Comments

Comment by 96210

Perfect ring for Rynthariel (Look him up under search, if you don't know.).

Comment by korkmaz

surely feral tank ring

Comment by Therulnig

He said "feral ring" because Blizzard, even in TBC, has made an obvious difference between Warrior tanking rings and Bear tanking rings.

Gatekeeper is the "feral version" of something like https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=40426 (same iLvl drop) or even https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/item=39141 (slightly lower iLvl)

The trend is that the Warrior rings typically don't have armor or a lot of armor on them, They all have Defense Rating which is an almost worthless wasted stat for ferals in WOTLK, and they commonly come with stats like Parry rating, Block Rating, and other non-feral stats on them.

Comment by HaklePrime

This currently drops from Sapphiron.25

Comment by 231079

Prot Warrior & Prot Pally perspective...

Yes I play two tanks. I would not spend points for this ring, because I cannot afford the lack of +defense rating. I just added up the +defense rating on best of slot gear, added best of slot enchants/ arcanum/ inscription, and with this ring I come up short at 633 defense. The next ring down the list gives 56 defense, bringing the number up to the needed 689.

Comment by Urish

Guys you are forgetting that DK also use the same stats as Druid to Tank..
So Great Death Knight Ring also.

Comment by Morky

I am the Gatekeeper, are you The Keymaster?

Comment by Tiran

Even after the feral changes, this ring is still probably better for a feral tank than most of the other rings. Sure, you don't get quite the high armor from before, but at least all the stats are still being used, unlike the defense rings.

Comment by 287287

Ok, first of all you guys are reading the feral nerf wrong.

Bonus Armor: The mechanics for items with bonus armor on them has changed (any cloth, leather, mail, or plate items with extra armor, or any other items with any armor). Bonus armor beyond the base armor of an item will no longer be multiplied by any talents or by the bonuses of Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, or Frost Presence.

It says that the bonus armor of any cloth, leather, mail, or plate items with extra armor or any other item with armor will not be counted in the multipliers of frost presence and or bear form, while yes this may include rings trinkets and necks, it means rings necks and trinkets that have armor bonus which are green in color in game. that is considered bonus armor. Notice it also says, Bonus armor beyond the base armor of an item, base armor is always white in color in game, bonus armor shows up green like enchants would.

Comment by Eskinda

Bonus Armor: The mechanics for items with bonus armor on them has changed (any cloth, leather, mail, or plate items with extra armor, or any other items with any armor). Bonus armor beyond the base armor of an item will no longer be multiplied by any talents or by the bonuses of Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, or Frost Presence.

The wording might seem a little confusing at first, so I guess I can understand why you are confused. Let me try to explain what they're attempting to say.

Any other items besides cloth, leather, mail, plate (ignore the extra armor thing for now), basically anything that's not in Head, shoulders, chest, wrist, hands, waist, legs, or feet slots, leaves us with rings, amulets, trinkets, cloaks (Not 100% sure here considering they're categorized in WoW under the cloth section) or even weapons. ANY of those items with ANY armor on them will not contribute to bonuses. Hope that clears up some confusion.

Comment by 222777

heck as long as your well over uncrittable, no reason for any other class to not wear this either guys dont be so short sighted

Comment by 255469

This is the best in slot ring for all tanks, your other ring slot will either be the sand-worn band or signet of impregnable fortress.

Comment by InfernoMan

They all have Defense Rating which is an almost worthless wasted stat for ferals in WOTLK

yes and no. while druid tanks are crit immune out the box, doesn't mean Defense rating is a wasted stat. Defense rating still adds to dodge. Granted the increase in dodge isn't much, but it is still something. The change to the feral tree to make druids uncrittable just means that we no longer have to sacrifice other stats to stack defense to be crit immune, we can go for items/gems/enchants with Agi, Stam and Hit rating. Just throwing my 2 cents in :)

Comment by smiley001

Wether its best-in-slot for us feral tanks is imo debatable.. its largely dependant on the rest of your gear/total stats... I saw no reason to give myself as MT priority over the Pally and Warr OT's.

The argument "pally/warr tanks got plenty of other choices" is like:

buying a lottery ticket with 2 trucker friends and winning a sweeeeet Ferarri...........Then you say "it should go to me, I only have the B driving license, you guys can also ride cargo trucks while I dont even have that option!"

I'm not saying that I dont care, but I cant blame others for wanting a likely best-in-slot item as much as me :)

Comment by 162269

Hunter weapon!

Comment by 137161

This is not a druid tanking ring anymore. This ring has defensive stats, but these aren't the best defensive stats for a druid.

The armor on this ring is not multiplied when in bear form. Druids have plenty of armor to begin with and should get extra armor from agility, not from bonus armor. In terms of itemization, this ring could have 44 agility instead of 448 armor. That would give a druid 88 armor, more than 1% dodge, and about 0.5% crit (remember, crit helps savage defense). That's a lot better than what you'd get from 448 armor.

Strength is not a druid stat, attack power is (for savage defense). It's a subtle distiction, but important. For other tanking classes strength is important and it gives them AP. Strength increases a paladin/warrior's block value and a DK's parry rate. For druids, AP is a substitute for strength (other tanks cannot substitute AP for strength).

Druids get more dodge from agility than other tanking classes, so dodge rating is not the most effective way for a druid to get dodge. Dodge rating is intended for plate-wearing tanks. Agility also increases crit rate (which helps savage defense), which makes agility the best tanking stat for druids.

Here is a list of level 80 rings with agility. None of those rings have strength, but they all have AP (this is not a problem). Also note that there are no rings with agility and dodge, defense, or armor (link).

Those rings, which are traditionally considered DPS rings, give druids greater defensive benefits. A bear's damage mitigation comes from armor, dodge, and savage defense. Agility is the best way to increase those factors, and there are no "tanking rings" that have agility. DPS rings are druid tanking rings. These rings also have hit rating and expertise which are important for tanking too.

The only thing left to address is the lower stamina on DPS rings:

Here is a list of leather and plate armor sorted by stamina. In the top 50 stamina pieces, only one is leather. The most stamina on one item is Legplates of Sovereignty, but the highest stamina leather legs have 44 less stamina, Legguards of Cunning Deception.

All druid gear has lower stamina compared to plate tanking armor. That's why druids have +25% stamina from dire bear form, +10% stamina from Heart of the Wild, and +6% stats from Survival of the Fittest. A bear tank can do just fine with a ring that has 50 stamina.

Comment by 137161

I hate to burst all of your bubbles, but this isn't a druid tanking ring.

The changes to druid tanking were meant to give druids more options for their ring slots. Previously, with the amazing benefits of bonus armor, druids were almost required to take rings with armor. Blizzard didn't like this. One result of the change is that druid's no longer need defense to be crit immune. It's important to realize that, even without this change, defense is a bad stat for druids. Since druids can only dodge, defense is a bad source of avoidance.

There are 15 level 80 rings with dodge rating. 13 of them have either defense rating or parry rating too. That leaves only two rings. This means that either:

Those two rings are the only druid tanking rings. Or...
None of those 15 rings with dodge rating were intended to be druid tanking rings.

If Blizzard was hoping to create more choices for druid tanks, it wouldn't make sense to leave them with only two rings. Clearly, none of those rings are intended for druids. These rings do give defensive benefits to druids, so how can they not be for druids?

The answer is because defense and dodge rating are poor sources of avoidance for druids. Agility is a better source of dodge, so it's a better stat. Defense and dodge rating are beneficial to druids, but they are bad because agility is a better stat to have (I think this is where people get confused).

Let's consider what a druid actually gets from the Gatekeeper:

If you have 25k armor, adding 448 will increase your mitigation by 0.417%. 41 dodge rating gives you +1.042% dodge. The combined damage reduction from mitigation and dodge for a druid is 1.459%. A druid would get the same combined reduction from 47 agility. In terms of itemization, 47 agility costs a lot less than 448 armor and 41 dodge rating. 47 agility would also give you +0.671% crit, but Gatekeeper gives you zero crit. Remember, savage defense makes crit more than just a threat/rage stat.

For fun, let's compare Gatekeeper (an ilvl 213 drop from Sapphiron) to Hemorrhaging Circle (an ilvl 200 drop from Gundrak). Taking Hemorrhaging Circle over Gatekeeper, you'd get:

+0.357% dodge
+0.699% crit
+33 expertise
-2 AP
-28 hit
-33 stamina
-0.308% mitigation from armor

If we ignore the 2 AP and assume that trading hit for expertise is fine (that's being generous), we're left with:

+0.357% dodge
+0.699% crit
-33 stamina
-0.308% mitigation from armor

You're losing damage reduction and crit for 33 stamina. You'd expect a drop from Sapphiron to be a clear upgrade over an item from a 5 man, but because this ring isn't itemized for druids, it's not a clear upgrade.

Comment by 137161

You could get a truck driving license if you wanted to work at it.

I'm not sure where you're all going with this truck driving analogy, but here's my take on it:

Plate-wearing tanks (the truck drivers) have more options. Therefore, a druid should get the Ferrari because it's the best vehicle for them (given their limited options). This kind of argument probably started with rogues and hunters fighting over weapons. The stats are good for both classes, but the weapon's dps makes it BiS for the rogue. Do rogues get priority on it? (the correct answer is "they're just rogues, who cares?").

The problem with this analogy is that druids don't have limited options. Druids aren't supposed to use plate tank rings with no defense. Druids are supposed to use rings with agility (dps rings). If anything, druids shouldn't be allowed to roll on this because they are the ones with more options! See my comment below for more about this.

A bear does not and will never be able to use something with block and parry, so the item budget is wasted.

This ring doesn't have defense, just dodge rating. But you are correct that the item budget is wasted on a druid.

Druids have high armor values so they get less from bonus armor. Strength gives every tanking class AP, but it gives plate tanks something extra (increased block value for warriors/paladins, increased parry for DKs). Strength only gives druids AP. Agility is a better source of dodge for druids than dodge rating. For plate tanks that is not the case (plate tanks would also lose a lot of other benefits by taking a ring with agility).

Nothing about this ring screams "druid!", but everything screams "warrior/paladin/DK!".

Comment by 137161

How again is this ring not useful for druids?

There's a difference between showing that an item is useful for a class and showing that the item is good for a class.

This ring has stamina.
Stamina gives every class health.
Health is useful for all classes.
Therefore: This ring is useful for all classes.

Showing that an item is actually good for a class is a bit trickier.

This ring is great for plate-wearing tanks but for druids the only thing special about it is the high stamina. For fights where that's important, you can probably find better ways to boost your health. The AP and hit are about average, the mitigation is low, and there's no crit.

If you have trouble getting +hit on your druid, pick up some of these items. Before you know it you'll be way above the hit cap wondering where all the items with no hit rating are.

Comment by 137161

"Because other rings with dodge aren't good for druids, this one isn't either"? Really?

I'm not talking about "other rings", I'm talking about the majority of rings. If 13 out of 15 rings with dodge rating are clearly not ideal for druids, it shouldn't be surprising that the two remaining rings aren't that good either. It's important to realize that I am not using the word "good" to mean "beneficial". There are very few items out there that reduce your stats, so nearly all items in the game are beneficial for druid tanks. However, only a small percentage of items in the game are good for them.

Dodge rating is a bad stat because agility is a better stat for druid tanks. One point of agility gives you more dodge than a point of dodge rating and the point of agility also gives you armor and crit. For druids, agility is an efficient way to spend an item's budget on mitigation. That's what the comparison to the hemorhagging circle was intended to show. It takes the Gatekeeper 448 armor and 41 dodge rating to almost match the mitigation you'd get from 49 agility. In terms of itemization, the armor and dodge have a higher combined cost than agility. A poorly-budgeted level 213 item could be an upgrade over a well-budgeted 200 item, but that doesn't mean it's worth taking. Look for well-budgeted level 213 items.

thus, stat priority is ; stats that are conductive to staying alive, then stats that enhance "keeping threat" in that order.

First, I wasn't talking about taking threat stats over survival stats. I suggested that taking dodge and crit over stamina isn't the worst trade you could make. Dodge and crit are both survival stats.

Second, you should never take one stat over another because of the nature of the benefit, you also have to consider the magnitude of the benefit. Armor penetration is purely a threat stat, but if you had to pick between +1 stamina and +300 armor pen, which would you pick?

Gearing your toon is all about sacrificing some stats to get others. The gatekeeper might give you more health than your current ring but you'll lose something by taking it. You should consider other ways to get more health.

Comment by Tahvo

I was wondering that this ring might be a reference to the Gatekeeper of Oblivions Shivering Isles, since he guards (tanks) the gates of madness (raid /party members) from random adventurers (mobs/bosses), and he is also almost invicible whitout using special tactics, like how tanks in wow are really tough and have lots of health and avoidance when compared to other players.

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Gatekeeper

	Phase 1

Item Level 213
Binds when picked up
Unique-Equipped

Finger

448 Armor
+43 Strength
+84 Stamina

Requires Level 80
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 41.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 28.

Sell Price: 7 56 23

Dropped by: Sapphiron

Drop Chance: 10.09%

Guides

Blood Best in Slot Guide Feral Druid Tank Phase 1 Best in Slot Gear Naxxramas Loot Protection Best in Slot Guide Protection Best in Slot Guide Sapphiron - Naxxramas WOTLK Classic Strategy Guide

Gatekeeper

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