Feral AoE

[vdub31905]

So how does this work? I feel like I have to Thrash, Swipe, TF, Swipe.......wait for energy ........Thrash, Swipe.
Is that about how it goes or am I missing something?

[Aseyhe]

For burst AoE, the thrash followed by chained swipes that you describe is fine.

For sustained AoE, you should be more conservative. Some suggestions:

• Keep thrash up, and refresh it on trinket procs.
• If Feral Fury is up (2-piece tier 16 effect, triggers from clearcast), you can dump your energy on swipe.
• Otherwise, if you're facing fewer than ~6-7 targets, you should put rake up on each target. Only use swipe to avoid capping energy, or if you need to generate combo points on a target.
• If you're facing more targets than that, you'll prefer swipe over rake, but you should still keep energy pooled in case you get a trinket proc (for thrash) or a feral fury proc (for swipe).

[vdub31905]

Awesome thanks aseyhe!

[ryklin]

also note that even with more than 6-7 targets, you can help out at the total speed of killing the whole pack by applying rakes and maybe even rips to the ones with more hp as more recently with blizzard, it tends to to be a bunch of small mobs with 2-4 big mobs while people that have stronger general aoe kill off the small ones

although, if you go for a rip, it can get somewhat risky as the mob would have to live for a while

[Silent Earth]

Berserk is also wonderful when you need heavy, sustained AoE.

[raffy]

In Catus, if you setup all your gear/buffs/etc., you can use "Swipe", "Thrash", or "Swipe & Thrash" options under "Computable Statistics" to generate a big table of potential damage. I recommend these settings as well: [x] Assume Savage Roar, [ ] Include Temporary Effects (ignores Potion/Tricks/Banner), and [ ] Use Debuffs (assumes FF isn't up).

For my gear:

Swipe:

 Power Average     Hit    Crit     AP  Crit%  # (of buffs)
 3.65x  292609  172082  344163 116299  70.0%  7  DoC  TF  T16/2p  Bleed  SS  DS            HT<580>
 3.56x  285399  169279  338557 112297  68.6%  6  DoC  TF  T16/2p  Bleed  SS                HT<580>
 3.55x  284226  168820  337640 111642  68.4%  6  DoC  TF  T16/2p  Bleed      DS            HT<580>
 3.46x  277109  166017  332034 107640  66.9%  5  DoC  TF  T16/2p  Bleed                    HT<580>
 1.00x   80137   52146  104292  70957  53.7%  0                                                   
 0.88x   70354   52146  104292  70957  34.9%  1                                  RoR<543>

Thrash (initial + 0 ticks):

 Power Average    Tick    Crit     AP  Crit% Bleed  # (of buffs)
 5.08x  322396  155291  310583 116299  51.3% 4.34x  6  DoC  TF  SS  DS  RoR<543>  HT<580>
 4.87x  308908  150162  300324 112297  49.8% 4.34x  5  DoC  TF  SS      RoR<543>  HT<580>
 4.84x  306719  149323  298645 111642  49.6% 4.34x  5  DoC  TF      DS  RoR<543>  HT<580>
 4.63x  293464  144193  288387 107640  48.2% 4.34x  4  DoC  TF          RoR<543>  HT<580>
 1.91x  121282   65002  130004  70957  34.9% 4.34x  1                   RoR<543>         
 1.00x   63434   29848   59695  70957  53.7% 1.99x  0

Note: the Power multiplier is relative to the base damage, so it's not comparable between these two tables. "Swipe & Thrash" can also be used to compare them together, it uses the # of ticks from the Thrash option.


Swipe & Thrash (0 ticks):

     Spell  Power Average     Hit    Crit     AP  Crit%  # (of buffs)
Thrash/Cat  4.02x  322396  155291  310583 116299  51.3%  6          DoC         TF  DS  SS  HT<580>  RoR<543>
Thrash/Cat  3.85x  308908  150162  300324 112297  49.8%  5          DoC         TF      SS  HT<580>  RoR<543>
Thrash/Cat  3.83x  306719  149323  298645 111642  49.6%  5          DoC         TF  DS      HT<580>  RoR<543>
Thrash/Cat  3.66x  293464  144193  288387 107640  48.2%  4          DoC         TF          HT<580>  RoR<543>
     Swipe  3.65x  292609  172082  344163 116299  70.0%  7  T16/2p  DoC  Bleed  TF  DS  SS  HT<580>          
     Swipe  3.56x  285399  169279  338557 112297  68.6%  6  T16/2p  DoC  Bleed  TF      SS  HT<580>          
     Swipe  3.55x  284226  168820  337640 111642  68.4%  6  T16/2p  DoC  Bleed  TF  DS      HT<580>          
Thrash/Cat  3.50x  280345  135036  270072 116299  51.3%  5          DoC             DS  SS  HT<580>  RoR<543>
     Swipe  3.46x  277109  166017  332034 107640  66.9%  5  T16/2p  DoC  Bleed  TF          HT<580>          
Thrash/Cat  3.35x  268616  130576  261151 112297  49.8%  4          DoC                 SS  HT<580>  RoR<543>
Thrash/Cat  3.33x  266712  129846  259691 111642  49.6%  4          DoC             DS      HT<580>  RoR<543>
     Swipe  1.00x   80137   52146  104292  70957  53.7%  0  -------------------------------------------------
Thrash/Cat  0.79x   63434   29848   59695  70957  53.7%  0

A few takeaways:
- Swipe kinda sucks with Rune up, you're missing like ~20% crit and have much lower haste
- Thrash with just Rune > Swipe with just T16/2p (best possible singular buffs)
- If you let Thrash tick at least once, it's pretty amazing
- Even the direct damage of Thrash is comparable to Swipe