Tips for starting druid tanks (low levels)

Voicy

Voicy

Honorary Master
Joined
Sep 19, 2007
Messages
11,725
Reaction score
2,165
Location
Norway
Hi friends

So I rolled a druid, thinking I'd like to be a boomkin, but in all honesty, my mage as a caster is just so much better - and longer range.

Since I've always wanted a druid, I figured I'll go as a tank to see what's what. My only problem is I struggle immensely to get enough rage going - thus losing aggro. I'm still only lvl 16, so my abilities are limited at best.

Also, what's the difference between feral combat and feral bear tanking gear? As far as I can tell it's exactly the same gear as I always had on my rogue.

Any tips on rotations / tactics will be greatly appreciated!
 
I have a lowbie druid as well, don't play it much. The one time I tried to tank with it I struggled immensely with the same problems you mentioned. I have leveled a paladin, and warrior as prot and found it extremely easy compared to a druid tank
 
I have a lvl 18 pally, I haven't tried tanking with him yet though.

I was keen on leveling the druid because of the different shapeshifting etc.
 
Druid tanking in low levels doesn't suck, it just requires a bit of thought instead of facerolling.

It's very different to other classes, and rage can be annoying in lower levels - but it's most the interesting tanking class in my opinion.

The best thing to do is pop an Enrage just before a pull, wait a few seconds and run in. The minor armor debuff won't be an issue with general pulls (don't recommend it for bosses though). Else if you have Furor then just jump into bear form and pounce into the group of mobs immediately (but this can suck up your mana and cause downtime if you do it for every pull.. you can Innervate yourself, but I personally don't like doing it this way)

Other than that you gain rage by hitting mobs, or being hit - so try and pull multiple mobs at a time instead of just one or two, then swipe away. Later on Natural Reaction helps quite a but too.

As soon as the fights over check your healers mana, if its fine then run straight for the next group of mobs before your rage ticks away. Also remember to keep using Enrage when its up to keep your rage level from dropping.

Tier gear is the same set for both cat dps and bears - Cats love the agility for crit, and bears love it for the armor and Savage Defense.
 
I don't recommend using bear tanking for leveling, unless you decide to level by doing instances.

Feral DPS is probably the quickest way to level until you get to 60. Some people believe that after 60 moonkins is faster, others say feral.
I leveled as cat till 80 and the only problem I had is multiple mobs that include spell casters. Warlocks with demons gave me the most trouble. I usually switch to bear when taking 3+ mobs in a fight, but the extra armor doesn't help with spellcasters.

You should be able to use a tanking spec and still use cat form for dps most of the time, since the talent builds is very similar. It's only a few talents that needs to be switched for the two.
 
Wait till you 60 before tanking

You can level up a druid so quickly now days to waste time doing instances at low levels is really not worth it

You will be at 60 before you know it then put yourself in the LFG system and you will get a group in a few minutes

At 60 you have all the skills you need and you don't really have to spec full tanking till you get to 80 spec Cat for DPS which will allow you to quest quickly

I was tanking from 60 and I learnt a lot you won't get rid of the rage issues until you get better gear and you reach 80 for now just faerie fire when its off cooldown that gives nice agro and maul
 
Killkom, I was specifically informed that the LFG system was a faster means of leveling than doing quests all round...that's why I'm wondering about tanking, since I wait 20mins+ as DPS but mere seconds when I join as a tank...plus I enjoy seeing the game from a different view, since I started playing 2 years back I've only ever really played on my rogue. Never bothered with alts.

I think I should spec my lvl18 pally for tanking too just to see what the difference is like.
 
Voicy said:
I think I should spec my lvl18 pally for tanking too just to see what the difference is like.
Click to expand...

Till about 40 you'll be effectively dps'ing mobs in Tank spec :whistle: Thats what I did leveling my warrior
 
I don't know if its quicker to level with instances I levelled mainly with the LFG system from 70 to 80 also got 2 Emplems of Triumph every day which helped.

The Big problem with sub level 60 instances is how long they take to complete I really doubt you can level 0 to 60 quicker with Instances rather that Questing after 60 the instances become shorter and you can go though them quicker

You have quite a bit of stuff to tank with at level 18

Pull with Faerie fire no rage used high threat use it as soon as its off cool down
use demolorizing roar nice for maul targets
Click maul use it when you getting enough rage don't spam it manage you agro get omen or something to help
Spam swipe on multiple targets also watch your agro with this

Most important don't over tank keep your agro 30% above your dps not 300% then you just wasting rage

And there you go you tanking

Tanking before 80 is not to bad since lots of people are doing instances with greens and they don't really pull a lot of agro

Tanking at 80 is a whole different sorry when your gear score is 3k and you trying to keep agro from a dps with 5.6k gear score it gets a bit interesting
 
Last edited:
low level tankin = pull whit ff and spam swipe and maul. DPS or healer pulls aggro just /growl. Ask you dps to give you a second or two to get rage from bein hit before they pew pew
 
Last edited:
Thanks guys - sadly I don't have Fairie Fire yet and I doubt I have lacerate etc. just yet. I'm sure that'll come at lvl 18. I don't even have feral cat mode or Moonkin yet. All I have is Bear / Travel / Swim form.
 
Just wondering if playing a druid will be enough of a change for me seeing as I only played rogue so far ... so as far as dps goes, kitty dps = same kit as rogue.

Wonder if I should alternate between the druid and my pally when Rest XP runs out.
 
Voicy said:
Hi friends

So I rolled a druid, thinking I'd like to be a boomkin, but in all honesty, my mage as a caster is just so much better - and longer range.

Since I've always wanted a druid, I figured I'll go as a tank to see what's what. My only problem is I struggle immensely to get enough rage going - thus losing aggro. I'm still only lvl 16, so my abilities are limited at best.

Also, what's the difference between feral combat and feral bear tanking gear? As far as I can tell it's exactly the same gear as I always had on my rogue.

Any tips on rotations / tactics will be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

While leveling you dont need to worry about tank gear. DPS gear is pretty much tank gear for druids while leveling (agility and stamina). Your rage problems is probably due to you spamming maul. While maul generates very good threat, it is extremely expensive on rage. It takes a chunk of rage, and has the downside that it generates a yellow hit, meaning you dont generate any rage from that hit either. A good tactic might be to maul, 1 white hit, then maul again. You also generate rage through getting hit, so you will notice it gets better once you start doing instances with some more damage happening.
 
Last edited:
dakeyras said:
While leveling you dont need to worry about tank gear. DPS gear is pretty much tank gear for druids while leveling (agility and stamina). Your rage problems is probably due to you spamming maul. While maul generates very good threat, it is extremely expensive on rage. It takes a chunk of rage, and has the downside that it generates a yellow hit, meaning you dont generate any rage from that hit either. A good tactic might be to maul, 1 white hit, then maul again. You also generate rage through getting hit, so you will notice it gets better once you start doing instances with some more damage happening.
Click to expand...

You might be right there...I thought swipe was the 'spam' button to use, but the way I understand it Swipe = Multi target threat sustaining, Maul = Single target threat builder i.e. boss. I tanked an instance last night at lvl 16-17, but only afterwards when I dinged 18 could I get faerie fire (feral).

When I'm questing, and I don't have cat mode yet, maul seems to be the only way for me to do enough damage on a target...although I find it easier to have thorns up, then pop rejuv right before moonfire'ing a mob and nuking it down...as soon as rejuv runs out (pretty much negating any damage the mob does) I shift into bear and finish it off.

zippy said:
"View" could be an issue with a bear tank. All you see is your butt :D
Click to expand...

Smart arse :p
 
As I understand low level druids, Maul = Heroic strike, Swipe = Cleave?
 
Spec into Furor, and use the "/cast !bear form" macro to generate rage when you get low, it'll generate 10 rage and not shift you out of bear form. Really handy trick.

Also glyph of Maul is essential.

Glyphed maul means two targets at a time with high threat, and swipe gets everything around you.

Generally I have button 1 being Growl, 2 being Maul, 3 being swipe.

Growl for taunting off of the nab dps, and spam 2 and 3 as much as you can, throw in lacerate on bosses, and mangle when it's off cooldown when you get it.
 
Last edited:
While you below level 20 just use caster form to kill things for quests

I don't think I used bear until level 60 when I first did an instance

Once you ding 20 you will not use anything but Cat.

Cat is quite similar to a Rogue so you won't really get a new experience but your new experience will come in when you tank it gives a different type of enjoyment to DPSing and the sense of satisfaction when a run goes smoothly
And total frustration when it goes badly its a very challenging roll to play in this game as specially in places like hall of Reflections
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X