[Cat] Feral as DPS

[Longrod Vonhugendong]

I love my cat its my favorite character and i have all 10 classes at 85 and raid on most of them i have maybe 5 heroic pieces or so and can pull a good 45-50k single target which may not be the top for melee dps but a good cat can still pump out some pretty nice numbers. If you like your rogue and hunter you might like feral dps but the energy regen is a lot slower so its less spamming like a combat rogue where your constantly energy capped. It does feel similar but its more about managing your DOT's, buffs ,and debuffs than trying to waste as little focus or energy as possible like with SV or combat that have little issues with not having enough resources, you can go a second or 2 between hitting shred as a cat some times from lack of energy. I did recently get screwed into being the OT for morcock ultra and ship unfortunately but even as a bear i do over 30k on ultraxion which is kinda fun as a tank.

[FeralSynapse]

Yes, pure cats are still around. I wouldn't say its rare to find them but most people don't want to dps as a cat in a raid setting. Feral Kitty is my main spec and that's the spec I play during our raids. I don't get asked to tank, our boomkin is actually our off tank oddly enough. Maybe I just got lucky with my raid group (25 man) given they let us play the class and spec we want 99% of the time. Cat dps is at an okay place in the moment, even in heroics. Though to be honest, I wouldn't raid if I couldn't play the class/ spec I wanted. My main is a kitty DPS that's the role I fill, no questions asked. I will tank for my guild's 5 mans if no one else will/can, but I'd never tank a raid on my feral. I like bear but it doesn't even come close to cat in my eyes.

[aggixx]

The majority of the preconceptions in this thread are pretty much going out the window with Mists of Pandaria. Feral will be rather similar to Balance in regards to their flexibility: your gear has a lot of overlap with Guardian so your guild may ask to tank for them if you already have the gear.

Bearcatting in MoP is dead. Feral is pure DPS and Guardian is pure tank.

[wynterlyn]

Do they exists? I'm wondering because i still have to decide for my 3rd toon for MoP (i want to limit myself to 3 in mop, tired of wasting so much time on alts i end up disliking). I currently play a Hunter and a Rogue (8/8H DS and 6/8H DS respectively). I love playing with energy-based classes, it feels combat flows so well as them, so obviously i'm curious about ferals now, never made a druid before.

Problem is that, i've been raiding since Karazhan and i don't EVER remember playing with a purely dpsing feral druid, outside an offtank going dps for some one-tank fights or things like that. Are they not viable at all, or people playing ferals would just rather tank? Can they compete with other classes?

Specially since feral specs are dissasociated in MoP, are they gonna be needed/wanted? Are they looking decent at the moment on beta, even if i know its at a very early stage.

Thanks for the infos, i'm still debating between him and a Monk so any infos would be appreciated .

I think Druids as DPS are the least represented class in 10 mans. Everyone loves a good resto druid. Don't forget Monks are going to be another melee class so Feral is going to be having even more competition. I didn't see a single rogue in any of my PUG raids and my guild didn't even have a rogue in its roster. There are just too many melee classes right now that are competing for 2-3 spots. And especially when certain fights regquire only 1 tank and 1 of the tanks is a Bear. Makes it even worse.

This is purely from a 10 man perspective.

Ret Paladins and Frost/Unholy DKs are pretty common to see in most raids. Most people like to go either with a warrior and a Pally tank or a DK accordingly. They you have the range classes. Hunters and Mages are pretty much always taken. Then you have 3 heals with 2-3 having a DPS off spec between them. So that basically leaves 1 spot open for another DPS which has to compete with a shammy and a lock if there isn't a Shammy healer in the group. So druids are kinda left behind in most 10 mans unless a roster is built from scratch with a bunch of friends each playing their own favourite class.

However, things are different in 25 Man. Most guilds take a maximum of 3 of each class so you will always find room in a 25 Man guild. But not really sure in a 10 Man since Paladins, Frost DKs bring better burst damage as melee. Most raids are going to be looking 4-5 melee including tanks. I am currently levelling a Druid Resto as my main spec and either going to go balance or feral as my off spec. But I enjoy healing so I am sticking with restoration for now. Hope this helps.

[Tandrius]

I've been playing feral for two expansions now (played since vanilla, but switched to kitty at the end of BC) and really enjoy it, particularly for it's mobility. Dps is competitive, if slightly lower than other melee classes, but in an average to above average guild you can easily top meters on fights that don't kill kitty dps (more in a sec). They also have great utility abilities and popping a tranq or bear-barksking taunting the last couple secs of a boss for a win w/e is always fun.

That being said, kitties are being neutered in a lot of ways in MoP, so really look at where the class is going, not where it is now, before you choose, as this expansion is almost over. Kitty rotation is getting much more punishing, ramp up time will be longer, mobility is being cut somewhat, utility is being adjusted (lose some, gain some). Kitties always have had fights that they will do subpar dps on due to positional requirements, add waves, or target swaps. MoP is actually making all of these problems worse unless something changes (so far no dev comments). Go browse the beta class forum and read the reviews of MoP feral before you choose. I myself can say that it is unlikely I will play kitty in MoP if it goes live in its current state, especially with boomkins becoming so enticing.

[HodariQT]

Being a main spec feral for a while now (t11, end t12-current) I can say that it's pretty hard to find a competitive guild looking for ferals (if you're looking like top 50us or so). And in 10m guilds you'd probably be better suited to an offtanking role.

But to answer the questions about pure DPS - Currently I'm 1 piece away from full BiS (damn Vial), and I'm consistently in the top tier of dps where it's just kind of a stand and deliver fight. Ultraxion is whacky because of the no shredding, but I can still pull over 44k.

Since I'm brandy spanking new to the forums I can't post logs or links of any kind, but if you Search for Reckoning on Mannoroth on WoL you can see where I stand as a feral.
Can also armory Hodari on Mannoroth to see the gear, but it's pretty much Full BiS with a 384 vial xD

[Feline Grace]

Been mainspecc feral dps since Wotlk, and heroic raiding thro Cata (10 man), always DPS (tank if desperate, but very rarely). I'm usually top dmg/dps as Feral kitty, and just some k behind our SP with Legendary usually if he's in the group (depends on the fight too ofc.) They're fine doing competitive dps. + We're gd damn awesome with instant BR's and emergency tanking while the tank get's BR'd /healed up ;D

But yeah, some changes to kittys in MoP, will see how it turns out come live, it's still in Beta, many buffs or nerfs will be going on all the time But I honestly doubt they'll be changed a lot dps wise atleast.

[Vyncent]

Well, soon you won't have a choice if you want to be Feral.

Actually, that is incorrect. In MoP, you have the choice of being Guardian = Bear/Tank, Feral = Cat/DPS, Moonkin = DPS, or Restoration = Healing. So there is a choice, it is merely up to the individual on what they wish to spec as.

[huth]

Check that list you just wrote up again. If you're Feral in MoP, you're DPS. No choice there.

[Gear-Paw]

i always try to do a dps/tank or dps/heals
that way i can help out where my raid needs me

[DarksideBeckons]

Feral is definitely how you want to go for leveling. However, if you find that you have trouble keeping up end game, you can always re-spec. It's not that hard to gear up, and the great thing about druids is the diversity. You will literally have 4 different specs in MoP

[Flufflemonster]

They've nerfed feral druids cats. They only make around max 75-78k DPS. Balance druids do a lot more damage than feral cats. They're taking away most bleed moves and a bunch of other stuff in MOP, and they're taking way the 25% attack power bonus for ferals. They're basically fail cat rogues now. I used to want to be a druid, now I'm just goin Rogue.

[aggixx]

I don't think you understand how beta works.

[Warwulf]

I don't think you understand how beta works.

Indeed, they haven't even gotten to the numbers balancing yet. The majority of classes are merely functional right now as we pinpoint bugs etc.

The sky is not falling.

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

If you dont wanna tank, dont play a feral druid. All I can say.

No reason for you to limit yourself to only DPS as a druid. Raid wouldent like that either imo. Else were more than fine, maybe not so much in 10 mans.

Ferals have their spot in a 25man raid setup, they bring a certain utility with stampeding roar and 4set T13 raid cd is very nice. Their single target isn't top but their burst aoe dps is pretty high up on the chain, only behind arms warrior imo. In a 10man it all depends on what the other dps you have with you, although with the nerfs now and 10man in general requires less numbers (because of buffs and so on, not starting an arguement!) go with what you want.

I raid 25man heroic on my feral alt and for single tank encounters it's fucking amazing to have a feral druid as backup if for some reason the only tank dies, not to mention the other perks like Tranquility, feral 4set, stampeding roar, combat ress and great burst aoe (which DS needs).

[Bluesilverkt]

Okay, so I have been playing my feral kitty since late Ulduar. I can honestly say that in my time raiding in a 25 man guild Feral cat as pure DPS was pretty rare to see. I was the only feral for a long time in my guild and the few I knew on server stopped playing. I would also like to state that ferals can indeed to decent dps but they def need to work just slightly harder than some other classes who can breeze through the meters. I have always been decent in our runs and I tend to often rank on fights with other people who are better geared than I but what does suck is that even though I'm playing at 100%+ for my class at times I still am not top dps for that attempt. Sucks working so hard to end up at average lol. My Druids name is Siendel and she is on the Kirin Tor server if you want to look at the armory.

In the end I just wanna leave it as follows: Pure Cat Druids are rare to find indeed, but if you work Hard on your class, as many have said, you should be able to get into a competitive 10 man guild and do great!

[Teamflash]

I play feral cat as main raiding, and i find it absolutley amazing. I can easily top the meters (only exception is our rogues and ultraxion)
It's a really awsome and fun class to play, i used to be resto, but since there are so incredibly many of them nowadays, i went feral.

The style of playing it, the rotation aswell as secondary stats, can take qutie a bit (and then i mean many hours) of practicing and reading to understand and learn to perfection.

I've never had any trouble really in competing with topdpsers in my guild, except for if im halfasleep or slacking, than it is easily noticable by a high dpsdrop.

But yeah, you should definitly level it up! It is an awsome fun class to play, when you know how to play it. (I spent many frustrating hours at start not being able to push dps aswell having troubles dying, but one day, i got past that stage).

[Ieft]

I love my druid, purely because I play hybrid tank / cat. Reforge mastery use dps trinkets. It's so good to be able to adequately tank then swap and dps during the same fight.

[Neglesh]

I larve my druid.

Instant flight form
Smexy kitty DPS
Versatility
Bear dance moves....

[GangreI]

I would say you should give feral a try, it's the only spec so far that I haven't gotten bored of(been playing since vanilla, and as feral since start of TBC), the dps "rotation" has been quite boring in Cata, atleast compared to wrath, but the old savage roar is coming back in MoP so it should be abit more challenging again though the baseline increased duration of savage roar and rake and rip since wrath will make it alot easier than it was then.
Also swipe gives cp's on beta now aswell so AoE will be easier to maximize as SR will be easier to keep up while aoe'ing plus we get thrash aswell so aoe will be abit more interresting.
We are loosing the ability to spec bearcat, you can argue it's good or bad, it's always been mostly situational, though it was fun on spine hc, tanking amalgamations with a bearcat spec and topping tendon dmg.

In the end if you enjoy a challenge feral is a nice spec.