Thoughts on Polar gear and stacking stamina

Here's the deal. If you didn't know by now most of the gear rankings out there put the polar chest, belt , and boots very high on the bear list... tops in matter of fact... the #1 item in each of those slots.

The gear is ranked so high due to it's high stamina value, something us bears get the most bang for the buck out of.

Here is my real world testing thoughts... at least at the current level of raiding... considering I am in mostly Naxx heroic gear.

1. No polar for trash pulls. You want to use your gear that falls closest to the polar items in rank but gem/equip/enchant for damage, hit, expertise to hold the threat you need when you are AoEing this stuff down.

2. Patchwerk... by now you know to wear you polar gear and highest stam pieces if you are soaking the hurtfuls.

3. Don't gem/enchant your polar gear trying to get avoidance out of it. gem/enchant more stam, that is what you want out of these items when you do wear them.

4. Any fight you MT, wear these items. You won't have problem with single target threat and the huge HP pool helps with the various silence mechanics and what not in many of these boss fights.

5. The polar chest/belt/boots is a must have IMHO for any starting bear hitting level 80. It is too cheap to get these crafted not to have them starting heroics and 10 man Naxx.

6. OTing on bosses where you are controlling add waves you should be fine ditching the polar. I would also not use it on Gothik or Noth fights where controlling adds is very important.

I would use Polar on these fights...

Naxxramas

Arachnid Quarter
Anub'Rekhan - If OT no need for Polar. (Insect swarm hurts, healer positioning, green goo)
Grand Widow Faerlina - If OT no need for Polar. (red too long or people want achievement)
Maexxna - (Everyone gets frozen/webbed)

Plague Quarter
Heigan the Unclean - (in case you mess up the dance... over and over)
Loatheb - (healer silence)

Military Quarter
The Four Horsemen - (Meteor, bad party or OT placement even if for a moment, stacking debuff)

Construct Quarter
Patchwerk - Huge Hurtfuls
Grobbulus - If OT no need for Polar. - (Positioning, players that don't get away when injected)
Gluth - (stacking debuff, decimate)
Thaddius - (Players changing sides late)

Frostwyrm Lair
Sapphiron - FR is reason alone
Kel'Thuzad - (void zones, icebolts, bad melee positioning)

So there you go with a short notation of the problem mechanics. You prob could tank more than one without polar gear depending on the experience and talent of your raid members but I see no good reason not to wear it as a safety precaution on those same fights.

I don't have any experience tanking Malygos yet or the 3 drakes up fight (although it is known you need uber HP for that) and the Vault fight is easy.

Wrath far nicer to this feral than BC ever was.

I don't know if it is the fact that multiple Naxx boses share a loot table or that I have just been extremely lucky but in the expansion the loot gods have looked on me very favorably.

In BC I had to run battlegrounds and 2v2 arena constantly to get geared when Kara would not drop one shred of decent leather. It took forever for me to get items like...

Bladed Shoulderpads of the Merciless
Bracers of Maliciousness
Chestguard of the Conniver
Edgewalker Longboots
Girdle of Treachery
Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation
Skulker's Greaves
Terestian's Stranglestaff

This was due to both bad luck and raid difficulty. Yes, Raid difficulty. This was back in the day where you didn't want to attempt certain fights because you only had no lock or no priests... etc... you get the picture. So even though eventually this gear fell ( way to late for me to actually get any use out of it since we were already clearing ZA and badge vendor gear on the isle was better) I had been running Kara for probably my 24th or 25th time.

Fast Forward to Wrath.

We have cleared 10 man Naxx about 3-4 times around working on 25 man. We should clear 25 man Naxx this week since the lag is gone after running 25 man Naxx about the last 4 weeks.

Here's the luck...

On our first time killing Gothik the Hood of the Exodus falls! WooHoo! Huge upgrade to my crappy blue helms... yes, this is an upgrade to both my tanking and DPS helm.

Sat. night in 10 man Naxx I was lucky and won the roll for Key to the Focusing Iris so Pendant of the Dragonsworn won't be far behind.

Belt of the Tortured, Dawnwalkers, Gored Hide Legguards, Circle of Death, and Collar of Dissolution are all new items I have recieved recently. I am now hit capped for Kitty wearing T7 Chest and Shoulders in the mix for the 2T7 rip bonus.

I have already gotten Staff of the Plaguehound as well as Origin of Nightmares with hopefully Journey's End right around the corner. I am saving my DKP for the T7.5 Helm so I can enchant and gem it for tanking while using the Exodus hood strictly for DPS duty.

The only thing left outside of T7.5 gear that I still want out of Heroic raids...

Idol of Worship - I kept passing on it becuase it wasn't working til the most recent patch.
Bandit's Insignia or Fury of the Five Flights - To go with the Mirror...
Concealment Shoulderpads
Chestguard of the Recluse or Tunic of Indulgence... prefer the first one
Frosted Adroit Handguards
Leggings of the Honored
Greatring of Collision and Surge Needle Ring
Journey's End
Boundless Ambition or Heritage

	Cloak of the Shadowed Sun

Gatekeeper

and not in a raid but wouldn't mind...

Essence of Gossamer - for my Sarth +3 set
Loatheb's Shadow - I like the Crit and controlling when I get my AP boost.

So why do we like Kitty Swipe?

This is why...

#1 on trash DPS for last nights Naxx 25 run.

So now we can Tank, single target DPS, and top the meters on multiple mob pulls... I hope we gets to keeps it.

This brought me to 6th overall in total raid damage which is about 4-5 spots higher than normal. This is with me OTing the first 2 fights in the Spider wing (Anub'Rekhan and Grand Widow Faerlina) and taking over MTing on the last 10% of the final spider boss from DC issues. I also OTed on Noth the Plaguebringer and on Sartharion when we moved on to OS. So 6th in raid DPS with only being in kitty for trash and 90% of 1 boss fight out of 5.

Jacemora is a happy feral kitty.

P.S. Wrath is still broken post 3.0.8 with maybe even more lag and disconnects in 25 man raids. Somehow we are able to get down bosses with many people DCing but we will not be able to finish Naxx in it's current state. What I do is stay in Tank gear for every fight in case we have the MT or OT DC which happens just about every fight. So we run with 4 tanks constantly for wipe prevention.

Lag Boss Down?

3.0.8 patch today and hoping to down that Lag Boss tonight for the first time.

Who said we can't DPS and TANK with the same SPEC

That is me 3rd on the big bad spider. This was without any flask and haste food because I didn't want to waste better stuff on such an easy boss.

Mind you this is with a Spec taking what is needed to MT 25 mans. I am using the Rip Glyph only since my other slots are used for tanking glyphs.

So yes, at this point feral druids can have 1 Spec to Tank and do decent DPS just like in BC. So we can go from 45K+ HP Hurtful soaks on Patchwerk, MT anything in game, and still switch to DPS and be somewhere in the top 10 for damage output. All the while being able to Brez and Innervate when needed or OoCRez when all the other healers die during a partial wipe.

I would say the state of feral druids is in pretty good shape. I will get back to you when I start 2v2ing arena again which is coming up soon. I don't know how that is going to go with how OP other classes are in there along with having too many damn buttons to press now for burst damage and cc.

The current failed state of raiding

When Blizzard decided to open the flood gates into Naxx I for one along with many thought this was a nice idea to get the more casual gamer some raiding time in a 10/25 man dynamic in some old content that was considered a lot of fun that most people missed.

It is obvious Blizzard miscalculated the sheer amount of casual gamers that would group up and venture into this old/new content as the latency created by all these players make the instance unplayable or when playable less enjoyable.

Something must be done and soon before this move completely backfires on them and they lose interest of not only the more casual player venturing into raids for the first time but also the more experienced raider that is fed up with the bullshit disconnects.

Exactly how are we supposed to get ready for the next raid encounters when we can't finish the current content due to Blizzards inadequacies?

Let's hope Blizzard either fixes the problem or makes the next level of raiding exclusive once again... although I don't know how that is possible since we can't keep 25 constantly logged in to finish Naxx in the first place.

At least 10 man Naxx is playable... hohum.

Why O Why did I let it get DE'ed?

Some new gear updates...

Grabbed Dislocating Handguards and Sinner's Bindings in the last Heroic Naxx run.

Let me just say that spending every week in Heroic Naxx to have to walk away without clearing it due to latency issues is starting to get old. I don't understand how other guilds are clearing it with the kind of lag and disconnects we are seeing every night. It makes Gluth and Thaddius impossible IMHO.

On that note, I cleared Naxx 10 for the third time and got Staff of the Plaguehound. So now I am set until Journey's End falls in Heroic Naxx... IF THE DAMN LATENCY EVER GETS FIXED!

I was really excited about putting Formula: Enchant Weapon - Berserking on my new DPS staff... until I took a longer look at the materials cost... ugh.

Lastly, Defender's Code fell and I passed and watched it get DE'd... mistake? I mean I know it's the awesome right now but post patch won't this fall pretty far down? After picking up those 2 leather upgrades I just felt wierd picking up another and my DKP was falling fast... Did I make a mistake?

WOOHOO, The dead love me... they really love me!

WOOHOO, looked what dropped for me last night...

Origin of Nightmares

So my plan now is post patch to put the +STA chant on it and start putting some agility gems in some of my gear... actually here is what I expect my setup post patch to be taking in consideration spending badges and such...

Hateful Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm - Going to spend some badges... Hope to have enough soon
Titanium Earthguard Chain - If our Guild JC will ever get the pattern... come on Puffer, hook a brother up!
Heroes' Dreamwalker Shoulderpads - I already have the token... need to go get these.
Platinum Mesh Cloak - Might get this before the helm... depends on 25 man drops.
Heroes' Dreamwalker Raiments - Maybe... I really like my Polar vest though.
Thrusting Bands - Most likely my next DKP purchase.
Handwraps of Preserved History - unless the post patch nerf drops them below Rapid Attack Gloves which I also have.
Polar Cord or Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt - I have both.
Heroes' Dreamwalker Legguards - Wearing these now.
Polar Boots or Footwraps of Vile Deceit - I have both.

I really need to farm for Keystone Great-Ring and will most like get a Titanium Earthguard Ring while I wait for Gatekeeper.

I really need to farm for the Essence of Gossamer. Will most likely wear that with the Commendation of Kael'thas until I get Defender's Code.

Origin of Nightmares - Right now the best Bear weapon in the game.

What I am wearing to tank Naxx

Just for you up and coming Feral Bears out there... this gear is working fine.

Shroud of Darkness
Amulet of Wills
Cloak of Armed Strife
Trollwoven Spaulders
Polar Vest
Bindings of the Tunneler
Handwraps of Preserved History
Heroes' Dreamwalker Legguards
Polar Cord
Polar Boots
Iceforged Battle Ring
Ring of the Stalwart Protector
Badge of Tenacity
Commendation of Kael'thas
Idol of Terror
Enraged Feral Staff