge per boss in 10 man. That's 10 badges for a full clear in 10 man, but 15 badges for a full clear in 25 man. Now, granted, 5 badges may not seem to be a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but why settle for 10 badges when you could get 15 with basically the same effort? I realize this is not finalized by any means, but the way things are now, Blizz still needs to tweak some things with Cataclysm's raiding structure.

I would also like to thank Anea for writing a great Advice to new bloggers post which gave me some great ideas for my blog. Expect to see more tweaks and changes coming up to the blog over the next few days. I hope to make this blog look a lot cooler and inviting to new readers, as well as something continually enticing for any readers I might already have. Don't be shy! Feel free to drop a comment if you have any opinions on the matter.