Feral DPS - Need Help.

[nachitoh]

Hi guys,

I'm having a few problems with my dps. I have 8/16 25man gear and i cannot reach more than 2.5k dps.
I've never been dps before.
I'm having troubles with energy management too.

Any tip?

Thanks a lot.

Ps: I've already know the rotation: rake, mangle, rip, debuffs up, savage roar up, shred for CP, tiger's fury <30 energy, berserk >75
Ps: Sorry for my english, i'm from arg.

[Serai]

you dont really rotate as a druid these days do you?
its just keeping priority based what buff to keep up

savage roar. then mangle then rip and rake

but can you link your armory?

[arel00]

Armory link please. If you know the dps priority list and you're doing it right, then it's most likely a matter of gear / spec.
By your saying that you have problem with energy though, I'd say you have a messed up rotation. Which means: post EXACTLY your priority list when doing dps.

[Humankeg]

i do about 5k dps on patchwerk, i have "Badkitty" DOT timer and its really helpful to keep good rotations goin and knowing when u have to use what.
WWS: http://wowwebstats.com/s61jna13ggnua?s=199015-223160
Armory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...jal&n=Humankeg

that WWS was from last night, January 29/30th. was the first time i didnt have to be full tank spec for raid. Its also not the best dps spec. i still had to get some talents for tankin because i still had to tank on a couple boss's.

[nachitoh]

why do u use str gems?

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...ros&n=Fhendras

Priority list:

- SR
- Rake
- Mangle
- Rip
- TF and Berserk when on CD.

I'm downloading "Badkitty" now....

Thanks a lot.


Ps: really, why str gems? xD

[Daez]

Ps: Sorry for my english, i'm from arg.

You write better English than 99% of the people on this board that are from English speaking countries, so no need to apologize. Everything so far seems relatively in order. If you want serious help you are going to have to post your armory though.

[Daez]

By your saying that you have problem with energy though, I'd say you have a messed up rotation. Which means: post EXACTLY your priority list when doing dps.

My guess if there is an energy problem would be a messed up spec as well.

[CSJenova]

STR will scale better than agility until above 10k AP unbuffed. The way that SR scales our AP now...STR will go a longer way to increasing your DPS than agility.

If you OT...agility gems are a great idea...but for straight kitty dps, STR gems beat AP and Agility gems until a gear level we currently don't have to worry about.

[nachitoh]

You write better English than 99% of the people on this board that are from English speaking countries, so no need to apologize. Everything so far seems relatively in order. If you want serious help you are going to have to post your armory though.

lol, thanks :P

Well, i've already posted my armory link in the last post. Please check it and comment.

With this gear... str or agi gems?

[Daez]

STR will scale better than agility until above 10k AP unbuffed. The way that SR scales our AP now...STR will go a longer way to increasing your DPS than agility.

Strength might give a little higher attack power but agility gives attack power and critical strike rating. Can you link a source that claims that strength is better than agility for cat druids? I'm not going to say you are completely wrong, but I unless something changed drastically from TBC, agility is the end all be all stat for cat dps.

[Serai]

your data is old, everything did change, there is savage roar now

elitist jerks determined that with savage roar always up the value of attack power increases so much that str becomes better than agi
even without socketing agi you easily reach 40% crit

[Tinderhoof]

A few things that might be able to help you.

I took a look at what I assume is your cat gear. Right now you are WAY over the hit cap right now (324). The hit cap for melee is 262. Any hit over 262 is pretty much wasted. As you are an alchemist you could replace your Sphere of Dragons Blood with your alchemy dps trinket with very little cost to you. Also I would suggest going and getting Wyrmrest exaulted bracers for your dps set. The bindings of the tunneler are great for tanking, but not as good for dps.

Both of these gear upgrades I have mentioned are not by far best in slot, but are quick and cheap upgrades to what you have now.


About your spec, its seems you only dps as you have not picked most of the tank talents "thick hide, natural reactions", but you did pick protector of the pack. If you are pure kitty dps and you don't tank anything outside of a heroic those points would be better spent in something like feral aggression. I MT most of the 10 man runs I go one, but off tank and DPS the 25 man content I go to. Here is the spec I chose thats more tank specific but with enough cat points to do decent damage.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...r&n=Tinderhoof

Hope that was some help to you.

-Tinder

[Rathyl]

Strength is the bast scaling stat, over the smaller AP and crit from agi just due to how a druid works. The higher AP of strength scales far better with savage roar. On top of that, rip and rake account for a large portion of damage on average, and those gain almost no benefit from crit (outside of rake CPs).

[Daez]

I'm still going to say agility is better until I get a link from a knowledgeable source that says differently.

Gear:

Greater Inscription of the Axe (40 ap 15 crit) on your shoulders. Even if you have to tank with the same shoulders 40 ap 15 crit is better.

Switch your chest to 2 16 agility gems. Druids have a less than 1.0 attack speed. Having an attack missed/dodged is not going to bother us as much as it would other classes. Hit and expertise are not near the top of the list of things we actually need.

Enchant your wrist with greater assault (50 attack power) and not expertise.

Enchant your hands with major agility (20 agility) instead of expertise.

Change the critical strike rating gem in your legs to agility and forget the 9 stamina bonus.

Get superior agility (16 agility) on your boots and dump icewalker.

Get meteorite whetstone or anvil of the titans as your second trinket to replace Sphere of the Red Dragon's Blood.

Your spec is fine. I would consider reworking it to put 5 points in Feral Aggression for the higher FB damage. FB is going to be the vast majority of your trash dps. They simply don't live long enough to keep a decent bleed rotation on them. It is also going to be the vast majority of your damage when you are under 10% health on a boss.

Put another point in improved LotP. Its a heal to almost all melee and ranged that doesn't require the healers to do anything. Those types of things should never be overlooked.

If you don't tank then the places you should consider getting these extra 6 points from are SI, Feral Swiftness, Protector of the Pack (5 points) and possibly primal precision because it seems your expertise is already on the high side.

I'm not sure why but your crit just seems low. The major stats for druids are attack power and critical strike rating. You get both from agility so you are going to want to max out agility as much as possible. Hopefully changing the enchants and gems around should raise your critical strike rating.

[Daez]

I'm going to have to agree that after you hit 40% critical strike rating then strength does seem the way to go. I wasn't actually figuring in savage roar, and my data is outdated. I'm still stuck in TBC mentality. However, if you aren't at 40% critical strike rating then agility is still the way to go because druids are still heavily crit based regardless of rather it scales sr, rip, and rake due to the fact that every crit you do land will give you two combat points instead of one.

After 40% crit you should probably start worrying much more about attack power though and start gemming for strength and most likely enchanting for attack power over agility.

[illbanu]

http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr

Get it.

Str works out better than Agi at most of the current wotlk gear lvls, but since it depends on your personal gear... plug your gear into Rawr and see what it tells you.

Id also say get feral aggression. Even tho you dont use FB much, its still a dps increase.

[Rathyl]

Just as a quick thing, that armory is at 40%. Don't forget to add the 11% added by cat form+LotP. Not saying you are wrong, just saying the stats wouldn't be that clear cut in that case.

[Daez]

Just as a quick thing, that armory is at 40%. Don't forget to add the 11% added by cat form+LotP. Not saying you are wrong, just saying the stats wouldn't be that clear cut in that case.

Feel free to say I am wrong. If I am wrong someone please tell me. Its been a long time since I actually played my feral druid and when I did it was pre-tbc. She is 80 now but she is restor mostly. When I was feral I broke 2500 dps as a bear spec in cat with the current gear I have, but I would always like to know how to improve the class. Maybe the op is at a point where str and attack power would become much more important to them, and in that case I would be wrong. Sorry if I am.

[illbanu]

Just to check it out for fun (since i play my druid as resto mostly) i plugged the numbers into rawr. Even in all Best in slot gear, Str gems are still slightly ahead of agi... numbers might change once you have ulduar lvl gear, but for now str>agi.

[Tinderhoof]

I'm still going to say agility is better until I get a link from a knowledgeable source that says differently.

I will be happy to provide 3:
Toskk has been a very knowledgeable source in regards to kitty dps for a long time.
http://druid.wikispaces.com/ToskksDPSGearMethod

Elitist Jerks are unquestionably at the cutting edge of theory crafting:
http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t36999-feral_druid_numbers/

Rawr is an extremely useful tool when it comes to min/maxing stats:
http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr

All 3 show clearly that Strength > Agility until you get to 10k ap unbuffed. Now you shouldn’t avoid agility as it’s a good stat, but if you are only doing kitty dps you should be using strength gems and ap enchants. If you are doing tanking mixed in you should give equal weight to both.

Gear:

Greater Inscription of the Axe (40 ap 15 crit) on your shoulders. Even if you have to tank with the same shoulders 40 ap 15 crit is better.

Switch your chest to 2 16 agility gems. Druids have a less than 1.0 attack speed. Having an attack missed/dodged is not going to bother us as much as it would other classes. Hit and expertise are not near the top of the list of things we actually need.

Enchant your wrist with greater assault (50 attack power) and not expertise.

Enchant your hands with major agility (20 agility) instead of expertise.

Change the critical strike rating gem in your legs to agility and forget the 9 stamina bonus.

Get superior agility (16 agility) on your boots and dump icewalker.

Get meteorite whetstone or anvil of the titans as your second trinket to replace Sphere of the Red Dragon's Blood.

You must be very careful here. To be able to make sure you never fall below the hit cap. As I suggested before getting a different trinket for Dragons blood is a good idea, getting rid of Icewalker is bad. It gives you both hit and crit, which no other enchant does (save BC helm enchant). I agree that you shouldn’t be gemming crit strike at all. You will get more crit with crit rating, but agility will give more diverse stats. How ever if you are not doing any tanking the agility on your gear will be enough.

Your spec is fine. I would consider reworking it to put 5 points in Feral Aggression for the higher FB damage. FB is going to be the vast majority of your trash dps. They simply don't live long enough to keep a decent bleed rotation on them. It is also going to be the vast majority of your damage when you are under 10% health on a boss.

This might have been true before the 3.0.8 patch but it’s no longer the case. Right now for trash a 2p SR, + TF + Berserk then swip is awesome. You will pull 4-5k dps will bad gear. FB is only used if you have 5 combo points, rip has 12 or more seconds to go, and you have 20 seconds on SR. Kalon a very respected theory crafter who runs Think Tank was able to hit 7-8k. http://wowthinktank.blogspot.com/200...-stuff-up.html.

Put another point in improved LotP. Its a heal to almost all melee and ranged that doesn't require the healers to do anything. Those types of things should never be overlooked.

If you don't tank then the places you should consider getting these extra 6 points from are SI, Feral Swiftness, Protector of the Pack (5 points) and possibly primal precision because it seems your expertise is already on the high side.

I'm not sure why but your crit just seems low. The major stats for druids are attack power and critical strike rating. You get both from agility so you are going to want to max out agility as much as possible. Hopefully changing the enchants and gems around should raise your critical strike rating.

If you take points out of feral swiftness you lose 15% damage from swip (bear and kitty). This would not be worth the very few FB you would get on the bosses.

-Tinder