#0 - Aug. 4, 2007, 5:45 p.m.
A. Why be a moonkin tank?
B. Advantages and disadvantages of a moonkin tank.
C. Tools at the disposal of a moonkin tank.
D. Talent builds for a moonkin tank.
E. Primary stats of a moonkin tank.
F. Equipping your moonkin tank.
G. How to moonkin tank.
H. Class synergy with a moonkin tank.
A. Why be a moonkin tank?
First things first, let’s begin by explaining why you would want to tank as a balance druid in the first place.
The main principle behind the strength of the druid class allways has and allways will be its capability to fulfill any main group role as needed; in effect it is THE ultimate support class if played to its maximum potential. Unfortunatly many druids do not put the effort in to fulfill multiple roles and rather specialise in one aspect of a druid to the extreme, be that DPS, Tanking or Healing.
At first glance of the balance tree most people see it as a mix of dps with great backup healing potential, but believe that they sacrifice their ability to tank, these balance druids are also those who tend to collect a lot of cloth armour and are what is know as a “clothkin”. If you take a closer look however you will notice that we have many tools and attributes that allow us to retain our tanking ability.
Our Moonkin form boasts the same potential for armour as our feral counterparts Bear form and many balance druids have complained before that they feel they are a high threat caster; they view the high threat as a bane to achieving maximum dps, I view it as a means to retain our trinity of DPS, Tanking and Healing potential. And so the Moonkin tank was born, a high mitigation, high threat, ranged tank.
Why be a moonkin tank? To retain your versatility as a druid, able to adapt to any situation as needed. You can spend hours looking for a tank, or you can tank it yourself.
B. Advantages and disadvantages of a Moonkin tank.
So now we know why YOU might want to become a moonkin tank, but theres a large issue that needs to be addressed, why should anyone else take you as one? Its true that traditionally a moonkin is not a tank, we have no taunt ability for a start and we do not get spoon fed tanking kit like a warrior would, however all the disadvantages can be overcome and there are several unique benefits to a moonkin tank that nothing else can rival. Outlined below is a balanced overview of the pros and cons of following the panzerkin path for your use and for whatever guild leaders you may be trying to convince.
The Disadvantages
Health pool :- Unlike a feral tank or a warrior a moonkin tank gets no boost to their health pool and so is in a similar situation to a protection specced paladin. With a lower health pool you are more vulnerable to bursts of damage and your healers have less room for error. You can however compensate for this somewhat with itemization, stamina trinkets and stamina gems are what you need.
No Taunt :- Not an issue for boss encounters but is noticable against trash, a moonkin tank has no snap aggro abilities and so you need to plan your pulls carefully as you have less room for error. With practice though you can speedily assign targets to your group and get used to creating solid aggro on multiple mobs. It does however remain a problem with mobs that de-aggro you through fears or other such means.
Mana Based Aggro :- Only an issue during long boss fights, unlike a rage based system which produces threat infinatly, a moonkin tank needs mana to generate threat. We have a large amount of tools at our disposal to regain that mana but ultimatly there comes points where you need to lower your threat output in order to regenerate. This can lead to bursts of high and low threat, however your groups can easily compensate for this by keeping an eye on their threat meters for changes in pace, you can also create macros to let your groups know that you are regenerating mana so threat will be lower.
Low Avoidance :- Generally it is hard to kit yourself up for avoidance (dodge rate) as a moonkin tank. Unlike a feral we have low agility leading to fairly low dodge rates, this can be a problem against bosses with strong special abilities or stacking effects like mortal wounds (10% less healing taken per stack). Luckily we can still gain bursts of dodge from trinkets like Moroes’ pocket watch to help clear such effects from us.
The Advantages
High Mitigation :- Like our feral cousins a moonkin tank has extraordinarily high armour values and can hit the armour cap to achieve a 75% damage reduction against bosses, this acts to soften the lower effect of our lower health pool considerably and was the basis of druid tanking pre TBC. Ontop of the high levels of armour we also have access to barkskin for damage reduction above and beyond the 75% any other class can achieve albeit temporarily. With correct timing on your barkskin a Moonkin tank can mitigate more damage than any other class.
High Initial Threat :- Unlike traditional tanking classes who start with a low level of threat and a steady threat rate, a moonkin tank has very high initial threat levels with rapid threat gain to begin with, this makes them excellent for assigning to a raids primary nuke target as it allows raid dps to begin practically the second you pull.
Ranged Threat Generation :- Several encounters have aggro resets and knockback effects inbuilt, a moonkin tank has no problem re-establishing threat after a total aggro wipe (for example Blackheart the Inciters’ mind control in Shadow Labs) While a more traditional tank has to chase around after the boss with potentially no rage.
AoE Threat :- Similar to a protection paladin a moonkin tank is excellent at tanking large groups of non-elite mobs. The combination of Thorns and Hurricane creates more aggro than other AoE classes and deals significant damage in its own right. This allows fragile cloth casters to nuke down packs of mobs with minimal risk while you benefit directly from the protection of hurricanes attack slowdown combined with barkskins mitigation.
High DPS :- Unlike other tanks who cause relativly low damage per threat point, a moonkin tank produces threat at a 1:1 ration to their DPS, This leads to you being effectivly an extra source of damage at the same time as being a tank which in turn leads to faster kills and instance clearances.
Consumable Access :- While our feral cousins cannot use potions and the like in forms, our moonkin form can happily use such items giving us an extra lifeline that a bear tank does not have, compensating for our lower initial health pool.
