Classic Feral Druid Tank Guide

Druids are most often described as, "the jack of all trades, but master of none." This is quite accurate since Druids are the only class in the game capable of fulling all four roles: tank, healer, ranged DPS, and melee DPS. However, every Druid specialization and build is considered sub-par for PvE and is outclassed by other classes that share the role.

Strengths

• Can use Cat Form for strong damage while not tanking.
• The best threat generation of any tank.
• Reasonably strong AoE threat through Swipe and Challenging Roar.
• Strong utility spells such as Innervate and Rebirth.
• Provides the largest raid DPS increase out of any tank through Leader of the Pack.
• Easy to gear for due to lack of competition for the gear.

Weaknesses

• Highest damage taken out of the tanks.
• Using most utility and consumables requires you to leave Dire Bear Form.
• Very few potential raid spots.

Feral Druids are not the best tanks in WoW Classic, but bring specific niche abilities that make having one a good idea for some raids. While Warriors are the dominant tanks for most of the content, there are specific roles that Feral Druids can be decent for, making them a viable option.

Most guilds will only choose to have 1 Feral Druid, usually one that can swap between DPS and off tanking as needed. This is the main benefit of being a Feral Druid; it is the only spec in the game that has two unique roles and builds built into one talent tree. Because of this unique setup, many of the Feral talents will give you benefits as a DPS while in Cat Form along with tanking benefits for while in Dire Bear Form.

This means that, with a single build, you could swap between tanking something and DPSing in Cat Form with just a single form swap. Tanking as a Feral Druid is possible, but finding a raid group or guild will most likely be an uphill battle, so it is important to know what you are signing up for.

One unique characteristic of Druid is the access to animal forms: Dire Bear Form allows for tanking, Cat Form enables melee DPS, Aquatic Form provides water breathing and faster movement speed while swimming, Travel Form allows for quick land transportation while outdoors, and Moonkin Form is for Balance Druids only and helps with caster DPS.

All of these forms have their unique appearances and shapeshifting into a form costs Mana, but also frees you of any movement impairing effects or roots when used, as does shapeshifting back out of the form.

As you should be tanking in Dire Bear Form, Rage will be your main resource. It is generated from your damage dealt and taken, making it a very good resource for tanking in general. Unfortunately when compared to a Warrior, the amount of abilities you can use Rage on is quite limited and inefficient, and your ability to scale your outgoing damage is also low as Feral Druids do not use their weapons to deal damage and instead only benefit from their stats.

Energy is your secondary resource, mainly used when not tanking as it is the resource of Cat Form. It regenerates very slowly, but you can make it regenerate quickly through the Power Shifting technique, which uses Furor and Wolfshead Helm to regain a lot of Energy every time you shapeshift into Cat Form.

This costs a lot of Mana, which can thus be converted directly to Energy through this interaction, making Mana consumables and buffs helpful despite Feral Druids not having to cast any spells in combat to be effective.

The best profession to have as a Feral is Engineering. It provides powerful items that you can use in both PvE and PvP content to either deal damage or help you get out of a tough spot.

Leatherworking is also a great choice for Feral Druids. The Devilsaur set is a great crafted set that you can make for when you are max level and is very strong throughout the first raid tier for threat generation and damage. It also can be quite profitable to sell.

While Engineering and Leatherworking are great professions, probably the more important thing to think about is how you plan to make gold. Gold is incredibly important in WoW Classic for a number of reasons and will be quite hard to come by especially at the start. Check out the Druid Goldmaking section for more information on other potential professions for making gold.

Find our new guides for Druid in WoW Classic Season of Discovery below! The new game mode will have players find and utilize Runes that can then be engraved onto their gear to provide them special bonuses that augment already existing abilities or allow the class to use entirely new spells.

While Druid was already incredibly flexible in WoW Classic, the Season of Discovery will make new builds possible, and increase the power of already existing builds.