Bear Starter Gears and things

[Djfurball]

This post is mostly for my own sake, but we have three bears in the guild now, so hey we can use this to chat about bear things.

Stat Priority: Stam > Agility > Dodge > Mastery (last I checked...)

Attack priority for threat (http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t105117-cataclysm_bear_theorycraft/p2/#post1798250):

• Mangle
• Lacerate
• Thrash
• Pulverize
• FFF
• Swipe

(Swipe is really bad now, go figure)

Full list of pre-heroic Agility gear (il316-333): http://www.wowhead.com/items?filter=qu=3;minle=316;maxle=333;si=2;ub=11;cr=21:79;crs=1:3;crv=0:0;gb=1#relic

World Quest rewards to care about:
Torth-Slayers Staff (Weapon) - http://www.wowhead.com/item=63803
Schnottz's Medallion of Command (Trinket) - http://www.wowhead.com/item=65805
Za'brak's Lucky Tooth (Trinket) - http://www.wowhead.com/item=63742
Drape of Nesferset Destruction (Cloak) - http://www.wowhead.com/item=65742


Dungeon Quest rewards to care about:
Stonecore Belt (Belt) - http://www.wowhead.com/item=66896
Boots of the Hard Way (Feet) - http://www.wowhead.com/item=66914
Clandestine Spaulders (Shoulders) -  http://www.wowhead.com/item=66905


Rep rewards to Worry about:
Head Enchant (Revered Earthen Ring): http://www.wowhead.com/item=62366
Shoulder Enchant (Therazane):
 -- Honored -- http://www.wowhead.com/item=62321
 -- Exalted -- http://www.wowhead.com/item=62333

Dragonmaw
Blue Legs (Honored): http://www.wowhead.com/item=62405
Purple Gloves (Exalted): http://www.wowhead.com/item=62417

Guardians of Hyjal
Neck (Honored): http://www.wowhead.com/item=66974
Chest (Honored): http://www.wowhead.com/item=62374
Cloak (Exalted): http://www.wowhead.com/item=62383

Earthen Ring
Cloak (Revered): http://www.wowhead.com/item=62361
Ring (Exalted): http://www.wowhead.com/item=62362

Ramkahen
Belt (Revered): http://www.wowhead.com/item=62446

Sooo. I think the best order is probably ...
Therazane (Shoulder Ench, rings) -> Earthen Ring (Helm ench) -> Dragonmaw (sick gear to buy) -> Hyjal (Cloak)

[Djfurball]

Best Stuff You Can Get Before Raiding:
http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t110351-feral_bear_cataclysm_release/#post1809023

Full list is there. If you are cheap like me and don't want the crafted stuff, here are your blue alternatives...
Weapon: Heroic Lost City of the Tol'Vir -- http://www.wowhead.com/item=56382
Neck:  Halls of Origination -- http://www.wowhead.com/item=56422 OR
Halls of Origination -- http://www.wowhead.com/item=56411 (Str/Dodge/Expertise)
Chest: Grim Batol -- http://www.wowhead.com/item=56455
Belt: Halls of Origination - http://www.wowhead.com/item=56429
Rings: Halls of Origination -- http://www.wowhead.com/item=56412
Grim Batol -- http://www.wowhead.com/item=56445
Blackrock Caverns -- http://www.wowhead.com/item=56310
Throne of the Tides -- http://www.wowhead.com/item=56270 (Strength/Dodge/Hit)

Note that both trinkets on that list are in Stonecore:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=56347
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=56328

[Djfurball]

Sooo. I think the best order is probably ...
Therazane (Shoulder Ench, rings) -> Earthen Ring (Helm ench) -> Dragonmaw (sick gear to buy) -> Hyjal (Cloak)

Wish I'd noticed this earlier - there are no daily quests for The Earthen Ring or Guardians of Hyjal, so all the rep you get from them has to be from the Tabard. Whereas Therazane and Dragonmaw, you can do via dailies as well.

Of course, two of the few dailies for the Dragonmaw are the worst quests ever.

Edit: So Therazane rep dailies are...
Beneath the Surface (250 rep)
Fear of Boring (250 rep)
Fungal Fury (250 rep)
Motes (250 rep)
Soft Rock (250 rep)
Through Persistence (250 rep)

One of:
Lost in the deeps (250 rep)
Underground Economy (250 rep)

One of:
The Restless Brood (350 rep)
Glop, Son of Glop (350 rep)

So your daily-quest rep total is 2100 rep/day. Not bad, considering all of those takes about 30 minutes and they're all right on the northside of the zone.

[Djfurball]

Goals for the weekend:
Biggest upgrades:
Bracers: Anhuur (Halls of Origination)
Cloak: Earthen Ring rep (Revered)
Trinket: General Umbriss (Grim Batol)

Relic: Silver Inlaid Leaf (Inscription)
Gloves: Dragonmaw (Exalted)
Belt: Ramkahen (Revered) / Rajh (Halls of Origination)

[Windstrom]

One of the big things I've noticed to this point, is every piece of gear I own has hit or expertise, or is reforged to have it. With our early gear limited, I spend a trip to the reforger everytime i get a new piece of gear.

[Larnon]

So, just for something for us to discuss, is our max single target boss threat really the following:

FFF, Charge, Mangle, Laceratex2, Mangle, Laceratex1, Pulverize, Mangle, Laceratex2, Mangle,
FFF, Laceratex1, Berserk, Mangle x¿¿a lot.

I mean as far as threat is concerned it's a hell of a lot, at the points I've managed to pull the full "rotation" off (basically it's just using every GCD and throwing in a Maul if you actually have rage for it, which you usually don't) the threat meter isn't even a concern anymore, but it seems a little bit too long to wind up for a boss, my question is do you omit Pulverize?  Or maybe just hit it with 1-2 lacerates, or do you let lacerate fall off while you mangle spam.  I'm looking for more a realistic rotation than this and I just wonder what either one of you do for your openings, because while this may work at the moment I'm just not certain that epicly geared dps are going to wait for this, barring yes we'll get MD and tricks however I don't see them being quite enough to buy you time for this long ass opening to work.

It seems to me that Pulverize is awesome, and anytime a mangle crits you really stop worrying about threat.  Considering I'm not even that geared and the shit hits for 12-13k before vengence even stacks all the way. (speaking of that, having more attack power in bear than cat just makes me sad, would anyone like to cry with me and hug?)

[Djfurball]

To be honest, I gave up on being a bear for now (I am awful at it). But, for what it's worth, I also gave up on forcing Pulverize. Given that it takes 6 seconds to throw 3xLacerate+Pulverize in GCD's alone, and given that you want those Lacerates for more mangles, and that you're going to get Mangle procs while building the Lacerate stack, we're talking like this ridiculous amount of time to actually build up that 9% crit buff.

I ended up basically freeforming it sorta like below and didn't have too much of an issue on bosses:
- Mangle always if it's up
- If Mangle is down, Lacerate
- If Mangle is down, and Lacerate is at 3, then Pulverize and Lacerate right after
- Maul if I remember to hit the button (see, I'm terrible)

This priority list means I get a pulverize if i end up in that situation, but I'm not aggressively forcing myself into pushing lacerates to take off later.

[Windstrom]

As far as single target threat for bosses is concerned, in raid environments, its a JOKE to keep threat. When I was tanking Halfus two nights ago, Vengence stacked me up to 30k+ base AP almost instantly. And had crit mangles in the neighborhood of 60k. Even last night tanking Magmaw, a less furious hitter, my vengence was up at about a 10-12k AP buff almost instantly, giving me about 20-22k base AP making my mangles hit for around 45-50k crits.

As for the rotation itself, I use Thrash in single target mostly cause Im used to spamming it on CD for AoE tanking, so its already in my head to use it. As for Maul, during raid bosses, I've been able to utilize it a ton more than I got to in heroics, cause of the infinite rage I have.

When tanking I usually start with a FFF pull, so my rotation looks something like this (Bare in mind I use mangle every time berserk procs)

FFF(to pull), Mangle, Thrash, Demo roar, Lacerate, Mangle, Trash, FFF, Lacerate, Mangle, Thrash, FFF, Lacerate, Mangle, (With no Berserk procs, at this point in the rotation you would have to refresh Demo, but could occur sooner in the rotation) Thrash, FFF, Lacer... etc

I rarely get through the full CD of Mangle before berserk proc's and I get a free one. But this give you an idea of what kinda rotation I would use if we didnt have free mangles. I try to return back to my priority if Mangle does proc.

So for me after the FFF-Mangle-Thrash to pull, my priority is such:
1) Demo Roar
2) Mangle
3) Thrash
4) FFF
5) Lacerate

[Djfurball]

http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t110351-feral_bear_cataclysm_release/p5/#post1827452

Good post.

[Propolis]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/772933-The-Bear-Guide-Cataclysm-Edition

What do you think of the geming section. Everything else I can make good parallels with EJ.

[Windstrom]

Basically gem only stam or agi that isnt for your meta. Everything I read is a 50/50 split between the two. I really think it is a fight by fight basis. They are very close. So gem stam with blue sockets, agi/stam or agi with red sockets. For yellow sockets, I have used two dodge/stam ones to activate my meta. Dodge is the better stat for pre-raid geared players, than mastery atm from what I have read. Eventually when your crit is higher, switch to mastery/stam gems in those same two slots. And Just ignore the yellows otherwise... unless you can pick up a big bonus from gemming a yellow socket.

[Windstrom]

Hilarious.

http://theincbear.com/thick-hide-theorycraft/