Bear Stats and Conversions

What is the armor cap? The armor cap is the point at which you hit the maximum damage reduction from armor (75.00%). The cap depends on the level of mob you’re fighting:

• For a level 70 mob, the armor cap is 31,673
  
• For a level 71 mob, the armor cap is 33,075
  
• For a level 72 mob, the armor cap is 34,478
  
• For a level 73 mob, the armor cap is 35,880
  

What are my stat conversions?

• 1 strength = 2 AP in all forms
  
• 1 agility = 1 AP in cat form only
  
• 1 agility = 2 armor in all forms
  
• 14.73 agility = 1.0% dodge in all forms
  
• 25 agility = 1.0% crit in all forms
  
• 1 stamina = 10 HP in all forms
  
• 1 int = 15 mana in all forms
  
• 79.97 int = 1.0% spell crit in all forms
  
• 1.8 spi = 1mp5 not casting
  
• 6 spi = 1mp5 casting with 3/3 Intensity
  

What are the Combat Ratings conversions?

• 15.76 Expertise Rating = 4 Expertise (-1.00% dodge and -1.00% parry)
  
• 15.76 Hit Rating = -1.0% miss chance
  
• 12.62 Spell Hit Rating = -1.0% spell miss chance
  
• 22.08 Crit Rating = +1.0% crit chance
  
• 22.08 Spell Crit Rating = +1.0% spell crit chance
  
• 15.76 Haste Rating = +1.0% haste
  
• 15.76 Spell Haste Rating = +1.0% spell haste
  
• 18.9 Dodge Rating = +1.0% dodge chance
  
• 2.4 Defense Rating = 1 defense skill
  
• 1 Defense Skill = +0.04% chance to be missed, +0.04% chance to dodge*
  
• 25 Defense Skill/60 Defense Rating = +1.00% chance to be missed, +1.00% chance to dodge
  
• 39.4 Resilience = -1.0% crit chance, -2.0% crit damage, -1.0% DoT damage
  

* 1 defense skill also grants +0.04% chance to parry and +0.04% chance to block, but bears can't parry or block, so we don't receive these bonuses. Growl!

Hard Core Raiding Guild?

I met some guys on the elevator at work the other day, I overheard them speaking about The Hinderlands.  So obviously, I had to ask what classes they had, what server they were on and so forth.  I said I had a 70 Tauren Druid.  They mentioned I should roll a toon on their server and I responded that I couldn't really do that since I was an officer and a raid leader in my guild. Then they mentioned that they don't even have enough 70s in their family/friends  guild to do Kara. They asked if I was in a hard core raiding guild.  My answer was "No, we are a friendly, familyish guild."

Now, while I still agree with this assessment, I have started thinking about this more and more. Last week, I lead the 2nd Kara group, and we did ZA and Gruul's.  This week we have Kara, Gruul's,  ZA and Mags on the schedule.  That is really a lot of raiding in one week.  But we are still friendly to people, and we are accepting new members all the time.  It has gotten to the point recently that I am not quite sure who all the new members are.  And I try to make sure that I know all the new members since I am an officer.  So my question is, are we a hard core raiding guild?  How do you make that determination?

Gruul is down!

So, Band of the Hawk goes into Gruul's for the first time last night.  We had to pug about 5 people to make it, but we got enough people to go!  We had done our research, knew how it was supposed to go, and went in.

3 tanks - Bear and 2 warriors

6 healers - 2 trees, 2 pallies, 2 priests

Assorted DPS

We start deciding the job roles, and low and behold, I am main tank!  Woot!  I start working my way through the trash pulls, no problem!  

We get to the first boss.  The High King.  We make the assignments, and we have me on the HK, a warrior on Olm and a warrior on Blindeye, and then a frost mage on Krosh and two hunters on Kiggler.  

On the first try, Olm gets loose and we wipe.

On the second try, mage misses spell steal, we wipe.

On the thrid try, Olm gets loose and we wipe.

Here we decide to let the dps warrior tank Blindeye and put two tanks on Olm.  This method works and we down the group on try four.  Woo hoo.  It was tons of fun.

On to more trash pulls.  And then to Gruul.

On the first attempt, I'm tanking, doing my thing, and half of the dps dies on one of his Shatters.  Ouch, not fun.  

On the second attempt, a Ret pally joins the group to replace a shaman that has to go to bed.  And the ret pally rushes in before I do and grabs aggro and starts running around so I can't catch up and get aggro.  Argh!

On the third attempt,  everything goes as planned.  I'm tanking him in the center, except when I have to move him because of a cave in, but I respond pretty quickly since I'm running Deadly Boss Mobs.  I feral charge after he tosses me, and we work together as a group to get him down.  It was a beautiful thing to see 25 people come together and succeed.

I didn't get any loot, but my off tank for Kara got two T4 upgrades so that is nice.  He was very excited and I'm happy for him.

All in all, it was a great night.  I got to MT, and Steaky (my wife) was first in healing.  She was also very excited about that.

Zul'Aman and Guild stuffs

So, I have been to ZA a few times, but last night was the first time we got the first two bosses within the timer. Woo Hoo. I didn't get any good loot, but that is fine, others in the guild did. We attempted the Dragonhawk boss for the first time. And we wiped twice and weren't able to try again as it was getting late and people had to go to bed for work. Things are really coming together for our guild.

We have gotten several new members recently that seem to be really good additions, and we almost need 3 Kara groups now. Almost, we are short on healers and tanks for that, but have ample DPS.

To night we are scheduled to attempt Gruul's for the first time. I have been there before with a PUG, but others in my guild have not even set foot in there. I can't wait to give it a try with the guild, I know it will be better than the PUG was.

On a sad note, we are losing one of my good friends in guild. She has scheduling issues and is changing guilds to one that has more people online during the day since she is now going to be working in the evenings. It is sad to see her go, but I understand that it is for the best.

Gear upgrades

Yesterday was very fruitful for me. I got two very nice upgrades on my gear. Merciless Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm and I got my Darkmoon Fair card, Vengence! Now while I really needed the new helm, I am most excited by my Vengence card. I love the extra stamina it gives. It should really make it a lot easier on my healers!

And I think the Badge of Tenecity is a joke. I have farmed for hours for the depleted badge, and I have yet to get it. I haven't found it on the AH either. Oh well, at least I have my new Darkmoon Card!

Now, all I need to do is work on getting my Lunacy Deck together for my next card!

Bad Kara Runs

So, my wife and I are leading our guild's second Kara runs last week, and they were driving me crazy. Let me break who we had down for you.

1. Me - Feral druid
2. Prot Warrior
3. Wife - Resto Druid
4. Holy Priest
5. Rogue
6. Warlock
7. Mage #1
8. Mage #2
9. Shaman #1
10. Shaman #2

Night 1.
Okay, so we are kind of slow the first night, as there are too many brbs, but we finish maiden. This took way too long, but we had a couple of new people, so we had to explain things more.

Night 2:
Romulus and Julianne. Never done it before, we had to learn as we went. Once we understood what to do, it was going smoother. What kills me is we had to keep telling shaman #2 he was attacking the wrong target and to switch targets. Argh.

Okay, so we move on to curator, no problem, one shot. Then Illhoof, we wipe once when warlock goes down even though it was the priests only job to keep her up. Then we move onto Shade. Here is where I want to kill people, the holy priest isn't dispelling the slow, and to top it off, Shaman #2 moves EVERY single time we have a flame wreath. We finally give up and go to bed. If I hadn't, I would have killed someone.

My wife found a website that everyone doing shade needs to have playing during the fight!
http://shadeofaranchant.ytmnd.com/
But this is hard to understand over the mic, I played it for the group on night 3.

Night 3: Shaman #2 is replace by Hunter #1 and Rogue is replaced by dps Warrior #2. And Shaman #1 is replaced by Priest #2. Priest #2 is in charge of dispelling slow, and after 2 attempts to down Shade, we get Priest #2 on voice, and we down Shade. We do Chess and we attempt Prince. Notice I said attempt Prince.

First attempt, bad infernals.
Second attempt, Priest #1 is replaced by Hunter #2. Bear tank dies in Phase 2.
Third attempt, Bear tank dies in Phase 2.

Now the thing is, the resto druid has over 50% of the healing for these fights. I reset between each fight. And the priest is down at 25-30% healing. And as a bear, there is no way for me to take a potion and not take massive damage. As a bear, I have over 20,000 HP, over 25,000 armor and dodge at 36%. I should be able to tank Prince and not die. I don't know what the heck keeps happening. We finally quit last night, but damn, I am frustrated.

Okay, this should not take 3 nights. I know this, you know this, but what the hell went wrong. I am now checking and double checking to make sure that people are Kara ready. And being Kara ready, does not mean you are Kara able. See shaman #2. His gear is Kara ready, but I was out damaging him on fights, even when I was tanking. That should not happen with an enhancement shaman.

Long story to say, make sure your people are Kara ready and Kara able, as these are two different things. Some people will never be raid ready, they just don't have the skills to raid. But if you are going to take them, you better make sure that everyone else is on the A game to compensate!

Anyone have any suggestions or comments?

What You Wearing?

There are tons of places that you can find gear lists for starting druid tanks. Emmerald's , Adventures in Azeroth and Big Bear Butt. Let me just say this, the heavy clefthoof set is going to be your best friend to start out. Get it and get it early. And gem it!

I had mine ready and waiting for me when I hit 70. I had also done quite a few BGs so I had the merciless gladiator shoulders and hands waiting for me. My wife and I were able to hit 70 on a Tuesday night, and run Kara on Thursday with our guild. I was off tank (OT) and she was off healer (OH). Were we just a little low, maybe, but we did it.

The point is, plan ahead and get the gear before you turn 70. Don't wait until you hit 70 to decide, "hey, maybe I need good gear to run Kara or heroics".

Now, keep in mind that there aren't that many Bear Kara drops as far as leather goes. You will have to get badge gear or 25 man raid drops. So you will be keeping some of your gear for a long time. Keep a list of what would actually be an upgrade for you. You don't want to take something someone else could use if it really isn't an upgrade. I recommend getting the Rating Buster Addon. It is quite useful to evaluate quickly whether or not something is better for you.

Also, use Rawr to plan ahead. You can get a lot of information for both your cat and bear forms using this tool.

As far as cat gear goes, speak with your guild about the Kara drops. My guild has the rule that you only roll for your main spec and if no one wants an item, then people can roll for an off spec. This has caused some issue since I say my spec is feral and should then roll on both cat and bear items, since I do both in the runs. However, my guild disagrees and I had to pick what I wanted to roll on, Cat or Bear. I chose Bear because I want to tank, but it is a discussion you need to have with your guild leaders and raid leaders. Don't let it become an issue, find out what the rules are before you go.

Overall, for a feral, gear is important, and you will be spending a lot of time getting it. But if you plan ahead, you can be ready to roll when you hit 70.

Do Over!

Okay, now that I have mentioned a few things you should do, let me tell you a few things not to do.

1. Never start a pull with no rage. Duh, right? Well, I can't tell you how many times I have pulled and forgotten to generate rage first. I normally start off with a mangle or a swipe, and guess what, you can't do that with no rage. LOL, so just fair warning, try to remember to use Enrage before you start.
2. Never get too close while marking. You can mark your targets from surprisingly far back. You don't need to get close. The first time I tanked Kara, I kept getting too close and accidentally pulling the group before it got it marked. Ouch. Remember, you can always mark in stealthed cat form!
3. Always ask if everyone has done the instance and if not explain how it works. Don't assume and have someone in the wrong place because they don't know.
4. Don't accidentally hit your button to switch in and out of bear form right as you start tanking Nalorakk, the bear boss in Zul'Aman. And hope like hell that you don't cause a wipe. If you are lucky as I was, your wife will battle rez you and you can tank his bear form (instead of his normal form) and no one yelled too much. I did have to do alot of bark kissing to the wife after the battle rez though! ;P I just felt like a bear ass noob!

I know I have done a lot more stupid things, but I just can't think of them at the moment. All in all, remember it is a game, and that you can always get a do over!

Marking

Now becoming a good tank takes practice. And it takes research. Because while other members of your group can go into the instance knowing what they can and can't do with their class, you will be in charge of pulls. This means that you should have researched ahead of time to find out which mobs (i.e. bad guys) can be crowd controlled (CC) and which ones can't.

This is very important as you don't want to ask your mage to sheep a target that can't be sheeped only to then have the mob attacking your cloth wearing friend. This can spell disaster because now you have a loose mob running around. Therefore, it is your job as tank, since you should be marking, to know which mobs are in the instance and how to mark them.

I recommend setting your marks up on your number pad. This way they are easy access and you can mark during battle. You can set this up in the keybindings menu. Mine look like

Numpad 1 - Skull
Numpad 2 - Red X
Numpad 3 - Green Triangle
Numpad 4 - Purple Diamond
Numpad 5 - Yellow Star
Numpad 6 - Moon (used for sheep)
etc.

Now the interesting thing to note is this is also the kill order that I use. I also use this to make a macro with kill order on it. This way I can quickly explain the kill order if I am grouping with new people. It looks like this:

/party Skull - kill first
/party Red X - kill second
/party Green Triangle - kill third
/party Purple diamond - kill fourth
/party Moon - sheep (if we have a mage)
/party Blue Square - trap (if we have a hunter)
/party Yellow Star - sap (if we have a rogue)
/party Orange Circle - shackle or mind control (if we have a priest)

This will cover most of your situations.

If the pull doesn't go according to plan, or if it is one of those pulls where you can only mark one or two of the mobs beforehand, be prepared to mark on the move. Always let your group know which mob you have targeted so they can be targeting the same one and not pull a secondary target off of you.

Also, research and understand how to do line of sight pulls. These can be very useful when you have a caster in the group you are pulling. You can pull around a corner and make that caster come to you. This way you are less likely to get adds (additional mobs) with your pull. And if you get feared, you should have pulled back to a place that you have already cleared so you don't have to worry about getting feared into an different group of mobs.

Overall, tanking is a lot of work. And there are a lot of people out there who don't do the research or put in the effort to learn the pulls, and it shows. If people find a good and competent tank, they will regularly invite you to run things and want to group with you. And this is the best compliment a tank can get. (Although sometimes, I would love time to do my dailies! :D)

Kara Feral Drops

I have labeled items as Bear or Cat depending on which form the item should be used for. Keep in mind that if you are MT/OT you should give first dibs on cat leather items to rogues, as they can't tank. (or shouldn't I should say)


Trash Mobs
Zierhut's Lost Treads - Bear

Attumen the Huntsman
Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation - Cat
Worgen Claw Necklace - Cat

Moroes
Edgewalker Longboots - Cat
Lucky Pocket Watch - Bear
Royal Cloak of Arathi Kings - Cat

Maiden
Barbed Choker of Discipline - Bear
Bracers of Maliciousness - Cat

Opera Event
Romulo's Poison Vial - Cat

Curator
Garona's Signet Ring - Cat
Gloves of the Fallen Defender - Both

Illhoof
Terestian's Stranglestaff - Cat

Shade of Aran
Drape of the Dark Reavers - Cat
Rapscallion Boots - Cat
Saberclaw Talisman - Both
Shermanar Great-Ring - Bear

Chess Event
Bladed Shoulderpads of the Merciless - Both
Girdle of Treachery - Cat
Mithril Chain of Heroism - Cat

Netherspite
Cowl of Defiance - Cat
Mithril Band of the Unscarred - Cat
Skulker's Greaves - Cat

Prince Malchezaar
Farstrider Wildercloak - Cat (but if someone else wants it, give it to them, you need agility more)
Ring of a Thousand Marks - Both
Helm of the Fallen Defender - Both

Nightbane
Chestguard of the Conniver - Cat

Defense, Hit Rating and Expertise

Defense

So the optimal defense rating is 415 assuming that you have Survial of the Fittest. However, if you have resilience, you can get it at 103. Now the question becomes if you have a combination of the two. There are formulas out there that will calculate it, and I have played with them, since I am a mathematician, but the easiest way to determine if you have the 2.6% reduction to be crit is to open your character profile and go to the defense tab. Hover over defense and it will tell you that you have A% reduction and then hover over the resilience and it will tell you that you have B% reduction. So if A% + B% > 2.6% then you are uncrittable. Easy as killing a gnome.

Hit Rating

The goal for a feral is to get your hit rating to 142. This is the magic number. If you are catting around, you need to make sure you are at 142, otherwise, you are losing dps. Don't bother stacking tons of it as there are many other useful things to stack. Agility for instance. I use +hit rating and + agility gems until I get to 142, then I stack all agility for better crits.

Expertise

The goal here is to reduce the number of your attacks that are dodged or parried. The optimal number is 92 for expertise. Now what I find most interesting is the lack of gear for ferals that has expertise on it. There are only 13 leather items with expertise on them. You can get it on Earthwarden, but finding a leather piece that has expertise on it that isn't a step down or available to a starting Feral is quite difficult.

Howdy

Just playing around and contemplating starting a blog. I'm a feral druid on Terokkar that has started raiding Kara, Gruul's and Zul'Aman. I am also an officer in my guild. And this is going to be a spot where I discuss Feral and guild officer stuff. My personal goal is to put all of the important feral information on this site for my personal use, and if someone reads it and finds it useful, so be it.