http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Misha&n=Magellan

OK - Here I am....I've never posted my Character on the Grove before because I didn't want to publicize my pathetic gear and stats. Until now. So I gotta suck it up.

I want to key up for Kara, and the last thing I need is to embarrass myself in front of my guildies due to my lack of knowledge on gear and stat requirements.

So, can you point me in the right direction? Please keep in mind that I can't run instances 24/7 to acquire gear. I'm one of these goofy people who still believes that my family responsibilities and full-time employment trump my WoW playing time. (Bah! I'm new! I've only been playing 10 months. I'm sure I'll eventually give 'em both up :uptosomet)

So basically, is there equipment that I can just buy for now to get me started? Surely not everyone running heroics farmed all of their gear from instances?

y health and mana levels are pretty low aren't they? How do I fix that?

Also, I hope to be a full time healer some day, but for now, I'm feral. I'm going to work on my healing set after my feral set get's the big thumbs up from you folks.

I can't help you with details, but on my Hunter, I used Wow-Loot's gear planner to help me determine what gear I could upgrade from questing and/or non-heroic 5-man runs. Check it out...

http://www.wow-loot.com/gearguide.php

Note you can change the order of the "preferred stats". It affects the gear recommended. For a tank, I think their default puts armor first, I'd go with agi or +def before armor. "Armor happens", I'm not too sure it is worth seeking out a piece because it has 200 extra armor, but less +def or agi.

Also, if you put +healing, +int, +spr at the top, you'll get a nice list for your healing kit as well.

If you Gem Up this list properly, you should be able to tank all through KZ up to Prince easily.

Head: Stylish Purple Hat - Crafted
Neck: Strength of the Untamed - Rep Reward: Cenarion Expedition
Shoulder: Shoulderpads of Assassination - Sethekk Halls (Ikiss)
Back: Thoriumweave Cloak - Mechanar (Mechano-Lord Capacitus)
Chest: Heavy Clefthoof Vest - Crafted
Wrist: Umberhowl's Collar - Quest Reward: Cypher Of Damnation (http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=10579)
Hands: Verdant Gloves - Quest Reward: Akama's Promise (http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=10708)
Legs: Heavy Clefthoof Leggings - Crafted
Feet: Heavy Clefthoof Boots - Crafted
Ring: Iron Band of the Unbreakable x2 - Old Hillsbrad (Lieutenant Drake)
Trinket: Badge Of Tenacity - World Drop
Trinket: Mark of Tyranny - Quest Reward: For The Horde! (http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=4974)
Weapon: Earthwarden - Rep Reward: Cenarion Expedition
Idol: Idol Of Brutality - Stratholme: Magistrate Barthilas

First of all, we don't laugh at our fellow druids. Our class is played by so few as it is, it makes no sense to run people off. I'd much rather help someone understand the class and how to get the most out of it for what they want to do.

Before we go futher you need to tell us a few things:

1) What is it you want to do in raids/Karazhan? Do you want to tank? Do you want to DPS?

2) What is your experience to date? I remember you mentioning tanking, but is that in general what you do and want you want to do?

I'm going to go with Kauroth and make some tanking suggestions based on the gear you have listed in your armory. While that may not be your tanking gear, it's all we have to work with :)

Rings:
Hold out on getting 2x Iron Back of the Unbreakable. If you can get one, awesome, otherwise you'll be at least friendly with the violet eye when you kill Attumen the first time and you'll get Violet Signet (http://www.wowhead.com/?search=Violet+Signet)
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28407 - is a nice Arcatraz drop too.

Head:
Can't agree more - Stylin' Purple hat with http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29186 enchant

Shoulders:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27776
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27995

Trinket:
Until you can get a Badge of Tenacity - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27891

The only thing other thing ( since Kauroth pretty much said everything I would have ) you really need to work on is your reputation with some key factions:
- Cenarion Expedition
- The Keepers of Time
- Aldor - to either honored or exalted....exalted if you can do it :)
- Lower City
- The Sha'tar
- Honor Hold

Some of these you'll want exalted with to get flask recipes ( or shoulder enchants with Aldor ), others you want at least revered so you can run Heroic dungeon instances.

Hope this helps, and don't be afraid to ask about enchants, gems, talents, whatever. We're here to help, not belittle.

Sorry, I'm at work and would have fleshed out my post a bit more but I had to quickly Tab then Enter then Alt+Tab to get this post up quickly as my boss came by.

:D

Yes, there are smaller "downgrades" to the list I posted, but I forgot a BELT!

animal's Cinch from SMV is hands down the best pre-raid belt out there for Feral Tanks.

First of all, we don't laugh at our fellow druids. Our class is played by so few as it is, it makes no sense to run people off. I'd much rather help someone understand the class and how to get the most out of it for what they want to do.

Sorry, I'm just so self-conscious about my gear. I feel silly that I haven't acheived better gear by now, considering all the information available to me here in the Grove. :shuffle:

Thanks for the list! I'm researching the gear as we speak. Gonna take a while for me to achieve it all, but it's something to work for.

As for Reputation, that's another tough one. All I wanted to do was Ding 70, and I pretty much moved on from zone to zone without concerning myself with Rep. Won't be making that mistake again! Fortunately, I have that Rep Calculator that you all told me about - I LOVE it.

As for, my role in Kara, I honestly don't know yet. I would truly love to heal, but, Tanks are in high demand. By the time I accumulate the gear I need, I certainly should have done it enough to be good at it.

And finally....Tlbj, http://www.wow-loot.com/gearguide.php this is an interesting guide, but how exactly does it work?

Concerning rep.

For the fastest Earthwarden you can, grind Unidentified Plant Parts and turn them in until you can't anymore.

Then, do all the CE rep quests listed here:
http://www.wowhead.com/?faction=942#quests

Then start the Steam Vaults grind. Try to entice others to come with you by saying you'll tank and will pass on all gear if you get the Coilfang Armaments.

Or just try to go with guildies to get as many of them as you can.

Typically you can get 10-20 for a Regular Mode run.

Don't go Heroic, you don't get any more rep....just start blazing through Regular Mode.

Also, if you know any skinners who are still levelling, get them to grind on Clefthoofs in Nagrand for your Heavy Clefthoof armor....you're gonna need a lot.

If you haven't done the Ring Of Blood quests yet...get the Staff Of Beasts or check the AH for a Braxxis Staff of Slumber to tide you over until you get the Earthwarden.


And have fun! Gearing yourself up is a long drawn out process but so rewarding as you can then introduce yourself to your guild as a fully capable tank who made or got all your own gear.

Pretty much everything in our "Pre Kara Tank Set" can be solo'd or grinded, it's a good feeling and should get you a pretty accurate view of what it's gonna be like for you at 70.

And finally....Tlbj, http://www.wow-loot.com/gearguide.php this is an interesting guide, but how exactly does it work?Drag the stats in the order of importance. Say, +def, +agi, +sta. Check where you want the gear to come from in the top box (Tier 1 RAID, PvP, rep, etc.). It, then, presents you with a list of 5 items per slot that meet your specs.

At this point, I just print the page. But you can select one item from each slot and hit "save"(????) and it will give you a single page with the list of items you are after.

While questing/leveling, wow loot's main page gives you the "best" quests to complete per zone and per instance per zone based on general talent specs (Feral, Restro, etc.)

It is a nice site for getting general gear recommendations if you are basically starting with nothing.

The gear calc page is the best "I just hit lvl 70 in Blade Edge Mtns, what quest should I complete elsewhere that give me the "best" shoulders?" type site. I think it is much better than the Amory since you can weigh your stats.

One thing you might bear in mind is dont neglect your healing set if you are going to want to heal in the future. Keep your eyes open for healing upgrades while your working on your tank gear. And dont feel that your being a noob by asking if the group minds if your need on healing gear as well as tank gear. Though I would pass on healing gear to another healer in group. But would need the item over it getting sharded or sold to vendor for cash. I've seen far too many other druids/priests focus on only one set of gear. Then when they change specs to a DPS/Healer they completely lack the needed gear to do well at it.

One thing I noticed is that groups do loads of Heroic Slave Pens on our server due to its being so fast and easy.If the same is true for your server then you can join those groups to gain reputation really really fast.Also there is a BoE pattern from SSC that I see on AH every day for relatively cheap. Its called boots of natural grace and if you are a LW then its a very easy grind to get very good boots.Two nethers might be a bother but the boots are really good and relatively easy to make.

Got my Clefthoof Set! Wheeeee! Still working on my Stylin' Purple Hat. :rolleyes:

Check me out now!

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Misha&n=Magellan

Any recommendations on Socket Gems? Thought I'd wait for your advise before I filled 'em all in.

If you want to become "uncrittable" right away socket them like this:

Heavy Cleftoof Vest - All +8 Defense Gems (Thick Dawnstone)

Heavy Clefthoof Leggings - All +8 Defense Gems

Heavy Clefthoof Boots - 1 +8 Defense Gem/1 +12 Stamina (Solid Star of Elune)

Until you start gearing up with more +Defense, this is the only way you're going to become "uncrittable".

It's what I did when I first got the set, then I replaced them with Solid Star's when I got better gear on my other pieces.

I put uncrittable in quotations because with 3/3 Survival Of The Fittest you only need 415 Defense to essentially make it as low of a % as possible of getting crit by a lvl 73 Raid Boss.

And since every 2 Defense Rating gets you 1 Defense, you need 52 Defense Rating to become uncrittable.

Once you start getting +Defense on some other gear (Keepers of Time Head enchant and Aldor/Scryer Shoulder enchants) plus get your Earthwarden, then you can start figuring out what you're currently lacking in and socket accordingly.

Magellen; The quest to start your Karazhan attunment begins in Deadwind Pass, outside Karazhan itself. An NPC there will give you the prequests.

The quest involves going to 4 instances; Shadow Labyrinth, The Arcatraz, Steam Vaults, and lastly Black Morass. There is also a great deal of running around the world speaking to people.


-Annikk

Magellen; The quest to start your Karazhan attunment begins in Deadwind Pass, outside Karazhan itself. An NPC there will give you the prequests.

The quest involves going to 4 instances; Shadow Labyrinth, The Arcatraz, Steam Vaults, and lastly Black Morass. There is also a great deal of running around the world speaking to people.


-Annikk

Judging by http://www.thedruidsgrove.org/wow/forums/showpost.php?p=146982&postcount=36
she's nearly done with her Kara key ;)

Ah... well spotted :>


-Annikk

she's nearly done with her Kara key ;)

Tru Dat! :thumbsup:

My health and mana levels are pretty low aren't they? How do I fix that?

I took a look through your stats, I see you are wearing the heavy clefthoof stuff. This gear is probably the best you will find for quite some time, so it would be worth putting some gems into it.
As far as I can see you have 8 empty gem slots at the moment. If you were to put 8 [Solid Star of Elune] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=24033) into these gem slots it would increase your stamina by 96. You get 20% extra stamina when you shift into bear form, which works out at 115.2 stamina extra from gems. That's 1152 health extra.

Those gems are quite expensive though, so if money is not in abundance then you could also consider [Solid Azure Moonstone] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=23118) which is 9 stamina instead of 12.


If maximum health is your primary concern then go for stamina gems throughout. If you also would like a bit more aggro/rage generation then I'd recommend some agility gems.
You might want to hold off on gemming some items as you are likely to upgrade them, however I would encourage you to gem up the heavy clefthoof stuff as soon as you can, you aren't likely to replace those items until you're picking up loots in Karazhan.


-Annikk

Cool thanks for the links. Gonna check those out at the AH.

I get mixed advise about my sockets. Some people tell me to go Stamina and others tell me Agility. Little confused about which to go, and it's not a cheap decision, which is why the slots remain open.

Then others are asking me about my DPS set. So, what actually separates DPS from Tank?

At least Resto Gear is pretty straight forward - right?

Gear in outlands is never straight forward unfortunately :P It's both a curse and a blessing - you can customise your stats to no end to achieve the exact martial niche you wish, but it can be very confusing and daunting, particularly when you're not clear on how each stat benefits you.

For tanking, you want:
415 defense skill (when you get [Earthwarden] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29171) you will have more than this anyway)
Agility, which increases your dodge chance, armour, crit chance, and attack power. Aim to get enough agility to give you at least 28% dodge chance in bear form, and after that start stacking..
..Stamina, this simply increases your maximum health.

A word on stamina. 1 stamina = 10 health, but you get 20% extra stamina in bear form, so effectively for bears 1 stamina = 12 health.
Having lots of stamina means that when you get a critical strike, the heal you receive from Improved Leader of the Pack will be bigger. For example, a Black Temple geared tanking druid could reasonably expect to have 28,000 maximum health. 4% of that is 1120, so every time they crit something they receive a heal for 1120 (max once per 6 sec).

You've mentioned in a few posts now that you are working on your reputations. Might I suggest focusing on Cenarion Expedition reputation first, as this allows you to access lots of great druid items such as Earthwarden (see above). Getting your earthwarden puts you over 415 defense skill, and I would say this is the single most important thing for a tanking druid to have.
After that work on your agility, 28% dodge chance self-buffed in bear form is the minimum I would recommend.
Finally, when you have 415 defense and at least 28% dodge, start getting lots of Stamina.


For dps, the mix of stats is different. You will still want some stamina so that you don't die all the time, but you should start to place much more of an emphasis on Strength and Agility. I would recommend stacking this stats in roughly equal measure.
If you're planning to dps in a raid, you will also need to start building up some Chance to Hit gear. 100 or so is probably enough, I believe 143 is the "optimal" amount that means your chance to miss against a boss is minimised.

Attack power is also useful for druids that want to dps. 1 strength = 2 attack power. 1 agility = 1 attack power (it gives you lots of other stuff as well as the AP, though).

One item I would definitely recommend getting once you have some free time is the [Everbloom Idol] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29390). This item costs 15 heroic badges, it's really great for raid dps as most of the time you can stay behind an enemy and shred the living daylights out of them.


For healing, you'd be better asking a resto druid. Personally I go for a mix of intellect, spirit, stamina, mana per 5, and +healing - the main emphasis is on +healing, with least emphasis on Stamina.


One other item you should definitely get is the [Alchemist's Stone] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=13503).
This is a really awesome item that I have yet to replace. It's really quite something, especially in pvp, when that rogue team is just about to kill you and you shift out and pop a 6k healing potion crit. It's called Justice, and it's HILARIOUS. :> The stats alone make it very worthwhile, druids benefit from all 5 stats so +15 to all stats is like a druid's wet dream :>


-Annikk

For tanking:

Until you get to 415 Defense:
Defense > Stamina > Agility

After you have 415 Defense:
Stamina > Agility

Agility brings some nice dodge and crit, but being a bear you WILL get hit. We tank "with our face" so to speak, as opposed to Pallys & Warriors that have those lovely shields to keep their faces pretty. The more HP you have, the more of a "oops" buffer you give the healer. They can lag, drift off, whatever, come back and still be able to heal you.

Too much agility and dodge and you'll be getting hit less and less, and while that sounds like a good thing, you'll also be lacking rage...which means a lack of aggro...which usually results in a shadow priest, mage or warlock dying.

imho stamina and agility are equally important, until you have "enough" agility. Then just go stamina.
ore dodge does indeed mean less rage from being hit, but bares also generate rage from hitting people, and from getting crits. More agility = more crit chance = more rage

Basically if you have problems keeping aggro, go for agility. Otherwise stack stamina.

Once you have really good amount of aggro, there's not all that much point in stacking further agility, so just stack stamina at that point. But (again imho) its best to get the aggro thing sorted first with some agility as it will make your job easier and more fun, and inspire you to tank more. :>


-Annikk

Agility/dodge is really good for certain fights, not as good for others. When doing Shade of Akama in BT by the end of the fight I'm tanking 8 ashtongue defenders who hit for 2-4k each; getting hit 1 of every 2 times makes a huge difference in surviving.

Stacking stamina is a no-brainer, but I like to be at last around 45% dodge. Clicking badge of tenacity and pocket watch in an emergency then makes you nearly un-hittable.

Clicking badge of tenacity and pocket watch in an emergency then makes you nearly un-hittable.

Oh, this has saved my ass from poor healers so many times it's not even funny.

And someone posted a macro here that had a rotating text option as well.

I changed it to say "Not getting enough heals, gotta go at it on my own."

:D

http://www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=25680

Got it! Woot! :biggrin:

Congrats on the hat :)

Nice work.

Now get that Keepers of Time enchant on it.

Grats ... I know it takes time and hard work to get the gear... keep it up.