This is a great article, which comes from the hand of Sheriff, a Night Elf Feral Druid from the brotherhood of The Kingdom of Heaven in the Spanish server of Sanguino and has the contributions of Daiyara.
Today I'm going to bring you a decalogue of important things that a good Tank Druid should know when facing a group of enemies (pull). Before we begin, I would like to advise that if you do not have the Glyph of Maul, run to buy it and put it on because it is very important.
Here are my tips to help us adapt to the different situations that we will encounter:
- As long as we have Ira in our basin, we will remain bear. Therefore, we will normally attract the enemy with Faerie Fire
- If you have no anger and call a group, use Hurricane and quickly transform into a bear and you will have 10 Rage points thanks to the talent Fury
- When there are 2, 3 or 4 enemies, we will have to do rotations of Bruise, Lacerate y Shatter. The best way is to start with Maul since with the glyph effect and given the cost of rage it is the most optimal. Rotations are done using the Tab, changing enemies so that all of them are lacerated and bleeding. Personally I really like the talent Primal Fury that fills us with anger. This talent provides you with constant scourges for large groups.
- Our "Taunt" attack (Bellow) reaches 30 meters and is a distance that we must take advantage of. However, they have made it worse so it only makes sense when we have lost the threat since it no longer has any effect if the target is already hitting you. Save it as much as you can and combine it with Bruise since it is currently the skill that generates the most threat along with Lacerate.
- Always use Demoralizing Roar when enemies attack melee.
- Large groups. If you want to get an optimal threat, once you start combat with Hurricaneuse Flagellum y Bruise. If you want to get even more threat, add Rage to the mix with a hint of Shatter y Infuriate. Normally not necessary, but remember that Defiant roar force enemies to attack you for 6 seconds and that's a long time for flogging paco.
- Bark skin. This instant ability with no mana cost, provides 20% damage reduction every minute in addition to other more powerful effects. Someone important at Blizzard is sure to be Druid. Sirs! We should have this ability activated whenever our back is being measured! We will help a lot the healers without hands (which are almost all)
- El Defiant roar. After what is explained in point number 6, this ability should be used especially as an emergency mechanism and if things go a bit twisted. It is best to save it and use it in the middle of the fight if you find that you are losing a lot of threat. Think that it is your second ability to provoke so it is convenient to always have it free so that when a monster approaches your Healer with murderous eyes you can use it if you have Bellow idle.
- Emergency situations. You hear from Team Speak / Ventrilo screams of fear, screams of fear and screams of terror and the typical ash that says: "this is wipe for sure". Some player who was not attentive, has caught the attention of those who should not and you are in a complicated situation ...
These are the times when a druid grows up. A Warrior would surely take off running. A Paladin would put on the Bubble and a Death Knight would begin to regret having stopped working for Arthas. But you ... You are a Druid! Years of training with your Cenarion brothers have not been lost.
It is time to wear your beads, Bark skin, Defiant roar, Frenzied regeneration and of course Survival instinct. To this we add a little Rage y Infuriate, at which point you become an impenetrable Demi-boss with a lot of life and dodge that, in turn, attracts all enemies and also heals itself. At a critical moment when a Healer dies, you can nimbly use the Bark skin y Connection with nature to lift the healer. - Have bear transforms assigned to keys especially, and use macros for emergency situations. You can use Cat / Runner to start some encounters and if you need some Crowd Control don't forget you can Sleep or use Roots.
- The Scourge, serves to control the enemy that does the most damage against you when you start an encounter with several monsters.
Bottom line ... Tanking on Bear means pressing a lot of buttons on the keyboard / mouse until you undo them: Scourge, Bruise and Lacerate will be like daily bread. With the right gear and hitting the right critical dps, no one should be able to take the threat away from you. Well, unless there is some funny Paladin like my friend Melkor throwing you Hand of salvation sneakily to annoy.