Quick and Dirty Bear Guide

[Griffygriff]

Normally I recommend the mmo-champion forum guides, but the bear one is outdated and flat out wrong in some areas, so here's my less-wrong version.

Agility vs. Stamina:

You want enough stamina that you're not being two-shot by bosses, but healers don't have enough mana to constantly top off an enormous health pool right now. Once you have enough Stamina, gem for Agility to raise your avoidance/mitigation. Agility increases your dodge percent (even though the the tooltip doesn't say it) and crit (which increases uptime of Savage Defense), which both help you take less damage.

Enchant with the standard tanking enchants or just go with the dps Agility enchants, whichever you prefer.

Reforge your least useful stat to Dodge on every piece of gear.

Don't worry about Expertise or Hit capping unless you are having aggro problems.

Bears can't Parry or Block, so don't roll on items with those stats.

As far as talents go, just grab all the bear stuff.

There aren't very many bear glyphs to choose from. Maul is mandatory and Mangle is also pretty good. Frenzied Regen is up to you. The unglyphed version's self heal is nice, but it sucks your rage dry.

For single targets, you can faceroll and generate more than enough aggro, but I go with Faerie Fire > Mangle (macro'ed with Maul) > Lacerate 3x > Mangle+Maul > Pulverize. Don't macro Maul if you're having rage problems.

For aoe....ugh. Mark a target. Shift out and back into bear. Pop Enrage and Barkskin. Faerie fire a mob, then charge another. Thrash or Swipe. Switch to your marked target and go into your single target rotation with Swipe and Thrash mixed in here and there to keep stuff off the healer. Put up Demoralizing Roar as soon as you can spare the global cooldown. Don't forget to use your defensive cooldowns, especially while most of the mobs are still alive.

If there is any crowd control, don't Swipe, Thrash, or Maul anywhere near the CC'd mobs. Glyphed Maul in particular has a ridiculous and unpredictable range for it's cleave. Fortunately, Lacerate and Pulverize alone will get you by on aggro if you're drowning in CC.