Thoughts on Catweaving

[MookieRah]

I'm curious about what mmo champ thinks about Guardians catweaving. I'm going to try to make a very basic poll as to not taint the data.

[Edit]
So I made the poll and saved it, but now it isn't displayed. Not sure why it isn't working. Just post your thoughts regarding whether or not you like or dislike it I guess.

[Pandragon]

Catweaving...Is that when Resto shifts in and out of catform for dps? I play a Monk and heal some. I have no problem with fistweaving, so I'd have not problem throwing a cat in there.

[shaunika123]

I think the biggest issue with it, is that they scream and thrash when you put them into the loom

[MookieRah]

I'm a derp. I specifically meant catweaving as a tank (Guardian). For resto it's pretty much a requirement for getting dps, but for Guardian it seems as if a lot of bears are uninterested in it.

I think the biggest issue with it, is that they scream and thrash when you put them into the loom

I see what you did there :P.

[Shelly]

I'm a derp. I specifically meant catweaving as a tank (Guardian). For resto it's pretty much a requirement for getting dps, but for Guardian it seems as if a lot of bears are uninterested in it.

I don't play druid so may be shooting my mouth off here but was under the impression that balance affinity was just a lot more useful due to the extra range for your attacks.

As for weaving to a different form if it still causes rage loss then you're starting your next tanking rotation behind the curve.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I like it when I am in a group of players I know. Mostly because they understand affix and realize not standing in the fire is a good thing. Outside of that its usually a nightmare because those groups don't understand these things usually. At least this isn't the sort of thing that is expected in those types of groups. I mean its really fun to weave and do some pretty impressive damage while healing.

[-aiko-]

I remember getting pretty into it early in Legion, but then it became less and less 'viable' and I kind of just forgot about it. I'd be interested to hear if it's a DPS increase for off-tanking in BFA.

[MookieRah]

@Aiko
It's a dps increase live (like around 20% actually) and still an increase in 8.1 (although less damage, but the rip changes make it easier to get max damage out of it). Even if you are main tank there are several spots where you can shift into catform safely do some hits and shift to bear even while tanking bosses. Almost every boss in Uldir has some kind of long cast ability where you can sneak in some cat time to set up some bleeds.

@Shelly

I don't play druid so may be shooting my mouth off here but was under the impression that balance affinity was just a lot more useful due to the extra range for your attacks.

Yes and no. You get 3 more yards of range on your attacks with balance affinity, but I was surprised to find out how large the hitboxes were on most enemies in Uldir, to the point where I was hitting things that I really shouldn't be. It was most notable on G'huun first phase, where I could hit clumps of 5 enemies if I positioned myself well enough. Due to that it didn't really hurt my dps on the AoE encounters like I was expecting. I have logs if you are interested.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

If you are talking about tanking, then I suppose you should be considering it in raids for sure. If you aren't tanking or taking damage it is a DPS increase always, right?
But its not an option in 5 mans ever, and that's where tank DPS might stand to gain the most so its probably not something that would catch on in PVE overall.

I've never tanked a raid as a druid, but I do remember when we were doing a fight like Krosus with a very strict enrage timer, tank DPS was incredibly important and our druid refused to cat weave, so we had a lot of problems meeting it.

[TriHard]

"Catweaving" sounds dumb af
No need to copy monks

[CenariusTheForestLord]

Someone mentioned rip was changed to always be max damage whetever amount of CP you used. So guardians will be able to catweave a lot better now.
rake shred shred rip = 16 second rip in one energy bar.
Now it doesn't take 2 shifts or 1 shift and a small wait to apply, rip. If this makes it live, this'll be a big deal for our dps.

- - - Updated - - -

"Catweaving" sounds dumb af
No need to copy monks

Fistweaving is a copy of catweaving. Druids have been doing that for years before MOP.

[MookieRah]

But its not an option in 5 mans ever, and that's where tank DPS might stand to gain the most so its probably not something that would catch on in PVE overall.

Yeah, this is pretty much a raid thing. I haven't done much m+ this expansion, but most bosses don't leave you openings to get enough hits in as cat to make it worth shifting.

Someone mentioned rip was changed to always be max damage whetever amount of CP you used. So guardians will be able to catweave a lot better now.
rake shred shred rip = 16 second rip in one energy bar.
Now it doesn't take 2 shifts or 1 shift and a small wait to apply, rip. If this makes it live, this'll be a big deal for our dps.

Yeah, the downside of 8.1 is that the Guardian damage buff is an aura buff to the bear form of the spec. Meaning that Bear form will do that 10-11% more damage, but cat form doesn't get that. Cat form only gets the cat related buffs, which was a buff to shred damage and the rip change.

From napkin math and simming the different options, it looks like the catweaving dps difference will be 10%, down from 20% on live. That said, I don't think you could maintain 100% uptime on your bleeds on live safely in most encounters, so despite the overall nerf in potential damage it might even out overall.

[CenariusTheForestLord]

Yeah, this is pretty much a raid thing. I haven't done much m+ this expansion, but most bosses don't leave you openings to get enough hits in as cat to make it worth shifting.


Yeah, the downside of 8.1 is that the Guardian damage buff is an aura buff to the bear form of the spec. Meaning that Bear form will do that 10-11% more damage, but cat form doesn't get that. Cat form only gets the cat related buffs, which was a buff to shred damage and the rip change.

From napkin math and simming the different options, it looks like the catweaving dps difference will be 10%, down from 20% on live. That said, I don't think you could maintain 100% uptime on your bleeds on live safely in most encounters, so despite the overall nerf in potential damage it might even out overall.

Honestly that is something they should fix. I was actually looking forward to catweaving. But this way the damage won't make up for the extra skill and risk involved...

[Soilx3]

I've never tanked a raid as a druid, but I do remember when we were doing a fight like Krosus with a very strict enrage timer, tank DPS was incredibly important and our druid refused to cat weave, so we had a lot of problems meeting it.

Just clearing up that both tanks took heavy damage throughout the Krosus fight so there was no way in hell your druid would've been able to catweave there on progression, probably not even on farm.

E: did some research and turns out Mark of Ursol was usable in Cat Form(?). If so, I suppose catweaving would've been possible. Still a high tank damage fight and I assure you, your raid had easier ways to improve DPS.

[Chuckadoodle]

Cool story, I am the Trash tank on Fetid and after the nerfs I decided to troll and catweaved after the first thrash then promptly got one shot... I generally am not that type of person but it's been a rough few weeks raid wise as our roster shrunk from 26 to 22 people so just doing it to get a laugh and release some tension was worth it.

- - - Updated - - -

Just clearing up that both tanks took heavy damage throughout the Krosus fight so there was no way in hell your druid would've been able to catweave there on progression, probably not even on farm.

The 20 second searing brand DoT as well as soaking Slam would preclude effective cat weaving

[Arawrabearialis]

I enjoyed switching to cat when not tanking back when feral was one spec. It's definitely less satisfying now and perhaps even more risky but if the fight allows for it, I see no reason not to.

[Tyze]

I remember when our tank in WoD was top dps at the start due to HoTW

On topic: I like Catweaving as Resto

[CenariusTheForestLord]

I remember when our tank in WoD was top dps at the start due to HoTW

On topic: I like Catweaving as Resto

HOTW catform burst with the soul capacitor trinket and the ring legendary was still some of the most fun i've had with the spec on farm.

[Muddler]

For Resto, what is the dps difference between Birdweaving and Catweaving? I prefer range dps as a healer and am wondering how much I'd be gimping myself...

[Deleted]

Just clearing up that both tanks took heavy damage throughout the Krosus fight so there was no way in hell your druid would've been able to catweave there on progression, probably not even on farm.

Hi Cloud, Fullblod here. Just wanna let you know I kittyweaved on some of our Krosus kills to get some good logs back in the days:
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...-done&source=1
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...done&source=12

On Krosus you never took more damage in catform as a guardian druid, however you suffered from a smaller healthpool being in catform.