Tank Triage: Healing Druids

This guide is an installment in a four part series designed to educate healers about the different tanking classes. Rather than attempt to research the tanking classes myself in order to write about them (a ghastly undertaking that I would undoubtedly make a butchery of), I reached out to the tanks themselves and asked them to help. Each tank was sent a set of identical questions and asked to respond to them. The questions were designed to give healers uninitiated into the mechanics of a given tanking class an overview of how the class works, what their strengths and weaknesses are, when they are most vulnerable and in need of heals, and how they feel about being healed by Restoration Druids, in particular. My thought was that knowing more about my healing targets would only make me a better healer, and that it might be a service to the healing community to pass the information along. I hope that you find it helpful.

While I wrote the questions and compiled the answers, the vast majority of work on these guides was done by the tanks, all very gracious people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.

Tank Triage:  Healing Warriors
Tank Triage:  Healing Paladins
Tank Triage:  Healing Death Knights

Can you give an overview of the tanking style and abilities of your class? How do you get the job done?

Elathan, Feral Druid of Legio Vici, Duskwood

Generally as a Druid tank, my main goal is to hold aggro so the healers and DPS have nothing to worry about. There has been several changes to the mechanics of a Bear tank generating threat since BC and into WotLK, so won’t go too in depth into them, but being as I have played a tanking druid from pre BC till now, I can say the majority of the changes are for the
better. Main threat generating abilities are Maul, Mangle, Swipe and Lacerate. I usually use a rotation somewhat in that order, trying to maintain the Mangle debuff, and as many stacks of lacerate ticking as I can. I generally find I have a tougher time holding aggro from over zealous
DPS monkeys now than from the healers thankfully, unlike in BC times. Just have to remind some people to wait a few seconds for me to get a few hits in before nuking As for tanking style, Blizz has done wonders to buff the AoE tanking ability of a Bear with the change to swipe going a full 360 degrees, and I have to say I honestly am enjoying the AoE tanking style, more so than the use of multiple CC’s for pulls of BC days.

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Nephis, from Two Classy

Feral druids are the only tanking class that doesn’t wear plate. To combat this we spend our days in Fuzzy Grey Form (Dire Bear Form). This gives us a massive boost in the armor from our gear, plus a 25% stamina increase and some bonus AP. Tada, big furry meatshield.

Now it comes to the pull, what’s the druid got to offer? Feral Faerie Fire is our first port of call for a pull. With a range and a decent damage element it also leaves a nice armor reduction debuff on the mob in question. Charge is also a valid option, it rams us right into the middle of a pack and allows us to start laying down threat straight away.

We’ve got four main melee offensive abilities, Mangle, Maul, Swipe and Lacerate. Mangle and Maul give us nice straight up 1v1 damage (Glyphed Maul can hit two targets but not all Bears will be packing this) and Mangle also adds a debuff that increases bleed damage. Swipe is our AOE attack, enabling us to grab a healthy whack of threat on groups of mobs (it’s worth noting Swipe used to have a frontal cone AOE, now it is 360 degree).  Lacerate is a dot that deals a small amount of damage on application then stacks 5 times to deal a large amount of threat. The ticks of lacerate are important because thanks to the talent Primal Gore these can now crit and trigger:

Savage Defense. Bears used to have a great deal more health and armor than they do now but Blizzard saw fit to take that away and give us this. It works by giving a shield effect every time you crit that takes 25% of your AP worth of damage off of the next physical attack. This also means that if a bear is just standing there not attacking but getting beat on by a mob they’re going to lose some of their survivability.

Improved Leader of the Pack. This talented aura gives us 4% of our health every time we crit. It also gives us 5% crit chance. Ideal.

So what happens when I’m merrily swiping a pack of mobs and one of the trees gets it into your head that you should be tanking one of them? Well firstly you’re going to die because I am having way too much fun to care. Secondly I’m going to panic and see what I’ve got available to get that mob back. Firstly we have the simple Growl, 8 second CD, 30 yard range, single target taunt. Then there’s always Challenging Roar. Every two and a half minutes I can make everything in 10 yards munch on me. Handy.

We’ve also got two Oh Shi- buttons I guess you should know about. Here our similarities to warriors are really shown. Survival Instincts is our take on Last Stand and gives us 30% bonus health for 20 seconds. After those twenty seconds are up that health is lost again. Frenzied Regeneration converts our rage into health for 10 seconds, effectively acting like an extra hot on us.

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Liquidnight

This varies between trash pulls and longer single target fights, so I’ll explain both.  On trash, which is virtually all AoE’d down anymore, I usually alternate between spamming Maul and Swipe while tab targeting.  Maul is our highest threat move, which hits two targets (with glyph) and swipe is an AoE move with relatively low threat (it does still generally hold mobs on its own).  For single target fights, Mangle and Lacerate come into play, which increase damage from bleed effects, and make the target bleed respectively.  To help out healers during all of this, I try to use Barkskin and Valor Medal of the First War(increase dodge chance) as much as possible, especially during heavy damage pulls.

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The Big Bear Butt, from The Big Bear Butt

The general Bear tanking style is one of movement. All abilities can be performed while on the bounce, from single target pulls, big smacks, 360 degree AoE, and ranged Taunts. At no one time does a Bear tank HAVE to stand still to gather together mobs.

What are your class’s strengths in comparison to other tanking classes in your opinion? Your weaknesses?

Elathan, Feral Druid of Legio Vici, Duskwood

One of the main strengths of bear tanks used to be our high stamina and armor compared to other tanking classes, but unfortunately that got the Nerf-Bat hard the last patch But, even with the nerf, our stamina and armor are fairly comparable to other tanks now. Bears still are strong with avoidance, with a high enough dodge, and bears should have a high dodge if stacked with Agi properly also for the side benifit of crit chance for our new “bubble”. Along with the nerf to the stam and armor, they gave bear tanks a nifty new ability, “Savage Defense” that gives us a damage absorbing bubble equal to 25% our attack power that procs off of a crit,
next hit removes the shield no matter how hard the hit was. Works fairly well at mitigating some damage, especially magical attacks, but is completely useless if stunned since we have to get a crit to get it to proc. But it did address one of the weaknesses of bears in that we were
very weak against magic damage type fights (can’t dodge a lightning bolt or fireball going up your butt). Another big bonus to a druid tank is being Crit immune to raid bosses with the right talents, so no more need to stack defense rating to be at the crit cap like the other tanks. Would have to say a major weakness of bears, aside from the afore mentioned magical damage, is the inability to block or parry incoming attacks like warriors, pallies or DK’s, bears have to rely soley on dodge. Also, one of our strengths, can also be viewed as a weakness, depending on the skill/gear of the healers. With a high dodge, there is a chance for alot of spike damage when two or three attacks in a row aren’t dodged, and with out healers on their toes, that can mean a very flat bear.

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Nephis, from Two Classy

Bears have got amazing versatility you see in no other tanking class. Not only have we got the innervate and combat res that you throw around but we can also slip into a dps role very easily. All it takes is a simple change of form and we’re away, add that to a change in gear and you’re talking lolcatdps.

We’ve also got two real weaknesses that we share with warriors. Our weak ranged pulls can make it easy for dps to grab mobs if they’re too hot on the AOE.  Combine this with the fact that one of our big threat generators has to be stacked up 5 times we start to have an issue early on. This problem can be heightened by our dependence on rage. Like warriors we need to be hit and hit things to get it, if a mobs running after a squishy caster we’re not going to have the rage to gain threat back. This is also a problem if the bear outgears the instance they’re in, less damage taken means less rage.

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Liquidnight

With classes set up as they are now, Bears have become more similar to other tanks, since we now have a shield that procs when we crit and is based on our attack power.  That said, I think bears tend to have relatively high threat, and high overall avoidance.  Our weaknesses: we don’t have a shield, which means we will take more damage overall, but also means healers will see less spike damage.  We also lack in the area of ranged pulling, where say a paladin has several high threat moves.

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The Big Bear Butt, from The Big Bear Butt

Tanking strengths and weaknesses, in my opinion, really depend on the comfort zone of the player, not the class.

That being said, it is easy for a Bear tank to move while controlling mobs. Paladins rely on a stationary Consecrate and Death Knights use a stationary Death and Decay when grabbing multiple mobs, not counting ranged Taunts. For a Bear tank, the AoE is a 360 degree Swipe that is instant cast, can be cast on the bounce, and thus allows a Bear tank to reverse kite as long as the rest of the group can keep up, all without losing mobs.

Additionally, the self-HoT effects of Savage Defense/Frenzied Regeneration can, in a situational basis, let the tank take care of himself for a brief time and let the healer focus on group healing if things start to go bad for the rest of the party. If the Bear tank has Herbalism/Lifebloom to cast along with Savage Defense/Frenzied Regeneration, then in many cases in the worst circumstances the tank can actually free up the healer entirely to pay attention to other things.

One other interesting Bear tank situation is the crit-based damage bubble. The bubble lasts only until the next hit is taken, and reduces the damage endured by an amount based on the Bears’ attack power… but there is not at this time an internal cooldown on the bubble. It can pop up multiple times on multiple crits, and thus when a Bear is tanking multiple mobs, where often each individual mob hits for less than one true single target elite pull, the Bear can actually take LESS damage in a group encounter from the higher rate of bubbles. Because Bears also generate increased Rage from each crit, you will find that a Bear tank will actively seek out AoE groups to pull all at once instead of using crowd control, to be in a ‘perma-rage’ situation with lots of bubbles.

How would you characterize your own relationship with your healers during game play?

Elathan, Feral Druid of Legio Vici, Duskwood

I would have to say my relationship with the majority of the healers in the guild is very good. I have run with many of them for a long time now, so they know what to expect from me on pulls whether we are in a heroic or a raid, and I know what to expect from them so I barely glance at my health bar (as I said, majority of them…..) I try to be considerate of them by looking at their mana before pulling (unless it is a timed CoS run) and I don’t tell them how to heal, provided that they in turn don’t tell me how to tank Though I am always open to suggestions lol

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Nephis, from Two Classy

My relationship with my healers is usually a good one. Coming from a healing background myself and doing a lot of raid and heal leading I tend to chatter to my healers a lot. Sometimes more than they like to hear!

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Liquidnight

My primary healer is generally my girlfriend in RL, so I won’t bother you with too much info about our relationship
More generally, I try to keep healers happy by doing my job.  I also play a resto shaman, so I know the irritation trying to heal an undergeared or inept tank.  I’ve found that any sort of instance goes better when everyone is having fun.

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The Big Bear Butt, from The Big Bear Butt

Very good. I always watch the mana levels of the healers in my groups or raids, and I keep careful watch on distances before each pull. I try, not always successfully, to warn the groups where I will be tanking a pull, if there might be line of sight issues or special stun situations. When possible, I try to arrange pulls so that the entire group, including melee DPS, will be within line of sight of the healers when we start. I try and prioritize targets to reduce the length of time of encounters, as well as the danger to the tank, so I’ll mark healers first, followed by those that stun the tank or group. It all helps out.

Under what circumstances should healers be paying special attention to your class? When are you most vulnerable? (i.e. if a certain tanking ability fails, during melee/spell damage spikes, etc.)

Elathan, Feral Druid of Legio Vici, Duskwood

As mentioned before, a Bear tank is especially vunerable when stunned during boss fights, since we can’t proc our damage bubble with crits. Also, healers have to watch out for spike damage in case a few attacks in a row aren’t dodged due to bad luck from the RNG.

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Nephis, from Two Classy

Bears have got a relatively high pool of health that’ll help you smooth out spike damage, our only real danger time is as Survival instincts wears off and we could be losing over 12k health on top of regular damage.

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Liquidnight

During AoE pulls, bears tend to be more vulnerable, since our attack power shield does little to help.  I also think the type of enemy we are weakest against is one that hits fast.  Big, slow melee hits are not so much of a concern, since we can dodge a good deal of them, as well as absorb and reduce some of the damage.

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The Big Bear Butt, from The Big Bear Butt

For Bear tanks, the most stressful situation is the protracted single target pull without adds. With only one target to hit, there is less opportunity for Rage or bubbles proccing from crits. Without the bubble, we are still good but even having two extra tiny mobs to add crits to the defense roster makes a big difference.

On the plus side, on fights requiring frequent movement such as Keristraza in The Nexus, with the stacking DoT from freezing, Bears can bounce constantly while tanking with all abilities, so there is less damage taken overall.

Another nice aspect of healing a Bear druid is that gathering up adds can be easier on chain pulls due to the movable kiting of 360 degree Swipe. On Culling of Stratholme, for example, during the last run with Arthas through the undead prior to the last boss, a Bear can continuously kite adds while lumbering backwards at a walk, picking up new adds as he goes, keeping melee DPS closer to the healers, and ensuring that the new adds you run into see a Bear butt-first. Being hit from behind still is more dangerous for Bears than from the front since you cannot Dodge attacks from behind, but as you continue to move, the mobs naturally begin to chase you…
ending up in front of you, dragged along. It prevents the normal order of things in Culling of Stratholme, where the tank walks up to the mob and stops to tank, the DPS moves behind the mobs to fight and not get Dodged, and inevitably the DPS ends up closest to new undead adds, pulling them and requiring extra healing.

What is your experience with being healed by Restoration Druids? Is it a healing class that you enjoy working with? Why or why not?

Elathan, Feral Druid of Legio Vici, Duskwood

Loves the Tree! I have never had a problem being healed by resto druids (unless poorly geared/played) The healing ability from my point of view of resto has come along way since BC. The constant rolling HOTs help mitigate the spike damage some, as well as the quick or instant heals a tree is capable of pulling out.

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Nephis, from Two Classy

As I alluded to in a previous answer, I spent most of my druidic life back in TBC and even through into Ulduar as Resto so I know more about you than most tanks will.  As for being healed by them I love it. My own personal knowledge of your heals lets me guesstimate what sort of heals will be coming my way. I do have a tendency to tell Trees in my raids what to do though, not sure they like that.

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Liquidnight

As with all classes, I think it depends entirely on the player.  I’ve had some great resto druids, that I would take with me in any group, and I’ve also had some that just didn’t seem to have a clue.  When competent, I think it’s a great healing class, made even better with the new Nourish move.

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The Big Bear Butt, from The Big Bear Butt

I love Tree Druids, because with the high health pool, avoidance and mitigation of the Bear, I can get all Hotted up, and then be left alone so the Tree can go look after the rest of the herd for a while. I know that there is no need to panic, because a Nature’s Swiftness/Healing Touch can slam me back to full in short order. And I know that if things get stressful and the Tree needs to throw some Nourish on group members, I can take some of the heat off with Frenzied Regeneration.

Can you give one strong piece of advice for a healer in your group or raid?

Elathan, Feral Druid of Legio Vici, Duskwood

One strong peice of advice for a healer is be flexible. Pulls don’t always go perfect. Improvise, adapt and overcome The really good healers I have run with are very quick to react to any situation and turn what might have been a wipe intoa short break to recover some mana…… Also going to add one for new healers, cause I see it alot on PUG’s, HEAL THE TANK! If you find yourself in a group with hyped up over-zealous DPS aggro monkeys, concentrate on the tank first, cause always remember the quote “If the healer dies, it’s the tanks fault. If the tank dies, it’s the healers fault. If a DPS dies, it’s their own dang fault” LOL (I know, there are always some exceptions to this rule)

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Nephis, from Two Classy
Druids, dual spec feral. It’s so much better than pew pew chicken. I can now tank, dps and heal Naxx 25.

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Liquidnight

Know the type of damage your tank/group is going to be taking.  This makes a huge difference in the types of healing you will be doing. For example, on Patchwerk, know that the tanks soaking hatefuls are going to be taking big hits at longer intervals, so plan big, slow heals accordingly.  The only other advice I have, to any player in general, is don’t be afraid to ask if you don’t know a fight.  It will take far less time to explain it to you again than to wipe, run back, and then explain it to you again.

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The Big Bear Butt, from The Big Bear Butt

Communicate. Don’t be silent about worries or concerns. Your tank should try and make pulls consistent, or warn if he is going to charge forward suddenly out of your range if he has been pulling with a ranged attack like Feral Faerie Fire most of the previous pulls. If you keep feeling off balance by differing pull styles, say so. Know that your tank can pop Survival Instincts and Frenzied Regeneration, and don’t be afraid to tell your tank in advance that, when things go to pot, YOU will tell HIM when you want him to pop them to free you to work on the group heals. Likewise, your Bear tank has an Innervate and a Battle Rez. Bear tanks can often find a moment
between pulls or before a taunt to swiftly shift to caster, toss an Innervate or Rez, and get right back to tanking. If you keep that in mind and know to ask for it, you’ve got a powerful added tool, especially in a run with multiple tanks where you can call for one to assume aggro to free the other for casting.

How deep is your understanding of how different healing classes work? Do you think it would help your game play if you knew more?

Elathan, Feral Druid of Legio Vici, Duskwood

I think I have a good understanding of Resto druids (I may be a tank but I am a druid first off, so I read all that I can on the WHOLE class) and pretty comfortable with holy priests (my ex’s main was one) Not too much knowledge on shamans or pally’s though. I do feel the more I know about healers and their abilities and limitations helps me tank better. I would be able to adjust my tanking style or the way I pull better depending on the class of healer that is in the group.

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Nephis, from Two Classy

I’ve recently got a lot more knowledge of the other healing classes but I still have a lot more to go, it’s proved useful so far so I’m going to keep investigating!

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Liquidnight

As I said earlier, I also play a resto shaman, so I have a decent appreciation for how healing mechanics work, and I think it’s a good idea for serious players to be experienced in healing, tanking and dpsing, because it simply increases your understanding of the game in general when you understand all aspects of a fight.

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The Big Bear Butt, from The Big Bear Butt

I am always learning something new. I have played every class in the game to some extent (except warlocks), including having Priests, Shamans, Paladins and Druids over level 70. The more I learn about playing each class, the more I understand how important communication is, and how challenging every class and role can be.

Is there anything you’d like to add?

Elathan, Feral Druid of Legio Vici, Duskwood

yeah, one more thing to add……………..Druids go RAWR!!!!!! that is all

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Nephis, from Two Classy

Thanks Sylly for letting me get my name on the internet. Hey Mum look I’m famous!

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The Big Bear Butt, from The Big Bear Butt

I love this topic you’ve done, and I’m really happy to have been asked to take part in it. Thanks, Sylly!