BURR! Or, Why I'm giving druid tanking another go.

M'partner wondered this aloud. I spent 76 levels as a bear, and found it miserable. The toolset was tiny, the gear confusing, and the bear model still eats up way too much screen area. I respec'ed tree, and didn't look back... for several weeks.

Then I took some carefully hoarded pennies and my long-unused flight form*, walked up to the annoying elf with a dragonhawk who loiters on Krasus' Landing spamming emotes... then ended up in Thunder Bluff, in front of a druid trainer, considerably lighter of pocket and spending a second set of talent points in a disturbingly bearlike fashion.

Why?

Mostly, I think it was this superb look at the 'feel' of druid tanking. After playing a warrior, the way a bear's tools fall short felt absolutely stifling. But the above post kind of turned that on its head - bears don't feel like prot warriors (despite having mostly reskinned prot skills), and that is entirely OK. They have a simple priority system for single-target threat, a couple of debuffs and a DoT to track, wear a lot of kitty-gear... they really do feel more like a DPS that wants aggro.

Bears, on single targets and rage allowing, keep Faerie Fire and Mangle on cooldown, keep Lacerate up, keep Maulin' every attack ('tis on my mousewheel down, sharing a bind with Heroic Strike, and drives my partner nuts with the incessant whirring) and... um, fill in with Swipe. With a glyphed Maul, this also covers two targets. On three or more, I try to Lacerate/FF/Mangle the first kill target just in case the planets align and the DPS elect to follow the kill order, and then just Swipe+Maul my way to the bank. It's all very simple, although as with DPS classes getting used to the timing so you don't over-refresh Lacerate or let it fall off takes practise. I'm guilty of both, as well as not applying Demo. Roar most of the time - but hey, I do that on the warrior as well. At least I consistently fail at AP-debuffs**.

It's so very simple. No procs to worry about, Infected Wounds is self-applying, and with Mangle/FF sharing a cooldown duration (I don't spec Imp. Mangle at the moment) it practically falls into a rotation. Combined with the crazy crit rates bears get (40% odd, unbuffed, with terrible gear!), it really does feel like DPS. Once I'd reconciled this with the fact that it was still tanking, I've felt a lot more friendly towards the bear's smaller toolbox.

* I did hoard some more pennies and get cold weather flying shortly afterwards, so the poor thing can - at last - flap slowly around Northrend.

** I think the general reason for this is I'm really, really paranoid about getting a solid aggro lead - especially on AoE pulls - that I feel I can't afford the GCD to slip it in at the start of a fight. By the time I actually feel secure in the threat tables, trash is nearly dead anyway. This behaviour reinforces itself, and Demo. Roar/Shout slowly falls down my internal priority list until I forget about it. Bad Bear!