Two threads on the official Blizzard forum — one with theorycrafting and suggestions, another with a report on tanking in blue gear — agree on one thing: rage, threat and gear dependency for bear feel unfinished.

Two threads about bear druids appeared at once on the official Forever forum: one with a detailed breakdown of the mechanics and change suggestions, another with a short report on the feel of tanking in the current beta. The combined complaints point one way: the bear's baseline kit feels raw, and without gear in the right stats the spec is just unpleasant to play.

What actually hurts

The main complaints come down to three things:

• Rage. Auto-attacks are the only reliable source of rage; taking damage gives almost nothing. With auto-attacks sometimes missing, some hits generate no rage at all. At level 20 in full blues, holding aggro on 1–3 mobs is rough.
• Threat. Lacerate and Swipe are expensive on rage but do little for threat: even at full mitigation and rotating them on cooldown, DPS and healers keep ripping mobs off the tank. The author's feel is that you need a 5-second opener before every pull — and that's not just bosses, it's trash in dungeons too.
• Gear dependency. A workable build needs different stats: spell power for dungeons, defense for raids, a separate set for PvP and another for healing. The first thread's author writes outright that carrying 3–4 sets around for baseline playability isn't the kind of "classic" they're hoping for.

What theorycrafters suggest

The author of the first thread (September 28, in the "Theorycrafting & Ideas" section) offers a few concrete changes and asks for them to be evaluated as "classic-like" — not pulling the spec toward retail:

• In bear form, convert some of the attack power from agility by default — so you don't have to stack 4–6 stats at once to make the tank work.
• Swipe and some other abilities should scale with AP. Currently Swipe hits weaker than a normal auto-attack on up to three targets, so it's easier to tab-target with Lacerate.
• Bump threat multipliers a little: other tanks and even shamans got threat talents in Classic, bears didn't — that's where the "the tank can't hold aggro" feeling comes from.
• The Brutal Impact talent is currently pure PvP and nobody takes it for PvE — either bake it in baseline or rework it into an AoE ability.
• Thorns in beast forms should scale with AP and have double the duration.
• Turn "Rend and Tear" into a passive bleed for both forms and add "Thrash" as an AoE blade.

This isn't a "buff at any cost" wishlist — it's a set of changes around one thesis: the current build demands too much gear and too little from the spec's own mechanics to feel playable.

Second thread: a report from the game

The "Feral Druid Tanking Feedback" thread from September 29 is not suggestions — it's a feel report. The author tried several builds (more Swipe damage, less rage cost) and reached one conclusion: none of them change the picture. They specifically note that they're not asking for retail-grade comfort, just for the bear to feel like a tank — and for mobs to stick to it instead of the squishier party members (a mage, in the source).

Specific asks: add threat through debuffs along the lines of demo roar, make rage generation from damage taken more noticeable, and lower the rage cost of Lacerate/Swipe even if the abilities themselves stay strong.

Context

Both threads have one post each and zero replies from developers. This isn't a mass crusade — two players with concrete experience on one spec, each starting their own thread. Both threads appeared during the open beta, which runs until October 21, 2026; Forever launches November 4, 2026 at 23:00 UTC (02:00 MSK on November 5).

In practice

• Two players in two different threads flag the same problems in the current beta build; Blizzard hasn't responded yet.
• There's no concrete change plan from Blizzard on these threads — no blue posts yet.
• Until the beta closes on October 21, there's still plenty of time for iteration.