Kitty DPS: Hit? & Anything Else You Think I Should Know

[Invi]

No, although I assume you're expecting it, I am not asking what the hit cap is.

Rather, should I be aiming for it immediately?

I was talking to a Feral druid in my main's raiding guild, and she said something about being fine in 25 Naxx with only a little over 100+ hit or so.

Now, I just hit 80 on my druid... 7 hours ago.
In kitty, I'm sitting at about 5900AP, 114 hit (need to throw on one last gem, will hit 120), 155 ArP (12.59%), 37.93% crit, and 18 Expertise.

I would link armory, but it has me at 75 still. /kick

I'm currently gemmed for hit, if you hadn't picked that up. I have a few crafted epics, including TSD.

So, how important is it? Should I be aiming for the cap, or wait for it to come to me, and just take hit upgrades when it is a good overall upgrade?

Not going to lie, this is the first DPS character I plan on raiding on. My Shaman main has always been Resto, and I only leveled my Hunter for kicks. Maybe ran Kara on it a couple times when I wasn't in BT / Hyjal / Sunwell with my guild.

So, thoughts? Suggestions?

Anything on kitty dps in general is welcomed, although I think I have the priority list down pretty well. Just not 100% at maintaining it yet. xD

[arel00]

In short: hit and expertise until the caps, 50% critical strike chance, and then agi/ArP.

If you want details, go over the Cat guide.

[Khalelia]

In short: hit and expertise until the caps, 50% critical strike chance, and then agi/ArP.

If you want details, go over the Cat guide.

in short: (sort of) wrong.

Hit doesn't improve your dps as much as agi or arPen will. In fact, I gem for hit ONLY if the socket bonus is REALLY good.

What hit does: It eases your rotation. Being hitcapped/expertise capped allows you to look at your timers and not having to worry about missing a move.

Being in your position, I would gem for pure AGI, except the ones needed for Metas. This should bring you to ~40% crit.

Edit: Probably more helpful than regemming for a starting cat: Try out one of these Addons: Facemauler or FeralByNight.

These two help you with the "rotation".

[Invi]

Being in your position, I would gem for pure AGI, except the ones needed for Metas. This should bring you to ~40% crit.

I don't have a Meta yet, or a helm that will hold one. xD

Would a 4 ArP bonus warrant a hit gem?

My sockets right now are Blue, 8 AP
Yellow, 4 haste
And Yellow, 4 ArP

[Khalelia]

I don't have a Meta yet, or a helm that will hold one. xD

Would a 4 ArP bonus warrant a hit gem?

My sockets right now are Blue, 8 AP
Yellow, 4 haste
And Yellow, 4 ArP

Agi, agi, agi. Strong bonuses would be: +4 Agi, +6 agi, + 4 Strength.

After looking up your armory: forget regeming, you wouldn't see the effects. As a short guide:

1.) Download Facemauler or FeralbyNight.

2.) Get a helmet with a Meta slot (Meta: 21 agi + 3%Crit dmg)

3.) Start trying out, how much hit you would need personally (I play with 110, with T7.25). For example, experiment with the bufffoods (40 hit vs. 40 Agi).

[Invi]

Agi, agi, agi. Strong bonuses would be: +4 Agi, +6 agi, + 4 Strength.

After looking up your armory: forget regeming, you wouldn't see the effects. As a short guide:

1.) Download Facemauler or FeralbyNight.

2.) Get a helmet with a Meta slot (Meta: 21 agi + 3%Crit dmg)

3.) Start trying out, how much hit you would need personally (I play with 110, with T7.25). For example, experiment with the bufffoods (40 hit vs. 40 Agi).

Am I still level 75 on armory? Was last time I checked. Not the same gear. I will probably still go re-gem, though, unless you think that would be counterproductive.

I've seen Facemauler.. I might look at it, but I am not too interested in an addon telling me exactly what to do when. Takes some of the fun out of it. If I remember it correctly, I'd rather watch timers myself. I will look up Feralbynight to see what it is though. Right now I'm just using Needtoknow and Dotimers.

[EzriEU]

In (very) short:

Hit and Exp don't benefit cats as much as other classes due to the nature of the WoW hit-table and the class' mechanics.

The only thing Hit and Expertise do is easing your "rotation" (as far as there is one). But remember, as much as a missed Shred will give you no CP, a Crit will give you two, and Primal Precision covers for much of the energy loss if you miss a finisher.

This is pure theory, of course, and I'm no expert in Feral DPS by far. Personally, I do better DPS if I'm close to Hit and Expertise capped, since the eased "rotation" makes me fuck up less.

Everything else you may want to know can be found in Nightcrowler's guide over at elitistjerks. I's a very good read!

[Khalelia]

In (very) short:

Hit and Exp don't benefit cats as much as other classes due to the nature of the WoW hit-table and the class' mechanics.

The only thing Hit and Expertise do is easing your "rotation" (as far as there is one). But remember, as much as a missed Shred will give you no CP, a Crit will give you two, and Primal Precision covers for much of the energy loss if you miss a finisher.

This is pure theory, of course, and I'm no expert in Feral DPS by far. Personally, I do better DPS if I'm close to Hit and Expertise capped, since the eased "rotation" makes me fuck up less.

Everything else you may want to know can be found in Nightcrowler's guide over at elitistjerks. I's a very good read!

This sums it up quite good. Plus to mention: Nightcrowler is the author of Feralbynight IIRC.

[Invi]

I've read through everything I can find once or twice. xD
My brain just doesn't seem to keep info in there very long. /sigh

Between Facemauler and Feralbynight, if I WERE to use one, which is more accurate in it's timing? I'm having an issue when more than one thing is about to expire at once, my brain kinda shuts down and is like 'duuuuhhh. priority, wutsat?'

I enjoy playing this character, so even if I only play it casually, it's not going to bother me. If I'm not topping charts? I'll get over it and go heal some til I feel better. xD

If hit is going to help the rotation a decent bit, I'll probably work on getting a bit more. Just cause I want to be safe.


&& Where can I get Feralbynight?
I think Facemauler is on Curse, but I don't see the other one.

[Nenaunir]

http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t49702-f...mulation_tool/

The simulation tool and matching addon are both in there. Also read through that topic if you didn't yet, quite a bit of good information too.

[Helansin]

Dont gem for hit, ever. or expertise...

It will come with gear as it improves.

Although enchanting for it isnt such a bad idea on Wrists and gloves (i think thier is a expertise enchant on gloves atleast been a while since i looked) Expertise is fairly easy to softcap though, and that is what you want to get most importantly (without gemming for it)

You can get some good items quite easily with plenty of hit you can pickup in heroics and such.

And its pointless gemming or altering gems for ArP bonuses at your gear lvl, yes its a great stat for ferals. But only once you have enough AP/Crit (agility) to make it worth while. once your close to 50% or so crit you can start to look to more ArP for bigger benifits, but again, a general rule most will go by is unless thier is 200 or so ArP from gear its still better to stick with agility untill you reach that from gear then you can change gemming to ArP.

As for the Facemauler addons and whatever... as long as your not completely incompetent in your playing and track your debuffs (such as a DoTimer) well you will notice no difference between using one and not using it...

[Invi]

Testing Fbn on a test dummy, I did about 200 more dps with it. Not about to use it as a crutch, and I still intend on using my own timers, but I think I will leave it on until I am comfortable enough to not look at it and still pull the same numbers.

Methinks I need to get over my fear of pulling aggro though. In the heroics I've run so far, my DPS has been way less than what I know I am capable of, more than likely because I was abotu to pull agg, or in the event that I was trying to not get behind a mob for fear of the next pull that was close and may have aggroed.

I usually play a healer, so dps is new to me.. And so is having to stand behind /everything/.

Any advice for a scaredy cat?

lolbadpun

notrly.

[Selverein]

Ugh... people need to look up info rather than just spreading things they've heard elsewhere.

Yes, Hit and Expertise will up your DPS. Is Hit/Exp cap necessary? No, unlike other classes. I find that getting within 2% of total miss/dodge chance is enough, but that's only personal preference. But if you don't have any Hit/Exp cause you're waiting on gear, you'll need to find a guild willing to carry you cause your DPS will be piss poor.

14.5% combined miss/dodge chance is awful. Slow CP generation means keeping SR And Rip up will be a pain. Mangle/Rake will be another pain. I would try to cover at least half of this miss/dodge chance first. Bigger hits won't do anything for you if they can't land.

Gemming or enchanting for Hit/Exp is the same most of the time. Boots for example will trade 16 Agi for 12 Hit and 12 Crit, a good deal at higher Agi values or lower Hit values.

Now, for aggro, don't worry about it if you got a good tank. A little bragging aside, I regularly top DPS on stationary fights and I have yet to pull aggro unless something goes wrong. (In fact innate threat reduction usually puts me behind other classes doing lower DPS) Once you get good gear you might want to just give the tank 2-3s before starting your rotation.

For addons I use DroodFocus personally and I love it, but other DoT timers might work for you just fine. I strongly advise against Facemauler and the likes, they don't help learning at all imo.

[Dagothar]

Wow have any of u guys done ulduar, there are a ton of boss fights where ur facing the boss. I would say u can be around 240-250 hit and be fine. They are right dont ever gem for hit, but i would say if u have to gem for expertise. There are alot of boss fights that u will not be behind the boss 100% of the time and that expertise does help. Bosses like Kologarn and Auriaya witch u will be facing them most of the time and are not able to use shred, witch by the way sucks.

[Fannyd]

Read this and all will become slightly clearer:

http://ensidia.com/home/guides/complete-feral/

There's nothing like learning from the master

[acuteangina]

Read this and all will become slightly clearer:

http://ensidia.com/home/guides/complete-feral/

There's nothing like learning from the master

Taking notes from banned ppl?

[getefix]

Wow have any of u guys done ulduar, there are a ton of boss fights where ur facing the boss. I would say u can be around 240-250 hit and be fine. They are right dont ever gem for hit, but i would say if u have to gem for expertise. There are alot of boss fights that u will not be behind the boss 100% of the time and that expertise does help. Bosses like Kologarn and Auriaya witch u will be facing them most of the time and are not able to use shred, witch by the way sucks.

God no... If you're not going to be behind the boss then your dps is going to be crap anyway because you can't shred. If you're below the expertise cap then look for gear that has expertise on it. Never use an expertise gem in a red slot instead of agil or arpen.

Taking notes from banned ppl?

When did they ban Tun? Are you mixing Ensidia up with Exodus?

[EzriEU]

Wow have any of u guys done ulduar, there are a ton of boss fights where ur facing the boss. I would say u can be around 240-250 hit and be fine. They are right dont ever gem for hit, but i would say if u have to gem for expertise. There are alot of boss fights that u will not be behind the boss 100% of the time and that expertise does help. Bosses like Kologarn and Auriaya witch u will be facing them most of the time and are not able to use shred, witch by the way sucks.

Ugh....

Ever played a Feral Druid? If you can't stand behind the boss you may as well tank, go afk or heal, since your DPS will be terrible anyway. Not even respeccing to a completely Mangle-based spec will save you.

So why the hell gem for Expertise?

[insurgi]

get more hit
nothing like failing a rotation cause u missed ur target..aslo its down rite anoying to miss

get close to hit cap. get as close to 50% critt as u can for starters.
also armor penetration is the win AFTER ur close to hit cap.there is no point in hitting hard and brutal if you miss all the time.

btw dont even listen to me or the others here.go read a decent
"how to kitty thread"

spend 30 mins of this will make u more smarter then reading QQ posts here.

[arel00]

Taking notes from banned ppl?

They banned Exodus, not Ensidia, fanboy.