Athinira's guide to druid tanking
This is my guide to druid tanking. Currently im a 44 druid on Horde side, feral spec. So far ive been main tank through all my instanceruns (many), except for 3 runs:
1) One run where i was the only healer in group.
2) One run where i was with an 8 level higher protection specced warrior.
3) One run were i was backuphealer, since our priest was lowlevel and shadowspecced (we had 2 warriors).
I haven't tanked high level instances yet, so i got no what-so-ever bear form experience in instances like Stratholme, Scholomance and Black Rock Spire etc.
Druids vs. Warriors - Why choose druid?
Warriors (as class) are better tanks that druids, no doubt there. Generally if they have just a small understanding of warrior talent and usage of stances, they can maintain agro on most mobs without trouble. For single target agro holding, warriors are unsurpassed.
There are 2 reasons to choose a feral druid as main tank above warriors:
1) DPS
Warriors aren't just tanks, they are incrediable for DPS. Tell the warrior to do DPS instead of tanking. With a decent 2h weapon (from quest or from drop, warriors got some good quest rewards through their warriorquests) a warrior is gonna do incredible DPS. And if he takes agro, he can even without his shield equipped take a beating because of his high amount of HP and his mail armor (plate after 40). He can at any time always switch to tank at a bad pull (just like a druid can switch from Cat/Bear to healing), and help keeping agro away from healers and low armor classes. Even in bear form, warriors is gonna be one of your best friends as the "Rogue in Plate".
2) AoE tanking
The one point of tanking were we surpass warriors in holding agro, is when holding agro on multiple mobs. We got one critical ability called Swipe. Many druis don't use swipe, because it does low damage. Indeed thats right, however when hitting just 2 mobs with it, your damage-per-rage actually surpasses using Maul.
Lets say you got the Ferocity Talent as druid, reducing Swipe rage cost to 15 rage, and maul to 10 rage. Your current level is 44, meaning you got Maul Rank 5 (obtained at level 42) and Swipe Rank 4 (Obtained at level 44). Maul Rank 5 increases damage on your next melee attack by 71 for 10 rage, and Swipe does 60 damage-per-target for 15 rage. Your average melee hits without maul hits for 70 (normmaly its higher, but we say 70).
Lets calculate that you got 30 rage (2 Swipes or 3 mauls), and if you use your swipe you are gonna hit 2 targets.
If you use Maul you get:
(70 damage average + 71 damage maul added) * 3 = approx 423 damage over 7,5 seconds (2,5 sec attack speed).
If you use Swipe you get:
60 damage * 2 targets * 2 swipes = 240 damage
This may look like maul is better to use, except for the fact that your normal 70 damage melee attack still attack along with swipe, generating damage AND rage. That would add about 210 more damage (3 attacks like when using maul, timeline is 7,5 seconds), and that about 15-20 more rage (more on crits), giving another 2 targets * 60 = 120 damage from one ekstra swipe. And this is from by hitting 2 targets alone with swipe, instead of 3 (adding 3 swipes * 60 damage = 180 more damage at 3 targets).
The only AOE warriors got is Cleave (2 targets, 20 rage), Sweeping Strikes (2 targets for 5 attacks, 30 rage), and Whirlwind (4 targets). Cleave is a good ability, however hits a max of 2 targets, and it is a "on next melee". Sweeping Strikes is a tier 5 arms talent, the chance of a prot spec warrior having this is low (also leaving the warrior without important prot talents if he takes this), and whirlwind is best used with a 2h weapon, requires Beserker Stance (forcing the warrior to change from def stance, not benefitting from the Defiance Talent and taking ekstra damage. If he doesn't have tactical mastery, or has more rage than tactical mastery can allow him to keep, this is not a good solution).
Primal Fury
This tier 4 feral talent allows the druid to generate 5 rage everytime he crits an opponent. This may not seem as much, however i got this talent, and having this talent almost makes Swipe twice the ability it was before. EVERY crit swipe makes (along with the fact that your normal melee attack still continues while Swipe is used, and can also crit), generates 5 rage. I once tried using swipe, critting 3 targets while my melee attack also crit. This technically made my Swipe rage free, since all 3 crits generated rage, equal to 15 rage, and i got about 15 more rage from my normal melee attack (generates about 10 rage on a crit, +5 from Primal Fury). Also consider the Prerequisite from this talent is a 3 rank talent that gives 6% crit chance to you in bear form and cat form, you are quickly gonna find Swipe very rage efficient and very agroholding.
Druid talents - what is good to have
Since 1.8 many druids are speccing feral. Mostly aren't gearing for tanking however, but more for Cat Form DPS to rip casters apart faster. Thats a sad thing, for you can actually have both things at the same time.
My current level 40 talent spec looks like this:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/t...050000000000000
And my level 60 spec is probably gonna look like this:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/t...050000000000000
with Natural Weapons (if anyone can confirm this affects Swipe/Maul you are welcome to post) and Omen of Clarity. Improved Enrage would also be a nice talent, however for PvP i like Natural Shapeshifter more.
Most important tanking talent to get are:
1) Primal Fury
2) Feral Instinct - Most rogues and druid don't choose increased stealth for PvP. However being able to be an almost completely undetectable killer in cat form is my style, and the 15% increased agro generated is great. Take this talent if your are a tanking minded druid, and like to be harder to detect. For an all out PvP druid this may not be the best talent.
3) Furor - Good for moonfirepulls were you can instantly switch to bear form, and fire of a Demo Roar/Maul to get initial agro.
Other talents to improve your tanking (that i didn't choose some of those for PvP purposes) are:
1) Thick Hide - After 1.8 this no long apply to Bear/Dire Bear form only.
2) Feral Aggresion - For a better Demo Roar
3) Improved Thorns - Thorns is a great talent for maintaining agro on mobs that already hit you, since the reflected damage generates agro. Thorns should be cast on yourself for tanking, and every warrior/off-tank in the group. Improved Thorns increases the effect by 75%.
4) Natural Weapons - 10% more damage
5) Omen of Clarity - Might be a free Swipe or Something like that. Note that from what i heard from others, the talent is still bugged.
6) Faerie Fire (Feral) - Though many druids says otherwise, i haven't found Faerie Fire to generate more agro. However if you just finished from a fight with about 80 ragepoints, and priests got mana, then you can make a ranged pull in bear form with this talent.
7) Feral Charge - If you get distance away from healer, and he draws agro, use this to close distance and immobilize the enemy.
8) Heart of the Wild - 20% more Stamina, do i need to say more? =)
9) Leader og the Pact - More Crit chance for your Swipe. Combine this with Primal Fury, and tanking gets even better. Also helps your team out, since its an aura.
10) Savage Fury - 20% more damage on Maul/Swipe
11) Improved Enrage - More rage from start of battle = More agro manament. See this as an extended kind of furor.
Wolfshead Helm is also something to consider for extra rage. Got it myself from a guild member. From what i know its made with Tribal Leatherworking:
http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?i=9949
Versão Completa: [Druid] Guia para Druidas que fazem de Tanque
So, how should i tank?
General rule is that the tank pulls. Make sure your team understands this. Initial agro is important since you generate rage when hit. You also got an advantage over warriors here. Warriors generally charge into a group to generate rage and gain agro. While that tactic is good itself, it involves moving deeper into an instance, having a chance of pulling another group close to the one the warrior was charging. The warriors alternative for this is bow, not doing much damage and leaving the rage generated from charge out, where his only alternative for this is bloodrage. Druids can pull a group with moonfire (if you got the time, moonfire 2 mobs to agro both), switch to bear with an instant 10 rage from Furor (our replacement for charge) and enrage. As druid its important to pull towards the current position of your group.
Gathering the crowd. The druids best tanking ability is Swipe, and Swipe doesn't AOE in all directions. The mobs have to be in front of you. If the mobs are spread out on group members, getting agro on all of them might be difficult. This mostly depend on how your team is acting. Ask your team to wait for you to pull of 1 Swipe, before attacking YOUR MAIN TARGET. I read a warrior guide to tanking on the warrior forums, saying that if you loose agro you are a bad tank. Druids tank differently, and if you loose agro its not always your fault. Make sure to educate your team on the most effective way of tanking. No matter if its the epic geared prot warrior tanking (and no matter how good he is), tanking succes depends on the team, not just the tank.
As tank you should always be mindfull, keep an eye on ALL mobs and make sure that casters remain unharmed. Even with swipe switch targets sometimes, maybe just for one normal attack on the other mobs.
How do i pull ranged mobs?
Pulling towards your group is essential, however pulling ranged mobs and spellcasters can sometimes be a pain in the ass. The solution is rather simple, pull of a moonfire, and run out of their Line of Sight (around a corner/wall something). If that isn't possible, then moonfire and start running away.
How ever foolproof the above tactic might seem, it sometimes screws up, and thats because your team often has a tendency to think they should start nuking the second you hit the moonfire button. Ive even seen warrior use Intercept the second i moonfired. Make sure you tell your team the tactic used.
Growl
Growl (druid version of warriors taunt) is a 10 seconds cooldown ability. The ability forces a mob to focus attacks on your for a couple of seconds. From what i understand, this ability forces the mob to focus on you for a short period however also has a second effect, let me explain:
Lets say priest got 4000 agropoints, and you got 2000. If you use taunt then the mob focuses its attack on you for a timespan of 4-6 seconds. If you just taunt and don't attack it, then it runs back to the priest after the timespan, you still got 2000 agropoints, and the priest still has 4000. However if you perform a single maul on the target (or any other damageability), then your agropoints is set to 4000+the agro amont that maul generates. If the priest had 4500 agropoints, then you get 4500 agropoints+agropoints from maul.
I have no documentation for the system, and this statement is entirely based on what i heard from other players and tried out myself. However im pretty sure that its the way it works, which also explains why the tooltip states that the ability does nothing if the mob is already attacking you.
Swipe
When spamming Swipe, its important that you recognize the pattern of your team. If your team are some random noobs, just attacking randomly, even a warrior is gonna have problems taking agro. Swipe is for maintaining agro on all mobs, so all mobs except the one you are hitting aren't gonna change target when priest lands the first flash heal. Best would be to swipe, and let your normal melee attack maintain agro on a mob the rest of the
group are attacking (instead of them attacking randomly). Try to always face the mob that your melee attack is active on while swiping, it might give your team an idea of the main target, as well as it allows them to know if you switch targets. Also, it might be a good idea to change your melee attacks target sometimes. IF you got a warrior as DPS/Off-tank in the group, ask hime to make demo shouts, so you can concentrate on using rage on Swipe instead of Demo Shout. If you got tons of rage and the talent for it, use Faerie Fire (feral) to pull from range, without ahving to shift out loosing rage (make sure your priest got mana though).
Enrage and bad Tooltips
Ive seens some druids being afraid of using enrage while having agro, because that their armor gets reduced to 25%. THIS IS NO TRUE. If you have 4000 armor in bear form, you don't get it reduced to 1000 armor while enrage is active. From what i understand it reduces your normal armor from items (when not in bear form) by 75%, with the standard bear form bonus still applying. This means that if your items give you 500 armor total, (which is 500 * 4.6 = 2300 in bear form) and you use enrage, then your armor becomes 2300 - (500 * 0.75) = 1925 not counting base armor and armor from agility (which isn't affected by enrage).
I often even get to use Enrage 2 times in a single pull in Scarlet Monastery. Use it on groups with 3 mobs or more (2 mobs generally go down so fast, that your have to wait for cooldown for the next group of 3 or 4 mobs).
Demoralizing Roar
If a warrior isn't available to Demo Shout, it up to you to pull Demo Roar of. Most important thing about this ability, is to learn about each instance. Take scarlet as example, the mobs called "Scarlet Myrmidon" generally hits hard, so Demo Roaring them is a pretty good idea, while "Scarlet Defender", "Scarlet Protector" and "Scarlet Guardsmen" generally hits like girls, and i concentrate my rage on getting them down fast, instead of reducing their damage. This of course depends on the size of the pulled group, the amount of healers in the group, your currently equipped gear (tanking i suspect), and if the healers in your group are sleeping most of the time.
If you got a warrior in group at DPS guy, ask him to Demo Shout instead, so you can use rage on maintaining agro instead.
Feral Charge
Feral Charge is not to be used for pulling (Its "Feral Charge" not warrior "Charge"), you can just step in melee though it takes longer. However, this ability is mostly used for runners who get low on HP and flee like girls. If you see a mob running towards another group, run away from it until you get the distance to feral charge. Besides that its an antispellcaster-ability, with low rage cost. Try to use it on healers and magemobs.
Bash
Some consider this an agro making move. Sure it is, but the one minute cooldown on it rather makes me prefer it as an anti-spellcaster move on healing mobs, where i can't get the right distance for the charge in time. Also use this on fleeing mobs, if Feral Charge is on cooldown.
Frenzied Regeneration
We can self heal, warriors can't. WE OWN!!!1oneoneone
Well maybe not, since it most of the time consumes all our rage and takes time to use. Use this ability if you are sure that you can maintain agro without rage, and the priest is out of mana. Use it while enrage isn't on cooldown so it can act like support, and use it while you have 20-40% HP left and main healer is going OOM. Cooldown for this move is 3 minutes, so it can be used often, but should be used wisely, and only in emergencies. The best use for this move, is if you got a good warrior who knows how to tank, and can take over agro while you regenerate (also usefull if priest runs OOM. Warrior takes over agro while you shift out and start acting as healer). Maintaining agro can be difficult without rage.
Challeging Roar
Our AOE Taunt, good for gathering mobs to you. Get all the mob attention with this move if things are getting out of control, and then Swipe them to get agro back. This move is for emergencies only, as it has a 10 minute cooldown.
Note for how this ability works, see Growl, since this is technically a AOE taunt (works the same way as taunt, except it affects mobs in an area around the druid). Also, when you read about how Growl works, note that this move as well only lasts 4-6 seconds unless you do some damage to the mob in a short period ater you use it, so make sure you got enough rage for a swipe after using this move.
When should i heal myself?
If your Frenzied Regeneration is on cooldown, or you just don't got enough rage to heal yourself (saying main healer is OOM), having a warrior to take agro from you while you heal yourself is quite a good solution. However this requires skills, and skilled warrior are often rare. When shifting out to heal yourself, pull of a regrowth, since its the fastest heal you can pull of. If you are a Tauren, use Warstomp, i generally forget to use warstomp, and that has been the cause of my death (though all the group survived besides me). Warstomp is VERY important, use it to get a free regrowth!
What Groupmembers do druids like?
The general answer would be priest, since they are powerfull healers. The warriors best friend is a healer, and this also applies to druids in bear form, since healing yourself with 3-4 mobs hitting you is difficult. Generally i like to team with priests, warriors and well played shamans (who doesn't shocknuke). But of course 2 druids can be a devastating combo, as well as Paladins (if you play alliance) are gonna be your playmates.
Rogues i generally do good with, since taking agro from them actually isn't that hard to do (though other says otherwise), however often i leave them with their mob since they can stun it and often can survive for a time on their stuns, giving the group time to kill other mobs and survive themself that way.
Mages i generally don't like teaming with, since most mages are like nuking shamans, except for the fact that shamans can do good DPS besides nuking, while this is more difficult for mages. I always love teaming with mages 2-4 levels below me though, since they got a more difficult time taking agro, while still doing great DPS.
If you know someone who plays warlock, and plays it well, be sure to take him with you. Curse of Weakness, Curse of Tongues, Curse of Recklessness, all to minimize damage to the group, prevent mobs from running away, and to gimp casting mobs. If he got imp out, he can give you more stamine, though other warlock pets got good Crowd Control.
Hunters generally likes to fire their bow very early in a pull, taking agro. Be sure a hunter doesn't do that, since ive tried 1-2 wipes on this.
General rule is that the tank pulls. Make sure your team understands this. Initial agro is important since you generate rage when hit. You also got an advantage over warriors here. Warriors generally charge into a group to generate rage and gain agro. While that tactic is good itself, it involves moving deeper into an instance, having a chance of pulling another group close to the one the warrior was charging. The warriors alternative for this is bow, not doing much damage and leaving the rage generated from charge out, where his only alternative for this is bloodrage. Druids can pull a group with moonfire (if you got the time, moonfire 2 mobs to agro both), switch to bear with an instant 10 rage from Furor (our replacement for charge) and enrage. As druid its important to pull towards the current position of your group.
Gathering the crowd. The druids best tanking ability is Swipe, and Swipe doesn't AOE in all directions. The mobs have to be in front of you. If the mobs are spread out on group members, getting agro on all of them might be difficult. This mostly depend on how your team is acting. Ask your team to wait for you to pull of 1 Swipe, before attacking YOUR MAIN TARGET. I read a warrior guide to tanking on the warrior forums, saying that if you loose agro you are a bad tank. Druids tank differently, and if you loose agro its not always your fault. Make sure to educate your team on the most effective way of tanking. No matter if its the epic geared prot warrior tanking (and no matter how good he is), tanking succes depends on the team, not just the tank.
As tank you should always be mindfull, keep an eye on ALL mobs and make sure that casters remain unharmed. Even with swipe switch targets sometimes, maybe just for one normal attack on the other mobs.
How do i pull ranged mobs?
Pulling towards your group is essential, however pulling ranged mobs and spellcasters can sometimes be a pain in the ass. The solution is rather simple, pull of a moonfire, and run out of their Line of Sight (around a corner/wall something). If that isn't possible, then moonfire and start running away.
How ever foolproof the above tactic might seem, it sometimes screws up, and thats because your team often has a tendency to think they should start nuking the second you hit the moonfire button. Ive even seen warrior use Intercept the second i moonfired. Make sure you tell your team the tactic used.
Growl
Growl (druid version of warriors taunt) is a 10 seconds cooldown ability. The ability forces a mob to focus attacks on your for a couple of seconds. From what i understand, this ability forces the mob to focus on you for a short period however also has a second effect, let me explain:
Lets say priest got 4000 agropoints, and you got 2000. If you use taunt then the mob focuses its attack on you for a timespan of 4-6 seconds. If you just taunt and don't attack it, then it runs back to the priest after the timespan, you still got 2000 agropoints, and the priest still has 4000. However if you perform a single maul on the target (or any other damageability), then your agropoints is set to 4000+the agro amont that maul generates. If the priest had 4500 agropoints, then you get 4500 agropoints+agropoints from maul.
I have no documentation for the system, and this statement is entirely based on what i heard from other players and tried out myself. However im pretty sure that its the way it works, which also explains why the tooltip states that the ability does nothing if the mob is already attacking you.
Swipe
When spamming Swipe, its important that you recognize the pattern of your team. If your team are some random noobs, just attacking randomly, even a warrior is gonna have problems taking agro. Swipe is for maintaining agro on all mobs, so all mobs except the one you are hitting aren't gonna change target when priest lands the first flash heal. Best would be to swipe, and let your normal melee attack maintain agro on a mob the rest of the
group are attacking (instead of them attacking randomly). Try to always face the mob that your melee attack is active on while swiping, it might give your team an idea of the main target, as well as it allows them to know if you switch targets. Also, it might be a good idea to change your melee attacks target sometimes. IF you got a warrior as DPS/Off-tank in the group, ask hime to make demo shouts, so you can concentrate on using rage on Swipe instead of Demo Shout. If you got tons of rage and the talent for it, use Faerie Fire (feral) to pull from range, without ahving to shift out loosing rage (make sure your priest got mana though).
Enrage and bad Tooltips
Ive seens some druids being afraid of using enrage while having agro, because that their armor gets reduced to 25%. THIS IS NO TRUE. If you have 4000 armor in bear form, you don't get it reduced to 1000 armor while enrage is active. From what i understand it reduces your normal armor from items (when not in bear form) by 75%, with the standard bear form bonus still applying. This means that if your items give you 500 armor total, (which is 500 * 4.6 = 2300 in bear form) and you use enrage, then your armor becomes 2300 - (500 * 0.75) = 1925 not counting base armor and armor from agility (which isn't affected by enrage).
I often even get to use Enrage 2 times in a single pull in Scarlet Monastery. Use it on groups with 3 mobs or more (2 mobs generally go down so fast, that your have to wait for cooldown for the next group of 3 or 4 mobs).
Demoralizing Roar
If a warrior isn't available to Demo Shout, it up to you to pull Demo Roar of. Most important thing about this ability, is to learn about each instance. Take scarlet as example, the mobs called "Scarlet Myrmidon" generally hits hard, so Demo Roaring them is a pretty good idea, while "Scarlet Defender", "Scarlet Protector" and "Scarlet Guardsmen" generally hits like girls, and i concentrate my rage on getting them down fast, instead of reducing their damage. This of course depends on the size of the pulled group, the amount of healers in the group, your currently equipped gear (tanking i suspect), and if the healers in your group are sleeping most of the time.
If you got a warrior in group at DPS guy, ask him to Demo Shout instead, so you can use rage on maintaining agro instead.
Feral Charge
Feral Charge is not to be used for pulling (Its "Feral Charge" not warrior "Charge"), you can just step in melee though it takes longer. However, this ability is mostly used for runners who get low on HP and flee like girls. If you see a mob running towards another group, run away from it until you get the distance to feral charge. Besides that its an antispellcaster-ability, with low rage cost. Try to use it on healers and magemobs.
Bash
Some consider this an agro making move. Sure it is, but the one minute cooldown on it rather makes me prefer it as an anti-spellcaster move on healing mobs, where i can't get the right distance for the charge in time. Also use this on fleeing mobs, if Feral Charge is on cooldown.
Frenzied Regeneration
We can self heal, warriors can't. WE OWN!!!1oneoneone
Well maybe not, since it most of the time consumes all our rage and takes time to use. Use this ability if you are sure that you can maintain agro without rage, and the priest is out of mana. Use it while enrage isn't on cooldown so it can act like support, and use it while you have 20-40% HP left and main healer is going OOM. Cooldown for this move is 3 minutes, so it can be used often, but should be used wisely, and only in emergencies. The best use for this move, is if you got a good warrior who knows how to tank, and can take over agro while you regenerate (also usefull if priest runs OOM. Warrior takes over agro while you shift out and start acting as healer). Maintaining agro can be difficult without rage.
Challeging Roar
Our AOE Taunt, good for gathering mobs to you. Get all the mob attention with this move if things are getting out of control, and then Swipe them to get agro back. This move is for emergencies only, as it has a 10 minute cooldown.
Note for how this ability works, see Growl, since this is technically a AOE taunt (works the same way as taunt, except it affects mobs in an area around the druid). Also, when you read about how Growl works, note that this move as well only lasts 4-6 seconds unless you do some damage to the mob in a short period ater you use it, so make sure you got enough rage for a swipe after using this move.
When should i heal myself?
If your Frenzied Regeneration is on cooldown, or you just don't got enough rage to heal yourself (saying main healer is OOM), having a warrior to take agro from you while you heal yourself is quite a good solution. However this requires skills, and skilled warrior are often rare. When shifting out to heal yourself, pull of a regrowth, since its the fastest heal you can pull of. If you are a Tauren, use Warstomp, i generally forget to use warstomp, and that has been the cause of my death (though all the group survived besides me). Warstomp is VERY important, use it to get a free regrowth!
What Groupmembers do druids like?
The general answer would be priest, since they are powerfull healers. The warriors best friend is a healer, and this also applies to druids in bear form, since healing yourself with 3-4 mobs hitting you is difficult. Generally i like to team with priests, warriors and well played shamans (who doesn't shocknuke). But of course 2 druids can be a devastating combo, as well as Paladins (if you play alliance) are gonna be your playmates.
Rogues i generally do good with, since taking agro from them actually isn't that hard to do (though other says otherwise), however often i leave them with their mob since they can stun it and often can survive for a time on their stuns, giving the group time to kill other mobs and survive themself that way.
Mages i generally don't like teaming with, since most mages are like nuking shamans, except for the fact that shamans can do good DPS besides nuking, while this is more difficult for mages. I always love teaming with mages 2-4 levels below me though, since they got a more difficult time taking agro, while still doing great DPS.
If you know someone who plays warlock, and plays it well, be sure to take him with you. Curse of Weakness, Curse of Tongues, Curse of Recklessness, all to minimize damage to the group, prevent mobs from running away, and to gimp casting mobs. If he got imp out, he can give you more stamine, though other warlock pets got good Crowd Control.
Hunters generally likes to fire their bow very early in a pull, taking agro. Be sure a hunter doesn't do that, since ive tried 1-2 wipes on this.
What should we other classes do with a druid as main tank?
Priests:
Generally heal, this is for the most part your role when in a party. If you are shadow priest and you got other healers in party so you are allowed to do damage, there are some general rules:
- Stay Away from Mind Blast, draws agro
- Use Mind Flay, and throw in a smite now and then to compensate for Mind Flay nuking.
- Silence Castermobs
- Use Vampiric Embrace to help out a bit with healing
- Don't use shadowform. This is to prevent damagenuking, and make sure you can still heal. The recudec melee damage shouldn't be becessary if the tank holds agro.
- Use PW: Shield so the main healer doesn't have to waste mana on it (main healer is probably a holy priest if you are damagedealer).are just acting as healer
- Don't fear unless the situation is very critical. If you
Paladins:
Keep buffs active (hopefully you get your extended buffs in 1.9 so you shouldn't need to rebuff often). Depending on the instance use different Auras, Devotion Aura preferred. If the druid has to shift out and heal himself, shift to Concentration Aura. Depending on how you find your mana reserves, Judge Seal of Justice to prevent mobs from running. Might/Kings might be preferred for the druid. Also remember to give other classes salvation, if they aren't supposed to draw agro (bless the hunters pet with Salvation while at it
. Besides that, backupheal and engage en melee combat.
Shamans:
First: Replace your current rank earth shock with rank 1 earthshock. Shamans aren't supposed to shockspam in instances, this is not your role. Shamans are buffers, backuphealers, limited crowd control and damagedealers, but not shock nukers. No good druid can take agro from a Earth Shock nuking shaman, except the 10 sec cooldown taunt now and then. A good tactic is to give the mob a flameshock first (after druid got agro of course), then stick to melee the rest of the fight. If the mob tries to run away, frost shock it. If the mob tries to heal itself, use the rank 1 earthshock to interrupt it for no mana.
Earth Shok aren't ment to be used in instances generally, since it is designed to generate more agro. Use rank 1 earth shock to interrupt spellcasting, and keep your highest rank earth shock ready to draw agro from the main healer if the druid looses agro. And remember to backupheal, not when main healer runs OOM, but when think you can spare the mana. The main damageportion of your damage is from melee combat, shock are for burst damage in PvP. Conserve your mana for support.
Regarding weapon buff, you can use Flametongue, Frostbrand or Windfury. Rockbiter is designed to generate agro as well, so unless you got plenty of armor and act as off tank (along with your shock), stay away from rockbiter.
Regarding totems, remember that they support the tank, regardless of druid or warrior. If you got plenty of healing in the group you might want to keep strength of earth totem up to increase overall group melee DPS. In case of a large pull (not necessarily bad, but large), or in case of gimped healing support, use stoneskin totems to minimize damage. Resistancetotems might also be considered if you are up against caster mobs.
Magma/Searing/Fire Nova might also be considered, since they can do good damage for a small manacost.
Remember that totems like Windury Totem, flametongue and Frostbrand totems DON'T affect druids tanking, since its weapon buffs, and druids in bear form doesn't use weapons. In other words, druids won't get anything out of these totems. You can replace them with Strength of Earth though.
Rogues:
Try not to nuke. Cripling poison help at mobs running away, so use it if you got it. If you nuke and take agro, use feint to reduce it (even when you don't have agro, throw in a feint now and then, perhaps when you make a big crit
. Stunlocks are also usefull for the group, can be used as well. Besides that, try to use your crowd control (sap etc.) and contribute to the group with DPS.
Warriors:
When druid is main tank, your job is to equip a 2 hand weapon and do DPS (battle/beserkerstance). If you draw agro don't worry, since you can take a beating. Be ready to switch stances and weapons (1h+shield) to help offtanking if things go bad. Use Battle Shout to buff the group melee DPS, and use Demo Shout so the druid doesn't have to waste rage used for Agro Management to reduce enemy attack power. And most importantly, be ready to take over as main tank, if all healers except the druid run OOM, so the druid can change to caster form and heal.
Warlocks:
Remember that you are a warlock. Opposite mages, you aren't a nuking caster (granted, you are a damagedealing caster, but not nuke class in the same way as mages since you rely more on DOTs), so your job is more supportive. Of course, first rule to know is that the druid got 30 minutes cooldown on his resurrection, so soulstone should NOT be placed on druids. Same goes for shamans, since their Selfress and soulstone doesn't stack probably atm (heard they planend a fix though). Soulstone should be placed on priest and paladins primarily (and shamans before level 30, since thats the level they gain selfres). Druids can have soulstones though, but they will still only be able to res one member from the team.
Regarding curses, remember that you aren't picked as pure damagedealer, and your curses should support the team. Most of the time Corruption should be the only active DoT on the mobs, forget about Curse of Agony. Instead use Curse of Weakness to lower damage taken by tank, Curse of Recklesness to prevent mobs from running and maybe pulling other mobs, curse of Tongues on casters etc. Sure you can cast Curse of Agony if you like, but it shouldn't be used that much*, and im sure your group will be more happy if your curses support them in another way than damage. Curse of Elements to enhance mages firespells (or Curse of Shadows or whatever its called to enhance Shadow Priests, Mages using Arcane spells and your own damage). Hand out healthstones as well
*The "to use agony or not" talk differs from low to high level instances, and Agony Should probably be used more in high end instances. Also, tanks are very gear dependant, so when the druid/warrior gets better gear. Same goes for shadow priests and Cruse of Shadows, since they are probably still gonna be expected to heal at level 50+ instances, no matter their spec. Curse of Weakness becomes less useable as you gain levels, however if fighting mobs that runs away, then Recklessness is still very good indeed.
Regarding pets, use whats best for the team. Imp with blood pact is a good choice (many warlocks use imp in instances for the buff), Succubus for Crowd Control if thats needed. Voidwalker shouldn't really be used if your tank is good enough (though it can also be used as Crowd Control since it can tank a mob keeping it occupied). Felhunter is okay as well. Your use of pet is up to your own imagination. Besides these fact, you can spam shadow bolts as much as you like in instances, as long as you watch your agro. Stay away from Searing Pain as it is a powerfull agro tool, and you will do just fine. Also keep shards ready for rebuffing soulstone, and maybe summon pets again.
Most important: Stay away from fear, the perfect way to wipe is to send a mob fleeing in terror, running towards other mobs bringing 1-3 groups as support.
Mage:
Not much to be said here, except that you should watch your agro. Hand out water to the group fist and foremost (i know this can be boring, i play a 50 mage myself as well, and people can be a bit demanding. However someone has to do it, and if you conjured lots before you grouped then it should be okay. Also remember that your damageoutput is determined by your maximum mana, meaning that even though you burst out damage faster, you are still doing the same damage, just doing it faster and drawing lots of agro. Even good tanks got agroproblems with nuking mages, so deal your
damage a bit slow. If you got the Arcane Subletly talent, then spam arcane missiles (many mages didn't take that talent, however i found it very usefull in instances on my 50 mage). Also remember that mages are the masters of AOE damage, so if the situation calls for it, the druid can switch to caster and heal you why you AOE an entire group of mobs to death. Besides that, not much to say except watch your agro and stay away from nuking full power. You will still do damage, trust me
Hunter:
First of all: Pulling. Many hunters thinks its their exclusive "right" to pull since they are ranged. Wrong, the tank is the one that should pull, no matter if its a warrior charging or a druid pulling from distance with Faerie Fire or Moonfire.
Second thing: Your pet. Hunters aren't as much the "pain in the ass" as their pet. First of all, your pet should NOT draw agro. Your pet can take a beating, most hunter pets can, but the tank gets rage from being hit, so he should get hit instead of your pet (also has more armor and HP). Disable growl on your pet, and optinally enable Cower so your pet reduces its agro on mobs instead of increasing it.
If you control your pet very well, you might even switch between cower/growl for offtanking if a cloth class is drawing agro. This requires skills however, so don't do it if you aren't confident in your control.
For the hunters part, wingclipping mobs is a very mana cheap way to prevent them from running. Use Serpent Sting most of the time to increase damage.
Taps are important. Gaining an understanding of traps with the tanking druid is a very good idea. I had one good hunter to party with, he liked to pull mobs at the start, but very soon we found a rythm were he places traps and i pulled the mobs, making one of the enter a trap. Traps is an important contribution to instances, so don't forget to use them. As for bow skills, stay away from arcane shot and the like, since it cost a bit of mana. Concussion shot aren't necessary, except once again on running mobs. Firering Concussive shot as the first thign won't help your group much, instead it will make it more difficult for the druid to gather the mobs and swipespam, since the mobs start moving at different speeds.
Stings like Wyvern (if you are 31+ survival), scorpid are also good for reducing group damage and crowd control, though Viper sting won't be of much use since castermobs often go down before your Viper helps them go OOM. Might be usefull on some casterbosses, though i don't know about their mana pool, so generally stick to other stings than viper.
Any corrections, ideas or things you like to add to this guide is most welcome in comments, or send a mail to troels-a(at)post.tdcadsl.dk
And remember: Druids aren't just healers. But we aren't just tanks or damagedealers as well, so druids, Remember to heal as well
Priests:
Generally heal, this is for the most part your role when in a party. If you are shadow priest and you got other healers in party so you are allowed to do damage, there are some general rules:
- Stay Away from Mind Blast, draws agro
- Use Mind Flay, and throw in a smite now and then to compensate for Mind Flay nuking.
- Silence Castermobs
- Use Vampiric Embrace to help out a bit with healing
- Don't use shadowform. This is to prevent damagenuking, and make sure you can still heal. The recudec melee damage shouldn't be becessary if the tank holds agro.
- Use PW: Shield so the main healer doesn't have to waste mana on it (main healer is probably a holy priest if you are damagedealer).are just acting as healer
- Don't fear unless the situation is very critical. If you
Paladins:
Keep buffs active (hopefully you get your extended buffs in 1.9 so you shouldn't need to rebuff often). Depending on the instance use different Auras, Devotion Aura preferred. If the druid has to shift out and heal himself, shift to Concentration Aura. Depending on how you find your mana reserves, Judge Seal of Justice to prevent mobs from running. Might/Kings might be preferred for the druid. Also remember to give other classes salvation, if they aren't supposed to draw agro (bless the hunters pet with Salvation while at it
. Besides that, backupheal and engage en melee combat.Shamans:
First: Replace your current rank earth shock with rank 1 earthshock. Shamans aren't supposed to shockspam in instances, this is not your role. Shamans are buffers, backuphealers, limited crowd control and damagedealers, but not shock nukers. No good druid can take agro from a Earth Shock nuking shaman, except the 10 sec cooldown taunt now and then. A good tactic is to give the mob a flameshock first (after druid got agro of course), then stick to melee the rest of the fight. If the mob tries to run away, frost shock it. If the mob tries to heal itself, use the rank 1 earthshock to interrupt it for no mana.
Earth Shok aren't ment to be used in instances generally, since it is designed to generate more agro. Use rank 1 earth shock to interrupt spellcasting, and keep your highest rank earth shock ready to draw agro from the main healer if the druid looses agro. And remember to backupheal, not when main healer runs OOM, but when think you can spare the mana. The main damageportion of your damage is from melee combat, shock are for burst damage in PvP. Conserve your mana for support.
Regarding weapon buff, you can use Flametongue, Frostbrand or Windfury. Rockbiter is designed to generate agro as well, so unless you got plenty of armor and act as off tank (along with your shock), stay away from rockbiter.
Regarding totems, remember that they support the tank, regardless of druid or warrior. If you got plenty of healing in the group you might want to keep strength of earth totem up to increase overall group melee DPS. In case of a large pull (not necessarily bad, but large), or in case of gimped healing support, use stoneskin totems to minimize damage. Resistancetotems might also be considered if you are up against caster mobs.
Magma/Searing/Fire Nova might also be considered, since they can do good damage for a small manacost.
Remember that totems like Windury Totem, flametongue and Frostbrand totems DON'T affect druids tanking, since its weapon buffs, and druids in bear form doesn't use weapons. In other words, druids won't get anything out of these totems. You can replace them with Strength of Earth though.
Rogues:
Try not to nuke. Cripling poison help at mobs running away, so use it if you got it. If you nuke and take agro, use feint to reduce it (even when you don't have agro, throw in a feint now and then, perhaps when you make a big crit
. Stunlocks are also usefull for the group, can be used as well. Besides that, try to use your crowd control (sap etc.) and contribute to the group with DPS.Warriors:
When druid is main tank, your job is to equip a 2 hand weapon and do DPS (battle/beserkerstance). If you draw agro don't worry, since you can take a beating. Be ready to switch stances and weapons (1h+shield) to help offtanking if things go bad. Use Battle Shout to buff the group melee DPS, and use Demo Shout so the druid doesn't have to waste rage used for Agro Management to reduce enemy attack power. And most importantly, be ready to take over as main tank, if all healers except the druid run OOM, so the druid can change to caster form and heal.
Warlocks:
Remember that you are a warlock. Opposite mages, you aren't a nuking caster (granted, you are a damagedealing caster, but not nuke class in the same way as mages since you rely more on DOTs), so your job is more supportive. Of course, first rule to know is that the druid got 30 minutes cooldown on his resurrection, so soulstone should NOT be placed on druids. Same goes for shamans, since their Selfress and soulstone doesn't stack probably atm (heard they planend a fix though). Soulstone should be placed on priest and paladins primarily (and shamans before level 30, since thats the level they gain selfres). Druids can have soulstones though, but they will still only be able to res one member from the team.
Regarding curses, remember that you aren't picked as pure damagedealer, and your curses should support the team. Most of the time Corruption should be the only active DoT on the mobs, forget about Curse of Agony. Instead use Curse of Weakness to lower damage taken by tank, Curse of Recklesness to prevent mobs from running and maybe pulling other mobs, curse of Tongues on casters etc. Sure you can cast Curse of Agony if you like, but it shouldn't be used that much*, and im sure your group will be more happy if your curses support them in another way than damage. Curse of Elements to enhance mages firespells (or Curse of Shadows or whatever its called to enhance Shadow Priests, Mages using Arcane spells and your own damage). Hand out healthstones as well
*The "to use agony or not" talk differs from low to high level instances, and Agony Should probably be used more in high end instances. Also, tanks are very gear dependant, so when the druid/warrior gets better gear. Same goes for shadow priests and Cruse of Shadows, since they are probably still gonna be expected to heal at level 50+ instances, no matter their spec. Curse of Weakness becomes less useable as you gain levels, however if fighting mobs that runs away, then Recklessness is still very good indeed.
Regarding pets, use whats best for the team. Imp with blood pact is a good choice (many warlocks use imp in instances for the buff), Succubus for Crowd Control if thats needed. Voidwalker shouldn't really be used if your tank is good enough (though it can also be used as Crowd Control since it can tank a mob keeping it occupied). Felhunter is okay as well. Your use of pet is up to your own imagination. Besides these fact, you can spam shadow bolts as much as you like in instances, as long as you watch your agro. Stay away from Searing Pain as it is a powerfull agro tool, and you will do just fine. Also keep shards ready for rebuffing soulstone, and maybe summon pets again.
Most important: Stay away from fear, the perfect way to wipe is to send a mob fleeing in terror, running towards other mobs bringing 1-3 groups as support.
Mage:
Not much to be said here, except that you should watch your agro. Hand out water to the group fist and foremost (i know this can be boring, i play a 50 mage myself as well, and people can be a bit demanding. However someone has to do it, and if you conjured lots before you grouped then it should be okay
. Also remember that your damageoutput is determined by your maximum mana, meaning that even though you burst out damage faster, you are still doing the same damage, just doing it faster and drawing lots of agro. Even good tanks got agroproblems with nuking mages, so deal yourdamage a bit slow. If you got the Arcane Subletly talent, then spam arcane missiles (many mages didn't take that talent, however i found it very usefull in instances on my 50 mage). Also remember that mages are the masters of AOE damage, so if the situation calls for it, the druid can switch to caster and heal you why you AOE an entire group of mobs to death. Besides that, not much to say except watch your agro and stay away from nuking full power. You will still do damage, trust me
Hunter:
First of all: Pulling. Many hunters thinks its their exclusive "right" to pull since they are ranged. Wrong, the tank is the one that should pull, no matter if its a warrior charging or a druid pulling from distance with Faerie Fire or Moonfire.
Second thing: Your pet. Hunters aren't as much the "pain in the ass" as their pet. First of all, your pet should NOT draw agro. Your pet can take a beating, most hunter pets can, but the tank gets rage from being hit, so he should get hit instead of your pet (also has more armor and HP). Disable growl on your pet, and optinally enable Cower so your pet reduces its agro on mobs instead of increasing it.
If you control your pet very well, you might even switch between cower/growl for offtanking if a cloth class is drawing agro. This requires skills however, so don't do it if you aren't confident in your control.
For the hunters part, wingclipping mobs is a very mana cheap way to prevent them from running. Use Serpent Sting most of the time to increase damage.
Taps are important. Gaining an understanding of traps with the tanking druid is a very good idea. I had one good hunter to party with, he liked to pull mobs at the start, but very soon we found a rythm were he places traps and i pulled the mobs, making one of the enter a trap. Traps is an important contribution to instances, so don't forget to use them. As for bow skills, stay away from arcane shot and the like, since it cost a bit of mana. Concussion shot aren't necessary, except once again on running mobs. Firering Concussive shot as the first thign won't help your group much, instead it will make it more difficult for the druid to gather the mobs and swipespam, since the mobs start moving at different speeds.
Stings like Wyvern (if you are 31+ survival), scorpid are also good for reducing group damage and crowd control, though Viper sting won't be of much use since castermobs often go down before your Viper helps them go OOM. Might be usefull on some casterbosses, though i don't know about their mana pool, so generally stick to other stings than viper.
Any corrections, ideas or things you like to add to this guide is most welcome in comments, or send a mail to troels-a(at)post.tdcadsl.dk
And remember: Druids aren't just healers. But we aren't just tanks or damagedealers as well, so druids, Remember to heal as well
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