In our Phase 3 viability rankings, Fury
Warriors were highlighted as an excellent choice for the "Tank 3" role in
Black Temple speedruns. This unique tanking niche was viable for the Fury spec to fill because most of their tank targets were trash mobs that did not hit very hard, and which could be tanked using quite aggressive gear sets that were compatible with high TPS from the spec, while also enabling the off-tank to pump out sizable personal DPS when their target was dead. Furthermore, the few multi-tank boss encounters in Phase 3 did not require the second off-tank to generate high TPS (for example soaking the
Saber Lash ability on the
Mother Shahraz fight or tanking the second
Flame of Azzinoth on the
Illidan Stormrage fight). This meant that a Fury off-tank could wear heavy mitigation gear on those select few boss fights without worrying about their Threat generation, and could wear much more aggressive gear when tanking trash. Unfortunately, the layout and tuning of the
Sunwell Plateau raid makes this niche much less relevant in Phase 5 than it was before. On one hand, trash in general will constitute a smaller fraction of total clear time in Sunwell than prior raids, as almost all of it is front-loaded before
Kalecgos, and these packs can be quite safely 2-tanked by a
Paladin / Feral team. On the other hand, the boss encounters in Sunwell that benefit from a third tank (such as
M'uru /
Entropius) put out considerable amounts of tank damage while simultaneously requiring very high tank TPS to keep aggro over healers and DPS, and the Fury spec is unable to gear for both of these constraints at the same time, as it is heavily reliant on offensive gear choices for Threat generation. As a result, if your raid team does choose to 3-tank one or more
Sunwell Plateau bosses for safety or consistency, then a second Feral
Druid will be a far better off-tank choice this phase.
