| rdfs:comment
| - While bear tanks have a fair amount of flexibility in their gear selection, from feral pvp gear, feral pve gear, to even rogue pve gear, there are a few basic guidelines that a feral tank should "bear" in mind. These are not in any particular order, as a good feral tank will work to balance all these items while meeting minimum specifications.
* 25 defense, or 60 rating, for 1% less crit/more dodge/more miss
* 39.4 resilience for 1% less crit and 1% less damage from DOTs
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| abstract
| - While bear tanks have a fair amount of flexibility in their gear selection, from feral pvp gear, feral pve gear, to even rogue pve gear, there are a few basic guidelines that a feral tank should "bear" in mind. These are not in any particular order, as a good feral tank will work to balance all these items while meeting minimum specifications. With Survival of the Fittest (a talent that every feral tank should have) which gives 3% decreased chance to be crit, you need a Defense skill of 415, or a total of 5.6% decreased chance to be crit, in order to be uncrittable against the average boss-level monster, who is always considered to be 3 levels above you (Your mileage may vary in regards to Sunwell Plateau due to the hidden Sunwell Radiance buff - it is generally believed that this is a harbinger of things to come in WOTLK). This is of critical importance for a feral tank as a bear can never become immune to Crushing Blows. Any defense over the cap of 415 is largely wasted. Some will argue that the added defense skill still gives you some bonuses to dodge, however you are much better dumping the extra defense points and investing in additional agility or stamina. Some of this anti-crit can also come from Resilience, a stat that is very common on easily-obtained PvP gear, for example the Dragonhide Battlegear and all the arena sets. Its value compared to Defense is disputed at various level of the tanking progression, as it is weighted differently in the item budget. In either case:
* 25 defense, or 60 rating, for 1% less crit/more dodge/more miss
* 39.4 resilience for 1% less crit and 1% less damage from DOTs Druids can reach the highest levels of raw damage mitigation through armor. At 31,672 armor, a feral tank will reach the 75% cap for damage mitigation from armor against a level 70 mob. The cap against Raid Bosses (level 73) is 35,880 armor. Agility and dodge are key feral tanking stats as they are the only method a bear has to avoid incoming damage (as opposed to a Warrior or Paladin's block and parry). A newly 70 feral tank should aim for a dodge in the 30% range. Once a bear moves deeper into the raiding environment, they should have enough knowledge to determine how they want to spec their gear. As a general rule of thumb, agility is preferred over dodge as agility adds slightly to your armor and critical rating and scales with stat buffs such as Blessing of Kings. The last key stat for a bear tank to focus on is stamina. Feral tanks can reach the highest levels of hit points of all the tanking classes. This is important to a feral tank since without block, parry, and immunity to crushing blows, their only option is to "eat" the spike damage. A new feral tank should aim for 12,000 to 14,000 hit points self-buffed. If you have reached the defense cap of 415, do not be afraid to gem all your open slots with [Solid Star of Elune], regardless of gem set bonuses. One item that should be touched on, but is more important for raiders than for the casual bear tank is hit rating. There are many times when adding a little hit rating will have a significant impact in a player's threat per second. An important note is that to get crit immune, resilience is also a good option for a bear tank, as 39.4 resilience gives the same crit chance reduction as 25 defense. This means roughly that 40 resilience equals 60 defense rating for a level 70 character. Resilience does not give dodge like defense does, but is often easier to obtain and cheaper in Blizzards item budget so overall a slightly better way to get crit immune as stacking defense rating.
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