Cataclysm Classic Feral Druid Tank Guide

Feral Tank is a flexible tank which has the unique perk of sharing its main talent tree with the DPS-focused Feral DPS. This allows for hybrid talent builds and playstyles where you off-tank for the least time possible, and DPS in the remainder of the time, which is the role where Druid excels.

Feral Tanks are expected to be one of the top tanking specializations in Cataclysm, and a great off-tank companion to Blood Death Knights. The main strength of a Druid tank is their ability to go Cat Form at any moment and deal decent damage, which is not the case with any of the other tank specializations, who can only deal good damage while actively tanking and getting Vengeance.

Druid is also a strong leveling class and world / stealth farmer, for players who enjoy the soloing lifestyle.

Strengths

• Good utility with Stampeding Roar, Rebirth, and even the nerfed Innervate;
• Faerie Fire (Feral) is the best way to apply this critical raid buff due to Feral Aggression;
• Best Tank / DPS hybrid, as most talents and gear are shared between both roles, allowing for relatively large damage output while not actively tanking;
• Strong survivability even with bad gear as tanking talents are extremely strong in order to provide good survivability even when using pure Agility DPS gear.

Weaknesses

• Suffers in fights requiring continuous tanking, as there are better main tank options, especially against Magic damage;
• Area damage is limited to the weak Swipe and time-limited Mangle with Berserk active;
• While pure tanking gameplay is very simple, dealing maximum DPS when not tanking requires good Energy and DoT management as well as knowing the correct timings to return to tanking.

On the Horde side, Taurens are the best for survivability purposes due to Endurance, but Troll (who can now be Druids) are the best for damage purposes, as they have Berserking and Beast Slaying.

Alliance Druids should roll Worgen as they are vastly superior to Night Elf due to Darkflight and Viciousness.

The best professions for damage purposes in Cataclysm are Engineering, which provides more burst damage with Synapse Springs and extra mobility with Nitro Boosts, and Tailoring, which provides even more burst with Swordguard Embroidery.

If you are interested in extra survivability instead, these professions are not ideal, but Leatherworking will give you 195 extra Stamina, and most other professions will give you 120 Stamina, including Mining which can be great for gold making!

Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life during Cataclysm. Listed below are some of our recommendations on Addons and Macros to help get the most out of your time playing the game.