feral dpsFollow

hi ^^

you've proberly been asked this alot but can a feral druid do a decent amount of dps in raids (kara, gruul, ssc etc..)?

Yes, feral druids can do fine in raids, although I wouldn't waste energy on Cower unless you're sitting at 100 energy waiting for the tank to build threat. Really, after the first 10-20 seconds of a boss fight, the tank should have enough aggro that you can go all-out anyway. If not, he's either way undergeared or just bad at tanking.

General Cat DPS tips:

1) Unless it's necessary for the boss fight, always stand behind the boss. Shred should be the biggest % of your damage. Also, mobs can't parry or block attacks from behind.

2) Mangle. Keep this debuff on the mob at all times. It increases damage from Shred (and Rip if the mob bleeds) by 30%.

3) Ferocious Bite is a no-no unless you are sitting at exactly 35 energy, the mob is immune to bleeds, and you're not about to get an energy tick. Other abilities to avoid: Tiger's Fury, Rake, Claw.

4) Stats. 142 hit rating means you won't miss. After that, Agi > Str > AP > Crit. At any reasonable value for total AP and crit %, Agi is always better than Str. 1 Str is better than 2 AP because Str is increased by BoK, AP isn't.

5) Power-shifting. With 5/5 Furor, you can make a macro to cancel catform and recast it, putting you at 40 energy amost instantly. Timing is important because you don't want to shift while your GCD is up or when you have more than 20 energy.

Don't forget the ever popular "rogues have thistle tea, druids have catnip". God I wish they would at that even if it's just a joke item.

Or a rage pot for bears that is actually a sign thats says "out of charmin".

Edited, Feb 7th 2008 1:11pm by Jimpadan

ya, with 2 piece T4 and OoC, you can sometimes get some massive threat spikes. With some crit to back it up a feral druid needs to be careful that a series of procs/crits doesn't push them too far.

The problem is that any energy over the 35 cost of FB is wasted energy. Energy = DPS for druids, so if you can hit FB at 35-40 energy then it is definitely worth while. If you are at 57 energy, then you are better off shredding again then waiting one tick & hitting FB. Rather than wasting the rest of the excess energy.

Feral droods do splendid DPS at first. As things progress, they fall further and further behind.

Be advised, though, that DPS is a dime a dozen. The limiting factors in raids are typically tanks and healers. Thus, feral druids are typically tanks first, who switch over to a DPS role in single-tank fights.

The 2 piece T4 set bonus along with OoC is god like. Currently when raid buffed I can get to around 42-43% crit with ~3300-3400 AP. If it is a boss fight and I am there for DPS and don't need to worry about picking up the boss if the Tank dies, I always need to watch my aggro.

Last night against VR, I had to stop attacking for like 20 secs to let threat drop (due to a string of crits), alas the ******* kicked the main tank and 1-shotted me.

I'm not sure what DPS I due in total cat gear because I don't believe in damage meters, and I dont get the opportunity to be in full cat gear too often. Usually I am in bear gear and kitty form to DPS just incase I need to take over for a dead tank/OT.

Curator & Nightbane I think were bleed immune. I would imagine Moroes is well but i'm not 100% sure as I have always tanked him.

hmm maybe just maybe if the temp items now work perhaps the chants do as well, though whether that would be better than the +35 agi chant or not i don't have a clue

you use them on our weapons so you will be using weightstones.

The problem is that most of the time FB doesn't cost only 35 energy. It takes you to 0. The problem with this is that it totally screws up your combat rotation. RareBeast and Skribs had a great link to a guide in this thread. It's a great read.

His claim is that if a mob is immune to bleeds, you're better off just keeping your mangle/shred rotation than you would be using FB. The problem is that by going to 0 energy, it takes you a long time to get back into your rotation (>8 seconds). He's arguing that during this time you've done nothing but auto attack, and actually lost more damage than you've gained from your FB. I'm inclined to agree.

I powershift when I FB. That's 40 energy immediately returned. I actually disagree with almost everything said in that wowhead thread, such as the first example where a player with lower damage, but closer to the threat threshold, is considered to be better than a player with higher damage, who is not as close to the threat threshold. No, the player with higher damage is better, period. End of story.

Better character = better player.

Let's say I make a group. We have 2 hunters. One has good gear, one doesn't. The one with good gear never comes close to the threat threshold. The one with bad gear hovers around it the whole run, never crossing it. In the end, the one with good gear did twice as much damage as him. Who do you think I'm gonna take when I'm looking to make another group? The one that stayed near the threat threshold? NO WAY. He's getting left in the dust where he belongs.

Your worth as a dpser is not in how close you make it to pulling aggro without pulling aggro. It's in how much damage you do. Period. End of story.