Shifting Perspectives: Gearing a new bear at 80, part 3
by Allison Robert 
Apr 27th 2010 at 4:00PM
Feet
Not a slot with a lot of options, but the ones you've got are very good.
Enchant: In general, Enchant Boots -- Tuskarr's Vitality is the way to go. If you're really hurting for avoidance, try Enchant Boots -- Superior Agility. If you want more health, Enchant Boots -- Greater Fortitude.
- Footpads of Impending Death: Leatherworking BoE. Like the Bladeborn Leggings (above), these will be hellishly expensive to have made. Unlike the leggings, they don't interfere with your ability to get a tier bonus, and they are definitely worth getting unless you're in a guild that's farming heroic Marrowgar-25 (who drops Frostbitten Fur Boots, the bear's best-in-slot -- but Footpads of Impending Death are a close number two).
- Relentless Gladiator's Boots of Triumph: Dropped by Koralon and Toravon, or available for 34,100 honor.
- Footpads of Silence: Another Leatherworking BoE, and considerably cheaper than their 264 brother (but, if it were me, I'd just farm the Wrathful boots rather than spend the money).
- Treads of Dismal Fortune: Dropped by the Black Knight in heroic Trial of the Champion.
- Blighted Leather Footpads: Drops in the Captain's Chest in heroic Halls of Reflection.
The easiest combination to swing out of the following will be the Ashen Verdict reputation ring (provided you can get to friendly or better with them, and that's quick) and a Clutch of Fortification.
Enchant: If you're an enchanter, you'll want to slap Enchant Ring -- Stamina on both.
- Ashen Band of Endless Courage: You do have to step inside Icecrown Citadel for this one, but you don't ever have to hit a boss to farm up the ilevel 277 reputation ring. I'll grant that farming Ashen Verdict reputation is a fairly boring way to experience an otherwise engaging and interesting raid.
- Harbinger's Bone Band: An Icecrown Citadel BoE zone drop. Check the auction house, or ask around your realm to see if anyone's willing to sell it.
- Signifed Ring of Binding: Dropped by Onyxia-25. A surprisingly good piece, not least because of the meaty armor allocation -- and you may find use for the resistance at some point down the line.
- Clutch of Fortification: Available for 35 Emblems of Triumph.
- Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance: The cat reputation ring is a decent hybrid piece if you switch between the two specs frequently.
- Runed Ring of Binding: Dropped by Onyxia-10. The 10-man version of the ring described above.
- The Leviathan's Coil: I wouldn't ordinarily list this one because it's a raid drop, but if you get Razorscale Must Die! as a weekly raid quest on your realm, you'll be going through Flame Leviathan to get to her. This is still an extremely good bear ring.
- Runed Band of the Kirin Tor: I am not fond of these rings (thousands of gold for what amounts to a free hearthstone isn't worth it, in my humble opinion), but this is another OK hybrid piece if you switch between bear and cat frequently.
- Signet of Winter: You may occasionally find this Ulduar BoE on the auction house, but I would not go looking for it over any of the other pieces listed here due to the +parry on it.
Trinkets are hard to rank, and it's a tough slot to fill outside of raids. Ironically, even in raids it's the hardest slot to fill, because everyone and his brother is going to be after them. You may want to try getting as many of the following as possible, and simply switching them in and out to suit different fights.
If you're a jewelcrafter, you will want to make both a Figurine: Monarch Crab and a Figurine: Ruby Hare.
Alchemists will want to make an Indestructible Alchemist's Stone.
Engineers will want to make a Sonic Booster, which is especially helpful because it helps with threat generation in addition to being a stamina boost.
- Corroded Skeleton Key: Available for 60 Emblems of Frost.
- Glyph of Indomitability: Available for 50 Emblems of Triumph.
- The Black Heart: Dropped by the Black Knight in normal Trial of the Champion.
- Darkmoon Card: Greatness: Still amazing, and an equally good hybrid piece for cat DPS. Accept no substitutes.
- Essence of Gossamer: Dropped by Hadronox in heroic Azjol-Nerub.
- Ick's Rotting Thumb: Dropped by Ick and Krick in heroic Pit of Saron. Raw dodge is not as useful to us as agility (hence ranking this below DMC:G), and the use effect is so-so, but a good piece if your dodge isn't as high as you'd like.
The weapon is by far the biggest nuisance. With the introduction of the Battered Hilt/Quel'dalar questline, the #1 slot for non-raid weapons is pretty easy to pick, but it'll require a lot of luck or a lot of gold on your part.
Sorry, folks -- there's no real way to cheap out on this one. If you have a lousy weapon, then unless the rest of your gear is jaw-droppingly good, you're probably going to have threat issues versus geared DPS. The bear's unfortunate dependence on weapons is something we've talked about earlier (and it should get fixed with the stat changes in Cataclysm), and I would really recommend trying to get a PUG raid for somewhere if for no other reason than getting a decent weapon.
Enchant: Mongoose.
- Lightborn Spire: Reward from the Battered Hilt quest line. Very, very expensive, but the quest line alone is worth it. If you don't have the money to shell out for one of these, then either hope for a lucky roll while you're running the Icecrown heroics, or try solo farming the first pull in heroic Forge of Souls (doable even for a bear in mediocre gear; just Root one of the skeletons if you can't tank them both). It's probably going to be long and boring, but at least you won't face the agony of losing Hilts to players who respond, "LOL, it's the third one I've gotten."
- Reinforced Thunderstrike: Dropped by Onyxia-25.
- Reclaimed Thunderstrike: Dropped by Onyxia-10.
- Orca-Hunter's Harpoon: Dropped by Marwyn in heroic Halls of Reflection.
- Marrowstrike: Dropped by Argent Confessor Paletress in heroic Trial of the Champion.
- Silvery Sylvan Stave (Alliance)/Staff of Feral Furies (Horde): Available for 25 Champion's Seals at the Argent Tournament. Due to the armor on it, this tends to rank above a few Naxx pieces and technically outranks Marrowstrike, but Marrowstrike still beats it hands down for threat generation.
Idol of the Crying Moon is really fantastic, but there's no denying that Lacerate-stacking is more suited to single-target tanking. For 5-man tanking or anything where you've got to worry about AoE, Mutilation is the top pick, but Corruptor's not too far behind (and is even a slightly greater contribution to Time To Live) assuming you're using Mangle on cooldown.
- Idol of the Crying Moon: Available for 30 Emblems of Frost.
- Idol of Mutilation: Available for 25 Emblems of Triumph.
- Idol of the Corruptor: Available for 19 Emblems of Conquest.
Every week, Shifting Perspectives treks across Azeroth in pursuit of truth, beauty and insight concerning the druid class. Sometimes it finds the latter, or something good enough for government work. Whether you're a Bear, Cat, Moonkin, Tree or stuck in caster form, we've got the skinny on druid changes in patch 3.3, a look at the disappearance of the bear tank, and thoughts on why you should be playing the class (or why not).Filed under: Druid, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
iitopham Apr 27th 2010 4:24PM
Thank you for this list! I'm leveling up a bear tank, and since the tanks in my guild are all warriors of pallies, I wasn't sure what to get. Now I gotta save up for one of those wonderful sacks.
Joefredzob Apr 27th 2010 4:26PM
Thank you for this list! I'm leveling up a bear tank, and since the tanks in my guild are all warriors of pallies, I wasn't sure what to get. Now I gotta save up for one of those wonderful sacks.
Lissanna Apr 27th 2010 4:33PM
Nice! I need to get my feral (bear) stuff in better shape. I've been neglecting my furry tendencies....
L Apr 27th 2010 4:33PM
Wow very nice and comprehensive guide.
Just one comment about the ToC Trophies. Unfortunately these vendor for 50gold. So if you pug this everyone who overgears the content will still roll. I have had some success in purchasing them from the winner for 60gold but the less people will roll on them theory is unfortunately not true...at least not on my server.
Harrumph Apr 27th 2010 4:41PM
Your Enchanting and gearing seem to value avoidance and mitigation quite highly. I Don't believe this is the right way of going about things. In my experience at a (reasonable high standard of progression) in today's raiding environment (Which you're gearing up for), It is safe to assume that for most fights, healers have infinite throughput and infinite sustainability (If they're doing it right). As a result of this, the only time you stand a high chance of dying is due to burst damage, hence health pool maximization comes in at this point. At top-end raiding, TTL is a nearly useless system, as the exact number you are trying to maximize is "*Minimum* Time-to-Live"; Avoidance is useless in this regard.*
*Note, I did not say avoidance is useless, I merely said it's not the stat you are trying to maximize.
The BC Armor Enchant's (Glove Reinforcements) Bonus of 240 armor offers comparable mitigation to the 20 agility, and provides a superior benefit to EHP.
Tooay Apr 27th 2010 5:13PM
" healers have infinite throughput"
This is a terrible assumption to make, especially if the bear that uses this guide will run with a healer at the same gear level as him. While the infinite mana part is getting truer with every gear upgrade you get, there are countless reasons why a healer may either momentarily have to lower his throughput (repositioning, off-healing, disabled, etc). This is especially true for bears, that kinda tank things with their face. You have naturally higher health, and it's good to use that to your advantage, but keeping a balance of stats will go a long way in helping out your healers.
Of course you'll need a certain minimum of health, but once you get there, avoidance can take a huge load off a lesser geared healer's shoulders.
PS: Paladins don't count.
Allison Robert Apr 27th 2010 6:06PM
Oddly, I actually worried that the guide was the other way around, so I'm a little confused as to your conclusion that the list *overvalues* avoidance. Gear rankings used to construct the list are standard for the bear here, which can lead new bears to prioritizing high-HP pieces in content for which they might benefit more from higher agility pieces, etc. I did take more liberty with the weapon slot descriptions, as otherwise pieces like the Argent Tournament staff look a little too good. There's no point to the extra armor there, IMO, if you can't hold threat against your DPS.
We've actually talked a lot about the issue of effective health in the column, so I won't rehash that here.
The glove enchant issue is a touchy one that's a function of: a). what content you're doing, and: b). What Rawr will tell you. It's not something that a fresh druid at 80 should be slapping on their gloves, and even in normal ICC (particularly with the advancing zone buffs) I would tend to say the tiny additional mitigation is an uninspiring bonus versus the agility, particularly because the latter scales with talents and raid buffs and the former doesn't (and also doesn't get the bear form modifier). I'd slap it on gloves that see use in heroic ICC content, but for players in that position, this list will be outdated as it doesn't describe gear you'd already need to be raiding there to see.
BoomingEchoes Apr 28th 2010 1:35PM
Now now Harrumph, don't you know that because Allison writes it it MUST be right? (sarcasm, for those who can't be bothered to see it)
Fun thing to note though is that suddenly, through Allison's comment to your comment Harrumph, all new druids/bears need to be running Rawr when most of them won't know what it is other then something they should be saying in their form..
Disen Apr 27th 2010 4:44PM
To quote your pre-list notes: "I'm not assuming you're an arena star: Everyone can get Relentless and Furious gear these days with a little elbow grease, but Wrathful set pieces still require an arena rating to get, so screw that."
You have the wrathful belt and boots listed but these require a 1400 and 1300 rating respectively to buy (in addition to the honor). It would be awesome if they didn't cause I'd already have 'em.
Great guide though - I'm gonna go buy the triumph trink - dunno why I don't have that yet.
Allison Robert Apr 27th 2010 4:49PM
Damn, you're right -- I'd forgotten that the belt and boots require an arena rating. Eliminated. :( Although obviously players with access to them will want to keep those in mind.
Jamesisgreat Apr 27th 2010 5:00PM
You may want to add the Titan forged pendant of victory to possible necklaces - it's a really good bear piece considering that it only costs 25 Wintergrasp marks of honor.
Astemus Apr 27th 2010 4:47PM
Unfortunately, most people don't have 10k+ gold to spend on a single piece of gear (speaking about the sack of wonder). And if you DO happen to have that much, it's better spent on a battered hilt. If you happen to have enough for both, then more power to you, but chances are you don't.
The sack of wonder may be the best chestpiece for any leatherwearing class, but you're going to pay alot for it because of that fact. You're far better off saving your gold for cataclysm and buying the badge chestpiece.
Ametrine Apr 27th 2010 4:56PM
Not like it really matters - you'll never see any of it.
Rob Apr 27th 2010 4:57PM
Good list.
Some perspective may be in order. As in, what do you do first? Well, you probably won't be able to tank heroics as a fresh 80. Honestly, you may even try going tree as an offspec and using that to gear up; we had a tree (who admittedly didn't really know much about being a tree - nourish was their most often cast spell, and regrowth was never used). Anyway we had a tree with ilvl 194 avg, and we managed to get through all of heroic forge of souls, dying at the last boss. Now, if you were semi-skilled you could get through all of the heroic ICC at that level, assuming you have a decent tank and dps. I don't mean to imply anyone is getting 'carried', but it may be advisible starting from scratch to pick a role other than tank, at least until you get some amount of health and dps.
Also the wintergrasp stuff is a real hidden gem. For 40 WG badges you get a ICC level PVP piece; so if your faction dominates alot, that's about 2 weeks of work.
For frost badges, on my toons I always get the cloak since there are no EoT/EoC cloaks to my knowledge. Then get the T10 gloves/shoulder. Likewise, get your T9 stuff asap, and fill in with EoT/EoC stuff. Unfortunately at this point, beyond heroics, on my servers not much is being run (except ICC), so people trying to get geared are going to have to take initive; start those VOA runs, do TOC every week if you can.
Also the crusader orb bracers typically cost 2000-3000 gold, so that's a good purchase to me for a ilvl 245 piece. It's not a tier piece and its better than anything you can get with badges (EoT and below) . Your mileage my vary.
As far as what to gem/enchant for, at some point you want to stop stacking stamina and go for agility, some people say at 50k unbuffed health stop stacking stamina but maybe that's too high.
Lastly if you are a bear and an enchanter, moroes is very soloable for mongoose pattern; I did it two nights ago. Its just pretty boring tbh, and the trash is a bit challenging (not so much the early trash but ie the mistresses going up to maiden.
Manadar Apr 28th 2010 2:48AM
Actually stacking agility was nice in T7 before dr and the big magicals attacks of Ulduar. Start with agility for heroics, then go for stamina until you and your healers feel comfortable, then continue with stamina but also armor.
Scunosi Apr 27th 2010 5:01PM
I changed my Balance PvP offspec to Feral tanking a while ago, and I'm decently geared. But I'm wondering what the thinking is for bear tanks when it comes to something like those necks. The first one you list is agi and clearly cat flavored, whereas the others are the typical tank necks. Basically what I'm wondering is when does it become better for a bear to use cat gear over tank gear, though I suppose this applies only to non-body pieces (trinkets, rings, necks, etc) where we even have that choice.
Allison Robert Apr 28th 2010 1:57AM
Wodin's is definitely cat-flavored, but it will still beat out most of the other listed necks for one reason -- the socket. Stick a 30 stam gem in there, and that neck will tide you over until you get a better one from raid. Honestly, its place at the top of the list here has nothing to do with how good it is as a bear neck (which it's really not designed for, although the agility is quite good too), and rather more to do with how few tanking necks are available outside of raiding.
Elaya Apr 27th 2010 5:06PM
# Idol of Mutilation: Available for 25 Emblems of Triumph.
# Idol of the Corruptor: Available for 19 Emblems of Conquest.
You have it wrong. The Idol of the Corruptor is far superior to the Idol of Mutilation:
Idol of the Corruptor = 3.76% dodge, +360 armor, 2.16% crit
idol of Mutilarion = 4.71% dodge
(the agiliy simple rockes and all before dimishing returns.)
So please dont adwise new bears to buy the wrong one.
Allison Robert Apr 27th 2010 5:14PM
"For 5-man tanking or anything where you've got to worry about AoE, Mutilation is the top pick, but Corruptor's not too far behind (and is even a slightly greater contribution to Time To Live) assuming you're using Mangle on cooldown. "
Sisera Apr 27th 2010 5:51PM
Thanks for a great updated list, Allison. I always appreciate your articles.
Why do you consider "...getting closer to the hard +expertise cap (56)" to be a reason to pick Ikfirus's Sack of Wonder (264 version) over the Shadow Seeker's Tunic? Both have +92 Expertise Rating. The real difference between the two is the use of crit (Tunic) or hit (Sack), along with a slight trade of more agility (Tunic) for more attack power (Sack). I would think that the crit v. hit difference would be the main force driving that decision.