Talent build for catFollow

Should we assume "cat" to mean you want a build focused purely on PvE DPS?

Edited, Oct 28th 2008 9:34pm by JeeBar

Wow, that's extremely close to what I was trying to recommend earlier, punkspider. I just couldn't get my selections to "stick" with the linky url, and gave up.

The picks were virtually identical, in fact, as the only things I had any different were:

• OoC instead of Berserk
• Tier 1 of resto was 2/2 Imp MotW and 3/5 Furor instead of full Furor. My logic was that you won't need that instant as-you-shift energy in a pure dps role since you're mostly cruising around in cat form anyway, while at least the improved mark boosts your stats a (very) little bit.
• I'd sacrificed one point of Rend & Tear and one point of Infected Wounds to get two points of King of the Jungle for that energy-in-a-pinch that comes with Tiger's Fury. Just an idea.

Oh hey I'm not as dumb as I was a couple hours ago, and got my version of the build to work. Big woop since it's virtually the same, I know. : )



Edited, Oct 29th 2008 2:06am by JeeBar

Yeah, sorry for not being that specific, but yes, pve feral dps.
And thanks for the replys. Some questions, though.
1 - Why infected wounds? In wich way would this help my dps? The way I see it, its a PvP talent, no? IMHO, 3 on Survival of the Fittest would be better than Infected Wounds, or am I wrong?
2 - And is there any way to do a compare between OoC and Berserk? I know that Berserk has a 3 min CD, but does the dps done in this 3 minutes compensate those OoC procs? Or OoC is still better?
3 - Isnt King of the jungle any good? I mean, using Tiger Fury to increase dps and getting 60 energy back when I'm energy starving....it seens pretty good for me.
4 - Since its all about dps, Improved Leader of the Pack does not seen fit to me. Even on early days of tBC I rarely picked it up. I think I'm gonna pass it too.
5 - Between King of the Jungle and Improved Mangle, wich one would be better to pick? Does anyone has some sort of calculation on that? I mean, one would give me 60 energy back and increase my dps for a while. The other, will make mangle cheaper, but mangle its not my main atack, more a secundary being shred the main one.
6 - I picked Survival Instinct for an "oh ****" button and because I really didnt had to put anymore. Same for Feral Swiftness, had more points in early tiers than where to put.

I ended with this: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZEMMsfrz0eo0huqZ0E0z
Maybe put 2 on King of the Jungle and 2 on Improved Mangle could be better, but without calculations...I dunno.
I know is almost the same, but I think that my dps should be increased with those talents.


Another question, though. What about my "rotation"? Before, was pretty much mangle+ "n" shreds+rip and so on. The way I see now, I have to squeeze tiger fury between and maybe rake? Perhaps Ferocious Bite is any good now too? And what about stats points? Should I change my enchants from agility to strength now? And put mongoose on weapon? Too many things changed, oh well...

ps. Jeebar, about the full furor, you are forgetting power shift. At least, when I was raiding and doing heroics, I used power shift quite many times. Helped to never be energy starving.

Really? Oh, that really sucks...So that means that, if I had 10 energy when I went to caster form, I will stick with those 10 energy when I shift back? Is that it?

Edited, Oct 29th 2008 12:38pm by Brisin

You're clearly more expert than I am, but I'll throw my thoughts around for fun. : )


The movemement speed debuff is good for PvP, the mob attack speed reduction debuff is nice for your tank in PvE. You're right though, doesn't do much for your personal DPS in PvE. My recommendation included 2/3 SotF so clearly I agree that's valuable.

OoC vs. Berserk came up a lot right as the patch hit and consensus was that OoC was better. I think the elitist jerks did some math. I think OoC is better for sustained DPS because it procs on a fairly regular basis, while Berserk lets you time some massive burst damage for when it's needed, as it lets you virtually spam shred which is neat.


Yeah, I finagled 2/3 KotJ into my recommended build even though I myself haven't used it in a build yet. Seems critical for a DPS build.


Good point. I grab it as a matter of course because I solo and tank more than I DPS.


Another good point, I wasn't considering that Mangle won't really be part of a pure PvE DPS rotation anymore now that the Shred damage buff comes from bleeding instead of Mangle.

I'd argue that Feral Swiftness is key to instance DPS now that it works indoors, since it lets you switch and chase mobs more quickly. Survival Instinct, yeah, I pretty much always take that but I figured it was because I PvP a fair bit.


Since Shred now gets a damage boost from bleeding instead of the old mangle debuff, the game is doing whatever it takes to keep them bleeding for as long as possible. Pounce helps with it's long duration, and Rake now has a real reason for being. Then there's a Rip glyph that extends its duration for 4 seconds which is huge on that front.

1) Agility/Reenchant/Regem? I've heard hints of a change to agility, but haven't seen anything documented (I've looked) and my AP and crit are doing just fine so I'm leaving well enough alone. Haven't heard anything that would affect the hit cap.

2) Bleed attacks? In cat form, Rake is a special attack that causes direct damage plus 9 seconds of bleed, Rip is a combo-point finisher that causes bleed damage over 12 seconds, and Pounce is an opener that incapicates them and has them bleeding for 18 seconds. Then in bear form Lacerate causes direct damage and 15 seconds of bleed. Rogues have an opener called Garrote that works like Pounce and a closer Rupture that's like Rip. Warriors have one bleed DoT attack caled Rend, and a talent called Deep Wounds that makes crits cause bleeding.

3) Warrior Bleed Debuff? I think Rend & Tear boosts Shred damage no matter who it was that set the enemy bleeding, so a warrior's rend or deep wounds proc, or either of the rogue attacks, would "overlap" our own bleed effect for the sake of the debuff.

4) Roots as CC? I haven't used roots for CC other than pulling with it, which it's pretty sweet for, but from what I understand balance and resto druids with more ready access to the spell do use it for CC'ing melee mobs just fine.

Thanks, thanks and many more thanks. You guys answered most of my initial doubts. Really, thanks a lot.
Rate ups all around.

Thanks for the insights and some maths Astarin. As I thought KotJ is the new powershift. I tested it yesterday on Kara and it does the job its supposed, even better than powershift did, IMHO.


For a true hybrid, I would go with something like this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGGsfrzceocudAobA0z

Although it doesn't have Master Shapeshifter I think the other talents can compensate it (no, I dont have any actual calculation, since I'm not level 80 yet, nor on beta).
And you will have some points to switch around.
Like Infected Wounds, that I picked for heroics and that kind of thing, but once you are done with heroics or have a reliable group, you probably wont need it(I dont know if the atack speed is really usefull or not on raids, would have to test and see).
2/3 KotJ is good for this build, you wont need 3/3 since you are an hybrid and not a true dps nor a true tank. Same reason I picked 3/3 Imp. Mangle, since you will be tanking, and .5 GCD on mangle for a bear is a lot.
I dont think Brutal Impact is needed in any way, since this isnt a pvp build. You can go without it, same for Imp. LotP. Although its a great talent for a bear to have, imho, you have better ways to spent those talents points.

Didnt knew that "PI only affects cat form now". Good to know though, thanks.

About the all cat thing, I would only not use LotP. I dunno, its a great talent to level and quest, but once you are done with it...maybe it's good for pvp too, to some degree like all dps arena team or some BGs, not really sure on that though.

Btw, I just made you guru, gratz ;)

The question is kinda odd because you use both forms, depending on the situation. Generally speaking, I'd say cat form contributes more to solo leveling. You can tear through mobs without the downtime of having to drink, you get from place to place 30% faster thanks to Feral Swiftness, and you can stealth past trash to get to quest objectives if you choose.

Bear form also helps with leveling, though, as you can take out groups of mobs, or take out higher level mobs than you could in cat form, albeit more slowly. Then you could say bear from accelerates leveling because we're usually more in demand as tanks for instance groups than DPS.


I don't really know what that means...your build changes every level when you add a new talent. We also have the oddity that most people advocate going 11 into resto early for Omen of Clarity, then respeccing to full feral at 50 when you can get Mangle.

Just for fun, guessing at what you're looking for with that question, and with very little thought put into this, my feral build at 24 would probably look like this. Then maybe something like this at 40. Then this at 50 to get mangle ASAP. Then this at 61. (broke the even number there to get OoC)