PvE Feral Druid Tank Gems, Enchants & Consumables

wotlk classic pve feral druid tank gems, enchants & consumables
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Feral Druid Tank

Talents & Builds

Talents, Builds & Glyphs

spell nature unyeildingstamina

Stat Priority

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Best Races

Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Gems, Enchants & Consumables

ability druid mangle2

Rotation & Cooldowns

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Best Professions

Gear & Best In Slot (bis)

Best in Slot (BiS) & Pre-Raid Gear

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Addons & Macros

Gemming and enchanting your gear, as well as using consumables in raids, are some of the most important things you can do to improve your character. The gain from using these is often far greater than the minor optimisations we make with gear, so it’s good to prepare your character appropriately for your raids!

The recommendations given here are based largely on my stat priority guide, which in turn was made with information from Nerdegghead and others on the Classic Druid Discord.

Gems

Austere gem will be your strongest option for the meta slot. However, if you have engineering and therefore use Nitroboosts, you will not have bonus movespeed and may opt for swift instead. I personally feel that movespeed is mandatory for tanking and would therefore opt for the latter gem in this scenario, but it does involve a significant hit to your survivability. Note that Austere only requires 2 blue gems (from gemming stamina) and 1 red gem (from a nightmaretear), whereas swift requires 2 yellow gems and 1 red gem.

The alternative is Relentless for threat, however this is unlikely to be a worthwhile swap in a tanking set.

Stamina is the most valuable stat for a Feral tank, so you should only deviate from stamina gemming for a good socket bonus, or if you want to optimise your cat DPS with the same gear you use for tanking.

Nightmaretear is a strong gem for a good socket bonus. However, you can only use one of these in an equipped set. That one Nightmaretear contributes 1 gem of each colour to activating your meta gem requirement.

Agility is a well balanced and strong stat for tanks, so using agility / stamina purple gems for a good socket bonus is my recommendation in this guide. However, if you want to optimise for Feral DPS you may want to gem delicate / delicate2, as the agility benefits you in both roles.

For more threat, gemming expertise is a fine option and you can gem blueexpstam / epicexpstam or exp / exp if you do not reach soft cap with gear alone. However, gemming for pure threat is likely unnecessary as, even for Ferals, it should be easy to generate more threat than your DPS players and you should instead focus on the survivability provided by gemming stamina.

Hit is a decent stat for tanks, though weaker than stamina, expertise and agility. You should really only use these gems for a really strong socket bonus or in order to activate your meta gem.

The bread and butter of tank gems. These blue gems provide a lot of stamina, and are extremely valuable for tanking. If in doubt, use these gems in every slot — only consider other gems for a really good socket bonus.

Enchants

Until you reach Revered with the Argent Crusade, you can just use borean, but bear in mind that it is far weaker.

Players with engineering should use mindamp for an extra stamina boost.

The glad shoulder enchant is incredibly strong for Feral Tanks, to the point where you shouldn’t even consider the Inscription-exclusive enchant — the defense on it or the widely-available pinnacle provides very little value for Ferals.

One alternative is Axe for a decent boost to threat, but the stamina will be far more valuable for tanking.

Tanks should use the armor enchant for their cloaks to boost their survivability.

These are your two options for chest enchants. They are pretty evenly matched, with borean focusing on pure survival whereas Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats takes a more balanced approach.

Players with the Leatherworking profession should use their profession-exclusive Fur Lining – Stamina enchant here, while everyone else uses Enchant Bracers – Major Stamina.

Additionally, players with the Blacksmithing profession should use Socket Bracer to add an extra socket to their bracers. It stacks with enchants.

Players with the Engineering profession should use their profession-exclusive engiarmorgloves. Those without engineering can use Enchant Gloves – agility instead.

For a threat or DPS hybrid focus, Engineers should use Hyperspeed Accelerators. Others can use threat.

Additionally, players with the Blacksmithing profession should use Socket Gloves to add an extra socket to their gloves. It stacks with enchants.

This is your only option for this slot.

This is your best option for this slot.

If you’re strapped for cash, you could use the more budget-friendly budgetLegArmor instead.

Players with the Engineering profession should use their profession-exclusive Nitro Boosts enchant here, while everyone else uses vitalitybootenchant.

Players with the Enchanting profession should use their profession-exclusive Enchant Ring – stamina enchant on both of their rings.

Blooddraining is the best enchant to use for survivability.

If you play as feral DPS with the same weapon, you may want to consider massacre.

Consumables

For your battle elixir, gurus is your best choice, increasing all your base stats by 20 and therefore increasing your survivability.

For your guardian elixir, goa is the best balanced option. It applies a debuff onto your target (assuming they are attacking you as the tank) which damages your target each time they are attacked. While the number may seem small, this is triggered by your entire raid’s attacks and adds up to a substantial amount of DPS for a single consumable.

However, if you are worried about dying and want to squeeze every bit of survivability out of your consumable usage, then armor is a fine option as well.

Stoneblood is the best flask for tanks, but is less good than the elixir combos listed above.

This is the best food available for general use, however if you are not expertise capped and feel you need more threat, Rhinolicious Wormsteak is a viable option.

Like in previous expansions, these long lasting armor potions provide so much value over the length of an encounter compared to the short-term gains of other potions. Make sure you pop one before combat starts (known as pre-potting), as doing so will allow you to pop a 2nd one during the fight’s duration.

You can still use scrolls in Wrath of the Lich King — however, they do not stack with stat-boosting effects offered by class buffs.

Stamina, agility, strength, and armor scrolls are all beneficial for Feral tanks, but you should have raid buffs providing all of these stats. Don’t worry about them unless your raid composition is a bit of a mess!

 

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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Harry
Harry
2 years ago

Regarding the gemming, you mentioned you should only gem red or yellow if there is a really good socket bonus.

What is an example of a good enough socket bonus?

Obviously apart from that of meta gem bonuses.

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Pit
Pit
1 year ago

I think, in enchants items is better option for head slot Mind Aplification Dish (engineering), it gives you 45 stamina (so 8 more than Arcanum of the Stalwart Protection)

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