Neirai the Forgiven
Christian Guilds List Manager
This post assumes that you have already read Deedlyt's post: "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Players." The intention of this post is to unpack the specifics of the 7 Habits as they apply to Feral Druids. I would encourage other TF members to build similar lists for their respective classes. 
1. Come prepared - As a feral druid, you can't really use bandages, hp/mp potions, or other consumables. However, as your effectiveness is largely statistically dependant, you should be aware that having flexible gear makes a huge difference. I personally carry no less than 5 sets of armor at all times (Tanking, Fire Tanking, DPS, Healing, FR Tanking) and often for special instances I bring 8 (the above plus Nature Resist Tanking, spell DPS, Undead slaying.) Also, never underestimate the power of food and potion buffs. As Deedlyt said, proper use of buffs can give you a huge edge in fights and it is your responsibility to have them ready and available when needed. If used wisely, proper gear and buffs easily make the difference between wiping on a boss at 25% and downing him. (Side note: Nazan's fire is blocked 80% of the time if you have 160 FR.)
2. Use all of your abilities - As a feral druid it is important to remember that in addition to all those nice feral abilities that you get (if you don't use all your feral abilities, you really have a problem there really ARE only about a dozen of them) you also have a full complement of elf-form abilities. Keep in mind that you can heal, dot, rez, and innervate any time that you are not actually being beat on by a mob. (example: last night when OTing in Ramparts, I used moonfires to dot/dps Nazan while he was flying around so that when he landed, he went after me and not after our healer.)
3. Addons give you a leg up - Plain and simple. Right now there don't seem to be any decent "pure feral" Addons, but there are many decent general addons that help tanks. Make certain at a MINIMUM that you have a decent Target-of-Target viewer -- or maybe two or three (Not all Target-of-Target mods show the exact same thing, and sometimes you can glean additional knowledge from having more than one. For example, CTmod's ToT shows the character that a mob is attacking, while BlizzardUI's ToT shows the character that the mob has aggro on, allowing you to see the difference between a temporary loss of focus and a permanent one.)
4. Know other classes - Knowing the strength, weaknesses, and abilities of other classes helps you to tailor your play style to best pair with your party members'. It is essential that you learn the healing styles offered by priests, druids, pallies, and shamans and to understand the differences between them when deciding how to tank in a fight. It is also necessary to understand the differences between DPSers' aggro generation and how they shed aggro (or don't.) Finally, it is ESSENTIAL to communicate the differences between yourself and other classes in order to get the most out of a fight (Example: the new Cat druid move, Maim, is identical to Gouge in many ways EXCEPT that a Maimed target only breaks if he takes direct damage, so it is perfectly fine to DoT him up while he is stunned. woot.)
5. Understand the encounter - (Copied from Deedlyt) It is essential to understand the mechanics behind boss encounters. You need to know about debuffs, spells, abilities, stuns, agro wipes, placement, damage type, etc. Recon is very important on the new bosses. This will help you tailor your play style to fit the encounter (as mentioned this is essential). In Burning Crusade, if you go into a boss fight not knowing what the mechanics are, you will be a liability to your group. Ask questions FIRST. And if you don't understand something, ask. If you don't know what "knock back with agro wipe" means then ask. Experience will help with this some. I can say "drops fire like the ZG bat boss" or "random charge like Bloodlord" and many of you know what I mean and how you have to play to succeed. (It should also be mentioned that this applies to trash mobs as well, as many trash mobs in BC instances are quite challenging)
6. Situational awareness - One of the major things that you MUST be aware of when you are tanking is what is happening with all the mobs that you are NOT tanking. You can be fairly certain of where the mob you are tanking is -- it is right in front of you, usually. The locations of the other mobs, however, are harder to predict, and you need to be able to tell where they are, because if you do not know, they may very well be killing off your healers and other squishies. That usually leads to a whipe. Also, keep in mind the ring of Feral charge -- you know, the distance in which you can charge. Try keep your tanking position in a place where all the other mobs are always within charging range. This can be hard to get used to doing, but with practice, it becomes quite normal.
7. Know the math - Welcome to a crash course on gear numbers for feral druids! The numbers are what seperates a teddy tank from a warrior and a kritty from a rogue. The numbers are what guides your choices when, say, choosing the gems for your new item or which drops to roll on.
Bear Druids: There are six numbers that you need to consider on your gear: Armor, Stamina, Intellect, Crit rating, defense rating, and relative newcomer resilience rating.
Armor is key to a bear druid. With 3/3 Thick hide, you get a hard 5x bonus on all armor, so even a small change in your armor can have amazing -- or drastic -- results. You want to be sure to max your armor out, but not at the expense of your stamina.
Stamina is also very important -- it is your lifeblood, literally. You could have all the armor in the world, but without enough stamina, you will be in constant danger of being one-shotted by special boss moves.
Intellect is useful, but not required. Intellect is not something to be discounted, because it allows you to be flexible. You should have enough intellect to be able to shapeshift out into elf form, Battle rez, Mark the rezzed player, Heal them to full life, innervate a caster, and then return to bear form. That's roughly 4000 mana.
Crit rating is something that you should look for as much as possible. It fuels all of your mechanics, such as Imp Leader of the Pack and Bestial Fury. If you have a large amount of crit, you should never run out of rage and never lose aggro. (Disclaimer: If you have high crit, you will pull aggro off of any tank that you get near.)
Defense rating: You NEEEEED 315-325 defense. Although defense is basically useless for a druid (yay! +block and +parry chances! oh wait... we can't do either) you DO need 315-325 to drastically reduce the number of crushing blows that bosses do from about 70% of hits to only about 10%.
Resilience rating: This is the feral druid's new best friend. Without a shield, you are likely to be victim to a LOT of critical hits. Have no fear, resilience is here! With enough resilience, you will not be critically hit, and if you do, they will not do any extra damage. Every 14 points of resilience drops critical damage by 1%.
Cat Druids: Basically, you need to get LOTS of AP and critical hits. So, follow this list:
Strength: Each 1 strength == 2.6 AP.
Agility: Each 1 agility == 1 AP.
Attack Power: Each 1 AP == 1 AP.
Crit rating is something that you should look for as much as possible. It fuels all of your mechanics, such as Imp Leader of the Pack and Bestial Fury. If you have a large amount of crit, you should never run out of rage and never lose aggro. (Disclaimer: If you have high crit, you will pull aggro off of any tank that you get near.)
1. Come prepared - As a feral druid, you can't really use bandages, hp/mp potions, or other consumables. However, as your effectiveness is largely statistically dependant, you should be aware that having flexible gear makes a huge difference. I personally carry no less than 5 sets of armor at all times (Tanking, Fire Tanking, DPS, Healing, FR Tanking) and often for special instances I bring 8 (the above plus Nature Resist Tanking, spell DPS, Undead slaying.) Also, never underestimate the power of food and potion buffs. As Deedlyt said, proper use of buffs can give you a huge edge in fights and it is your responsibility to have them ready and available when needed. If used wisely, proper gear and buffs easily make the difference between wiping on a boss at 25% and downing him. (Side note: Nazan's fire is blocked 80% of the time if you have 160 FR.)
2. Use all of your abilities - As a feral druid it is important to remember that in addition to all those nice feral abilities that you get (if you don't use all your feral abilities, you really have a problem
there really ARE only about a dozen of them) you also have a full complement of elf-form abilities. Keep in mind that you can heal, dot, rez, and innervate any time that you are not actually being beat on by a mob. (example: last night when OTing in Ramparts, I used moonfires to dot/dps Nazan while he was flying around so that when he landed, he went after me and not after our healer.)3. Addons give you a leg up - Plain and simple. Right now there don't seem to be any decent "pure feral" Addons, but there are many decent general addons that help tanks. Make certain at a MINIMUM that you have a decent Target-of-Target viewer -- or maybe two or three (Not all Target-of-Target mods show the exact same thing, and sometimes you can glean additional knowledge from having more than one. For example, CTmod's ToT shows the character that a mob is attacking, while BlizzardUI's ToT shows the character that the mob has aggro on, allowing you to see the difference between a temporary loss of focus and a permanent one.)
4. Know other classes - Knowing the strength, weaknesses, and abilities of other classes helps you to tailor your play style to best pair with your party members'. It is essential that you learn the healing styles offered by priests, druids, pallies, and shamans and to understand the differences between them when deciding how to tank in a fight. It is also necessary to understand the differences between DPSers' aggro generation and how they shed aggro (or don't.) Finally, it is ESSENTIAL to communicate the differences between yourself and other classes in order to get the most out of a fight (Example: the new Cat druid move, Maim, is identical to Gouge in many ways EXCEPT that a Maimed target only breaks if he takes direct damage, so it is perfectly fine to DoT him up while he is stunned. woot.)
5. Understand the encounter - (Copied from Deedlyt) It is essential to understand the mechanics behind boss encounters. You need to know about debuffs, spells, abilities, stuns, agro wipes, placement, damage type, etc. Recon is very important on the new bosses. This will help you tailor your play style to fit the encounter (as mentioned this is essential). In Burning Crusade, if you go into a boss fight not knowing what the mechanics are, you will be a liability to your group. Ask questions FIRST. And if you don't understand something, ask. If you don't know what "knock back with agro wipe" means then ask. Experience will help with this some. I can say "drops fire like the ZG bat boss" or "random charge like Bloodlord" and many of you know what I mean and how you have to play to succeed. (It should also be mentioned that this applies to trash mobs as well, as many trash mobs in BC instances are quite challenging)
6. Situational awareness - One of the major things that you MUST be aware of when you are tanking is what is happening with all the mobs that you are NOT tanking. You can be fairly certain of where the mob you are tanking is -- it is right in front of you, usually. The locations of the other mobs, however, are harder to predict, and you need to be able to tell where they are, because if you do not know, they may very well be killing off your healers and other squishies. That usually leads to a whipe. Also, keep in mind the ring of Feral charge -- you know, the distance in which you can charge. Try keep your tanking position in a place where all the other mobs are always within charging range. This can be hard to get used to doing, but with practice, it becomes quite normal.
7. Know the math - Welcome to a crash course on gear numbers for feral druids! The numbers are what seperates a teddy tank from a warrior and a kritty from a rogue. The numbers are what guides your choices when, say, choosing the gems for your new item or which drops to roll on.
Bear Druids: There are six numbers that you need to consider on your gear: Armor, Stamina, Intellect, Crit rating, defense rating, and relative newcomer resilience rating.
Armor is key to a bear druid. With 3/3 Thick hide, you get a hard 5x bonus on all armor, so even a small change in your armor can have amazing -- or drastic -- results. You want to be sure to max your armor out, but not at the expense of your stamina.
Stamina is also very important -- it is your lifeblood, literally. You could have all the armor in the world, but without enough stamina, you will be in constant danger of being one-shotted by special boss moves.
Intellect is useful, but not required. Intellect is not something to be discounted, because it allows you to be flexible. You should have enough intellect to be able to shapeshift out into elf form, Battle rez, Mark the rezzed player, Heal them to full life, innervate a caster, and then return to bear form. That's roughly 4000 mana.
Crit rating is something that you should look for as much as possible. It fuels all of your mechanics, such as Imp Leader of the Pack and Bestial Fury. If you have a large amount of crit, you should never run out of rage and never lose aggro. (Disclaimer: If you have high crit, you will pull aggro off of any tank that you get near.)
Defense rating: You NEEEEED 315-325 defense. Although defense is basically useless for a druid (yay! +block and +parry chances! oh wait... we can't do either) you DO need 315-325 to drastically reduce the number of crushing blows that bosses do from about 70% of hits to only about 10%.
Resilience rating: This is the feral druid's new best friend. Without a shield, you are likely to be victim to a LOT of critical hits. Have no fear, resilience is here! With enough resilience, you will not be critically hit, and if you do, they will not do any extra damage. Every 14 points of resilience drops critical damage by 1%.
Cat Druids: Basically, you need to get LOTS of AP and critical hits. So, follow this list:
Strength: Each 1 strength == 2.6 AP.
Agility: Each 1 agility == 1 AP.
Attack Power: Each 1 AP == 1 AP.
Crit rating is something that you should look for as much as possible. It fuels all of your mechanics, such as Imp Leader of the Pack and Bestial Fury. If you have a large amount of crit, you should never run out of rage and never lose aggro. (Disclaimer: If you have high crit, you will pull aggro off of any tank that you get near.)