The Cat Is Back In Patch 3.3

Not that kitties were all that bad in the last patch, mind you, but with 3.3 they are pushing mages and rogues for top DPS.  At a max of 11,094 single target DPS that is a mere fraction behind the Arcane spec mage build.  Now, feral druids have a tendency to be fairly gear dependent and the priority list may hurt your eyes for a while until you get the hang of it, but once you get some 245 (and up) set pieces and wrap your brain around your skills and when to use them you should be able to maybe even shut up that arrogant rogue in your guild.

Gear

http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=14717965

Talent Build

http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=14717965#talents

Glyphs

Major

• Savage Roar
• Rip
• Shred

Minor

• The Wild
• Unburdened Rebirth
• Dash

As is the case with most builds, the minor glyphs are mostly up to you since none of them figure into direct DPS in any way.  So if you are in love with something else feel free to use it, but these are pretty typical.  And yes, we know there is no glyph of Mangle in there, we’ll explain below.

Priorities

This build doesn’t use Mangle, and although it only removes one thing from the priority list, it does make the list a little less complex.  Keep in mind we said “a little.”  It’s not nearly as bad as some DK lists with internalized rotations inside the list, but there are some conditionals you have to bear in mind.  Check the thread below this post for input from the folks who do this all the time for more nuts and bolts.  And remember, this is NOT a rotation, so things may seem a little out of order.  It’s a priority list, so get that straight before you complain.

• Flask = Endless Rage
• Food = Hearty Rhino
• Form = Cat
• Maim (interrupt)
• Faeire Fire
• Tigers Fury (when energy is less than 40)
• Berserk (when energy is less than 90)
• Savage Roar (without SR buff)
• Savage Roar (With 5 combo points on target and Rip has more than 6 seconds left)
• Shred (to extend Rip when Rip has less than 4 seconds)
• Rip (when at 5 combo points to debuff target)
• Ferocious Bite (when combo points are at max and target has less than 6 seconds to die)
• Ferocious Bite (at 5 combo points and rip has more than 10 seconds left)
• Rake (unless the target will die in less than ten seconds)
• Shred (if you have more than 70 energy)
• Shred (when Omen of Clarity procs)
• Shred (when combo points are below 4 and rip has less than 3 seconds left)
• Shred (if the target will die in less than ten seconds)
• Shred (if Berserk is still active)

Damage Sources

Now, the first few days we had this up Law got ripped more than – ok I won’t use the cheesy game reference.  But I’m not past correcting mistakes.  I only VERY occasionally play cat form on my druid and his gear isn’t anything like uber.  So I made some huge mistakes trying to read the priority list and extrapolate.

The next problem is that there are a number of VERY good players out there who tend to develop a diety complex after a while.  In other words, they will scream the word moron at each other while sane folks wrinkle their brows.  SO – we’re going to let all the cat form demi-gods inform you of the rotation you should be using in the thread below.  Just keep in mind that when they disagree with each other it will turn into something like an elitist jerks thread – basically- long, boring and mostly flaming.

The last issue is that people have huge issues with change.  According to the wikki simulcraft engine, this build and priority list WITHOUT using Mangle does 214 more DPS than a mangle rotation.  Yes, I know that Mangle increases your bleed damage by 30% and that anyone who doesn’t use mangle should be shot in the face repeatedly and the pooped on once dead.  But if you’re not one of THOSE players who absolutely pwns the game like Mr. T and really did make Blizz invent the night elf mohawk class, you might – just might, consider experimenting with a rotation that doesn’t use mangle.  It will either work a little better for you, a lot better, or it will be worse and you can go back to doing what you know best.

But, we will post the Mangle build in a few days as promised in the previous version of this post.  Remember, the information above comes from the wikki engine here: http://code.google.com/p/simulationcraft/wiki/SampleOutputT9T10Druid so don’t call Law a moron, you can blast whoever ran the numbers.  Just be sure to run your OWN numbers in the engine and give everyone a link to it so we all know you hung the sun and the moon in a subjective way.

Since the first post was such an unfortunate debaucle, I reset the thread so you don’t have to wade through my mess first to get to the guys doing the rotation explanations.