PvE Feral Druid Tank Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Oxykitten

Welcome to our Gems, Enchants, and Consumables guide for Feral tanks in WoW Classic: Burning Crusade Classic! This guide will list the most relevant gems, enchants, and consumables that benefit a Feral tank in a raid environment. Note that gems and enchants should not be considered in a vacuum, but as their contribution to a complete set of gear. The gearing guide will describe when to use which enchants and gems in complete sets.

Gems, Enchants, and Consumables

Red Sockets: Delicate Crimson Spinel / Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst
Blue Sockets: Solid Empyrean Sapphire / Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst
Yellow Sockets: Glinting Pyrestone / Rigid Lionseye
Meta Gem: Relentless Earthstorm Diamond

Gems for Feral Druids are an often contentious topic. Some will argue we should gem full Agility for the avoidance and value it provides when DPSing, others will argue full Stamina for increasing our Effective Health Pool (EHP) when tanking. Some will argue full Hit Rating for maximum threat. None of these options are strictly wrong, and in most stat weights all these gems are very close in value, so ultimately it’s up to you and depends on your ‘skews’ i.e. how highly you value avoidance, cat DPS, EHP, and threat. Additionally, because these gems are close in value, it is usually worth going for socket bonuses as you lose very little value overall.

If the socket bonus on an item is not valuable, you can ignore socket colours and gem however you prefer – I personally use Delicate Crimson Spinels in all slots except to meet the meta gem requirement, because as an offtank in my raid I spend a lot of time DPSing in Cat Form.

Note that the hit rating on Rigid Lionseye provides no value above hit cap (95 hit rating with improved faerie fire, or 142 hit rating without).

Helm: Glyph of Ferocity / Glyph of the Defender (if needed for crit immunity)
Shoulders: Might of the Scourge / Fortitude of the Scourge / Greater Inscription of Vengeance / Greater Inscription of the Blade / Greater Inscription of Warding / Greater Inscription of the Knight are all extremely close in value (especially if you need the Defense enchants for crit immunity)
Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Greater Agility
Chest: Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats
Wrist: Enchant Wrist – Stats / Enchant Wrist – Fortitude are close in value for tanking, but Stats are better for PvP and DPS.
Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Threat / Agility — Threat is better for tanking but Agility provides value for cat DPS as well.
Legs: Nethercleft Leg Armor
Feet: Enchant Boots – Boar’s Speed / Enchant Boots – Cat’s Swiftness
Rings: Enchant Ring – Stats (only available to Enchanters)
Weapon: Enchant 2H Weapon – Major Agility

Battle Elixir: Elixir of Major Agility
Guardian Elixir: Gift of Arthas (provides upwards of 100 DPS for the raid, which is extremely strong relative to any other flask or elixir)
Food: Fisherman’s Feast / Grilled Mudfish / Spicy Hot Talbuk (all very close in value; dealer’s choice)
Scrolls: Scroll of Agility V, Scroll of Strength V, and Scroll of Protection V
Potion: Ironshield Potion
Weapon Enhancement: Adamantite Weightstone

Thank you for taking the time to read our Feral tank gem, enchant, and consumable guide for TBC. I hope it was helpful, and if you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to leave a comment below, or find me as Oxy on the Druid Classic discord.

Author

Oxykitten

I've been an avid WoW player since Vanilla. At 6 years old, I was slowly progressing through Blackfathom Deeps and levelling up with my brothers. Since Classic Wow launched, I've found a new way to enjoy the game; participating in Feral Druid theorycrafting communities and performing well in an underdog class has been a fun challenge. I hope to be able to share all I've learned with anyone who shares that interest!