Will the next patch make you change your feral gear?

[Sharandris]

I did not waste very much thought on this yet but I guess my answer is going to be 'No'.

First of all, these changes only apply to necklaces, rings, trinkets, cloaks and weapons (I'm not completely sure about cloaks anymore but whatever).
Thus, other slots will remain unchanged.

Currently, I'm wearing the Naxx25 cloak with additional armor, the Naxx10 armor necklace, the two epic 400+ armor rings, End of Dreams and both armor trinkets.
Without knowing the stats of every single ring/trinket/whatsoever I guess there are hardly any without parry/block or too much defense on them that don't already have armor on them.

The only thing I personally consider is to switch Offering of Sacrifice witch the 111 stamina trinket.


Regarding Feral DPS we might focus on two hand maces intended for warriors/paladins - these still have strength on them. Polearms and old feral staffs don't seem to be so attractive anymore in comparison. So in the end, is getting a polearm similar to a mage getting a mainhand with mp5, so just some 'filler' until the real thing drops?


Did anyone come to the same conclusion? Or am I talking rubbish and you see other items worth having a look at?

The only reason I'm posting this is that if I see things right, Blizzard won't accomplish much with this change... it still seems a bit... pointless.

[Deleted]

Any particular reason to go str warrior maces over the agility hunter poles?

Haven't played my druid since TBC but back then at least agility was THE stat.

[Sharandris]

Any particular reason to go str warrior maces over the agility hunter poles?

Haven't played my druid since TBC but back then at least agility was THE stat.

Since Rake (cannot crit) and Savage Roar (+40% attack power) have to be up all the time now, spread sheets say that strength is the better stat in most cases now.

[Deleted]

Ah right, guess the extra AP outweights the crit then.

[vayron]

Since Rake (cannot crit) and Savage Roar (+40% attack power) have to be up all the time now, spread sheets say that strength is the better stat in most cases now.

I MAY be wrong on this, but from what I've read on EJ and this forum, strength only passes agi for benefit once you have over a certain AP figure BEFORE SR. I'm 95% positive this is the case. Agi is still king until you get somethin like 9 or 10K AP (could very likely be the wrong number there but its some fairly high FAP value). Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe I am.

One note to add if someone more abitious than me wants to look for the old threat with the info in it, I believe the numbers were from Rawr testing and the number crunching people who have far more time and patience than I do.

[hellhugger]

I MAY be wrong on this, but from what I've read on EJ and this forum, strength only passes agi for benefit once you have over a certain AP figure BEFORE SR. I'm 95% positive this is the case. Agi is still king until you get somethin like 9 or 10K AP (could very likely be the wrong number there but its some fairly high FAP value). Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe I am.

One note to add if someone more abitious than me wants to look for the old threat with the info in it, I believe the numbers were from Rawr testing and the number crunching people who have far more time and patience than I do.

You are close, but its the other way, strength is king till something like 11k ap..then agi takes over.

[Deleted]

Im a 10 man druid tank, and the changes will give me some 5k armor - i only have armor on my rings and my staff. The only change i will make is to switch my blue armor ring with Hemoraging Band. I will sacrifice some 2-400 hp for 1,2% dodge, and my mindset will probably be along those lines for the future.

[Dooudad]

going to finnaly take off my kara and badge ring and put on epic level 80's ive had for 2 months. that and ive started to roll on t7 gloves something i wouldnt really care to do just yet if they didnt lower the agi when they lowered the sta on the culling of strath quest gloves. (yes i know they were over budget, but the agi wasnt really that much over and now its under in my book, while sta is in line now)

[elapadrinar]

im pretty sure armor on cloaks will still get the multiplier. its only rings, trinkets, neck, and staff that are having it removed.

[brokendown]

im pretty sure armor on cloaks will still get the multiplier. its only rings, trinkets, neck, and staff that are having it removed.

Cloaks are in there too. I originally thought this since technically a cloak would be considered a cloth item, but I'm almost certain I saw it specifically stated in a blue post that cloaks would lose the multiplier as well.

Personally, the only change the patch is going to make for me is that I'll be looking to get the t7 gloves as my next emblem purchase instead of going for dps gear.

[elapadrinar]

"if the wording you posted in your previous post holds true, than obviously only the 8 item slots will be affected by SOTF, but what thick hide affects even with your new post is still ambiguous.
Thick Hide, Dire Bear and Survival of the Fittest only affect base armor. This is the armor on all the base armor on your gear. Leather never has bonus armor, so it's not complicated. Rings, necks, trinkets and weapons can have bonus armor. This is usually shown with the armor number in green, but confusingly, not always. Cloaks are complicated because they have base armor (which is multiplied) and sometimes bonus armor (which is not).

requesting further clarification of what exactly thick hide will and will not multiply.
Thick hide multiplies the base armor on leather and cloaks. "-blue quote from this link http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?;tpstart=42 about halfway down the page

took me a while to find it but there it is

[elapadrinar]

i found another blue post:
"Some more details to help answer some of the questions we've seen:

-- Cloaks do have base armor which gets multipled by the bear bonus.
-- There is no multiplier on any bonus armor. Not the bear bonus. Not the talent bonuses.
-- There is a 2% armor benefit you can get from a metagem.
-- The ultimate bear modifier should be 4.7 (Dire Bear form) x 1.66 (Survival of the Fittest) x 1.1 (Thick Hide) x 1.02 (meta gem).
-- The best bear we can create in current itemization has 35,907 armor, which is 68.34% mitigation vs. level 83 bosses or 70.21% mitigation versus level 80 mobs.
-- Before these changes, you might have been able to build a bear with nearly 40,000 armor, but that relies on using Defender's Code and Origin of Nightmares, items of such ridiculous power that we were going to nerf them anyway before this change. (Now they're fine.)
-- Note how close that 40,000 armor is to the cap already.
-- We do have concerns block may be too good a stat for future raids, and we'll keep an eye on it.
-- Equipping a weapon will still boost Savage Roar (and everything else) the way it does currently."

[CSJenova]

As outlined in the ela's post, cloaks WILL still get the bonus armor from talents, but only the base armor will. If the armor value on the cloak as bonus armor as well, that will be unmodified, but you will still get a bonus from the base armor. Not a HUGE difference, but just a clarification.

[Deleted]

Cloaks are in there too. I originally thought this since technically a cloak would be considered a cloth item, but I'm almost certain I saw it specifically stated in a blue post that cloaks would lose the multiplier as well.

Personally, the only change the patch is going to make for me is that I'll be looking to get the t7 gloves as my next emblem purchase instead of going for dps gear.

You must mean the bonus armor multiplier? Base armor on cloaks still get multiplied, additional armor just doesn't.

[calair]

Every time i put my gear in to the cat model with RAWR, STR/AP gems, enchants, and enhancements are coming up on top... I think this has to do with the re-itemization of the feral gear and making it the same as rogue gear.

So cat DPS it seams to be that STR/AP is the better stat, and for bear tanking AGI is still best for the dodge and armor, but the STR always helps with threat generation.

[Solux]

The Strength/AP for kitties is to do with multiplying the buffs you get from Strength in cat form through talents, then again through savage roar.

Bears still want armor and Stamina as well as Dodge and agility for Dodge and armor, especially once we reach around 45% dodge, when the mitigation curve really starts to bite in on us, around 50% is where we completely have to stop stacking dodge, it's just not worth it. That said, we can also reach very high HP pools and very few things require 40k HP to tank, though they do exist. Sarth with 3 drakes up is a good, commonly cited example. The amount of dodge we get from Agility isn't what it used to be either, though I personally try to get a substantial proportion of dodge from agility, taking dodge rating in slots where agility isn't common combined with other tanking stats, like rings and trinkets. I like agility for Crit chance and bonus rage generation which again equates to more threat. That said, threat isn't an all out race like it used to be. Bears should be able to tank for people geared over them fairly easily if they know what they're doing and especially if they remember tab-targeting can still be used on multi-mob pulls instead of relying on swipe and glyph appropriately (anyone who beartanked Shattered Halls back when swipe only hit 3 targets knows what I mean here). As a 70 Bear I tanked for an 80 Lock, since I picked up Lich King late and had no real issues with threat, though that wasn't in true tanking gear.

[elapadrinar]

Every time i put my gear in to the cat model with RAWR, STR/AP gems, enchants, and enhancements are coming up on top... I think this has to do with the re-itemization of the feral gear and making it the same as rogue gear.

So cat DPS it seams to be that STR/AP is the better stat, and for bear tanking AGI is still best for the dodge and armor, but the STR always helps with threat generation.

we are talking about armor on bears...

[Elunedra]

armor is still a verry good stat for feral but i think ill swap my 350 armor neckless for hiritage whit extra hit / dodge

and ill swap my 490 armor cape whit that nerubhide cape i gues.

and ill defently drop my badge of tanacy that i used whe i jsut digned 80 to get some more decent armor

i realy like dodge over all tbh :P

[elapadrinar]

armor is still a verry good stat for feral but i think ill swap my 350 armor neckless for hiritage whit extra hit / dodge

and ill swap my 490 armor cape whit that nerubhide cape i gues.

and ill defently drop my badge of tanacy that i used whe i jsut digned 80 to get some more decent armor

i realy like dodge over all tbh :P

i wouldnt drop that cloak quite yet. i dont know how much of that 490 armor is "bonus armor." anyone know where we could find this?

[danoontje]

I dont think we can find the base armor value yet since the blue posts was very vague about it. Perhaps PTR?