Curious question. I've been checking out some different builds as I get ready to restore my beloved druid to her full rawr prowess...

I noticed that the "Mother Bear" talent seems to be one that a lot of druids are passing on. It almost seems like it could potentially be worth it. For every member in your party when you shift into Dire Bear - you get a 3% Damage Reduction, not to mention the increase of attack power in Dire Bear by 2% with each rank.

There are others that druids seem to be passing on, that based on tooltips seem like they'd actually be helpful in bear form.

Feral Aggression, Predatory Instincts, Primal Tenacity and a few others seem to be passed on an awful lot.

I realize that we're on a tighter budget now for feral talent point spending, and that many of us are already giving up our Resto talents to pick up more beneficial talents in Feral Combat, but I am a curious bear by nature.

Another forum, when asked this exact question, gave some pretty uninformative answers...ie: "I don't like the name 'mother bear' for a talent. It's lame"

So, I wanted to hear from you guys what you thought about it, if you're picking it, or why you aren't.

Thanks so much guys! (Yes, I checked out Solarflash's projected spec - I was planning something very similar but was thinking of throwing a point in Mother Bear for the Damage Reduction instead of Imp MotW perhaps).

I think it depends on what you want to do. If you are planning on grouping a lot, then I'd throw in Mother Bear (or Protector of the Pack or whatever its called...) Its in my current level 70 build, but I plan on tanking instances and raids. However when I go to a DPS/leveling spec I'll skip it as it provides no benefit.

Predatory Instincts is being passed on b/c as of now ( while the tooltip says differently ) it effects only cat.

Thank you guys both for the input. I kept staring at it thinking "What am I missing? Why are tanking druids NOT picking Mother Bear up?"

I just couldn't figure out, with the other nerfs, why you wouldn't want to pick up an extra 12% damage reduction or so. The 3% doesn't change with rank, so I imagine if you're doing it for pure DR, then you'd only really need 1 point in there, since there are a lot of weapons and trinkets that can increase feral AP.

That would leave a few points open for other fun stuff.

Makes sense that PI would affect kitty more for DPS.

A question on Mother Bear or PotP- For a 5 man group, obviously you're getting the benefit of 4 friendly party members. Does this change in a raid? Would you then see a benefit from the 9 other members? Does it take "you" into account?

Meaning, in a 5 man, do you get 15% DR or only 12% DR? I've been scouring the web to find out and can't seem to find anything that states specifically...

For a levelling only build, there's no reason to have it...I'm going to go with a pvp cat build for levelling since I am on a pvp server. No serious tanking druid can skip Mother Bear, though. (I like the name Mother Bear better than Protector of the Pack! :thumbsup: )

Dest, that's been a source of confusion since the tooltip first came out. I'll see if I can find out and get back to you.

I'll continue searching as well, and if I find anything, I will be sure to post it here and let you know.

I like running instances, so I'm going to probably go with a tanking build, unless they release the dual specs. That'll change things for me.

A question on Mother Bear or PotP- For a 5 man group, obviously you're getting the benefit of 4 friendly party members. Does this change in a raid? Would you then see a benefit from the 9 other members? Does it take "you" into account?

Meaning, in a 5 man, do you get 15% DR or only 12% DR? I've been scouring the web to find out and can't seem to find anything that states specifically...

It's 12%. I did a Kara last night to test the new talents and you get a buff on you with 4 "charges" that shows you getting 12% DR even with 9 people around me. On a side note: the unlimited target swipe is completely insane. We were aeing everything in kara and I ended up #2 on the total damage chart for the raid due to swipe, the maul 2 target glyph and berserk mangles... and I was the MT.

-Cinnas

Wow! Grats Cinnas, welcome, and thank you for clarifying.

:) Rawr!