Druid Tank Suggestions

[Pantheon]

Where it stands right now, Warrior is the only true mainline Tank, but it's unfair to discount Druid as a Hybrid Tank. It has a lot of potential to stand more toe to paw with Warriors with a few tweaks. I would like to address the inability to Defence Cap, leaving Bear Tanks susceptible to Crushing Blows, while Warriors do not have that issue. Block/Dodge/Parry aside as I feel Druids EHP pool is more than enough to make up for that mitigation, we need Crushing Blows addressed to keep Healer underwear clean!

As it stands the ability Frenzied Regeneration is now and always has been undertuned in classic WoW. I suggest having it consume 50% of your current rage to heal you for 10hp per 10rage spent instantly, and then have 10 rage be converted into 10hp for FIVE seconds. Having the ability to effectively instantly heal for half of the HP from Frenzied Regeneration with a 5 second HoT attached will help when the Bear gets crushed by a raid boss attack. Of course I am just using Frenzied Regeneration Rank 1 as an example here.

Barkskin. This ability should be able to be activated while in Bear and Dire Bear forms. Offering us Barkskin can at least help us smooth out damage spikes for certain fights. Have it cost 10 rage, OR, remove the Melee attack speed penalty of 25% and have it cost 25 rage. Bears rely on damage for majority of rage generation, and that 25% penalty is steep.

[Ugoboom]

there's still the fact that druid is missing tanking t1 t2 t3. I could see defense cap being easy to reach with defense weighted very low so that each piece can have 10, 15, even 20 defense each at t3. you would then drop defense cap or shuffle around gear for threat pieces. just like a warrior can

i would suggest helping draft up that tanking gear, then once that's in the game, then see about what the class can use for fixes

[Juozukas]

As I once suggested in paladin forums, give bears a talent that converts some of the int/spirit into defence stat. This way druid tier sets could be somewhat used for tanking

[Pantheon]

there's still the fact that druid is missing tanking t1 t2 t3. I could see defense cap being easy to reach with defense weighted very low so that each piece can have 10, 15, even 20 defense each at t3. you would then drop defense cap or shuffle around gear for threat pieces. just like a warrior can

i would suggest helping draft up that tanking gear, then once that's in the game, then see about what the class can use for fixes

Tier Gear aside, which is a different issue that can be discussed in a separate thread, Warriors have Shield Block, Disarm, Shield Wall. Druids have more health by default, but the HP gap isn't large enough to justify neglecting us answers to the abilities Warriors have above. Allowing a druid to defense cap for crushing blows will still inherently make us take more damage and higher damage spikes from bosses without these cooldowns.

I'm not saying we need an exact 1:1 ability to mirror all Warriors abilities, That would just water down the class and make it closer to retail where no class really feels different from the other. What im saying is we need options to mitigate large damage spikes so we can be more than an OT in raids when an equally geared warrior is always the better option.

[Daaki]

I would like to address the inability to Defence Cap, leaving Bear Tanks susceptible to Crushing Blows, while Warriors do not have that issue.

Defence has almost nothing to do with crushing blows. Most warrior tanks are dual wield tanking and are therefore susceptible to crushing blows too. Warriors need both a shield equipped and shield block active to avoid crushing blows.

[Ugoboom]

Defence has almost nothing to do with crushing blows. Most warrior tanks are dual wield tanking and are therefore susceptible to crushing blows too. Warriors need both a shield equipped and shield block active to avoid crushing blows.

this, with later gear levels getting crushed as a dw furyprot warrior is not an issue. bear can be designed to be built the same way and reeeeaallly power up when in threat gear + less armor like warriors do

bearcat mode when