I just finished reading another informative and interesting article over at Karthis's blog regarding gearing up after the Heavy Clefthoof Set for a feral druid. Being extremely knowledgeable in the itemization woes of feral druids, Karthis suggests an extremely PvE friendly path and one which for the most part I agree with, considering the fact that feral druids in general get the short end of the stick while PvP-ing.
But for those of us willing to jump into the unfriendly BGs and Arenas, there may be viable options for the feral tank there as well. Now from the viewpoint of a feral druid, what exactly are the stats we need to tank and tank well(Not in any particular order):
1) Stamina: We need it as do other tanks, its this very stat that ensures we can survive those hits. But for a feral druid they can do more and is also more important seeing how we are susceptible to crushing blows and hence need a bigger buffer of HP. Most PvP gear has loads of stamina because survivability is key in the brutal world that its made for.
2)Agility: Our only means of damage avoidance is dodge (or the passive miss chance inherent in the game). This means we can either fully avoid the damage or take it for what its worth, though usually our high armor means we mitigate more than other tanks. Most upper tier PvP gear has comparable agility to T4 gear.
3)Armor: Repeat after me "I am an armored bear!! Without my armor I am nothing", bears have the tendency to have ridiculous amounts of armor and are probably(or so I think) the only class capable of reaching the armor cap. This is another candy offered to us in lieu of us having to take crushing blows. PvP feral gear can be easily segregated by the usual green colored armor amount e.g.Vindicator's Dragonhide Boots , indicating that the piece of gear has unusually high armor for its level. With the multiplication factor that armor means more than plate.
4)Uncrittability: Without this don't even expect to have any decent guild accept you as a tank. If you aren't even uncrittable then you are an even bigger liability than a tank with lower stamina but uncrittable. TO become uncrittable there are 2 stats that a tank can use. The first is defense rating. For a feral druid with the appropriate talents, only 415 defense is required to be uncrittable, and seeing how 350 is achievable without gear, the last 75 is achieved through some trouble seeing how there is very little leather gear with +defense rating on it. So to achieve it using this stat, most druids need a combination of rings, cloaks, enchants and more stuff (think Earthwarden) to get a total of 156 defense rating. This is also the preferable method to become uncrittable seeing as to how defense rating also increases our chance to dodge. The other and usually more criticized route is through Resilience. Yes, this PvP only stat is the bridge that allows us to cross over once we lose the Heavy Clefthoof set. Its also a cheaper way to achieve uncrittability, since only 103 resilience is needed for 415 defense. Also seeing how resilience is available by the bucket load it makes for an easier task and frees up more room for stats like agility, stamina etc. Even with 2 pieces of S1 gear say shoulders and gloves, you get about 20 resil per piece and another 35 through the set bonus. That instantly puts you at 75 resil through 2 pieces of gear, leaving you to only secure 28 more to become crit immune or to pick up some defense gear.
5)Damage output: The higher the damage output, the more the threat, the more room there is for dps to go all out. As a tank during Gruuls, I regularly top the damage output amongst tanks, usually doing twice as much as the closest competitor. This allows the dps to open up faster and with more aplomb. Since most PvP gear is also concerned with damage output, there is usually hit rating, attack power, ignore armor like stats which help in achieving this. e.g.Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Gloves
To examine my points via an example, I will compare the Vengeful Gladiator's Chest piece to the T4 Malorne chest piece which drops of Magtheridon.
Using the PvP chestpiece I:
lose 130 armor
lose 3 strength
lose 3 agility
gain 18 stamina
gain 9 intellect
gain 12 hit rating
gain 19 critical strike rating (0.86% chance to crit)
gain 26 resilience
lose a set bonus(maybe)
Seeing how the comparison stands, I am willing to trade in my Clefthoof chestpiece a little earlier seeing the ridiculous gain in stats I achieve. There are also some other merits to gearing up this way. Since most gear drops at the initial levels become minor to laughable upgrades, I can pass and help others gear up faster to open up access to more competitive raiding instances. On the whole pursuing PvP for the more inclined can surely be a worthwhile pursuit.
Thanks to Karthis for his invaluable information regarding Crit Immunity via the article "On Being Uncrittable".
But for those of us willing to jump into the unfriendly BGs and Arenas, there may be viable options for the feral tank there as well. Now from the viewpoint of a feral druid, what exactly are the stats we need to tank and tank well(Not in any particular order):
1) Stamina: We need it as do other tanks, its this very stat that ensures we can survive those hits. But for a feral druid they can do more and is also more important seeing how we are susceptible to crushing blows and hence need a bigger buffer of HP. Most PvP gear has loads of stamina because survivability is key in the brutal world that its made for.
2)Agility: Our only means of damage avoidance is dodge (or the passive miss chance inherent in the game). This means we can either fully avoid the damage or take it for what its worth, though usually our high armor means we mitigate more than other tanks. Most upper tier PvP gear has comparable agility to T4 gear.
3)Armor: Repeat after me "I am an armored bear!! Without my armor I am nothing", bears have the tendency to have ridiculous amounts of armor and are probably(or so I think) the only class capable of reaching the armor cap. This is another candy offered to us in lieu of us having to take crushing blows. PvP feral gear can be easily segregated by the usual green colored armor amount e.g.Vindicator's Dragonhide Boots , indicating that the piece of gear has unusually high armor for its level. With the multiplication factor that armor means more than plate.
4)Uncrittability: Without this don't even expect to have any decent guild accept you as a tank. If you aren't even uncrittable then you are an even bigger liability than a tank with lower stamina but uncrittable. TO become uncrittable there are 2 stats that a tank can use. The first is defense rating. For a feral druid with the appropriate talents, only 415 defense is required to be uncrittable, and seeing how 350 is achievable without gear, the last 75 is achieved through some trouble seeing how there is very little leather gear with +defense rating on it. So to achieve it using this stat, most druids need a combination of rings, cloaks, enchants and more stuff (think Earthwarden) to get a total of 156 defense rating. This is also the preferable method to become uncrittable seeing as to how defense rating also increases our chance to dodge. The other and usually more criticized route is through Resilience. Yes, this PvP only stat is the bridge that allows us to cross over once we lose the Heavy Clefthoof set. Its also a cheaper way to achieve uncrittability, since only 103 resilience is needed for 415 defense. Also seeing how resilience is available by the bucket load it makes for an easier task and frees up more room for stats like agility, stamina etc. Even with 2 pieces of S1 gear say shoulders and gloves, you get about 20 resil per piece and another 35 through the set bonus. That instantly puts you at 75 resil through 2 pieces of gear, leaving you to only secure 28 more to become crit immune or to pick up some defense gear.
5)Damage output: The higher the damage output, the more the threat, the more room there is for dps to go all out. As a tank during Gruuls, I regularly top the damage output amongst tanks, usually doing twice as much as the closest competitor. This allows the dps to open up faster and with more aplomb. Since most PvP gear is also concerned with damage output, there is usually hit rating, attack power, ignore armor like stats which help in achieving this. e.g.Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Gloves
To examine my points via an example, I will compare the Vengeful Gladiator's Chest piece to the T4 Malorne chest piece which drops of Magtheridon.
Using the PvP chestpiece I:
lose 130 armor
lose 3 strength
lose 3 agility
gain 18 stamina
gain 9 intellect
gain 12 hit rating
gain 19 critical strike rating (0.86% chance to crit)
gain 26 resilience
lose a set bonus(maybe)
Seeing how the comparison stands, I am willing to trade in my Clefthoof chestpiece a little earlier seeing the ridiculous gain in stats I achieve. There are also some other merits to gearing up this way. Since most gear drops at the initial levels become minor to laughable upgrades, I can pass and help others gear up faster to open up access to more competitive raiding instances. On the whole pursuing PvP for the more inclined can surely be a worthwhile pursuit.
Thanks to Karthis for his invaluable information regarding Crit Immunity via the article "On Being Uncrittable".
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