Post by hashmel
Excuse the late post, I'm usually much quicker to jump on these but I'm on vacation escaping the cold currently.
General tips for gemming, chanting, gearing, speccing, macros, and all around awesomeness.
All numbers pertaining to player<>mob interaction are based on level 80 vs level 83 raid boss
Hit CapHit cap isn't an absolutely must have for tanks but if you're capable of reaching it with little effort then do so. Growl, Challenging Roar, Demo Roar, and FFF are based on spell hit.
32.79 rating = 1% melee/ranged/special hit
26.232 rating = 1% spell hit
With a moonkin/shadow priest as a given...
263 rating will ensure ALL physical/special abilities land and 3.98% chance to miss with spells
369 rating will ensure ALL abilities will land (beyond this is ABSOLUTELY USELESS)
Alliance with heroic presence and a moonkin/shadow priest as a given...
230 rating will ensure ALL physical/special abilities land and 4.24% chance to miss with spells
343 rating will ensure ALL abilities will land (beyond this is ABSOLUTELY USELESS)
Being hit capped isn't mandatory but does help, aim for it as you see fit.
Expertise CapDodge Cap = 6.5% (26 exp/132 rating with Primal Precision)
Parry Cap = 14~15% (56exp/378 rating ~ 60 exp/410 rating with Primal Precision)
You want to be at or preferably above the dodge cap but there's no urgency to gear toward the parry cap.
Enchantments for bearsSocket Bracer,
Socket Gloves, and
Eternal Belt Buckle are
not enchants and as such will
not overwrite enchants
I don't agree with all of these namely agility in place of equivalent stamina and massacre but they're included for player preference.
I'd generally say absolutely not to expertise to gloves but in the event (for whatever reason) you're less than soft capped grab it, if it were the difference between just under and hitting the hard cap i may consider it as well just to say I've pushed parries off the attack table but generally it's not needed.
Spec0/53/11+8 is the very basic bear build.
- OoC is taken as it procs off both autoattacks and mauls and is a godsend for low rage situations allowing you to maintain respectable threat generation in the absence of rage.
- ILotP is the only talent left that actually offers you more survivability and in fact grants its benefit to all physical dps
Due to the value of these two talents they're generally included in most guides' bear talent builds for
0/55/11+5From 0/55/11+5 you have two options, KotJ or MS.
KotJ offers superior utility, better shifting mana reduction, better burst damage when it matters, and if enrage is used every 60~62 seconds KotJ offers more dps per point than MS.
KotJ =
0/58/11+2 the last two can go into-
- Shredding Attacks if you often go cat otherwise it's quite useless
- Brutal Impact to halve the cd of your only reliable PvE stun/interrupt (strongly recommended if using a KotJ build)
- Nurturing Instincts for increased survivability while soloing (healing ~35k with a tiny mana pool and no +healing is a pain)
-just to name a few.
MS =
0/55/16If you're strictly running content where survivability isn't your top priority and you'd like more dps/tps then you can in fact combine a KotJ and MS build into one but it will lack utility of a KotJ build, the survivability both KotJ and MS builds have via ILotP, and the consistent rage supply from OoC, a KotJ+MS build would look like so,
0/56/15. (Wouldn't recommend this as a raid spec to the inexperienced)
The third major glyph should be Survival Instincts for survivability or Growling for specific encounters where a taunt missing is the difference between loot and a corpse run when under spell hit capped. The other two minor glyphs are preference but Challenging Roar is recommended.
Macros#showtooltip Mangle (Bear)
/cast
Mangle (Bear)()/cast
Maul()/#showtooltip Swipe (Bear)
/cast
Swipe (Bear)()/cast
Maul()#showtooltip Lacerate
/cast
Lacerate()/cast
Maul()#showtooltip Faerie Fire (Feral)
/cast
Faerie Fire (Feral)()/cast
Maul()Replace swipe, FFF and lacerate with the appropriate macro and add the mangle one to your bar but keep the unmacroed mangle handy for berserk+mangle spams when mauling would have you go rage starved.
/cast
Survival Instincts/cast
Frenzied RegenerationMakes a handy "Oh %^&*" button and you don't risk being CCed between SI and FR, while they can be used separately the healing from FR will be significantly increased by tying them together.
DO NOT make a master Oh $%^& button that burns FR/SI/barkskin/a pot/healthstone/and trinkets, blowing every available safety measure will leave you highly exposed anywhere from 36-132 seconds.
You don't block a pillow with a brick wall, you block it with your hand then if you find out there are bars of soup in the pillowcase you block with both hands.
Socketsred=agil/stam (shifting) or exp/stam (guardian's)
blue=stam (solid)
Yellow=hit/stam (vivid) or def/stam (enduring)
A
Nightmare Tear is more than acceptable in a yellow socket, it grants a bit less stamina than vivid/enduring but grants 20 AP, 20 armor, and some crit/dodge (before multipliers)
If you have no interest in matching colors then use stamina (solid) gems.
MetasThis isn't a massive amount this far into armor but more mitigation never hurts, with 30k armor from gear alone (not including from agility or buffs) you get exactly 600 armor from the meta.
Single Target RotationThe general rotation is based around 6 seconds, 1.5 seconds between each ability.
FFF>Mangle>Lacerate>Lacerate
once lacerate is at a 5 stack replace it with swipe unless it needs refreshing
Mangle, it's the highest threat ability bound to the GCD.
Faerie Fire, it's the 2nd highest threat GCD ability, is ranged, and increases all physical damage on its target.
Swipe is the 3rd highest direct damage GCD ability
Lacerate is the 4th highest direct damage threat GCD ability
If you're responsible for applying the AP reduction or have the T9 idol be sure to work demo roar/swipe in between mangles and FFFs as needed.
AoE Rotation Usually 3+1: Swipe
2: see step 1
Bears imo have the best aoe capabilities of all the tanks, they aren't reliant on standing within one area and can be spammed which is nice as you aren't watching a CD and dps by rule of thumb won't give you time for anything else.
IdolsMutilation is the idol of choice for aoe tanking as it procs off swipe, this is ideal for situations where there are a lot of trash mobs that just don't live long. Use this for any 5 man and raid trash up until Ulduar and Ony Whelps.
Crying Moon is the idol of choice for tanking bosses and generally large trash mobs that don't drop like flies. Use this for raid bosses and raid trash in Ulduar or higher content.
Once initial aggro has been established and secured do a simple Lacerate > Tab > Lacerate then continue as the encounter dictates as the two lacerates quickly build a 5 stack, ensuring at least 1 lacerate remains up for the duration of the pull.
Now you're on your way to becoming a great ursine tank, you've gone over all the basics and know what to look for. All that's left is learning to think on your fuzzy little feet and to improvise where necessary.
We're only hybrids till we choose a spec, from then on we're specialists!Face Blocking: 101If you still have any questions that weren't covered in the above then please say so and we'll see what we can do for you.