07-23-2006, 08:09 AM
My main for a long time was a Bear-specced Druid that I raided with including some raid tanking. I'll be responding to your stated intent of filling "a role as secondary tank behind our 3 nominated Prot Warrior main tanks" though I'll comment a little on other situtations as well.
This means you'll never be trying to hold a boss mob over raid DPS, but want to be kept alive as easily and as cheaply as possible. For fights that require less than four tanks (assuming all are regular attendees) you will be filling another role.
Gear:
Your key stats for this role are armour, stamina and fight-appropriate resistances. Crit and Strength are almost irrelevant - you'll get plenty while looking for defensive stats as Druid tanking itemisation is far more limited than Warriors. Don't worry about Defence too much, partly because there is very little around for Druids, partly because the first points are inherently worth less than the last points and partly because we don't get the bonuses to block and parry that Warriors do from the stat.
Some key items to collect include the Warden Staff (world BOE) or Unyielding Maul (DM Tribute), Smoking Heart of the Mountain (Enchanting 265), Mark of Tyranny (UBRS Quest) and the Ring of Protection (Darrowshire Quest). There are some high armour battleground rewards as well which may or may not be acheivable in finite time on your server. Make sure you also build a healing set for use when four tanks aren't needed; while Cat DPS seems a natural backup role for all those Feral points I don't think it's really viable at the moment because it's threat is very high by DPS class standards.
Spec (general):
I prefer either 11+/31+/0+ or 0/30/21 to your current build. I use the former (14/37/0 variant) for the extra threat and damage from Natural Weapons, Omen of Clarity and Improved Thorns; it's an extremely effective 5-man tanking build. The latter seems a better fit to your intended role - it lets you get all the mitigation and survival talents in the Feral tree while still picking up Nature's Swiftness and a bunch of healing talents (not least HOTW) for use when you're not tanking.
Spec (individual talents):
Feral Aggression - the attack power reduction is sometimes useful, but check with your warriors to see whether you're wasting points, some 2H warrior builds will have the warrior version and hence produce a marginally larger debuff.
Brutal Impact - many raid mobs are not stunnable. If you get it for other uses, get both points.
Feral Instinct - not required for an offtank.
Furor - I'm not keen on this for full time or planned tanks - it's a great talent for getting off that emergency Feral Charge when shifting in a Crisis, not so hot if you only leave bear form for emergencies and rebuffing. The emergency use alone can make it a better entry to the tree than MOTW is for a tanking build; your other Druids should understand you not doing your part of the buffing, especially if you bring reagents and pass them out.
Improved Enrage - largely superflous if you have Furor, though worth picking up (again for that emergency use) if you don't. Your healers generally won't appreciate you using enrage (and hence giving up thousands of armour) while a raid mob is hitting you.
L2P:
Sounds like you're doing fine, good luck!
This means you'll never be trying to hold a boss mob over raid DPS, but want to be kept alive as easily and as cheaply as possible. For fights that require less than four tanks (assuming all are regular attendees) you will be filling another role.
Gear:
Your key stats for this role are armour, stamina and fight-appropriate resistances. Crit and Strength are almost irrelevant - you'll get plenty while looking for defensive stats as Druid tanking itemisation is far more limited than Warriors. Don't worry about Defence too much, partly because there is very little around for Druids, partly because the first points are inherently worth less than the last points and partly because we don't get the bonuses to block and parry that Warriors do from the stat.
Some key items to collect include the Warden Staff (world BOE) or Unyielding Maul (DM Tribute), Smoking Heart of the Mountain (Enchanting 265), Mark of Tyranny (UBRS Quest) and the Ring of Protection (Darrowshire Quest). There are some high armour battleground rewards as well which may or may not be acheivable in finite time on your server. Make sure you also build a healing set for use when four tanks aren't needed; while Cat DPS seems a natural backup role for all those Feral points I don't think it's really viable at the moment because it's threat is very high by DPS class standards.
Spec (general):
I prefer either 11+/31+/0+ or 0/30/21 to your current build. I use the former (14/37/0 variant) for the extra threat and damage from Natural Weapons, Omen of Clarity and Improved Thorns; it's an extremely effective 5-man tanking build. The latter seems a better fit to your intended role - it lets you get all the mitigation and survival talents in the Feral tree while still picking up Nature's Swiftness and a bunch of healing talents (not least HOTW) for use when you're not tanking.
Spec (individual talents):
Feral Aggression - the attack power reduction is sometimes useful, but check with your warriors to see whether you're wasting points, some 2H warrior builds will have the warrior version and hence produce a marginally larger debuff.
Brutal Impact - many raid mobs are not stunnable. If you get it for other uses, get both points.
Feral Instinct - not required for an offtank.
Furor - I'm not keen on this for full time or planned tanks - it's a great talent for getting off that emergency Feral Charge when shifting in a Crisis, not so hot if you only leave bear form for emergencies and rebuffing. The emergency use alone can make it a better entry to the tree than MOTW is for a tanking build; your other Druids should understand you not doing your part of the buffing, especially if you bring reagents and pass them out.
Improved Enrage - largely superflous if you have Furor, though worth picking up (again for that emergency use) if you don't. Your healers generally won't appreciate you using enrage (and hence giving up thousands of armour) while a raid mob is hitting you.
L2P:
Sounds like you're doing fine, good luck!