The Bear Necessities - Macros

Complete Macro List and Description

[Mangle]
Start Attack and Cancel Auras
- Keybind: 4

	Code: #showtooltip /cancelaura Parachute /cancelaura Hand of Protection /startattack /cast Mangle

Note: Removes unwanted [Blessing of Protection] or I delay hitting it to sit in it as well as cancels the parachute for Spine. Also /startattack on every attack.



AoE Rotation
Simple cast sequence with everything I use in the 6 seconds of my total aoe rotation.
- Keybind: Mousewheel Down

	Code: #showtooltip /startattack /castsequence [stance:1] reset=6 Thrash, Swipe, Mangle, Swipe; [stance:3] reset=6 Thrash, Swipe, Swipe, Swipe;

Note: This is one button aoe for both bear and cat. Keep in mind in cat with normal energy regen you can Swipe three times before the Thrash dot falls off.


[Growl]
Simple mouseover > target priority on my taunt.
- Keybind: 1

	Code: #showtooltip Growl /cast [@mouseover, exists, harm][exists, harm] Growl;

Note: I use this for:

- [Growl] - Keybind: 1
- [Faerie Fire] - Keybind: Middle Mouse Button
- [Wild Charge] - Mouse Button 5 (inside) in Bear/Cat
- [Cyclone] - Mouse Button 5 (inside) in Caster
- [Mass Entanglement] - Shift Middle Mouse Button

[Skull Bash]
Stance adjust with focus > mouseover > target priority
- Keybind: Mousewheel Up

	Code: #showtooltip /cast [nostance:1/3] Soothe; [stance:1/3, @focus, exists, harm][@mouseover, exists, harm][@target, exists, harm] Skull Bash;

Stance adjust with mouseover > target priority (no focus)
- Keybind: Shift Mousewheel Up

	Code: #showtooltip /cast [nostance:1/3] Soothe; [@mouseover, exists, harm][@target, exists, harm] Skull Bash;

Note: Both of these will [Skull Bash] while in [Bear Form] or [Cat Form] and [Soothe] otherwise. Mousewheel Up to interrupt focus and if I have a focus shift mousewheel up to interrupt my target or mouseover target.


Focus Macros
Useful for everyone. Mouseover or target set focus with a quick clear focus bind.

Focus - Set
Shift Mousewheel Down

	Code: /focus [@mouseover, nodead, exists][@target]

Focus - Clear
Ctrl Mousewheel Down

	Code: /clearfocus

A Quick Bear PoV - Elegon

Although everyone's now working on hardmodes, I thought I post a quick Elegon bear PoV. Someone recently came to me with a question about this fight and how to handle the movement as a bear. Simply put, Wild Charge and Skull Bash. Throughout the video you can see that I move in with Wild Charge and often switch from one add to another with Skull Bash... Enjoy.

You can find more bear PoV videos on my youtube at http://www.youtube.com/theetova or find our guild at http://www.moagbdf.com

Savage Defense vs Frenzied Regen

First disclaimer before we get started is that I will be leaving out glyphed Frenzied Regen from this discussion. I'll leave that for another post.

So, which is better? Savage Defense or Frenzied Regen... well it depends. The major factors being:

- How much rage per second do you generate?
- How much damage you are taking?
- How much of that damage is "dodgable"?

Well to put it simply I've done the math for you and have added it to the spreadsheet. If you wish to edit it for your stats, save your own copy of this sheet and simply input you current stats in the green boxes on the first sheet.

Full Google Spreadsheet

By putting in your stats you'll be able to see:

- The Uptime on Savage Defense (or Glyphed Frenzied Regen).

- How much a 60 rage Frenzied Regen will heal you for with full vengeance.

- How much healing per second that is based on your rage per second.

- And most importantly the breaking point of "dodgable" damage in a boss fight when Savage Defense will be better than Frenzied Regen.

So let's look at my output with my current gear:

Dam/Sec Taken - 80,000

Unmitigated - 109,311

Rage Per Second - 9.74

SD/Glyphed FR Uptime - 97.45%
FR 60 Rage Heal -174,637
FR HPS - 28,363
Resulting in:

Savage Defense > Frenzied Regen Breaking Point - 43.85% "Dodgable" Damage

This means in a boss fight if 43.85% of my damage taken is "dodgable" I will be mitigating more damage then I would be healing if I was using Frenzied Regen.

Last Disclaimer: This is just the numbers, there are a lot of other things that should be consider when making the choice on which button to push. Play smart, play bear! 

Guardian Stat Weights

There seems to be a great lack of Guardian information available so I've decided to clean up my spreadsheets and release them into the wild.

Guardian Stat Weights

Crit	0.0416
Agi	0.0296
Dodge^	0.0251
Hit*	0.0225
Exp*	0.0225
Haste	0.0204
Mastery^	0.0109
Armor^	0.0063

*Before caps, see below
^ 100% dodgable or physical damage

Just a few notes. 
NEW FIRST OF ALL
First, first off all. 1% dodge doesn't mean you're going to take 1% less damage. 1% less damage isn't going to be 1% less damage taken. These stat values have to be looked at on a per fight basis. If only 50% of the damage is "dodgable" dodge rating is worth only 50%, ect. This makes stats that increase RPS way more valuable!

Example
SD gives 45% dodge
If only 25% of the incoming damage is "dodgable"
SD is reducing incoming damage by 11.25% damage
If I'm taking about 80k dps
I'm mitigating 9k dps

Extending this to all dodge
If only 25% of the incoming damage is "dodgable" 
The stat weight of dodge is only 0.0063!

FR will heal 100% effectiveness (because you're pro)
I currently have about 28k HPS with my FR

So I'm mitigating 9k dps or healing 28k hps...


First of all, some of these numbers are weird to first look at. It's amazing how much crit and haste are worth specifically. This is largely due to Bear Form granting 50% more crit and haste rating from gear! This means we only need an item to have 283 haste rating or 387 crit rating for 1%!

Second, I've not put this into a site or anything, just a simple Google doc. If you wish to edit it for your stats, save your own copy of this sheet and simply input you current stats in the green boxes on the first sheet. Everything should calculate out and give you your current stat weights. Feel free to browse the other sheets across the bottom to see other info and drill down in the calculations is you so desire.

Lastly, just a brief inside to how I've calculated these. This is firmly based on rage per second due to how the current tanking mechanics work. Mitigation was then worked backwards from dodge from Savage Defence to get the mitigation per 1% to get the equivalent armour and then further to mastery.

Full Google Spreadsheet

Rage Per Second
What you should be aiming for is keeping up you 60 rage cooldowns up as much as possible. What I personally look at is aims for the caps of 10 and 20 rage/sec. This means you can keep one or both of your major tanking abilities (Savage Defence and Frenzied Regeneration) more which of course is situational. Take all this lightly, hard numbers aren't going to make you better if you can't realize that Savage Defence 100% time on full magic mob is not good...

The Stam Discussions
I've not include calculations for stam for the simple fact that it has always been subjective and and variant from druid to druid. My personal option is I love being fat, it works well with my great healers with high throughput and my personal play style. I personally weigh stam higher than agi and now crit but this is something I'm even rethinking with the current raid content.

Other Useful Stats

Mastery Per 1% Dam Reduction - 2022

Rating Caps
Hit - 2,549
Exp - Dodge- 2,549
Exp - Parry - 5,098

Agi

Per Crit - 1,263
Per Dodge - 1,319


Gem Weights
Yellow
Smooth Sun's Radiance (320 Crit) - 13.09
Deadly Vermilion Onyx (80 Agi/160Crit) - 8.36

Red
Crafty Vermilion Onyx (160 Exp/160 Crit) - 9.29
Deadly Vermilion Onyx (80 Agi/160Crit) - 8.36
Perfect Delicate Pandarian Garnet (160 Agi) - 3.62

Blue
Jagged Alexandrite (160 Crit/120 Stam) - 6.55
Guardian's Imperial Amethyst (160 Exp/ 120 Stam) - 2.75
Shifting Imperial Amethyst (80 Agi/120 Stam) - 1.81

What About Your WoW Guild, Can You Survive D3

Just wanted to post something short and sweet on how, as a guild leader and raid leader, I've been dealing with not just Diablo III but with the extent of the current content in WoW.

I've had a lot of negative comments and and a obvious decline in recruitment and active members which I'm sure everyone is dealing with. People getting bored, lots more drama, people not showing up without posting (which we and I'm sure most require) and I've also seen a great increase in clicheness happening that concerns me the most.

As a leader and as a player you need to understand this is how things are. But I do feel there are ton of good things, especially for my group that I'm getting out of this.

First of all Diablo. To be honest, best thing to happen right now. Despite the decrease in interest in WoW, our performance and attention during raid did go up in my opinion. I always encourage people to play other games and play other aspects even if it's just pvp when you're a pve'r. It does make you better. We even stopped doing our ten man alt raid for Diablo and I think it was a better idea then "practice" or gearing in WoW.

The one and greatest problem I see is people and the negative/destruction attitudes. This is something that is just more apparent now because there is less structure in my option. With things on farm, there is no clear roles needed. I've had a ton of resistance from people for small things that have been totally blown out of proportion.

I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE EVERYONE. You are still in a social environment, there are things that are acceptable, things that make you a better person and things that make life easier for everyone around you. Which leads to my next point.

Not one person is "needed" or "required" at this point. Don't let this stuff fly. This is a very good opportunity to get those good players and good members that will be sustainable. Try to identify those that are impartial and have good morales and the skills to manage conflict and get them in leadership roles.

The best players should not necessarily be your officers and raid leaders.