PvE Feral Druid Tank Pre-Raid & Best in Slot (BiS)

Feral sunwell bis

Welcome to our Feral Tank gearing guide for TBC. This guide will list the best items available in every slot, how they should be gemmed and enchanted, and present complete sets that are optimised to best fulfill the Feral Tank role in current TBC content. Additionally, this guide will provide some example sets for newer players trying to get into existing raids. This guide is up to date for Sunwell Plateau, and will include sets focused on survivability and on pull variance. To better understand these lists, read the information that follows them below.

Best in Slot gear lists

This set is designed to minimise your chance of dying on any given encounter. It is suitable for any encounter in the game, and will produce enough threat on average to hold off your DPS. In this set, threat can sometimes be iffy at the start of an encounter, but this is far less of an issue than random tank deaths. For reference, this set sims at a 3% p(death) on Brutallus while retaining a 97% p(pull success) on Felmyst.

Click here to view the complete set on seventyupgrades.

Collar of the Pit Lord is a very powerful tank item, with a lot of stamina and expertise for both survivability and reduced pull variance.

These are the best tanking shoulders in the game, providing both threat and survivability.

Like the neck in this set, this cloak provides a lot of survivability while also having a lot of expertise. This is a very strong item.

These are the best bracers for Feral Tanks in TBC, and are dropped by Kalecgos as Bracers of the Forgotten Vanquisher.

Alternative: Guardian’s Dragonhide Bracers

These are the best gloves for Feral Tanks in TBC, and are dropped by M’uru as Shadowed Gauntlets of Paroxysm. They should not be contested and are far better than any alternatives.

The high stamina, agility, and resilience on this belt provides a lot of survivability. but at the cost of the Tier 6 4-piece bonus. Alternatively, you can use Thunderheart Waistguard and one more Tier 6 piece (eg shoulders) for more damage and average threat, or Belt of One-Hundred Deaths for reduced pull variance.

Leggings of the Immortal Beast are the best leg option for all Feral tank sets, and are an extremely powerful survivability piece. They are, however, dropped as Leggings of the Immortal Night from Felmyst, making them one of the most contested drops in Sunwell (BiS for Rogues, Hunters, Enhancement Shamans, Retribution Paladins, and DPS Warriors).

Alternative: Thunderheart Leggings, but they don’t really come close at all.

These are the best boot option for Feral tanks in TBC, and provide a lot of expertise to boot (no pun intended)!

Ring of Hardened Resolve is an incredibly strong ring which provides armour, stamina, defense, and expertise. This gives the set a lot of survivability and reduces its pull variance.

Ring of the Stalwart Protector is a powerful second ring, contributing to the survivability of the set. You can use Hard Khorium Band instead if Stalwart Protector brings you above the hard armor cap of 35,880 (eg if using Pillar of Ferocity) or just stick to Band of the Eternal Champion if you don’t want to spend big on Sunmotes.

These two trinkets provide a lot of armour and survivability. Shadowmoon Insignia can be used reactively to a damage spike, or in preparation for incoming damage (e.g. having to soak a Stomp on Brutallus).

Alternative: Commendation of Kael’thas

This set uses Stanchion of Primal Instinct over Pillar of Ferocity as it is armor capped using two armor rings. While this is a slight survivability loss, it is a well balanced option and a very powerful staff.

Idol of the Raven Goddess is the best idol for raid DPS contribution as it buffs your group. If you are worried about survivability, Idol of Terror gives a helpful boost.

Gearing principles

These sets use a mixture of Defense and Resilience to reach immunity to critical strikes. Any combination can be used, with the cap being 5.6% critical strike suppression on bosses (Druids earn 3% from the talent Survival of the Fittest and therefore only need 2.6% from gear). This is an important goal for all sets to aim for, as eliminating the possibility of critical strikes significantly reduces your risk of dying as a tank.

Some of these sets approach 6% hit, which is the cap when a Balance druid applies Improved Faerie Fire to your target. Reaching hit cap is usually not a goal that you should specifically aim for, as it does not eliminate the chance of getting parried or dodged. In fact, hit cap is simply a limit – hit is a strong threat stat but provides no value above cap for a Feral druid. This means that often as we approach the cap, druids actually use worse items because we cannot make use of the hit rating on certain pieces of gear. Therefore, the only thing to keep in mind when it comes to hit rating is not to waste it; do not be concerned if your set is below the hit cap. Note that, in Sunwell gear, a Druid can reach both hit cap and hard expertise cap, completely eliminating the chance of misses, dodges, and parries on all targets. While this would be very valuable for pull variance, gearing in this way comes at a significant survivability loss and should not be used on hard-hitting bosses.

Survivability sets

As a tank, your most important role is not to die. While threat generation is important, your average threat generation when following the correct rotation will be high enough for even the best DPS players while wearing full mitigation gear. While your threat in the first few seconds of the fight may not always be perfect in these sets, the consequence of this is simply waiting a few more seconds to kill the boss. On the other hand, the consequence of dying as a tank is an almost definite wipe for your raid. Therefore, it is generally advised to optimise sets to minimise your chance of death on any given encounter. This is done through the “p(Death)” simulation in Mobmentality’s Beary Good Sim.

Pull variance sets

Your other important role as a tank is to generate enough threat so that your target attacks you (who will not die) instead of your damage dealers (who will die if targeted). While your average threat as a Feral Druid should always be sufficient on a single target (as Ferals generate more single target threat than any other tank in TBC), the first few seconds of an encounter can be a little bit iffy, for example due to your first Mangle missing or getting dodged/parried. A “Pull variance” set will optimise for the highest chance of a successful opener – defined by having a substantial threat lead in the first 10-15 seconds of an encounter. These sets will still be tanky enough to survive most encounters, but if in doubt, use a survivability set to make sure you don’t die. This is also done through Mobmentality’s sim, through the “p(Pull Success)” simulation.

Using seventyupgrades.com

This guide uses links to the helpful gear planning tool, seventyupgrades.com. By using these links, you will be able to visualise the complete sets I have put together, along with the enchants and gems I use in each slot. Additionally, by clicking on “Copy Set” in the top right-hand corner, you can see the set in your own seventyupgrades account. It will also copy over some useful stat weights that you can use to compare the average value of every item in the game for a Feral tank. However, to optimise survivability and pull variance for different items, you will need to use the simulation tool yourself.


Thank you for taking the time to read our Feral Tank BiS guide for TBC Classic. 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. I’ll be making more guides here on everything to do with playing a Feral in TBC, so stay tuned!

 

About the 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!
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