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    The Cat Guide - 4.3

    4.3 Quick Recap
    • 10% attack power raid buff increased to 20%
    • glyph of shred changed to glyph of bloodletting, includes mangle now
    • 2T13 bonus: Blood in the Water now refreshes rip from 60% health and below, up from 25%. No real effect on stat priorities, but greatly reduces the value of glyph of bloodletting (shred). About equal in dps value to 4T12. No rotation changes.
    • 4T13 bonus: Tiger's Fury now activates the Stampede talent. Again, no major effect on stat values. About 50% larger dps value than 2T12 (yes it's that good!). You will want to make sure that you always use the stampede buff before using tiger's fury, so you don't waste any ravages. Also, don't run out of melee range to feral charge if you won't have enough time to use stampede before tiger's fury comes off cooldown. Sidenote: don't use glyph of tiger's fury if you are using a on-use trinket like Ancient Petrified Seed or Kiroptyric Sigil.
    • Stat priority/reforging depends a bit on the encounter you are doing.
      Morchok/Warmaster: Mastery > Haste > Hit/Exp / Crit
      Spine: Hit > Haste/Crit > Mastery > Exp
      Others: Hit/Exp > Haste > Mastery > Crit
    • Best nonset piece in Heroic Dragon Soul are the http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78368/u from Morchock.
    • Best nonset piece in Normal Dragon Soul are the http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/101935/u .
    • The http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78473/k proc is awesome and you want it asap, and the best trinkets are http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/77994/w from spine, and http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/77999/v from any of the first 6 bosses.
    • No you can't shred on Ultraxion, and no you don't want to use glyph of bloodletting for ultraxion (use glyph of mangle instead). Yes you can stay in bearform at the start to get the special tank buff, and no it does not affect berserk / tiger's fury.
    • Swipe (Cat) has been reduced to 340% weapon damage, down from 415%. Not a huge nerf, considering the 10% AP buff.
    • If you find yourself with too much expertise, the best way to get rid of some is to use the 391 firelands relic instead of the 397 dragon soul one.


    Table of contents

    1 About this guide
    2 Preparing your character

    2.1 Talents
    2.2 Glyphs
    2.3 Attributes & Stats
    2.3.1 Stat caps
    2.4 Gems
    2.5 Reforging
    2.6 Enchants
    2.7 Professions
    2.8 Consumables
    2.9 Set bonuses
    2.10.1 Gear list
    2.10.2 Trinkets
    2.11 Simulators & formulators
    3 In the heat of battle
    3.1 Abilities
    3.2 Priorities
    3.3 Opening & finishing
    3.4 Multiple targets
    3.5 Addons
    3.6 Macros
    4 Links
    5 History

    1 About this guide

    Since Pask is likely going to be a bear in Cataclysm, I've been asked to bring the cat guide up to date with 4.0. It's still a work in progress atm, but you'll see it growing to it's full size in the coming hours/days. Feel free to post anything you feel should be added.

    About myself: I've played druid since the release of wow, and raided as feral in top50 guilds since 2.1 (BT/hyjal). In 3.1 I switched to full time feral dps, and I've maintained a "Fix my feral dps gear" thread on these forums during most of patch 3.3. I've also made various contributions to Rawr (4T10 bonus and black magic for ferals), SimulationCraft (black magic for ferals, better priority list) and Mew (priority list, trinket procs).

    2 Preparing your character

    2.1 Talents

    Talents got a major overhaul in 4.0, pretty much the biggest change since the release of WoW. The patch notes sum it up nicely:
    • Talent trees have been altered. All player talent specializations have been reset, allowing for free re-specialization.
      • Each specialization has been reduced to a 31-point talent tree.
      • Players will now get a total of 41 talent points to spend.
      • Players will be asked to choose a specialization at level 10. Doing so will result in the unlocking of a spell or ability unique to that specialization, as well as one or more passive bonuses.
      • Once a talent specialization has been chosen, players may only place points in the primary tree until at least 31 points have been spent there.
    The ability unique to feral combat is http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/33917/m, the passive bonuses are http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/84735/a, http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/84840/v, and http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/87335/f.

    The basic feral dps spec will look like this: http://db.mmo-champion.com/utils/tal...t.druid.wlNDlO

    There are 28 talent points you can spend in the feral tree and 4 in the restoration tree that will directly affect your dps in some way, leaving you with 9 points. One of those will have to be in Furor to get to tier 2 of feral, and 2 need to be in Natural Shapeshifter as a prereq to Master Shapeshifter. This leaves you with 6 leftover points to spend on utility/survivability talents. Good options are Survival Instincts (giving you an extra survivability cooldown), Nurturing Instincts (reducing strain on healers), Brutal Impact (allowing you to interrupt every 10 seconds), 1/2 more points into Furor (keeping you at 66/100 energy after a combat res/shift to bearform), or Perseverance for decreased spell damage taken.

    You can also put them in thick hide & natural reaction to make you a very good offtank.

    One has to be in tier 4 or below to get to tier 5 (I've put it in Brutal Impact), and one has to be in tier 5 or below to get to tier 6 (I've put it in Survival Instincts). The final 2 can be spent anywhere.

    I strongly recommend taking at least Brutal Impact 2/2 as there is a lot of dangerous interruptible spells going around in heroics and raids, and Survival Instincts to use when heavy damage is incoming, or when you have to offtank for a short while when the maintank dies.

    2.2 Glyphs

    Glyphs have had a major overhaul in 4.0 as well, and are now split into 3 categories: Prime, Major and Minor. You get a slot for one of each every 25 levels, for a total of 9 glyphs from level 75 onwards.

    Prime glyphs will be directly increasing your main abilities, major glyphs will add utility or remove some mechanics, and minor glyphs are mostly cosmetic.

    The glyphs affecting cat form are:

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/g/166/g
    Increases the damage of Rip by 15%, an increase to your highest damage ability.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/g/165/g
    Shred and Mangle(Cat) increase the duration of Rip by 3 seconds, for a maximum of a 9 seconds increase (to 25 seconds). This gives you much more room to weave in ferocious bites, or to keep up savage roar.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/g/674/g
    Increases the physical damage bonus of Savage Roar by 5% (to 85%).

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/g/936/g
    Decreases the cooldown of Tiger's Fury by 3 seconds (to 27 seconds). There is still a lot of different opinions about this glyph; on one hand it makes tiger's fury go out of sync with rake, since 2x rake = 30 seconds which is equal to the cooldown on unglyphed TF. But on the other hand it increases the uptime of TF by 11.1%, if TF is used on cooldown.
    It was discovered recently that clipping a non-TFed rake with a TFed rake is a significant dps increase, especially in combination with this glyph.
    If you are using a trinket that sync perfectly with TF (like Ancient Petrified Seed or Kiroptyric Sigil) you should never use this glyph.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/g/671/g
    Increases the duration of Berserk by 10 seconds (to 25 seconds).

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/g/164/g
    Increases the damage of Mangle by 10%. Since you will be using mangle only to keep up the bleed debuff, this is not a very good glyph to use. It's awesome for soloing tho. On bosses that can't be shred, this is a very powerful glyph.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/g/831/g
    Causes FB to heal you for 1% of your max health per combopoint.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/g/935/g
    Reduces the cooldown of Feral Charge Cat by 2 seconds, to 28 seconds. Allows you to use charge slightly more often, useful on fights where there's a lot of target switching to far-away targets (like omnotron defense system in BWD).

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/g/551/g
    Reduces the cooldown of dash by 20%, to 2.4min (144 seconds). Allows you to use dash more often on long fights that require a lot of movement (like professor putricide or lich king in ICC).

    Recommended setup for raid dps:
    Prime: Rip, Bloodletting and Berserk
    (mangle-only) Prime: Rip, Mangle and Berserk
    (4T13) Prime: Rip, Tiger's Fury and Berserk
    (4T13 mangle-only) Prime: Rip, Mangle and Tiger's Fury
    Major: Feral Charge, Rebirth
    Minor: Dash

    Choosing between TF and Berserk
    Glyphs of Berserk, TF and SR used to be pretty close to each other, but now berserk glyph has been doubled in duration (in 4.2), it's easily the best 3rd choice. With the 4T13 bonus, GoTF greatly increases in value and will become the nr2 glyph behind glyph of Rip.

    2.3 Attributes & Stats

    Weapon DPS
    Weapon DPS gets directly added to our paw DPS now. Attacks like mangle, shred, ravage and swipe now scale directly with our paw dps. Don't make the mistake of looking at weapon damage; the speed (and thus minimum/maximum damage) of a weapon have no influence on our paw DPS, only the DPS of the weapon is used.

    Agility
    Any item with both attack power and agility have had their attack power removed, and to compensate agility will be giving 2 attack power per point of agility. With the 25% attack power bonus from Aggression, 10% attack power bonus from Heart of the Wild, 5% agility bonus from leather specialization, and the 5% stats and 20% attack power raid buffs, you will be getting close to 4 attack power per point of agility, as well as some crit. Since all bleeds can crit by default now, they fully scale with agility, making all aspects of agility affect 100% of your damage. Easily our best stat, by a fairly large margin.

    Strength
    Since 4.2, Strength only gives 1 attack power per point of strength. Strength isn't affected by leather specialization, and also does not give crit. Due to MotW/BoK, it will be slightly ahead of raw attack power. It's still a very good stat however, beating secondary stats.

    Mastery rating
    This new stat has been introduced in 4.0 as way to improve certain aspects of your talent spec. In the case of cat form, each point of mastery will improve your bleed damage by 3.1%. You will need 45.9 points of mastery rating to gain 1 point of mastery. Since bleed damage will be 35-50% of your total damage, this is usually* a very good stat to get. This stat isn't available directly on gear or gems yet at this moment, however with Reforging it is possible to turn existing stats on your items into this stat. The primary spells affected by mastery are Rip and Rake. Shred is NOT affected, even tho Shred states that effects that increase bleed damage increase Shred as well. Note that mastery doesn't get rounded (even if it appears to do so on the character sheet), so every point of mastery rating contributes to your dps.

    * With the 4T12 set bonus, hit, exp and haste pull ahead of mastery rating.

    Critical strike rating
    With bleeds being able to crit by default, this stat affects 100% of your damage done. With Primal Fury it also increases your combo point generation.

    Haste rating
    Haste improves the attack speed of your auto-attacks, as well as directly increasing the rate at which your energy regenerates, allowing for more specials to be used. This stat has nearly no influence on your bleed damage, making it an okay stat* but not as good as mastery rating. The value of haste rating will jump up and down a bit depending on how well your auto attacks line up with the cooldown on fury swipes.

    * With 4T12 setbonus, haste will be the best secondary stat after you get hit/exp capped.

    Hit rating
    Improves your chance to hit with attacks. Without any hit rating, you have a 8% chance of missing versus a boss-level target. For every 120.1 hit rating, you will gain 1% more chance to hit. The cap is 960.9 hit rating for all races. This stat is generally pretty weak and should be reforged away if possible; the exception is if you are swiping a lot, or if you are using the 4T12 bonus; you will want to be hit capped in those cases.

    Expertise rating
    Same as hit rating really, except that expertise reduces the chance your attacks get dodged or parried by the boss. For every 30.03 expertise rating, you will gain 1 point of expertise. Altho it appears to be rounded on the character sheet, every point of expertise rating will contribute to your chance to get dodged/parried. The cap is 6.5%, which requires 26 expertise or 780.8 expertise rating to negate. This stat is generally pretty weak and should be reforged away if possible; the exception is if you are swiping a lot, or if you are using the 4T12 bonus; you will want to be exp capped in those cases.

    Attack power
    There's still a few pieces of gear that have attack power on them, as well as a number of enchants. Attack power on gear isn't affected by the 5% stats raid buff or leather specialization, so the value of attack power will be slightly below the value of strength, but higher than secondary stats due to the +25% from Feral specialization, +10% from Heart of the Wild and +20% from group buffs.

    Stamina
    Improves your hit points. With the removal of attack power, more item budget will be used on stamina, so you will probably be a lot higher on hp than you were before 4.0. It should never be needed to gem or enchant stamina.

    Relative stat values
    After doing a lot of simulations, there seems to be 2 ways of reforging.

    1. Wearing 4 pieces of T12, hit and expertise become the most powerful stats, with haste close behind, and crit/mastery being the weakest.
    2. In any other situation, mastery will be the strongest stat, followed by crit/haste, and hit/exp being the weakest.

    AP is slightly more powerful than the strongest secondary stat (hit/exp with 4T12, mastery otherwise), and agility is worth about 3x as much as the strongest secondary stat.

    In ilvl 390 (FL BiS), the following values can be used:

    4T12 (lootrank) (wowhead)
    Weapon DPS: 6.4
    Agility: 3.8
    Expertise rating: 1.291
    Hit rating: 1.29
    Haste rating: 1.27
    Mastery rating: 1.245
    Crit rating: 1.24

    No 4T12 (lootrank) (wowhead)
    Weapon DPS: 6.4
    Agility: 3.8
    Mastery rating: 1.291
    Haste rating: 1.271
    Crit rating: 1.27
    Expertise rating: 1.241
    Hit rating: 1.24




    There's no cap on haste, mastery, strength or attack power.

    Hit cap
    On targets 3 levels above your own (most raid bosses and mobs are this), physical attacks have an 8% chance to miss by default. At level 85, you need 120.109 hit rating for 1% increased chance to hit. Which means you would need 960.872 hit rating to reach 8%. To guarantee hitting with all of your attacks you would need to go for 961 hit rating, however the last point of hit rating is only worth 87% of the previous points of hit rating, so 960 is the most you should have. In patch 4.1, interrupts will always hit regardless of your hit rating.

    Expertise cap
    On targets 3 levels above your own (most raid bosses and mobs are this), your attacks have a 6.5% chance to get dodged, and when you're attacking from the front, a 14% chance to get parried (targets can't parry when you attack from the back). At level 85, you need 30.0272 expertise rating to gain 1 expertise. To reach 6.5%, you need 26 expertise, which requires 780.7072 expertise rating to reach. To guarantee none of your attacks will be dodged, you would thus need 781 expertise rating, however the last point of expertise rating is only worth 70.72% of the previous points, so 780 is the most you should have. Note: mobs/players can NOT dodge/parry while casting or channeling a spell.

    Crit cap
    It's extremely unlikely that you will need to worry about crit cap this expansion, as it takes an extremely high amount of agility/crit rating to get anywhere near it. So you can safely skip this section.

    Short version:
    You need to have 67.80% plus your % hit and % exp on your character sheet (raidbuffed in cat form) to hit the crit cap for auto attack.

    Long version:
    Since attacks can miss, get dodged, or be a glancing blow, there's a limit to the amount of critical strikes you can get. In addition, for every level the target is above your own you will need 1.6% more crit (so if your character sheet reads 34.8% and you attack a target 3 levels higher, your actual crit rate will be 30%). This can be divided into 2 groups of attacks; auto attacks have a built-in 24% chance versus a level 88 target to be a glancing blow, which deals 75% of normal damage and can never be a critical strike. While the Rend and Tear talent increases the crit chance of Ferocious Bite by 25%. This means that if none of your attacks miss or get dodged, auto attack will stop benefiting from your crit above 76%, and ferocious bite above 75%. All other attacks require 100% crit versus an equal level target, so 104.8% versus a target 3 levels above your own.

    If you got 0 hit rating and 0 expertise rating, the crit cap for auto attack to hit a level 88 target is 61.5% (this is different than the crit % shown on your character screen, as that is versus equal level mobs). With 8% hit and 6.5% expertise this can be brought up to 76%. Your base crit (before agility & crit rating are added) at level 85 is 7.4755%. You will also get 5% crit from LotP, leaving the cap at 49.0245, or 64.2745 with 8% hit and 6.5% exp. Assuming full raid buffs, if you have 0 crit rating, you'd then need 14445 agility on your gear to reach it; if you have 0 agility you'd need 8790 crit rating.

    So to expand, versus a lvl88 target you need 179.28 crit rating for 1% crit. And you need 294.65 agility on your gear for 1% crit. If you take the agility from your char sheet, make sure you're not buffed with MotW, or in cat form, or otherwise leather spec will get added.

    If you want to know how much crit rating you can afford with your current level of agility, hit rating and expertise rating, you should make sure you're in caster form and unbuffed. Start with 51.99, add your % hit and % expertise, then substract the agility on your char sheet divided by 75.45. The resulting value you multiply by 45.93, and that's how much crit rating you would need to hit the crit cap.

    In short: (51.99 + hit + exp - (agi / 75.45)) * 45.93.

    2.4 Gems

    Meta gem: With 4.0.6, this is a nobrainer: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/68778/a (http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/41398/r is still a great option if the Cata version is too expensive for you).

    Since agility is so much ahead of other stats you'll want to be gemming as much of it as possible, using http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/52212/d. It's so far ahead that the only socket bonus worth going for is +20 agi per non-red socket; anything else you can safely ignore. These sockets should be filled with 20agi+20hit for blue ones, and 20agi+20mastery/20haste for yellow ones.

    2.5 Reforging

    Let me start off with stating that all secondary stats are very close to each other. This means that you can go with any reforging and perform about the same; the only exception to this is that you should never go over 960 hit rating or 780 expertise rating, as any hit/expertise rating beyond those amounts will contribute 0.0 to your dps.

    Wearing 4T12: exp (to 781) >= hit (to 961) >> haste >> mastery >= crit

    Otherwise: mastery >> haste >= crit >> exp (to 781) >= hit (to 961)

    Leveling/soloing: exp > crit > hit > haste > mastery

    For leveling/soloing: since you probably won't use rip when leveling, mastery rating loses 50% of it's value. And since you will be attacking from the front most of the time, expertise rating doubles in value. Additionally, if you can kill mobs with your initial energy, haste goes down in value. So get rid of any mastery reforges, and instead reforge haste to expertise until you're capped, and haste to crit after that.

    2.6 Enchants

    Pretty similar to what it was before, with a slightly higher emphasis on agility:

    Head: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/62369/a - +60 Agility and 35 Haste rating
    Shoulders: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/62346/g - +50 Agility and +25 Mastery Rating
    Cloak: http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/60663/e - +22 Agility
    Chest: http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/74250/e - +20 All Stats
    Bracers: http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/96264/e - +50 Agility
    Gloves: http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/74255/e - +65 Mastery
    Belt: http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/76439/e with a http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/52212/d - +40 Agility
    Legs: http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/78477/d - +190 Attack Power and +55 Critical Strike Rating
    Boots: http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/74213/e - +35 Agility
    Weapon: http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/95471/e - +130 Agility

    2.7 Professions

    LW: +80 agi (http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/85008/d replacing http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/96264/e)

    ALCH: +80 agi bonus on http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/80721/f
    JC: +81 agi (3x http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/52258/d replacing 3x http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/52212/d)

    BS: +80 agi (2x http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/52212/d)
    ENCH/INSCR: 80 agi (2x http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/74216/e / http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/86375/s)

    SKIN: 80 crit rating (http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/74495/m)

    ENG: ~80 agility, speed boost, shield, parachute (http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/82174/s, http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/55016/n, http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/55002/f)
    HERB: ~80 haste rating (480 haste rating/20sec with 120sec cd, http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/74497/l)

    MINING: 120 stamina (http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/74496/t)

    1st place is tied between Alchemy and Jewelcrafting. Alchemy has the added benefit of doubling flask duration, which is a great advantage considering the extremely high prices of agility flasks. The new Synapse springs in 4.0.6 could make engineering the best profession as well, but this will need more testing.

    Another thing of note: alchemy and LW are the only professions that can increase your resistance (mixology on resistance elixirs, and wotlk resistance bracer enchants).

    2.8 Consumables

    Flasks/elixirs
    The only real options is http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/80721/f, granting +300 agility. This buff can also be gotten from a http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/65455/f. Make sure you are not in bearform when you drink this tho, as it will make the flask give stamina instead of agility. Flask of Battle can be gotten from http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/92643/c and http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/92688/b.

    Food
    This one's also pretty easy; since all food has 90 stats, the agility food will be the best option, and there's only one kind of it: http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/88042/s. You can also get this buff from the http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/88036/s, and from http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/88019/f.

    Potions
    Again only 1 real option: http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/80495/p, granting 1200 agility for 25sec.

    2.9 Set bonuses

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/90162/i
    Increases the periodic damage done by your Rake ability by 10%. This is pretty much the same as the 4T10 bonus, except that the initial damage of rake (which is really small) isn't affected. Increases dps by about 2.1%, which is ~520 dps at T11.5 level. Having this bonus will make mastery your best secondary stat.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/90165/i
    Each time you use Mangle (Cat) you gain http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/90166/s, a 1% increase to attack power for 30 sec stacking up to 3 times. Worth about 1.6% dps. At T11.5 level this is ~420 dps, which is much bigger than the dps you would get from going with non-set shoulders & gloves (2x 70 dps).

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/99001/i
    Your attacks with Mangle and Shred deal 10% additional damage as Fire damage over 4 sec. Increases your dps by almost 4%, which is over 1100 dps in bis gear.

    The dot ticks every 2 seconds, for a total of 2 ticks on a fresh dot. If the dot is refreshed, the new dot has 3 ticks.

    This ability seems to suffer from the "rolling" bug; there's some latency between shred/mangle hitting, and the dot refreshing itself, which makes it possible to have shred/mangle hitting right before a dot tick, and the refresh occurring right after it. This will turn the tick into a 'bonus' tick, as the damage of the refreshed dot has been calculated before the tick. Example:
    Code:
    [19:37:02.266] Mihir Mangle Baleroc *24846*
    [19:37:02.997] Baleroc afflicted by Fiery Claws from Mihir
    
    2485=1242x2
    
    [19:37:05.027] Mihir Fiery Claws Baleroc 1242
    [19:37:05.189] Mihir Shred Baleroc *41039*
    [19:37:05.821] Baleroc's Fiery Claws is refreshed by Mihir
    
    1242+4104=5346=1782x3
    
    [19:37:07.010] Mihir Fiery Claws Baleroc 1782
    [19:37:08.366] Mihir Shred Baleroc *52981*
    [19:37:09.066] Mihir Fiery Claws Baleroc 1782 (bonus)
    [19:37:09.098] Baleroc's Fiery Claws is refreshed by Mihir
    
    1782x2+5298=8862=2954x3
    
    [19:37:10.990] Mihir Fiery Claws Baleroc 2954
    This phenomenon is especially obvious during berserk, when shred is being spammed every GCD, and allows Fiery Claws to do ~25+% more damage than advertised.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/99009/i
    Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to extend the duration of Berserk by 2 sec. Will increase the value of haste/hit/exp, making hit and exp your best secondary stats, followed closely by haste. Increases your dps by about 2%, which is 600 dps in bis gear.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/105725/i
    Your Blood in the Water talent now causes Ferocious Bite to refresh the duration of your Rip on targets with 60% or less health.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/105735/i
    Using Tiger's Fury will cause your next Ravage to cost no energy, not require stealth, and have no positioning requirement for 10 sec.

    2 pieces of the pvp set http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/92258/a
    Grants a flat 70 agility, which is worth about 232 dps.

    4 pieces of the pvp set http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/92257/a
    Grants a flat 90 agility, which is worth about 298 dps. Also increases your cat/travel form movement speed by http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/23218/f while outdoors.

    2.10.1 Gear list

    BiS:

    Head: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78694/d - H: Warmaster Blackhorn
    Neck: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/71610/c - H: Ragnaros
    Shoulder: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78368/u - H: Morchock
    Back: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/71415/d - H: Lord Rhyolith
    Chest: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78665/d - H: Ultraxion
    Wrist: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78446/s - H: Warmaster Blackhorn
    Hands: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78684/d - H: Warlord Zon'ozz
    Waist: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78388/b - H: Warlord Zon'ozz
    Legs: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78713/d - H: Yor'sahj the Unsleeping
    Feet: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78462/m - H: Spine of Deathwing
    Finger: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78489/s - H: All except Deathwing
    Finger: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78413/s - H: Hagara the Stormbinder
    Trinket: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/77994/w - H: Spine of Deathwing
    Trinket: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/77999/v - H: All except Deathwing
    Weapon: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78473/k - H: Madness of Deathwing
    Relic: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/71567/c - VP + Firestone

    2.10.2 Trinkets

    Trinkets with procs follow a simple rule in 4.0 content: the internal cooldown is exactly 5x as long as the proc length. So 10sec proc length = 50sec icd, 15 = 75, and 20 = 100. Pretty much all of them have a 10% proc chance as well. This make it rather easy to calculate the approximate value of each proc.

    For 4.2 trinkets this doesn't hold true; Matrix Restabilizer has a 30 second duration and a 105 second cooldown (just like Deathbringer's Will from ICC had), and The Hungerer has a 15 second duration with a 60 second cooldown. So the uptime is higher, but the amount of stats gained is lower, compared to 4.0 trinkets.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/69150/m / http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/68994/m is a very special trinket, as it will have a different proc depending on your current stats. You will want to make sure you get the right proc, as a proc with the wrong stat will cost you up to 100 dps lost. The stat you will make it proc will generally be the secondary stat that's most useful to you; when you're using 4T12, it should proc haste, and when you're not using 4T12, it should proc mastery. Making it proc haste can be a hassle sometimes, as you will be stacking hit/expertise to the cap before working on haste, so it's very possible that haste is not your highest secondary stat, and you will need to swap around some reforges or even your gloves enchant to make it work.

    List of trinket roughly from good to bad:

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/69150/m H
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/69112/t H
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/68994/m N
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/69001/a
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/68927/t N
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/65026/p H
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/65140/e H
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/70144/r
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/58181/f
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/59520/u
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/56394/t
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/59441/p N
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/59473/e N
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/68776/q
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/56328/k
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/56427/l
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/62463/u
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/62051/d
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/55874/t
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/56295/g
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/71335/c
    http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/56440/s





    Important: This order can vary a bit depending on your current stats, setbonuses and other trinket.

    2.11 Simulators & formulators

    All simulators/formulators are up to date with 4.0, namely Mew (a continuation of Toskk's calculator), SimulationCraft and Rawr. Mew seems the most stable/mature atm.

    3 In the heat of battle

    3.1 Abilities

    Cat Form
    • Grants you an energy bar in addition to your mana bar. The maximum amount of energy is 100, and it is generated at a rate of 10 energy per second. Haste rating increases the rate at which energy generates.
    • Allows the use of cat form abilities, which use energy as a resource. Any energy-costing abilities which fail to hit will automatically refund 80% of their cost. With the removal of Primal Precision, this refund is also built-in by default for finishing moves.
    • Some cat form abilities generate combo points, while others consume combo points as a resource.
    • With Primal Fury, combo point generating abilities will generate an extra combo point if they critically hit.
    • Increases attack power by 2x your character level. At level 80 this is 160 AP.
    • Increases attack power by 2 for each point of agility you have.
    • Agility is increased by 5% by leather specialization while in cat form.
    • Global cooldown is lowered to 1 second.
    • Base attack speed of the cat form paws is 1.0 (used for PPM calculations).

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/6603/a
    Formerly the biggest part of our DPS (up to 40%), this is now (with savage roar kept up 100% of the time) responsible for only 21% of our damage. Against a mob or boss that's 3 levels higher, will have a 20% chance to be a glancing blow. Glancing blows do 75% of normal damage and are unable to crit. Gets increased by 80% by savage roar, or 85% by glyphed savage roar.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/52610/s
    Finishing move that increases auto attack damage by 80%, or 85% if glyphed. With the Endless Carnage talent, has a 22 second duration at 1 combo point, and 42 second at 5. It automatically takes combo points from any nearby target, even if it's dead. So if you kill a mob and still had combo points left on it, you can switch to the next target, and start with a savage roar that will consume the combo points that were still on the corpse. Savage Roar (if kept up 100% of the time) is responsible for about 9% of our DPS.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/16864/o
    Now learned at level 20 by all druid specs, gives every auto attack in cat and bear form a chance to proc http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/16870/c, reducing the energy cost of your next damaging feral ability by 100%. Try to use clearcasting for shred as much as possible, since shred is our most expensive attack energy-wise. The proc-chance is 3.5 PPM; with our base attack speed of 1.0, that is 3.5/60 = 5.83% chance to proc per auto attack.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/80861/f
    Every auto attack has a 10% chance to proc Fury Swipes, doing 310% of weapon damage. Note that this doesn't mean the weapon damage of your equipped weapon, but rather your paw "weapon". So if your paws hit for 1k, fury swipes will hit for 3.1k. Is not affected by Savage Roar, and has a 3 second cooldown. Is responsible for about 3.5% of our dps.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/33876/m
    Primarily used to get the 30% bleed debuff on your opponents, increasing all damage done by rip, rake and shred. Can be used for combo points as well if you are unable to get behind the boss/mob. If you got an arms warrior, feral tank, or subtlety rogue in the raid, you probably will never have to use this. Mangle itself is responsible for about 1% of our dps, however the mangle debuff (if kept on the target 100% of the time) is responsible for about 15% of our dps.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/1079/r
    Your primary damage ability, previously responsible for over 30% of your total damage. With the reduced value of mastery in 4.2, this will still be around 21% of your damage. Gets 30% more damage from the mangle debuff, 15% more damage from glyph of rip, and is directly affected by both mastery and agility. Ticks every 2 seconds, for 16 seconds (8 ticks), which can be increased by 6 seconds (3 ticks) through glyph of shred. Below 25% health, ferocious bite will refresh the duration of rip to 16 seconds. If you reapply Rip when there's 2 or less seconds remaining on the current Rip (1 tick), the new Rip will have 2 seconds added to it.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/1822/r
    Like rip, rake has gotten a big buff in 4.0 due to mastery, and agility giving 2 ap. Previously responsible for over 20% of your damage, in 4.2 will go down to 15%. If you reapply Rake when there's 3 or less seconds remaining on the current Rake (1 tick), the new Rake will have 3 seconds added to it.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/5221/s
    Your primary combo point generating ability. Requires you to be behind the target. Base damage is slightly lower than mangle, but it gets 30% more damage from the mangle debuff, and 20% more damage if the target is bleeding. Will extend the duration of rip with glyph of shred. Responsible for about 20% of our dps, if the target has the mangle debuff and is bleeding 100% of the time. Shred has gotten some big buffs in both 4.1 and 4.2, and is greatly affected by the 2T12 bonus, making it easily your biggest damage ability.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/22568/f
    Your main combo point dump. Has about double the damage per energy as shred. Will take up to double it's normal energy cost to double it's damage done. Only use it when you can guarantee you will be back at 5 combo points when rip runs out. Below 25% health this ability will refresh the duration of rip to 16 seconds. Responsible for about 5% of our dps. With the energy cost reduction in 4.2 this is worth using again, especially if you have the 4T12 set bonus.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/49376/f
    Used to cover distance to your target quickly. You will land behind your target, facing it. With http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/81022/s, allows the use of 1 free http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/81170/r that will disregard position and stealth for 10 seconds after the charge. It's good to open with a charge, get buffs/debuffs going, then ravage just before stampede runs out. If used on cooldown, can be up to a 4% dps increase, minus 1% per second not in melee range.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/16857/f
    Reduces the armor of your target by 12% for everyone for 5 minutes. Doesn't cost any energy, so just use it while you are charging to the target. On the beta this is only 40 seconds duration, it's likely the 5 minutes is a bug.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/5217/t
    Increases all damage done by 15% and your max energy by 20 for 6 seconds, and increases your current energy by 80. After the 6 seconds, 20 energy will be taken away again. 30 second cooldown. Can be glyphed to 27 second cooldown. If you rip or rake while this buff is active, the rip or rake will get the +15% damage for its full duration. It's fairly easy to have every second rake get this buff.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/50334/b
    Decreases the energy cost of all your abilities by 50% for 15 seconds, 3 minutes cooldown. Duration can be increased by 10 seconds through a glyph, and by even more if you have the 4T12 set bonus. The extra energy consumed by ferocious bite does not get reduced by 50%. Best used when you have a nearly full energy bar, so you can use all that energy on the cheap abilities.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/62078/s
    Your main (and only) aoe damage move. Has gotten a buff in 4.1 and should be spammed when there's 3+ targets in range.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/8998/c
    Has been buffed in 4.0 to reduce your total threat by 10%, for a cost of 20 energy. 10 second cooldown. Use it whenever you're getting close to the tank in threat. Is of course more effective later in the fight, as you have more threat then.

    http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/1082/c
    Mangle replaces Claw in every way, so you can safely remove claw from your action bars if you're specced feral.

    3.2 Priorities

    Cats don't use a set ability rotation; instead we have a priority list of buffs/debuffs/abilities to use.

    Simple version:
    • Use Feral Charge if you're not in melee range
    • Keep Tiger's Fury on cooldown
    • Use Mangle if the 4T11 buff is about to run out
    • Keep the Mangle debuff up on your target
    • Use Ravage if Stampede is about to run out
    • Keep Faerie Fire up on your target
    • Keep Berserk on cooldown
    • Use Ferocious Bite to refresh Rip duration when the boss is below 25%
    • Keep a 5 combo point Rip up
    • Keep Rake up
    • Use Shred on Clearcasting
    • Keep Savage Roar up
    • Use Ravage if Tiger's Fury is up
    • Use Shred to generate combo points and to get rid of excess energy

    Full version:
    • Feral Charge if you're not in melee range.
    • Tiger's Fury if you got 35 or less energy and Berserk isn't up, you're not in a GCD, and don't have an OoC proc.
    • Berserk if TF is up and you're not in a GCD.
    • Berserk if you're not in a GCD, and the boss will die in less time than your berserk lasts, and TF has more than 6 seconds cooldown left.
    • Trinkets if you got any on-use trinkets and TF is up.
    • Mangle if there's less than 4 seconds left on the 4T11 buff
    • Faerie Fire if there's no armor debuff up.
    • Mangle if there's less than 2 seconds left on the bleed debuff and if it's your job to keep it up.
    • Ravage! if Stampede has less than 2 seconds left on it.
    • Ferocious Bite if the boss is below 25% health, your Rip has less than 2 seconds left and you have 1 or more combo points.
    • Ferocious Bite if the boss is below 25% health, you have a Rip on the target and you have 5 combo points.
    • Shred if the boss is above 25% health, you can still extend Rip duration with Glyph of Shred, and Rip has less than 4 seconds left.
    • Rip if you have 5 combo points, Rip has less than 2 seconds left or is not on the target, and the boss has more than 6 seconds to live.
    • Ferocious Bite if Berserk is up, you have 5 combo points, Rip has more than 5 seconds left and Savage Roar has more than 3 seconds left.
    • Rake if Rake has less than 9 seconds left, you have Tiger's Fury and the boss has more than 9 seconds to live.
    • Rake if Rake has less than 3 seconds left or is not on the target, and the boss has more than 9 seconds to live.
    • Shred if you have Clearcasting.
    • Savage Roar if you have 1 or more combo points and SR is about to fall off or isn't on you yet.
    • Ferocious Bite if you got 5 combo points, Rip has more than 14 seconds left and Savage Roar has more than 10 seconds left.
    • Ravage! if Stampede is up, Tiger's Fury is up, and you don't have Omen of Clarity.
    • Mangle if you are using 4T11 and you don't have 3 stacks of the buff yet.
    • Shred if Berserk is up.
    • Shred if Tiger's Fury is up.
    • Shred if you have less than 5 combo points and Rip has less than 3 seconds left.
    • Shred if you have 0 combo points and Savage Roar has less than 2 seconds left.
    • Shred if there's less than 3 seconds left on the cooldown of Tiger's Fury.
    • Shred if you're 1 second away from getting energy capped.
    • Run out of melee range if Feral Charge is ready and Berserk / Tiger's Fury aren't up.

    3.3 Opening & finishing

    Opening
    At the start of the fight you will have to get various debuffs going, such as mangle and faerie fire. If possible start with a Feral Charge, so you can get a free Ravage somewhere in the first 10 seconds of the fight. Don't bother with stealth, as with Stampede you don't require stealth for any of the abilities you will be using.

    A possible sequence for the first 10 seconds of the fight that has been working well for me:

    • Feral Charge
    • Faerie Fire (while in transit towards the target)
    • Mangle (to get the debuff going; is also more damage than shred if there's no mangle debuff and bleed on the target yet)
    • Rake
    • Shred (to get rid of some energy since we're about to use TF) (mangle instead if you got 4T11)
    • Tiger's Fury (this might cap your energy for a little bit)
    • Ravage (with 15% damage bonus from TF, stampede buff should still be on you by this time)
    • Rip (also with TF bonus. if you don't have 5 combo points yet, do another shred first)
    • Rake (with 15% damage bonus from TF)
    • Savage Roar

    Finishing
    As the expected time to die of the target is getting close, some of your buffs and debuffs will be going down in value, as you won't be able to benefit from their full duration anymore. You'll also want to end the fight with as little energy as possible.

    • Don't use a 5 combo point savage roar if the target has less than 9 seconds to live.
    • Rake will not be worth using anymore if it won't tick at least 2x. So don't refresh Rake in the last 6 seconds.
    • If the target has less than 6 seconds to live, try to get rid of any excess energy by spamming shred.
    • Rip will not be worth using anymore if you can't get at least 3 ticks from it. So if somehow rip falls off the target, don't put up a new rip in the last 6 seconds (you probably won't have to worry about this one since you will be using ferocious bite to refresh the rip duration at this time)
    • If the target has less than 4 seconds to live and you got 4 or more combo points use ferocious bite.

    3.4 Multiple targets

    With the Swipe buff in 4.1, this has become a lot simpler. If there's 2 targets, swap between them and try to keep rip and rake up on both; if there's 3 or more targets, spam swipe. Between swipe casts you can try to get faerie fire up on all targets, and keeping the 4T11 bonus up with a mangle every 27 seconds might be nice as well.

    3.5 Addons

    As buff and debuffs are very vital for our dps, it's very important that you are able to see in an easy and clear way which debuffs are yours, how much time is left on them, how much time is left on your buffs, and how much energy and combo points you have. There are many unit frame addons out there that offer a lot of customization regarding the display of these, like X-Perl UnitFrames, Shadowed Unit Frames, oUF with Nivaya, or PitBull Unit Frames 4.0 (using xperl myself).

    Our priority system is fairly complex, and a number of addons have been developed that can help you out by suggesting what would be the best ability to use next: Ovale, Feral By Night, FBNLite (not updated for 4.0), or Faceroller Feral Druid (not updated for 4.0). I'm using Ovale myself, with a custom script that can be seen on the fluiddruid.net forum. Type "/ovale code" to change the script ingame.

    If you don't like ability suggestions, but just want to see a nice overview of buffs/debuffs/cooldowns, I can recommend ClassTimer, or BadKitty. OmniCC and SexyCoolDown are also great to have. OmniCC displays big numbers on any abilities/items/buffs/debuffs that are on cooldown, and the second one puts icons of abilities and items that are on cooldown in a sliding bar for a quick overview. DroodFocus also nicely groups together buffs, debuffs, energy, and combo points.

    Since it's important for us to know how long the target will approximately be living, it's also advisable to get an addon like TimeToDie, that will display an estimation of how long it will take for the target to die given the current raid dps.

    If you have equal or better gear than the tank, it's very possible that before the tank has a decent stack of Vengeance going, you will have threat problems (especially if you use berserk in the start). An addon like Omen Threat Meter can help you see exactly how your threat looks compared to that of the tank.

    3.6 Macros

    While not necessary for good dps, you can use a couple of macros to make stuff easier / improve 'quality of life'.

    Code:
    #showtooltip Dash
    /cast [stance:3]Dash;!Cat Form
    What it does: Uses Dash if you're in Cat Form, and otherwise tries to put you into Cat Form.

    Code:
    #showtooltip Feral Charge(Cat Form)
    /cast [stance:1,@mouseover,harm,nodead][stance:1]Feral Charge(Bear Form);[stance:3,@mouseover,harm,nodead][stance:3]Feral Charge(Cat Form);[nostance:1,nostance:3]!Cat Form
    /cast [combat]Faerie Fire (Feral)(Feral)
    What it does: If you're in cat or bear form, it tries to feral charge to wherever you got your mouse. If your mouse isn't over an enemy unit, it tries to charge your current target. Lastly, if you're in combat it tries to cast faerie fire. If you're not in cat or bear form, it puts you in cat form.

    Code:
    #showtooltip Berserk
    /use Tiger's Fury
    /use Berserk
    What it does: Use Tiger's Fury and Berserk with 1 key press.

    Code:
    #showtooltip [noform][]Skull Bash(Cat Form)
    /use [form:1,@focus,exists,nodead,harm] [form:1] Skull Bash(Bear Form); [form:3,@focus,exists,nodead,harm] [form:3] Skull Bash(Cat Form)
    /s 1
    What it does: If you have a focus target, it tries to use the appropriate version of Skull Bash to interrupt it. If you don't have a focus target, it tries to interrupt your current target. Lastly, it says "1" with /say. If you got chat bubbles enabled and all melee dps have a macro like this (and each picks her own number), it's really easy to see who interrupted when and makes interrupt rotations a lot smoother.

    4 Links

    US Official forums - ALAMO teech a CATTOKISSEM!

    US Official forums - Tangedyn's Feral DPS Guide
    The Fluid Druid - Kitty DPS forum
    The Druid Wiki - Toskk's Feral DPS Gear Methodology - Discussion board
    Elitist Jerks - Feral Cat topic
    Elitist Jerks - Mew Simulator topic

    Outdated:
    EU Official forums - Vaeil's Kitten Guide [lvl 80]
    US Official forums - Yawning's Definitive Cat DPS FAQ (4.0.x)
    5 History

    2011-10-10 - Updated RSVs and reforging.
    2011-08-16 - Changed trinket order a bit.
    2011-08-05 - Updated value of Unheeded Warning according to the nerf.
    2011-07-18 - Updated BiS lists for Firelands.
    2011-07-05 - Updated the relative stat values section (sortof).
    2011-06-17 - Updated lots of stuff to 4.2.
    2011-06-12 - Added macro section; updated aoe section to 4.1.
    2011-03-30 - Added some 4.1 items.
    2011-03-22 - 4.0.6 updates to relative stat values, gear list, and lvl85 update to hit/expertise sections.
    2011-02-09 - 4.0.6 updates to professions, gems, rotation, etc.
    2011-01-17 - Updated priority list slightly.
    2011-01-03 - Changed rings to conclave ones. Changed belts to conclave ones.
    2010-12-26 - Fixed cloak enchant.
    2010-12-24 - Updated lots of stuff to 85.
    2010-12-23 - Added links section.
    2010-12-03 - Added sources for a lot of items. Added some more items.
    2010-12-02 - Added some more items. Added pre-sinestra loot. Replaced Glyph of SR with Glyph of TF as preferred glyph. Added T11 set bonuses. Added T11.5 BiS list. Added T11.5 BiS stats. Started on the gear lists.
    2010-11-01 - Changed expertise cap to 5.75% for lvl80. Source
    2010-10-26 - Updated aoe section.
    2010-10-25 - Changed finishing section a bit.
    2010-10-23 - Redid gem section, added key to the endless chamber trinket, added stuff about clipping to rip/rake descriptions.
    2010-10-22 - Added WFS to trinket section. Updated AoE section with rip/rake dotting instead of swiping.
    Last edited by mmoc2e7b040398; 2012-03-23 at 11:39 AM.

  2. #2
    sticky!!

    Also if you guys didn't know Mihir is going to be taking over my guide in cata; I'm gonnna be a full time bear so I figure it's best if I let the cat guide to someone as skilled as Mihir =)

  3. #3
    Aww too bad you're gonna be bear in cata pask

  4. #4
    Well i'll be cat offspec but in my 10 man guild I'm gonna tank. rawr!~

  5. #5
    Herald of the Titans Will's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tuzz View Post
    dont bother posting if its not complete plz
    it's not a big deal, he can edit the post any time. Chill out.

    In any event, the content in this guide will probably form the foundations of the level 85 guide. - Simply check back later to see if it's been updated.

  6. #6
    Great that you are doing that, im sure a lot of us will finde a whole bunch of usefull information in this guide.
    Looking forward to all the information you will prowide the feral cat community

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Mihir View Post
    Major: Anything but Ferocious Bite
    Been hitting dummy for hours with and without the glyph and even if it logically should give more dmg having it unglyphed im getting better numbers using it. Just me getting this?

  8. #8
    Mihir,

    Thank you so very much! The forums were getting cluttered with massive amounts of misinformation! I really appreciate the commentary for each individual attribute.

    I might add the conversion rates for all relevant stats at level 80 so that if people question the calculations they can readily duplicate and proof the results themselves.

    Please add an ability priority list as well. I see people indicating the wrong "rotation" as well.

    I would essentially duplicate this text for Expertise as well: "Since a missed special attack will automatically refund 80% of it's energy cost, and white attack are only 15% of your total damage, this is not a very important stat atm."

    If you need help just let me know. I already have a (almost complete) Best in Slot list for the known content in Cataclysm, including:
    Equipment (aka gear)
    Enchantments
    Gems
    Food
    Potions
    Flask
    Elixirs

  9. #9
    That is because the Ferociouse Bite glyph functions like this: it does the damage that Ferociouse Bite does normally but it won't take away the extra energy from your bar (it will only use it => something similar to execute that is performed as you would have had extra rage only that the other way around)

  10. #10
    Please sir, may I have some more? Good stuff! Keep it coming! I'm particularly interested in 3.3 Opening and Closing.

  11. #11
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Purrfunctory View Post
    Mihir,

    Thank you so very much! The forums were getting cluttered with massive amounts of misinformation! I really appreciate the commentary for each individual attribute.

    I might add the conversion rates for all relevant stats at level 80 so that if people question the calculations they can readily duplicate and proof the results themselves.

    Please add an ability priority list as well. I see people indicating the wrong "rotation" as well.

    I would essentially duplicate this text for Expertise as well: "Since a missed special attack will automatically refund 80% of it's energy cost, and white attack are only 15% of your total damage, this is not a very important stat atm."

    If you need help just let me know. I already have a (almost complete) Best in Slot list for the known content in Cataclysm, including:
    Equipment (aka gear)
    Enchantments
    Gems
    Food
    Potions
    Flask
    Elixirs
    I'm gonna be leaving out lvl85/cataclysm information for now, as this will only clutter the guide as it is not relevant yet for the most part. Was planning to add it the weekend before cataclysm hits. Thanks for the suggestions, keep it coming

  12. #12
    The Patient utopianh's Avatar
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    Is there any plan to model the effects of having to interrupt in a rotation into stat weights for building gear sets? I would imagine the effects of haste when we have to spend 25 energy every 10 seconds, and needing to hit those would demand a different gear setup, but it'd be nice to know what stats to remove for those situations.

    One thing I always liked about Toskk's models and math was just how much detail went into the modelling and how much I could play with the settings to be able to understand the effects on stat weight.
    God is a comedian playing to an audience that is afraid to laugh. ~ Voltaire

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Mihir View Post
    I'm gonna be leaving out lvl85/cataclysm information for now, as this will only clutter the guide as it is not relevant yet for the most part. Was planning to add it the weekend before cataclysm hits. Thanks for the suggestions, keep it coming
    Just thinking about the future. Two months isn't long. Keep up the great work.

    ---------- Post added 2010-10-16 at 09:45 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by utopianh View Post
    Is there any plan to model the effects of having to interrupt in a rotation into stat weights for building gear sets? I would imagine the effects of haste when we have to spend 25 energy every 10 seconds, and needing to hit those would demand a different gear setup, but it'd be nice to know what stats to remove for those situations.

    One thing I always liked about Toskk's models and math was just how much detail went into the modelling and how much I could play with the settings to be able to understand the effects on stat weight.
    "Mew" has a simulation model in addition to the formulation model so you can build and run a custom script.

  14. #14
    Great guide. It should be a sticky

  15. #15
    Nice guide mihir definitley going to be usefull for me

  16. #16
    glad to see this stickyed finally =)

  17. #17
    Deleted
    Nice guide, thx
    Question, sorry if this sounds noob but you talk about the crit cap, how much is it? or do you actualy get to 100%

    And you say expertise/hit are less important stats, but if you dont hit do dont get combo points aswel, yes you get alot of enery back, but stil its time wasted isnt it?

  18. #18
    Deleted
    Time is wasted, but you got time. Even in BiS gear you will be only using about half of the available global cooldowns.

    Ill add a section about the crit cap later.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by proSpiney View Post
    Nice guide, thx
    Question, sorry if this sounds noob but you talk about the crit cap, how much is it? or do you actualy get to 100%

    And you say expertise/hit are less important stats, but if you dont hit do dont get combo points aswel, yes you get alot of enery back, but stil its time wasted isnt it?
    A bit more explanation:

    The majority of damage should now be bleed damage which, once applied, can't miss or be dodged. Additionally, as you stated finishing attacks only cause a 20% (of the abilities' energy cost) reduction in energy. Additionally, even if we assume that a Feral Cat has zero Expertise and zero Hit they will still hit their target 85.5% of the time (barring a specific boss variable). If you miss the energy is wasted, the global cooldown is lost; however, in comparison to the value of bleed damage Expertise and Hit aren't as important they were previously.

  20. #20
    basic attacks refund energy is they miss or are dodged also.

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