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Feral Tank Stats?
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Post by
Ceist
I'm new bear tank at lvl 85 and now I have found bit of an problem. I have no idea what stats I'm looking for!
My intention is to do normal dungeons and move to heroics, but no raiding. I have read on mmo and on wowhead, but can't find a solid answer for this. Some say to reforge to expertise, some say to reforge to stamina and some say to reforge to agi or dodge.
So which stats I need to look for in gemming, enchanting and reforging?
Post by
Xiamaru
You can't reforge to stamina last time I looked. Neither can you to Agility. You can only reforge to secondary stats, including Spirit.
otherwise,
look at the stickies
. The large, bolded
Helpful Druid Topics
topic isn't just for show:
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&topic=177674
but taken from that topic:
Gear
Gearing for Feral Druids has remained largely the same. Mastery is very good for both specs. The stats we care about are:
Agility - Gives us AP and crit in both forms, and a good source of dodge for Bears.
Mastery - Boosts Savage Defense for Bears and bleed damage for Cats; more important for Cats than Bears.
Hit - Melee hit cap is 8%. Not terribly necessary for either spec, but can help smooth out Cat DPS and ensure your threat-producing abilities always hit as a Bear.
Expertise - The soft cap is 26 expertise rating. Bears want to stack this to 26, but for Cats, it's still not a huge priority.
Dodge - Bear's second-best stat. Stack it as much as you can.
Bonus Armor - Still useful despite not being affected by Bear Form.
Crit - Not sure where this falls on the priority list.
Haste - Useful for Cats to ensure energy regen, pretty much garbage for Bears until 4.0.6 hits, when Lacerate ticks will benefit from haste (= more free, CD-reset Mangles).
Stat priorities for Bears may look something like: Stamina >= Agility > Dodge > Mastery > Expertise > Crit > Hit > Haste
Reforging
Bears generally want to reforge haste first, then either hit, crit or mastery. Your decision on what to get rid of if based on what's present on the item in larger amounts and your need for hit rating. Primarily, you reforge to dodge, as it's our only avoidance stat.
So there you have it. If that doesn't answer your question, you will need to clarify what you want to know.
EDITS: Oh wow, my spelling is going haywire right now. Hope I hit them all this time.
And also, reading the stickies almost always help, especially with such trivial questions like this. Some people put a lot of effort and time into writing these, so by skipping past them, and asking a question already answered, results in them having wasted time.
Post by
533581
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Xiamaru
this post above me us wrong, you need int for everything, reforge everything (including armor) to intellect
lol, wat.
Just noticed something odd here. In the expertise part, it says the softcap for expertise is 26
rating
, which I am quite certain is wrong.
Expertise - The soft cap is 26 expertise rating. Bears want to stack this to 26, but for Cats, it's still not a huge priority.
Of course, I could be wrong, but 26 rating is nothing. They most likely mean 26 expertise.
and if the quotation for mastery wasn't clear enough: Dodge is
the
stat you want to reforge to.
Post by
109094
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
LookOut
Just noticed something odd here. In the expertise part, it says the softcap for expertise is 26
rating
, which I am quite certain is wrong.
Expertise - The soft cap is 26 expertise rating. Bears want to stack this to 26, but for Cats, it's still not a huge priority.
You are correct. However, that is not the only thing that is blatantly wrong with that paragraph. Bears do
NOT
need to stack expertise to 26! Our threat is more than fine without softcapping expertise (or hit for that matter, but you might want to keep a few hit items to switch to when you're tanking Feludius ...)
Post by
Lohr
Just noticed something odd here. In the expertise part, it says the softcap for expertise is 26
rating
, which I am quite certain is wrong.
Expertise - The soft cap is 26 expertise rating. Bears want to stack this to 26, but for Cats, it's still not a huge priority.
You are correct. However, that is not the only thing that is blatantly wrong with that paragraph. Bears do
NOT
need to stack expertise to 26! Our threat is more than fine without softcapping expertise (or hit for that matter, but you might want to keep a few hit items to switch to when you're tanking Feludius ...)
I'd rather be safe then sorry.
Stay hit capped and soft cap your expertise. I'm just a firm believer of hitting then missing. Nothing against you LookOut.
Everyone just has different views so really the bottom line how you decide.
A good quote: "Just because everyone does it doesn't mean you have to .. "
Edited: I'm aware of EJs theorycrafting.
Post by
109094
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Thror
I'd rather be safe then sorry.
Stay hit capped and soft cap your expertise. I'm just a firm believer of hitting then missing. Nothing against you LookOut.
Everyone just has different views so really the bottom line how you decide.
A good quote: "Just because everyone does it doesn't mean you have to .. "
Edited: I'm aware of EJs theorycrafting.
Yeah, why increase your survivability when you can have more threat instead. After all, its losing aggro that we wipe on in raids.
Post by
Lohr
I figured since we are on the same subject - I'd use this thread.
So, yesterday, I tried to reforge most my stuff to dodge ignoring expertise soft cap and hit cap. Did a few heroics and I just found myself a bit noobish. The threat isn't the same but was to be expected- Expertise was at 17 (down from 26) , Hit was at 772 (Down from ~942) - Gained about .50 - .75 dodge, if I remember correctly.
The problem I was encountering was that I was losing threat a bit faster then I thought. Having to use growl a bit more to take it off some players who don't seem to understand the meaning of Focus Fire which was giving the healer a bit of a challenge (shouldn't have to be) but in all the survivability really didnt change much. Survivability all really depends on the group composition. Is the DPS sharp? Is the healer geared and knows what they are doing? You know.. I'm sure things would be different in a raid.
So here is my take on this:
If your farming heroics as a bear - I think it's safe to say that keeping threat on you at all times is a must. Keeps the DPS from getting smacked while you are taking the damage. (The difference isn't significant enough for me to gear up for survivablity in heroics - especially when it's like teaching little kids how to walk - there will almost always be a wipe)
Now if your raiding then I could understand the that survivablity (+dodge) would make more sense because in that kind of atmosphere you are almost sure the utilities are there (ex: ToT, MD, Buffs, etc... ) so threat isn't the issue - it's surviving the raid boss. I'm not saying that in heroics these same utilities arent available but again as I mentioned being in a raid is a lot more challenging then a heroic.
Anyways, so I'll scratch what I said earlier about being a firm believer of hitting caps on my bear because honestly it all just really depends on what your fighting. Just my opinion..
Post by
LookOut
You don't need the raiding hit and exp cap to be capped for heroics ...
Just saying.
Post by
Thror
Placebo. Nothing but placebo.
I have had 0,5% hit and 11 expertise yesterday, and i did:
14k DPS on Argaloth
20k DPS on BoT trash
11k DPS on Valiona/Theralion
15k DPS on Magmaw
10k DPS overall in a random heroic after the raid
Nothing special about it. Just correctly gear for Agility, and hold the correct rotation (mind you, i fall into sub-optimal rotations so often that its not healthy). Hit and Expertise in my opinion are simply bad. Completely useless. And that is not a subjective statement.
Post by
Lohr
I don't know maybe WoTLK just got me so pumped on getting things like hit/exp capped that I feel like I'm going to lose my touch. I mean it's not like I don't believe you guys or anything - I'm just stubborn.
Question for you:
Gear has Hit and Expertise which do you reforge first since both are considerably crap in your opinion.
Keep talking though -- I may have a change of heart! I think it's just "change" that I have to get use to! No idea how long it took me to learn the RESTO druid ways of healing! Still til this day I feel a bit ruggish but that's a whole different story.
Post by
Thror
Are you talking about
the necklace
?
Well. You still need Hit to interrupt, so if you end up interrupting a lot in raids, reforge expertise.
And if you do not, expertise below 26 pretty much works like two hit stats in one, as it reduces both Parry
and
Dodge. So expertise is still pretty good.
But in raids, it is mostly the interrupting. Personally, i would reforge the Expertise, or the higher stat (which would give me more dodge).
Post by
Lohr
Yeah, that necklace is exactly what I was talking about ..
So basically your view is that although both stats are considerably crap expertise is far more superior then hit.
But if a gear had : (ex)
Mastery (100) and Expertise (72) your option is to reforge the expertise to dodge? But you say to choose the higher stat to reforge so at this point what would you?
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Just wanting some clarification.
Post by
Thror
Yeah, i would reforge expertise to dodge.
The priorities from my point of view are:
Agility > Dodge rating > Mastery > Crit >
Haste + Hit + Expertise
I do try to pick items that have at least one of the better stats. And then reforge the worse stat into Dodge. If an item has one of the three last stats, well, i would reforge the higher.
But
recently, my need for hit rating has slightly raised due to
one
boss encounter, and i would like to bring my hit up to at least 2%, so if i get an item with one of the three last stats, i will have a tendency to not reforge hit. (if i had 2% hit from items, i would be able to cap myself for that fight simply with trinkets and food).
Post by
109094
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Thror
I would put Expertise (at least while below soft cap) at slightly ahead of Haste/Hit. Not by much mind, but a little ahead.
Other than that I pretty much agree
Probably yeah, since it's effect doubles until the soft cap, but it's still down there in the pool of stats i do not really need to progress.
Post by
Lohr
Alright - let me soak this and get over myself for a couple days!
Thanks for the info my fellow druids!
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