some prelim observations about bear tanking

Let's face it, wotlk has not been out long. It's way too early to set in some 'facts'. However, I've been leveling the bear up (dinged 72 yesterday) and have found that I am spending a fair amount of time in Nexus and Utgarde Keep. Did a foray into Azol-Nerub (sp?) but the group never fully arrived and you simply cannot 3-man that joint at level 71 & 72.

Utgarde Keep I found to be almost boring as a bear tank. If it was not for the gorgeous eye candy graphics, I'd have fallen asleep. There were zero tricky parts. Use the glyph for upgrading maul to hit two targets and you have just made life even easier for yourself. The final boss has a nifty whirlwind that you really want to step out of. Every healer has told me not to worry, but then is unable to keep my health up. Just back out of it. Other than that, it is a fast fast clear and nets you some bubbles on the xp bar.

Nexus is far more interesting and has at least some decent challenges from a mechanics perspective. For the most part, like UK, there is not stopping - at least there is no need to. Just roll on forward and only stop if your healers' mana drops under 40% - the fights are fast so they won't need their whole mana pool. Bosses, of course, I always suggest topping off the healer's pool. After you take down the frost trees' boss, back to the steps you came up, look right at the light blue wall, it is not a wall - it is a ramp that gives you a short cut back to the starting area. The path to the voidwalker-wraith like boss is increasing levels of mobs in the pulls - just have a tanking capable class in the group with you and this is a breeze. i.e. bring a pally, feral druid, warrior, dk. Let them 'have' a mob or two. Again, the fights are fast so they'd have to really screw up to get snuffed out. Keep an eye on your clothies though - they like to pull with their new abilities and they usually go down fast (that's what she said!). The mage-lady has a cool interaction but is mostly cool eye candy and laughs for the deeps team. The last boss is nifty from the perspective that you can't stand still. So fairly normal fare for a bear. However, that boss does demand a decent deeps output from the deeps team and a steady stream of heals from a good mana pool.

Overall, I need to settle into bear tanking all over again, though. Swipe has been seriously upgraded in its threat gen capability from what it seems to me anyways. And my two-target-hitting maul is also a nice touch. Oddly, I am finding the combo of Maul and Lacerate interspersed with Mangle is burning through rage as usual - it is a wonderful rage dump and threat boost; however, the swipe and lacerate combo interspersed with Mangle is NOT rage dumping. It is generating adequate threat on extra mobs, although a good crit heal will pull a barely swiped mob; however, I can swipe and lacerate away and pretty much still have a full rage bar. I'll need to look into that specifically for a good shot rotation. I'm sure elitistjerks.com has something up already and my bear tank friends listed in the blogs list to the right have good reading material, too -- I just need to get to it instead of leveling!

No matter what though, tanking this many mobs and some above my level grade in the beginning days, has never been easier. It is significantly more forgiving than it was before. I think this has two immediate outcomes: more casual (or less-skilled) guilds now have the opportunity to see more content (although perhaps heroics will still elude them); and, decent guilds are going to have to be a lot more discerning about how to evaluate tanks applying for admission. It wouldn't surprise me to find that so-so tanks end up with good gear. Especially if after the two-talent trees patch they gather all the tanking gear as "off spec" while in deeps role.