The Ironsong Tribe

Love me or hate me, I will be your guide for all things Bear/Kitty.

A Feral Druid is a very fun class to play but is unfortunately the hardest class gear wise to get ready to raid so I will start there. You NEED to be uncritable with a decent ammount of HP. Once you start getting Heroic/T4 items and increase your dodge, your HP can go down but you must remain uncrittable. To be uncrittable as a Feral Druid you need 5.6% crit reduction. You get 3% from talents and the other 2.6% will come from 415 defense to start or a combination of defense/resilience later on. Some good numbers to shoot for are 14-15k HP, 415 defense, 25-30% dodge, and 25k+ armour. All these values should be achieved self buffed.

Behr - Heroics/Karazhan:

Head - [item]Stylin' Purple Hat[/item] Always on the AH, easy to get a hold of.

Neck - [item]Mark of the Ravenguard[/item] Quest called Brother Against Brother you get from Isfar ouside Sethekk Halls.

Shoulders - Anything you can find with 200ish armour and has both stamina and agility. Quite a few 5 mans have decent shoulders that drop off a boss or even get some blue PvP shoulders for honor.

Chest - [item]Heavy Clefthoof Vest[/item] You will want the whole clefthoof set. Will require some material/gold farming.

Wrists - [item]Umberhowl's Collar[/item] Quest reward from The Cipher of Damnation questline in Shadowmoon Valley.

Hands - [item]Verdant Gloves[/item] From the quest, Akama's Promise which is the last part of the Tablet of Baa'ri chain in Shadowmoon Valley.

Waist - [item]Manimal's Cinch[/item] You will get this doing the same quest chain as you started for your bracers.

Legs - [item]Heavy Clefthoof Leggings[/item]

Feet - [item]Heavy Clefthoof Boots[/item]

Rings - [item]Iron Band of the Unbreakable[/item] Dropps off of Lieutenant Drake in Old Hillsbrad. It is not unique so you can get 2 or get a "of the Monkey" for your 2nd for the stam/agil or you can go for the [item]Mok'Nathal Clan Ring[/item] from the chest in the Ramparts.

Trinkets - [item]Badge of Tenacity[/item] is 'the' Druid tanking trinket. It drops in the plateaus of Bladesedge off of any of the mobs there. It could take a little bit to get but it is well worth it. Other than that, any trinket that has stamina or defense/resilience to help get you uncrittable will work.

Weapon - [item]Braxxis' Staff of Slumber[/item] World drop, usually cheap on the AH.

Idol - Whatever you want until you can get your [item]Idol of Terror[/item] which should be your first Badge purchase.

That will get you going for now, I will edit this post with needed enchants, gems, kitty gear, consumables and stratagey.

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Note: I think I /still/ have an extra pair of Heavy Clefthoof Boots in the bank waiting for an owner.

As a handy aid to those of us who care to use it, I found this chart while looking up a better necklace for myself about a week ago.

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After further investigation, the list is a little out-of-date. But not by very much at this point. Only the PvP reward items are off a bit, as it lists some that are no longer available and does not list the ones that are.

Addendum to Eatmore's Bartank bit:

Cloak: See if you can find someone capable (and willing) to craft a [item]Resolute Cape[/item]. It's one of the best Beartank cloaks in the entire game. It's probably going to cost you a damned pretty penny, however, as it requires a small pile of 10 [item]Primal Mooncloth[/item] and a [item]Primal Nether[/item] in addition to the 12 [item]Primal Earth[/item]s.

[Edit]
For those of you without the time, money, level requirement or inclination to get those bits together, getting a [item]Bogstrok Scale Cloak[/item] from the Slave Pens is... Well, passable. It certainly makes a difference if you pick it up when you're actually of level for it and still working your way up.

Re: [item]Resolute Cape[/item]... I know several of the mooncloth spec'd tailors (Naruth included) rarely use our cooldowns these days, and having the mooncloth made by a specialist gets you two for one, cutting those materials down to 5 primal life, 5 primal water, a few stacks of cloth and a handful of arcane dust. Most miners get a pretty tidy amount of Primal Earth regularly, and I've seen several people giving it away freely in guild chat. If you've a little time to farm the cloth's primals, I think you could get the cloak made relatively cheaply. And if anyone wants the cloth made, feel free to send me the materials - I'll know what they're for. =)

yeah, my priest iysh is mooncloth spec'd too and never uses the cooldowns.

Same with my Priest, Billi, he never uses his cool-downs either.