Bear tank build

[Trien]

Just to add a little bit more...

Spec-wise, here are the things I'd like to have were I a dedicated bear tank. If you're not going for a dedicated tank build though, you probably won't pick up all of these:

Balance

• Natural Weapons 5/5 - druid threat is virtually all damage based, so you'd like that extra damage<>
  
• Omen of Clarity - Not a must-have, but any extra damage you can throw in is nice. Though if you have more rage than you can dump, this won't do you much good, but is quite nice pre-endgame, as well as for soloing.<>
  [st]Feral
  • Ferocity 5/5 - Reduced maul cost lets you spam maul more often. Again, not so much of an issue if you have more rage than you can dump, but on the initial agro build when you have no rage yet, it can let you get in a few more mauls so the DPS can start on the mob earlier. Also if you're blowing extra rage via swipe, it'll mean more overall mauls and swipes in total.<>
    
  • Feral Instinct 5/5 - Like Warrior Defiance, +15% threat<>
    
  • Sharpened Claws 3/3 - +6% crit. Maul crits generate a ton of threat, and you want those crits.<>
    
  • Primal Fury 2/2 - More rage on crits, lets you throw out more mauls.<>
    
  • Savage Fury 2/2 - +20% maul damage - more damage, more threat<>
    
  • Heart of the Wild 5/5 - +20% stamina means you live longer:)<>
    
  • Leader of the Pack - +3% crit<>
    
  • Faerie Fire - You'll have to decide whether it's worth it for this to take up a debuff slot in raids, but in small groups, by all means throw it up whenever the cooldown is up.<>
    [st]Restoration
    • Furor 5/5 - I wouldn't call this a must have either, but having the 10 rage as you shift into bear right on the pull means you have something to work with. While you could use enrage to build up the rage pre-pull, you're usually better off to self-regrowth + rejuv (so you get the HoT and the associated agro) and then hit them with a moonfire for initial agro, then shift into bear and throw a maul.<>
      [st]Obviously, if you take all of these you won't be left with much else to, say, throw into the Resto tree.
      
      Gear:
      Warlock covered most of this. A couple other items to look for:
      • Atal'ai Spaulders (193 AC), of the Bear, Monkey, or whatever fits you stat deficiency best. They drop off the 6 trolls in the circle in Sunken Temple... and you should be able to solo most of them as a L60 druid, and possibly even earlier.<>
        
      • Slaghide Gauntlets (207 AC), which also come in multiple flavours, and dropped by Urok Doomhowl, the summoned guy in LBRS.<>
        
      • Cloak of Warding (crafted, 214 AC) is nice for stacking on the armour. Has +def, but no other stats. Another option is...<>
        
      • Sergeant's Cape (115 AC, +17 sta), if you can make Sergeant rank, which isn't terribly hard, but will require some time spent PvPing.<>
        
      • Thrall's Resolve (150 AC), if you are horde side.<>
        [st]The Arathi Basin rewards have a ton of armour, and if you can manage to get your hands on them, they are quite amazing. The Warsong exalted leggings are very nice as well... no str on them, but lots of agil and +1% crit. These will both however require massive amounts of time spent in the BGs.
        
        Which brings us to stat points... Stamina will be your primary focus, followed by str/AP and agil/crit. High AC will come mainly from the aforementioned rings, trinkets, shoulders, gloves, and cloak, all which have much higher AC than normal. There aren't any other really outstanding high AC pieces for the other slots until you start getting into BWL/AQ40 gear (AB rewards aside), so you're free to mix and match for those. I haven't worked out or seen any math for optimal str/agil ratios, but both are stats you want to work on. +str means more damage, and more damage means more threat. +agil increases both crit (more threat, especially maul crits, and also extra rage if you have Primal Fury) and dodge (which you'll want to take advantage of since you can't block or parry). +defense isn't really an option, since there are very few pieces you can get which have it, and it's not really worth it to give up the other stats for it (eg. by going for Atal'ai or Slaghide of Defense or green +defense leather)
        
        Playstyle:
        
        I'd already mentioned double-HoT/moonfire/bear pulling. If you happen to find yourself doing any serious tanking (especially if you end up MT), you'll want a warrior keeping 5 sunders on the mob. Since bear threat is all damage-based, you want that extra physical damage, and so far as that warrior isn't fighting you for agro, they shouldn't pull it off you, assuming you have the AP to put out the damage. This is going from memory since it's been a while since I looked at the numbers, but I think it worked out that a 1000 damage maul crit is worth something like 6-7 sunders worth of agro. The discussions on the druid boards back when this was being worked out seemed to suggest that while a well equipped druid couldn't quite match the overall damage mitigation of a well equipped warrior (and also doesn't have the nifty survival skills like shield wall and last stand), sustained single-mob threat generation is higher, though initial agro build tends to be a bit slower due to 2.5s attack speed. This means the bear will take more healing as a tradeoff, but overall raid DPS can be pushed higher as well. I cannot offer direct confirmation of this from personal experience other than to say that bear agro is quite adequate as long as you're given enough time at the start. Crit maul a mob twice in a row, and it'll pretty much be stuck to you for life.
        
        (Edit: Added single-mob qualifier)