Feral-cat or boomkin

[Plaincow]

I was just curious which is better dps at 80. i am now a feral cat and able to pull 3.5k dps for about 2min and im in blues and a few epics. just wondering how boomkin dps would fare against feral in about the same item lvl of gear.

[Doompanther]

In my view, they're about the same right now. Feral might be just a hair better though depending on if you can master the rotations... which just got easier in the last patch .

[Bigslick]

just wondering how boomkin dps would fare against feral in about the same item lvl of gear.

A lot of it will depend on the nature of the fight (target switching, movement requirements, etc), and what range ilvl gear you're looking at. Early on (200'sh blues/early purples) you're going to have to spec into some of the regen talents for boomkin or face some mana issues, so will be at a bit more of a disadvantage than ferals in that respect. Both will be far from hitting their respective caps (haste/crit softcaps for balance, crit/arp for kitty). By the time you hit ToC+ gearing (basically once you've done a fair amount of badge grinding), you'll be pushing competitive dps as moonkin, with the recent Starfall buff - though generally speaking, you'd probably still do more damage overall as kitty.

In short, play the one you enjoy more. If it's a toss-up for you, go with that lets your gear more easily map over to your intended off-spec (balance w/ resto, feral kitty w/ bear).

[Merlinsback]

Might be about the same with trees and the starfall buff... balance is sick damage, tho I've never raided in wrath as feral...

[Triston]

Pick whichever you end up enjoying more. Both do good enough damage to compete for raid spots.

[Xarantaur42]

From what I've heard, mastering feral cat rotations are the key to doing well with them. As for my own personal opinion, I found it much easier to press 2 buttons and be awesome as a boomkin

In comparable gear, however, I've seen cats pull 600-900 more DPS than me. Whether that's experience or what, I'm not sure.

In the end, try them both out and do what you enjoy: melee or ranged.

[Deleted]

It really depends on what you want to play as. Would you really pick feral to do a few hundred more DPS, when you really want to play a caster? And vice versa.

Moonkins are doing quite well after the latest patch, and are very capable of keeping up with the rest of a raid group. I can't speak for cats, but thats probably much the same.

Pick what you prefer