Threat's always relative, Pzychotix. I can pretty consistently produce 800-1800 TPS in bear form with spikes above 2K, but it doesn't make any difference if the destro warlock or survival hunter can put out 2K+ even with Salv on just as consistently. They outgear me, which is a big part of it, and with an almost total lack of non-set drops for us in 25-man content, it's not tough for DPS to be nipping at a bear's threat lead faster relative to warriors and paladins. *Should* threat be an issue? No. Is it occasionally? Yes. The bear doesn't necessarily have to be doing anything wrong in the interim, because there's no question that a pure DPS class can and often does outgear and outscale us, especially in the beginning of Tier 6 content when bears hit an especial dry spell and the only real upgrade available to us is T6 gloves.

And Oomoo, you're right that expertise and +hit are both wonderful for tanking - wtb more expertise especially on tanking leather, but it looks like the only bit we'll get itemized for the forseeable future is on the T6 boots. I didn't bother including Season 4 gear because we already know that Season 4 is unlikely to arrive at the same time as patch 2.4, but yep, the gear is very good. /sigh

The larger point that a bear should not have to gear for threat is entirely accurate, but unless Omen is lying to me, it is definitely possible for well-geared DPS to spike 2K+ threat in late Tier 5 WITH Salv on (TPS, yes. Sustained DPS, no. That's unlikely to be seen until Gorefiend and still more likely to be seen on a rogue than a mana class imo). The people most likely to pull off of me right now are a destro warlock, survival hunter, and arcane mage with literally every piece of gear and raid/group buff they could possibly hope for, and the warlock in particular drives my guild's tanks up a wall. Does she spike to 2K TPS often? Nope, but it happens. She's a crit-dependent spec in absolutely insane gear, and while it IS situational, it does happen. I still cringe over losing aggro to her on (of all things) Morogrim after a crit streak on her end and a dodge streak on mine.

Bears should not have to gear for threat and we bear (har!) the nice distinction of being able to do so in late Tier 6 without sacrificing much, if any mitigation (approaching or past the armor cap it makes more sense to use DPS gear rather than waste the armor). But I do find that the transition from T5 to T6 content can be tough if for no other reason than you're coming off the terribly-itemized T4/T5 tokens (warrior/druid/priest, which means a bunch of people most likely to be tanking or healing for the raid all have to compete with each other for the same damn token) and early T6 is basically a desert for bear upgrades (there's the BT trash drop, which we've still never seen, T6 gloves, and the Pillar of Ferocity, which is abysmal and, again, we've still never seen). I'm not, in general, having problems with threat, and neither is my guild's other bear tank (I would venture to say that with respect to single-target TPS we currently have it better than any other tanks), but we are presently outgeared and look to remain that way until more tier starts dropping.

The change to Lacerate's threat gen is very welcome so some of this looks to get fixed. Still. Bring on Shahraz!