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[000] Stats
[001] Skills
[002] Optional Skills
[003] Cards
[004] Equipment
[005] PVP Tips
[006] Tanking PVE Arena (Normal)
[000] Stats
I would recommend one of these two stat builds. Strength increases parry and damage. Vit increases HP, which is actually a little bit better for BM than some of the other classes because of the HP modifier from Grizzly.
40 Str
40 Vit
08 Agi
41 Str
41 Vit
You may also be able to do a 40 Str / 40 Agi / 08 Vit build, but I don't really feel it plays to the strength of the class, which is basically having really high HP.
[001] Skills
This is the "core" build
Or, if you like the more retarded skill sim.
01 Cruel Bite - Only ever take level 1. The HP leech is a percent of your own HP and does not scale with skill level. Only damage increases, and even then only by a very small amount.
05 Rage Smash - Default skill. Take level 5 in this because you're pretty much replacing your normal attack with this.
05 Fury Strike - This is your primary DPS skill, relatively quick animation. I believe there are two burst damage spikes in this with a smaller tick in the middle.
01 Beast Tornado - The only AoE threat skill you get. It's very slow to execute and the damage is pretty horrible, it also only hits max 3 targets.
01 Frenzy - Increases threat gain, useful for pulling ahead of DPS classes.
01 Beast Charge - Only rush the class gets. The stun on it is nice too. This is the only way you will be getting to anything far away from you.
05 Wild Impact - AoE stun, no real reason not to max this. At 30 sec cooldown you could pretty much use it on most add spawns.
01 Wild Crush - Always take at least level 1 to be able to put the DoT on something.
01 Beast Lower - Never take more than level 1. Aggro skills work by giving you max threat +10%, so it's useless to be able to spam it and it's useless to use it at the beginning of a battle when no one has any threat, only use it if you drop aggro midway through a fight.
05 Survival - One of the best skills the class gets imo. % HP heal for yourself and everyone nearby? It's pretty nice.
05 Grizzly Form - +65% HP, +50% Defence, +300% threat. If you're making a tank without maxing this you're doing it wrong.
[002] Optional Skills
Good things to think about:
05 Frenzy. I would recommend this, basically means you're pulling off a Fury Strike every two Rage Smashes, increasing threat pretty well.
05 Beast Charge - When it's the only rush/ranged that you have, keeping it off cooldown is pretty important, however, keep in mind that you'll probably only use it once per battle.
03 Beast Tornado - Increases damage (and therefore threat). This skill is pretty terrible at level 1 or level 3, but it's all you'll ever have.
05 Wild Crush - You'll always be using it, so you'll benefit off of points in it, the fact that it's a DoT makes it useful in extended boss battles, but if you're off-tanking, it may be a negligible skill, as most OT'd stuff will either die very rapidly or need to be kept alive for a long time with a certain amount of HP.
Situational / Personal Decisions:
05 Feral Defence - I would recommend this. It makes you pretty invincible..... but you can't do anything. Could be useful in a well-coordinated raid, but could also be completely worthless. I personally took the skill, but it is a situational skill.
05 Bear Form - I do not recommend it. This'll help with leveling a bit, but I find leveling as Grizzly is easier anyway. Just come to terms with the fact that no one will ever want you for DPS and save the skill points imo. Maybe useful for farming, but like I said, grizz gets the job done fine, if a bit slower.
05 Brutal Strike - I do not recommend this. Has an impressive modifier, good burst damage for PVP, but you're bad at PVP to begin with and the skill takes forever to execute. I'd just stick with Fury Strike personally.
Bad ideas:
05 Tiger Form - Just don't. There are too many ways to increase movespeed that still allow you to attack and use skills.
05 Cruel Bite - Just Don't. Increases damage by like 1% to 2% per skill point and does not affect the life leech at all, not worth it.
[003] Cards
5x Scratch Thief Cards. No real question about it. Best bang for your buck.
[004] Equipment
Look for Parry gear. Do Goblin Leader for your first weapon. Lose Colosseum until you can afford the pvp weapon. A lot of people have the Celestial Apostle Spear up for craft, if it's cheap and you can do it, go for it, but the PVP one is better.
Run RHD, aim for Parry instead of Haste/Hit. Once you have your RHD stuff, raid raid raid. You don't token comp anything good, which means you'll probably be a pretty high priority off tank. HP requirement is around 8,000 for beastmasters.
Celestial Apostle Scaled Armguards
Celestial Apostle Scaled Brogans
Rise and Fall of Valkyrie Scaled Jacket
Rise and Fall of Valkyrie Scaled Pants
Socket strength runes in my opinion.
[005] PVP Tips
(Thanks to Canas for this section)
[006] Tanking PVE Arena (Normal)
Only problem I've had running raids MT as BM is that BM takes A LOT of damage. Yeah, it has a lot of HP, but your HP is spiking all over the place. Single target hate is not at all an issue with BM, hate gen is more than plenty against pretty much any DPS. But more than just tanking it, you have to be a lot more responsible for your own HP than with any other tank classes and be very actively using Cruel Bite, Survival, and Potions.
Edited by Sera, 10 June 2013 - 02:31 PM.