Cataclysm Classic Feral Druid Tank Stat Priority

The stat priority for Feral Tank Druid is as follows:

1. Stamina and Agility
2. Dodge
3. Mastery
4. Expertise (26 Cap)
5. Hit (8% cap)
6. Critical Strike
7. Haste

Stamina and Agility are the two primary stats you should be focusing on for tanking, with an emphasis on Stamina. Because of how items are configured in Cataclysm, you will never have to choose between Stamina or Agility as both will increase proportionally to item level.

Agility increases damage, dodge and critical strike chance, while Stamina increases effective health and also has a smaller effect on damage through Vengeance which causes you to gain Attack Power equal to 5% of the damage you've taken up to a total of 10% of your total health.

On a side note, Strength can still be obtained by using tank accessories tailored for other tank classes that use Strength as a primary stat and it does have some benefits for Feral tanks, but not enough to warrant their recommendation outside of specific cases.

At Level 85:

• 1 Agility = 2 Attack Power before multipliers
• 1 Stamina = 10 Health before multipliers.

Dodge provides a chance to entirely avoid an incoming enemy attack. This is a valuable stat which helps a lot with reducing damage intake, even if it can be quite random at doing so.

At Level 85:

• 176.7 Dodge Rating = 1% Dodge
• 243.6 Agility = 1% Dodge

The Mastery stat was introduced in Cataclysm, and for Feral Druids, Savage Defender increases the damage absorbed by your Savage Defense ability. This is a strong defensive stat which provides a reliable damage reduction effect over time.

At Level 85:

• 179.28 Mastery Rating = 1 Mastery = 4% more Savage Defense shield value

Expertise reduces the chance that the target will Dodge or Parry which increases your damage, threat generation and reduces burst damage taken from enemy parry hasting. 26 Expertise is enough to reduce most enemies' 6.5% dodge chance to 0, making Expertise only useful against parries from that point, and thus much less valuable.

At Level 85:

• 120.1 Expertise Rating = 1% less chance for enemies to Dodge or Parry

Hit rating reduces miss chance, making your abilities hit more often. As threat generation is extremely high for tanks in Cataclysm, you will generally not be required to stack Hit in order to keep aggro on enemies.

At Level 85:

• 120.1 Hit Rating = 1% Hit Chance

Critical Strikes enable Savage Defense procs and double damage for more DPS, but requires a huge amount of rating for 1% critical strike gain, lowering its overall effectiveness.

At Level 85:

• 179.19 Critical Strike Rating = 1% Critical Strike

Haste rating is not an important stat for Feral tanks, as it will increase Rage generation but your baseline Rage generation is already plentiful for most of your rotation, and extra Rage will mostly be spent inefficiently on Maul.

At Level 85:

• 128.05 Haste Rating = 1% Haste