Part 1: Why Play a Bear Tank?
1. Don't die. Keep all AP/attack speed debuffs up, use pots as needed, don't stand in fire, etc.
2. Don't let healers/DPS die; in fights with adds, keep head on a swivel to taunt/FF/charge stuff to get it on me.
3. Maximize my TPS, to not hold back our best DPS'ers.
4. If not actively tanking RIGHT NOW, pop off an Innervate/rebirth/rebuff/cyclone/root/etc. as needed.
5. Learn good kitty DPS to maximize raid DPS when I'm not needed to tank.
The discussion of the abilities below flows from that priority list, which you should always keep in mind. Before I begin with abilities, however, let's look closer at rage, our core threat mechanic, and also at the bonuses from our bear form.
Rage isn't too complicated. All bear abilities require rage. Unlike mana or energy, rage does not regenerate on its own (rather, it degenerates out of combat). There are four main ways to gain rage: hitting the enemy, being hit, dodging, and abilities. Generally, being hit is your primary source of rage generation for single-target fights. For AOE low-damage situations, your Primal Fury talent gives you 5 rage for every crit, so swiping generally will take care of your needs there. Unlike TBC, where "rage starvation" was a major issue, having enough rage for all your abilities is generally not a problem, and your Enrage ability will save you for emergency situations. If you find yourself running into rage issues consistently in heroics…pull more/faster, since you probably outgear the content. :) Don't forget that Furor can give you 10 rage when shifting into bear, so shift (or powershift…I'll discuss that in a sec) and pop Enrage before a pull, to start with 40 rage.
Shapeshift into dire bear form, increasing melee attack power by X, armor contribution from items by 370%, and Stamina by 25%. Also protects the caster from Polymorph effects and allows the use of various bear abilities.
1. You are now immune to Polymorph, but are now vulnerable to Scare Beast/Hibernate. That's a PVE buff (a few things poly, almost nothing does SB/Hibernate).
2. You can break snares and roots by shapeshifting or powershifting. Powershifting is simply recasting your current form; (/cast !Dire Bear Form) it keeps you in bear, but breaks the root/snare. Useful for Hodir, Faction Champs, and some others. Note that this will empty your rage bar and use a GCD, so in a tight threat situation like Hodir HM, it might be best to just take the damage.
A strong attack that increases melee damage by X. Effects which increase Bleed damage also increase Maul damage.
Cooldown: No CD; replaces next melee strike. Bear base melee speed is 2.5s, reduced by haste.
Glyph Effect: Your Maul ability now hits one additional target.
(The exclamation point prevents it from being accidentally toggled off if you hit it twice.) I macro Maul to all my abilities, and I've never had a problem with being rage starved, especially with the new Enrage. Generally, Maul will be around 50-60% of your damage done for a single-target fight.
Glyph-wise, the Glyph of Maul is awesome. Berserk + glyphed Maul means you will ROCK DPS/TPS for 2-3 mob pulls. (I regularly top overall DPS meters in H CoS, for example.) Be prepared to switch it out, though, if you're using CC, or just be careful to put CC'd targets behind you. Crits proc Savage Defense and Imp. LOTP.
Mangle the target for X damage and cause the target to take 30% additional damage from bleeds for 12 sec.
Glyph Effect: Increases the duration of Mangle by 6 seconds.
Mangle is your 2nd major attack, learned at level 50. Mangle hits for good damage, and also places a powerful debuff on the enemy that causes bleeds + Maul to hit 30% harder. Mangle is also your 2nd highest priority attack for single or two-target fights, not so much for the damage, as for the debuff boosting your Mauls + cat druid/rogue/warrior dps. (For 2 targets, simply alternate Mangles on each to keep the debuff up). Berserk temporarily removes Mangle's CD and allows it to hit 3 targets, which lets you spam Mangle for good damage. Generally, Mangle will be about 15% of your damage done, depending on how much Berserk mangling you do.
Now, as for the Improved Mangle talent, I wouldn't pick it up. I'll spare you the math, but a 25% buff to an attack that's only 15% of your damage done isn't that great. It works out to about a 2% DPS/TPS boost (when you account for things like FFF GCD clashes, etc); which I don't feel is worth it for three points. The glyph is also pretty useless for bears, as you should be mangling every 6s (or 4.5s) anyway. Crits proc Savage Defense and Imp. LOTP.
Lacerates the enemy target, dealing X bleed damage and making them bleed for Y damage over 15 sec. Damage increased by attack power. This effect stacks up to 5 times on the same target.
FFF, as it's generally known, is a key weapon in a bear's arsenal. It's ranged, it does a good bit of damage and threat, it costs 0 rage, and it places a helpful debuff on the enemy. Excellent as a pulling attack or a "mini-taunt." Also good to weave into a rotation once Lacerate is fully stacked. Should do about 5% of your damage if you're using it on CD.
Swipe nearby enemies, inflicting X damage.
Swipe is your main AOE attack; it's fairly boring, but effective. It has no cooldown, so AOE fights generally consist of mindlessly spamming Swipe and refreshing Demo Roar as needed, until stuff dies. It's one of the very few AOE tanking abilities that can be used while moving, so at least that's positive, and it's better than reusing Lacerate on a single-target fight. Crits proc Savage Defense and Imp. LOTP.
The druid roars, decreasing nearby enemies' melee attack power by X. Lasts 30 sec.
When activated, this ability causes your Mangle (Bear) ability to hit up to 3 targets and have no cooldown, and reduces the energy cost of all your Cat Form abilities by 50%. Lasts 15 sec. You cannot use Tiger's Fury while Berserk is active. Clears the effect of Fear and makes you immune to Fear for the duration.
Glyph Effect: Increases the duration of Berserk by 5s.
Berserk is great for small-group tanking. It really shines in heroics, for example, since heroics only have groups of 3-4, usually, and Berserk hits most/all of those, plus instantly spreads the Mangle debuff for epic Mauling. In a single-target environment, it's still a DPS/TPS boost- stack your Lacerate, make sure Demo Roar is up, and go. Don't let Lacerate drop, though; if you pop Berserk immediately after refreshing Lacerate (and Demo Roar, if needed) you'll only have to trade off one Mangle. The glyph is okay (and fun for heroics if you like showing up DPS'ers on meters) but I prefer the survivability glyphs.
Glyph Effect: Increases the chance of Growl to work successfully by 8%.
Remember, bosses can go immune to taunt if they're taunted too often, so if you're fighting a boss which demands tank swaps, only switch once, not twice. For example, Thorim puts a 10s debuff on a tank (Unbalancing Strike) which demands a tank swap. Don't taunt back from the OT as soon as your debuff drops; wait until HE gets the debuff, THEN taunt back.
In regards to the Glyph: Growl is the only bear ability that uses spell hit chance, not melee hit chance (so 17% to cap, instead of 8%). Most tanks will not have enough hit (nor should they) to cap Growl normally, so the glyph ensures that swaps go off without a hitch. Very useful for fights requiring swaps, such as Thorim, Iron Council, or Gormok.
Forces all nearby enemies to focus attacks on you for 6 sec.
Glyph Effect: Reduces the cooldown of Challenging Roar by 30s. (Minor glyph).
Your bread-and-butter damage reduction ability. Not much to say; try to save it for moments that you know you'll be taking extra damage. It is off the GCD andcan be used almost anytime, even during effects that normally stun/ incapacitate you. (And moments where you're stunned are generally good moments to use it). The glyph is only for PVP.
When activated, this ability temporarily grants you 30% of your maximum health for 20 sec while in Bear Form, Cat Form, or Dire Bear Form. After the effect expires, the health is lost.
This ability does two things. First, it increases your maximum health by 30/45%; second, it gives you 30/45% HP, and removes it 20s later. For example: Say my bear has 40k max HP, and is currently at 20k health. If I pop unglyphed SI, his max health becomes 52k, and he gains 12k health, to now have 32k. This is very useful when you're about to die (it basically works as a huge health potion) and also proactively, to survive an incoming big hit. (Mimiron's Plasma Blast.) Note that when the CD wears off, you'll LOSE the amount you gained as your max drops back down. This cannot kill you, but it will leave you at 1 HP, and can kill you if your healers are not prepared. The glyph is very helpful and should be taken.
Converts up to 10 Rage per second to health for 10 sec. Each point of Rage is converted into 0.3% of max health.
Glyph Effect: Increases the healing done to you by 20% while Frenzied Regeneration is active.
FR heals you for 30% of your max HP over 10s. The healing done by FR does scale with SI, the glyph, Battlemaster's trinkets, as well as other +healing effects. The heal itself is only marginally useful for emergency situations (you need health NOW, not over time), but it can be used proactively very well, especially when glyphed, and is absolutely amazing for soloing old content. With both abilities glyphed, Frenzied Regen will heal for 50-55% of your health.
Your interrupt/stun, which, sadly, is the weakest of the four classes. The long cooldown prevents it from being relied on for any fights which REQUIRE interrupts (Vezax). Helpful for trash, I suppose, since most DPS won't bother interrupting on trash.
Bear – Causes you to charge an enemy, immobilizing and interrupting any spell being cast for 4 sec. This ability can be used in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form.
Generates 20 rage instantly and an additional 10 rage over 10 sec, but reduces base armor by 27% in Bear Form and 16% in Dire Bear Form.
You need rage to do anything, and this gets you started if you're dry. The armor reduction is fairly minor, so if you need rage for some reason while tanking, don't hesitate to pop it. Actually, as Kalon pointed out in the comments, the armor reduction means that you'll probably take an extra +15% damage. I should have explained myself better. Don't use Enrage while MT'ing big stuff; use it for OT'ing things that don't hit hard, or when you need to stay 2nd on threat but can't take any damage to boost your rage, etc. Don't forget that the King of the Jungle talent gives you +15% damage while Enraged, so if you have it, use it with Berserk for a nice DPS/TPS boost.
Causes the target to regenerate mana equal to 225% of the casting Druid's base mana pool over 10 sec..
Glyph Effect: Your Innervate ability now has an additional 20% strength mana regeneration effect on you in addition to the effect on your primary target.
If you're not actively tanking (boss phase change, for instance), toss a healer an Innervate. They're keeping you alive, after all.
Glyph Effect: Players resurrected by Rebirth are returned to life with 100% health (major glyph); Your Rebirth spell no longer requires a reagent (minor glyph).
Increases the friendly target's armor by X, all attributes by Y and all resistances by Z for 30 min.
Your buff spell. Use it. Gift is the raid version that requires a reagent and lasts twice as long; don't forget reagents unless you like separately buffing 25 people after every wipe.
I'm not discussing these spells individually, since you won't be using them much (if at all) while tanking; but they come in handy for PVP (or faux-PVP…*cough* FC *cough*). Nature's Grasp can be cast in-form, so it can be used as an emergency CC for trash or something (root it, step away, brez, come back).
The term "rotation" is a bit out-of-date. It's much better to think of your abilities on a "priority" system, and use the higher priority ones when available.
(Maul) Keep queued at all times.
Summarized, keep Demo Roar up; Berserk early, if you need high threat immediately, if not, wait for Lacerate to be fully stacked, so it can tick during Berserk; always Maul/Mangle; get the FF debuff up before stacking Lacerate if no moonkin, else stack Lacerate first; then go to normal rotation, which is Mangle-FFF-X-X. X is one of Demo Roar/Berserk/Lacerate if needed to keep stack up/Swipe. If you have Improved Mangle, this becomes Mangle-FFF-X. If you're just starting out tanking, feel free to ignore Swipe entirely; it's a small improvement to DPS/TPS, but nothing major.
Yeah, pretty easy, and you can get away with just spamming Swipe + Glyphed Maul. It's good to tab around a bit when fighting 3 or more targets so that your Mauls spread around some.
This is fun as hell and really shows off druid shapeshifting abilities. Start stealthed in cat. By yourself, you can get 26s of 100% lockdown, then 19s of the next 26s, then 16s of the next 26s (repeated.) With a helper, you can achieve 100% lockdown. Use Berserk to break a fear, use a PvP trinket to break other stuff. Note that this doesn't work as well on the tree druid since heals primarily via HOT's (so interrupts are less important), but you can combo cyclones with a warlock's banish or a ret pally repentance. Remember that they can trinket one on heroic…typically it's the first CC, which is a one-shot CC here anyway.
Cyclonex1 (6sec CC) If you have the instant-nature spell proc, you can wait to interrupt a cast, else time it to land 3s after you Maim. Pop a totem or two.
Cyclonex3 (1.5 sec CC) Cyclone on 15s DR.
Wait for Cyclone DR to be up, should be about 5-6s…try to get a poly/repentance/fear.
Start with Cyclone again, repeat. You won't have Bash available this time, so you'll need 2 consecutive CC's from a helper or 1 from 2 others (or your DPS will have to burn through 9s of heals). Don't forget Warstomp if you're a tauren.