Feral DPS - Need Help.

[Daez]

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.

You are thinking of feral instinct not feral swiftness. If you take points out of feral swiftness and you are cat only the only thing you lose is 30% speed increase. 30% speed increase is nice, but not necessarily necessary.

Thank you for the information you provided. In TBC, hit rating didn't matter at all on druids, so a lot has changed obviously. Icewalker does seem worth keeping, but the trinket does seem like it would be better for a rogue or another dw class imo.

[False God]

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.

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.


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.


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

Wow, excellent information here. I know alot about my druid, but this is even more helpful. Thanks for the links!

[Tinderhoof]

You are thinking of feral instinct not feral swiftness. If you take points out of feral swiftness and you are cat only the only thing you lose is 30% speed increase. 30% speed increase is nice, but not necessarily necessary.

Doh! I knew I messed that one up like 5 seconds after I posted. I mix the names up all the time.

Thank you for the information you provided. In TBC, hit rating didn't matter at all on druids, so a lot has changed obviously. Icewalker does seem worth keeping, but the trinket does seem like it would be better for a rogue or another dw class imo.

No problem. Kitty dps underwent a huge change for WoTLK. We went from crit whores to being a mostly bleed focused dps. Under optimal situations like patchwork were the boss doesn't move our two bleeds Rip and Rake are going to make up over 60% of our total dps.

As for the trinket its a great starter raiding piece for druids as hit on leather is very hard to find. I am still using it myself as I haven't been as lucky with patch dropping his belt, or my rolls for the Grim Toll. it will not be the end all be all as soon as you get some of those special hit type drops from Nax and Maly.

[Tinderhoof]

Wow, excellent information here. I know alot about my druid, but this is even more helpful. Thanks for the links!

I am glad the links help. They are very targeted for one topic though so I would like to pass on and hype a few the blogs I read on a regular basis.

Of Teeth and Claws (Author Karthis)
http://teethandclaws.blogspot.com
Awesome blog if you are just beginning to get into raiding as Feral. Karthis has been a tank most of his wow playing days but he has been getting into feral dps as of late. His articles are very accessible and easy to understand. When I first started tanking Kara in BC his gearing and rotation articles took a squishy bear that could only put out 300-500tps to a face eating, armor bursting 800-1000tps in a very short time. Can't recommend his blog enough.

Flyv’s Warcraft Blog (Author Flyv)
http://flyv.typepad.com/
Flyv is a guild mate of Karthis. His articles tend to be more focused while Karthis is a little more general. This is a great compliment to Of Teeth and Claws.

Think Tank (Author Kalon)
http://wowthinktank.blogspot.com/
Kalon (or Felhoof on most forums) is a hardcore raider and very into theory crafting and numbers. His articles are focused a lot on min/maxing stats, and number crunching. Great information to know, but a base understanding of the basic math behind our abilities really helps.

Big Bear Butt Blogger (Author Big Bear Butt, BBB to his friends)
http://thebigbearbutt.com/
This is a much more casual blog then raiding focused. BBB is out to have fun and enjoy content. His articles include some great guides for casual players who might want to dabble in raiding but are more out to enjoy the standard content.

I have found all 4 bloggers to be very helpful not only from their articles but also great with answering questions left in the comments. I hope you enjoy the flood of information. :^ )
-Tinder

[Solux]

First, Thank you Tinderhoof, I think I'll be bookmarking this thread just as a compliation of so many useful sources.

@ Nachitoh

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

This isn't quite right and I'm not sure if you wrote it out wrong by accident or not.

You want to Mangle, Rake, Savage Roar, then do the rest of the stuff to keep your buffs up. Mangle makes Rake do extra damage and Savage Roar needs to go up as fast as it can.

[Tinderhoof]

Before 3.0.8 raking first was the way to go because Mangle didn't buff the first hit of rake, just the first tick (2 seconds after application). So in that case it was better to rake first. This was fixed in 3.0.8 so now Mangle will effect the first hit of rake, so now Mangle should be the opener.
-Tinder