Druid Tank leveling:
Bear Tank Leveling – 10 to 80 (Updated 11/27 for 4.0.3a)
Tank leveling: It should be possible to solo as cat with my bear spec, but it will be hard to tank as a bear with the cat leveling spec. So, if you are tanking in dungeons, the tank talent set is going to be better for you. Low level tanks have a hard time holding threat on multiple targets, so make sure you tab-target and smack all the mobs in a pack to hold threat on them.
Glyphs: Pick up the glyph of Maul (major) at level 25. You will need it to help you generate threat on multiple targets. Glyph of Mangle (Prime) at 25 and Challenging roar (minor) at 28 would be the other good ones to start with.
Talents:
- 10 & 11 – Feral swiftness (tier 1) – Increases dodge by 4% in bear form at level 15, and makes your cat form move faster while leveling up to 15.
- 13 thru 17 – Furor (Tier 1) Gives rage when you shift into bear form, and gives energy when you shift into cat form.
- 19 & 21 – Infected Wounds (tier 2) – Maul & mangle reduces your target’s attack & movement speed. This will reduce some of the damage you take, and keep things from running as fast when they try to flee in dungeons.
- 23 & 25- Primal Fury (tier 2) – gives you more combo points in cat & more rage in bear when you crit
- 27 – Feral aggression (tier 2) – Put 1 point here. You apply 2 stacks of faerie fire instead of one. This will help with gaining threat on your targets, and reduces their armor faster.
- 29, 31, 33 Thick Hide (Tier 3) – This is an important tanking talent, which increases your armor and reduces the chance that things will crit you. Reesi says lowbie tanks are squishy, so you want to take this ASAP.
- 35 – Feral charge (tier 3) – gives you a new ability that allows you to charge up to your target fast.
- 37 – Feral Aggression (Tier 2) – Fill out the second point in FA here, which gives you the full 3 stack of Faerie Fire when you cast it once.
- 39 – Stampede (Tier 3) – Put 1 point here for now. Your haste is increased by 15% after you feral charge.
- 41 – Leader of the Pack (tier 4) – increases critical strike chance, and crits will heal you.
- 43 & 45 – Brutal impact (teir 4) – Increases duration of your stuns & reduces the cooldown on your skull bash (so you can interrupt the caster mobs easier)
- 47 – Stampede (tier 3) Put the second point in this talent to fill it out.
- 49 – Survival Instincts (tier 5) – Gives you a cooldown ability that reduces the amount of damage you take.
- 51 & 53 – Natural Reaction (Tier 5) – Reduces damage taken, and generates rage when you dodge. Great tanking talent.
- 55, 57, 59 – Fury Swipes (Tier 2) – You have a chance for your “white damage” to hit twice instead of once. This is an okay tanking talent since it helps generate threat.
- 61, 63, 65 – Rend & Tear (Tier 6) – Increases damage done by maul on bleeding targets, you have to pick this up to get Pulverize.
- 67 – Pulverize (Tier 6) – A damage ability for bear form that consumes lacerate stacks and gives you a crit bonus. Put up 3 lacerates and then hit Pulverize. You pick up Lacerate at level 66, so the timing of this talent works perfectly if you pick it up at this point.
- 69 – Berserk (tier 7) – The end talent in the feral tree. It’s a cooldown ability with a couple neat effects, such as your mangle hitting up to 3 targets in bear form (which is good for helping to hold AOE threat). You are also immune to fear when you use this, so you can pop Berserk to break fears when something fears you.
At this point, you can put talents in the Restoration tree:
- 71, 73, 75 – Heart of the Wild (Resto Tier 1) – Increases your stamina in bear form.
Level 75 talent build:
http://wowtal.com/#k=-wbD1zO0.a8t.druid.
• 77 & 79 – Natural Shapeshifter (Resto Tier 1) – When leveling up to 85, you will put points here to unlock the second tier in the resto tree. Before leveling up to 85, it doesn’t matter where you put these points, since you would be picking up an end-game talent spec at this point.
• 81 – Master shape shifter (resto tier 2) – Increases your damage by 4 % (helps with holding threat)
• 82, 83, 84 – Perserverance (Resto tier 2) – Reduces the spell damage taken by 6%. This will help a lot when leveling through dungeons.
Level 84 talent build: http://wowtal.com/#k=-wZnHxart.a8t.druid.
At level 85, you would want to respec for an actual level 85 tanking build