@BoBLion @CheshireKing @Singlephase

It depends on the wording of the power or talent.

Pet = all pets
Tamed Pet or Tamed Beast is only Hunter Pet
Summoned Demon = Warlock Demon and not enslaved Demon

Soul Link specifies the Warlock demons by name because it also excludes Imps.

Yes, pets get buffed by totems, blessings, power word: fortitude and so forth.

Temporary allies like elementals and Feral Spirits are not pets and do not get effected but can be buffed by totems, blessings and the such.

Here is a chart to help.

Change log from 2022/03/04

Improved Disciplines no longer reduces the cooldown of Concussion Blow.

Concussion Blow now has a 30 sec cooldown, changed from 45.

The original cooldown was 30 seconds. With Improved Disciplines the cooldown was only 15 seconds. This leaves no way to improve the cooldown which negatively impacts the Stormhammer rotation. Please reduce the cooldown to 15 seconds or allow Improved Disciplines to improve the cooldown to 15 seconds.

I have opened Bug Tracker 18678 for this issue. I am asking the community to please upvote the ticket.

Frontstab - Epic Enchant
Your backstab no longer requires you to be behind your target.

This opens up Elemental Assassin & Echoing Power to make a great shock tank.

@Excl

There are lots of dungeons especially leveling dungeons in vanilla that are interesting but there is no reason for high level characters to play in them. Adding a realm max level mythic and mythic+ version of all dungeons gives a lot of content to players. This would also allow some of the unique gear like Righteous Armor (INT/DEF plate) to be viable when the realm goes to level 80. It is a suggestion that could be looked into after WotLK launches.

@GatlingGull

How casual can you be? As much as you want in normal or heroic dungeons. Mythic and M+ will want you to be good at your job.

You can go wide. Remember that you get one stance (Beserker, Moonkin, Shadowform...), one aura, one blessing, one weapon enchant per weapon (Spellstone, Frostbrand, Poisons...), one armor from mage and one from warlock, one hunter aspect, one pet. If you don't want them, they are not required.

@Rudedawg What motivation would a player have to destroy the raid group instead of just standing there doing nothing and letting their guildmates get loot?

I like the idea but is it different enough from Corrupted Bear Form?

Stormclaw: Your stormstike is transformed into stormclaw (which does the same thing and is only usable in bear form). Casting Lightning Shield, Thunderclap, instant cast lightning bolts or chain lightning does not remove you from bear form.

@AceDefiant Dungeon Finder is good for players starting out at max level who need to learn the dungeons up to and including Mythic. Once you are in Mythic+, you can not use dungeon finder and have to walk to the dungeon to start it with your team. Since M+ came out on the Area 52 server, less players use it because they have already done normal, heroic and mythic 0 which can be done via dungeon finder.

@Anerythris This is a well thought out comprehensive review. Thank you for this.

@Rubis Reducing it from 250% weapon damage to 120% to align with Devastate would be totally acceptable to me.

@DoctorBlah @Lauste

I play a defensive stance Thunderslam (actually only the Lightning Blade part) tank and it gives me all the feel of an enhancement shaman tank.

You can use Reckoning and Unfair Advantage to get in more attacks that would generate more Maelstrom stacks. With Righteous Fury, you can have the Divinity talent so you have more healing. You can do Sheath of Light for more nature healing as well even though the capstone is holy focused.

An epic enchant that made Healing Wave work with Maelstrom instead of just lesser healing wave would let you utilize Earth's Blessing enchant but you get into problems when your healer is using Earth Shield since it only adds stacks to yours and theirs is more powerful and would overwrite yours. It would also be really powerful due to the Low Tide legendary enchant which is why I don't think it would be implemented.

Today you can use Lesser Healing Wave with Maelstrom Weapon and the Frugal Disposition enchant and try to get LHW crits to trigger Ancestral Healing (and you may as well go all the way and get Ancestral Awaking too). If you are using Mending Tide for your legendary enchant and Water Shield and a water elemental healing you should feel very water oriented.

@Dreamthief The Adaptive Defense capstone makes dodge a better choice.

I do not know how In the Zone scales, obviously the free attack from unfair advantage is better with a slow 2 hander.

There is Balance of Power talent for 2% spell damage reduction and +2% to hit for 2 talent points in the Balance Druid tree and Arcane Shielding for another 2% reduction for 2 talents in arcane mage which is nice if you are running mana shield but otherwise not worth it. There is also magic absorption for 3% less for 3 talent points and 3% more magic damage which might be nice for an RF tank but doesn't seem to apply here as well as Spell Warding enchant for 1% reduction. So there are options to increase your spell damage reduction.

I think it would be OP to give swashbuckler tanks +8% and the parry rating conversion as well.

The question I have with swashbuckler tanks is that is it better to go AGL/INT mail or AGL leather? Mana Shield would be a ~700 damage shield each application and if you had mail armor, you would have a truckload of mana that you are not using for anything.

@Dreamthief

If you are looking for more magic mitigation, the In the Zone enchant is your best bet.

What are you looking to get out of Ghostly Strike that a 2h gets that a swashbuckler does not? Swashbuckler gets dodge while 2h gets parry both can trigger Unfair Advantage. Swashbuckler makes better use of the combo points from the Setup talent.

@KaptainKarmac

Looks like all tank threat was increased 20% today.

As for your build:

Instead of Swift Avenger, You can think about going with Stormgarde with 3 talents in Static Shock (take them from Deflection because since you are not using a 2-hander those talents are not in effect) and Lightning Shield (maybe remove Demoralizing Shout). Change the 2 Taunting Thunder Clap to Natural Disaster and either one taunting Shield Slam or one Improved Sword and Board.

This is how I am running Dark Ranger. It is in the in-game builder under Wrath of the Dark Ranger.

https://ascension.gg/v2/builder/area-52/overview/FwRgnA7ALADKVjiArCOqIDZjM5qIwYmyATDKUclMgBwSgDMceOjtUwzUtlEthEIxAlQYZI2C0YIBqTAjsIIUgiVw-YJlpgiJcnAgwoAF0lhSpyYzUgTgmCTNdG1e6BgQIzsO2eNSZGR3NCxnEkwTSgtvc0DnCDQfcGcERjAoj2hnZRArKVpI5BdMb0ILO2KA43dE4MlQ+uBgKDxMAFNzCFwYZHbCHl5OqUZSqH6iRBkOgbyKRgmoRhphnnlhsEhlPpAgA

The premise is to use Black Arrow to:
Increase hunter abilities by 8% and Shadow abilities by 8% with Shadow Arrow and increase all damage you do by 12% more with Point of No Escape talented and enchants. To do this we have to greatly reduce the cooldown by having Resourcefulness talented and enchanted and to have 1 Hasty Black Arrow to make it down to a 12 second cooldown.

Insect Swarm is used to increase nature damage normally but with Wrath of the Plague it will now also increase shadow damage by 9% too.

Wild Wrath is used to keep Insect Swarm up and to reset the cooldown on Chimera Shot. Chimera Shot - Serpent Sting will be the second most damaging ability in the build following Blood Arrow from Dark Ranger.

I only use the Blood Arrow and Shadow Arrow features of Dark Ranger and do not use Nightfall, Dark Arrows or Shadow Artillery because there is no room in the rotation and having to build up to an AoE doesn't work well in dungeons.

Ferocious Inspiration is more for the 3% boost to everyone's damage than the steady shot increase.

Curse of the Element and Shadow Arrow are Warlock Affliction abilities and will help Blood Arrow with the Soul Siphon Talent.

Ranged Speed talents are to make sure everything fits in the rotation, there is no haste gear needed.

For trash mobs, Frenzy shot and Volley are used. Wolf pet does not have Bite or Growl on it, only Furious Howl on cooldown and Call of the Wild on demand.

For boss fights:

Hunter's Mark, Curse of the Elements, Black Arrow, Insect Swarm, Serpent Sting then two steady shots so that Wild Wrath it is primed for the 3rd stack.

The sequence can then a macro can be used for the repeating sequence that will keep Black Arrow, Insect Swarm and Serpent Sting going constantly.

/castsequence reset=combat/5 Blood Arrow, Chimera Shot, Wrath, Chimera Shot, Blood Arrow, Shadow Arrow, Blood Arrow, Steady Shot, Black Arrow

This keeps high uptime on Shadow Arrow and Blood Arrow and the two Chimera Shots and Steady Shot makes for the 3 stacks of Wild Wrath.

At ilvl 120, I am doing 6.5K DPS with the build. Let me know what you think or if you do Dark Ranger differently.

I just wanted to tell the Ascension team thank you for listening.

Stormclaw, Elemental Bear LRE last year was suggested by @SAURISCH and now we have something similar with Lei Shen's Legacy.

The community (me included) asked for a legendary enchant to round out the swashbuckler system and now we have it.

Lots of discussion was around making a metamorphosis tank with current tools, and now we have a solid legendary enchant to use instead of piecing things together to work well enough for heroics but not mythics. It is also a dual wield tank which people asked for.

@Realunstable Frenzied Swipe lets you do it in melee, you just have to be a cat.

@Obeliske Looking at your build post, if you are missing hit rating change out the elemental weapon enchants for either precision and/or balance of power. The passive effect of flametongue weapon is rather weak even talented.

What rotation are you using?

Would swapping out controlled storm for forked lightning help in AOE situations?

This is the 2H tank that I use on A52. It functions well in M+ and feels like an Enhancement Shaman tank.

Legendary: Thunderslam (this is the only DPS-like component and builds the rotation)
Epics: Crackling Thunder for AoE, Imposing Combo works with Lightning Blade, In the Zone for less magic damage

Juggernaut talent allows for Thunderslam to critical on all targets after the charge. This generates the snap threat. All other times, use Lightning Blade.

Rotation is Thunder Clap, Lightning Bolt (instant like a shock), Lightning Blade with Ghostly Strike on Cooldown.

Unlike Stormhammer, you can Thunder Clap away from the mobs, Lightning Bolt then Charge then Thunderslam for the initial pick up.

Static Shock keeps up the Lightning Shield. Mana is not an issue but you can put up a water shield between pulls because it no longer interferes with Earth or Lightning Shield.

https://ascension.gg/v2/builder/area-52/overview/FwZgrGwBwEwjwCMB2AbK0iYwCzFSDiMDIgAxR6oCceiIZ+G8dOqdIiBwyUiSqKNERFgYGMmTAcZYshi0e-cVinlGMPmkypkAF36J6UPcRznTPENT2QwUE2ZwxLyTpZxhEr6mB849BE8XSHUbfhxqEEsjEFRA0Gs-CKhohDjqb0NZPzMwAOJyLwTOLAMkMmRvBEpvYlT49IUycuBqXjhUAFN+KKh2rrz4QYrVah62mTIwLoRqajIyTwn23mpu3tQwTnGI6xgJmRxEQ-gyHqA

@Obeliske

Rotting Breath would be a good one to pick up on Thrall. Cone disease attack that is usable in bear form. You would need dragon's breath in the build.

Then Contagious would be a good 3rd epic.

If you are not set on Plague Bearer, you could go:

Legendary: Corrupted Bear Form
Epics: Disease Cloud, Faerie Swarm and Wrath of the Plague