The Cat Guide - 4.3

[Nathanyel]

From the Mists of Pandaria Developer Q&A:

Q: What will happen to passive abilities like trueshot aura, arcane tactics, improved icy talons and unleashed rage? Where will they go in the new talent system?

Ghostcrawler: Many of those become passive abilities you get for your spec. We are removing some of the less interesting buffs and debuffs (+bleed damage, armor, 3% damage, resists are all on the chopping block at the moment).

That could mean Mangle gets the shaft, and Shred becomes our only main attack (and CP generator besides Rake), or the other way around. Either way, it would mean the end of directional limitations!

[Braindwen]

Ok, first off, they better reverse that change to Ultraxion. Preventing cats from shredding on the "patchwerk" of the tier is just a giant middle finger to the spec.
Or maybe it has to do with the comment that any tanking class can pick up the thrall buff by going bear/blood pres/def. stance/RF, which if it still buffs berserk would be impressively OP. You know, or they could just design the fight right (preventing cats from getting the buff is a tad harder, but simply removing berserk from it would remove the incentive).

Now, on to my point! Recently there's been a bug brought up on the official forums regarding shred and mangle-type effects.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3430807757

In summary, Shred is only buffed by mangle or trauma. Hunter pet abilities (Tendon Rip, from a Hyena), or a subtlety rogue's Hemorrhage will NOT buff shred. They will buff rip and rake, but naturally, losing that 30% on your main damaging ability is crippling.

Hyenas will only ever cast it if the existing effect (mangle, etc.) has <15 seconds, so at worst they force you to re-cast it every 45 seconds. There's also the option of the hunter turning auto-cast off, or just switching in a less worthless pet. Sub rogues are a bit more difficult, best bet is to convince them to respec or start using Backstab I guess.

[Deleted]

so on stats weigth is the +22 agi enchant better then +65 mastery again ?

As far as I can see, 65 mastery is still ahead (and its 20 agi, not 22).

---------- Post added 2011-10-28 at 10:56 AM ----------

Ok, first off, they better reverse that change to Ultraxion. Preventing cats from shredding on the "patchwerk" of the tier is just a giant middle finger to the spec.
Or maybe it has to do with the comment that any tanking class can pick up the thrall buff by going bear/blood pres/def. stance/RF, which if it still buffs berserk would be impressively OP. You know, or they could just design the fight right (preventing cats from getting the buff is a tad harder, but simply removing berserk from it would remove the incentive).

Now, on to my point! Recently there's been a bug brought up on the official forums regarding shred and mangle-type effects.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3430807757

In summary, Shred is only buffed by mangle or trauma. Hunter pet abilities (Tendon Rip, from a Hyena), or a subtlety rogue's Hemorrhage will NOT buff shred. They will buff rip and rake, but naturally, losing that 30% on your main damaging ability is crippling.

Hyenas will only ever cast it if the existing effect (mangle, etc.) has <15 seconds, so at worst they force you to re-cast it every 45 seconds. There's also the option of the hunter turning auto-cast off, or just switching in a less worthless pet. Sub rogues are a bit more difficult, best bet is to convince them to respec or start using Backstab I guess.

Alright, I made a post about it as well on the EU forums: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...1?page=60#1196
Please "like" either of these 2 posts to help bring this to the attention of the developers so it can be fixed asap; we might be seeing a lot more subtlety rogues in dragon soul so it might become a pretty big issue if it's not fixed.

[Duilliath]

Apparently, it's been noted. You got a blue response about it.

[Nathanyel]

Mihir, slight mistake in your post though, the ravager's Ravage is a "4% increased physical damage taken" debuff, not a bleed one. However, boars and rhinos have similar abilities, in addition to the hyena one.

[Deleted]

hmye, whoops :)

---------- Post added 2011-10-28 at 02:46 PM ----------

Tentative BiS list for Dragon Soul:

head: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78694/d H:Blackhorn
neck: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/71610/c (hc version of valor neck would be better, but unknown if it can be upgraded)
shoulder: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78368/u H:Morchok
back: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/71415/d (without epic gems, the hc version of the valor cloak would be better)
chest: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78665/d H:Ultraxion
wrist: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78446/s H:Blackhorn
hands: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78684/d H:Zon'ozz
waist: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78388/b H:Zon'ozz
legs: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78713/d H:Yor'sahj
feet: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78462/m H:Spine
finger1: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78489/s H:Dragon Soul first 6 bosses
finger2: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78413/s H:Hagara
trinket1: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/77994/w H:Spine
trinket2: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/77113/k 1650 VP
weapon: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78473/k H:Madness
relic: http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/77080/r 700 VP (unknown if this can be upgraded to heroic version)

[Elunedra]

http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/78473/k ? realy? are you for real?
120 agi stacking 10 times? so 1200 agility?

but sadly i did expect our chast / helm / legs to go over 500 base agility :P

[Deleted]

it takes 10 seconds to get to 1200, and it only lasts 10 seconds after that, so not as OP as you think. Similar to how http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50348/d or http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/48020/v works.

[Elunedra]

ah yeh, i missed the part where it said "every 1 second" \o/

[Nathanyel]

last-fortnight-nostalgia: remember when the weapon proc was first datamined and said 500 Agility? :P

[Zheryn]

Ah, I thought it would be one of those stacking buffs you could keep up all the time. It's so annoying with AP/agi procs, have to watch the timers on them so closely all the time to know when they will come up. Haste procs are the ones I enjoy the most, so naturally I'm still stuck with Essence of the Cyclone!

Also, where do I see a list of all items you can buy from VP? I really hope there are a lot of items there so one doesn't have to rely on too much RNG

[Deleted]

That's a crit proc.

[Zheryn]

That's a crit proc.

Yes, I was trying to be ironic about the fact that our guild hasn't had a single agility trinket drop this entire tier =) When it's one of the few pieces one really "wants" for smoother playstyle it's pretty annoying to be stuck with a crit proc trinket. /sadpanda

[Deleted]

So 16 or 17 weeks or however long 4.2 has been out you haven't seen a single hungerer or matrix? That's proper cack luck. Makes me feel bad knowing the amount of sodding hungerers we've had DE'd.

[Deleted]

Ah, I thought it would be one of those stacking buffs you could keep up all the time. It's so annoying with AP/agi procs, have to watch the timers on them so closely all the time to know when they will come up. Haste procs are the ones I enjoy the most, so naturally I'm still stuck with Essence of the Cyclone!

Also, where do I see a list of all items you can buy from VP? I really hope there are a lot of items there so one doesn't have to rely on too much RNG

There's valor items in 4.3 for every slot except shoulders and legs, and there's crafted legs as well.

[Zheryn]

So 16 or 17 weeks or however long 4.2 has been out you haven't seen a single hungerer or matrix? That's proper cack luck. Makes me feel bad knowing the amount of sodding hungerers we've had DE'd.

Didn't get our guild together until a while in to the tier but I have a total of 15 Majordomo kills and 10 Ragnaros kills and have never seen any of the trinkets. Yeah it's pretty lame how much RNG it is when running 10m which I believe you also do, I always see your name on the top of the WoL rankings!

---------- Post added 2011-10-29 at 10:51 AM ----------

There's valor items in 4.3 for every slot except shoulders and legs, and there's crafted legs as well.

That's awesome, thanks for the good news!

[Deleted]

Didn't get our guild together until a while in to the tier but I have a total of 15 Majordomo kills and 10 Ragnaros kills and have never seen any of the trinkets. Yeah it's pretty lame how much RNG it is when running 10m which I believe you also do, I always see your name on the top of the WoL rankings!

I can't complain about RNG with loot during this raid tier at all in 10m because I have been beyond lucky with drops. Also try my best yaknow!

[Zheryn]

I can't complain about RNG with loot during this raid tier at all in 10m because I have been beyond lucky with drops. Also try my best yaknow!

Yeah I've visited your armory several times and drooled abit. Pala tank is so awesome for Majordomo HC, I would like to try the fight with a pala tank now and see how the DPS would go.

[Deleted]

How would the type of tank change things? Unless you are talking about bopping and then I normally get it off the holydin since he has bugger all to do at that point anyway, may as well make him useful! It's my least favourite fight to dps because of the way it starts and making pre-potting almost useless I feel. And if I'm being a mong and hitting berserk when it comes off cooldown just as we're getting orbs and get cloned. What I'd give for 2 minute cooldowns. I can't say how frustrating it is at Rag HC to have to sit looking at berserk come off cooldown and not be able to use it in p2 because it won't be ready for the p3 burn if I use it straight away.

[Nathanyel]

How would the type of tank change things?

I gather you did not play before 3.0