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Today is the day Patch 5.0.4 hits! A whole slurry of changes prepares to slosh itself onto us. What is a newly (re)minted bear to do?!

 Be prepared to run a whole bunch of heroics to figure everything out, of course!

 After some deliberation, I have settled upon my initial build, come Tuesday. I give you "Lushious' Build of godliness and Bearocity (and Also Nuts and Berries)!"

TIER 1
I am going to miss my bear charge. A lot. Yet, I feel like the 15% movement speed gained by Feline Swiftness will be paramount in staying nimble in boss fights and quickly gaining ground on a mob that has gotten away. Though further testing may prove me way wrong here.

TIER 2
I have opted for Renewal in this tier. Yes, the free Rebirth of Nature's Swiftness is sure to be paramount in a raid environment, but only when there is no other member that can already perform a combat rez. In regards to healing, I think Renewal makes for a better "oh shit!" button. At current HP levels, it can heal for over 60k. On a properly geared tank, Healing Touch, according to my rough calculations, will only heal for around 20k. Even at the 1 minute cooldown of Nature's Swiftness, I feel Renewal will be much more useful to the large hits of bosses, when raiding.

TIER 3
Improved Faerie Swarm, I feel, is a waste, since Infected Wounds will take care of movement speed. In regards to other two spells in this tier, one could have either pick. I have decided that Mass Entanglement will ensure mobs can be firmly kept away from anyone that momentarily pulls threat away and ensures a good thrash or swipe hits all intended targets.

TIER 4
Until I can better understand the treeants' functions in Force of Nature, Soul of the Forest is my go-to skill here. The additional 2 rage will be especially helpful. In 5.0.4 it is my understanding rage generation is vastly different, with it constantly dipping up and down. Us nears can use any rage we can get now.

Incarnation: Son of Ursoc may prove to be the better skill, in practice. Similar to Berserk now, having a cooldown that allows us to do massive damage, and gain massive threat, very quickly may trump everything else in the tier. Earmark this one... I'll come back to it later.

TIER 5
Tier 5 could sway any number of ways. I've chosen Mighty Bash as an interrupt, deciding that Mass Entanglement already fills a good AoE "stun" slot.

TIER 6
Heart of the Wild's stat boost makes this one a given. Anything less is just uncivilized!


I honestly don't know how functional the non-specialization aspect of Heart of the Wild will be in a raid environment. And currently, I can only think of a few instances where it will be helpful (IE rocking Deathwing's face).

Stay tuned, my dear lone long lost reader, as I revisit this post and discuss just how wrong (or right) I am after some time with 5.0.4!

Until the next 40 yard Faerie Fire pull...

-Lushious