133? says 126 above... but true, with t4 it it tough... but edgewalker boots off moroes are good hit and 4 hit 4 agi gems are great for boosting hit...

yeah i use the lost treads too when not against bosses...

as for the rings I use the adals and a blue hit agi ap ring unique instance drop ravenclaw band or sumin... because until I get the squid staff don't have enough hit to swap to ursol's band...

as for neck I use the exalted consortium 5 more agi but no stam...

but yeah it gets rough, still say that +hit topaz is a decent way to try and squeak ur hit up and keeping that alternate hit set for just bosses...

I'm still having difficulty understanding why anyone would place so much emphasis on reaching the hit cap. Even if it is marginally more beneficial than the same ipoints in crit, agi or str (although this is debatable) most items with +hit seem to have +AP rather than strength, which is a pretty clear indication to me that it was designed with rogues in mind rather than druids.

Anycase, I'm not saying you people are wrong but would be good if someone could explain to me (or link an appropriate thread) why it's so neccessary to reach the hit cap at whatever cost.

Other thing is, how does + feral combat skill rating rate as an alternative to + hit given that feral itemisation is the way it is? The fcsr from EW for example adds around .25% hit (as well as -0.25% to be dodged and 0.87% crit, also some -block and parry although this isnt relavant for pve dps I guess). Other notable items are Shapeshifter's Signet and Clefthoof Hide Legging's, both easily obtainable from faction rep\quest.

Do druids regain energy when one of their specials misses? Rogues do (but not for finishing moves).

If so, you have to account for that in your calculation.
If not, I apologize, it's been a hell of a long time since I've actually missed a backstab/sinister strike.
And when I did so, I didn't take a look at my energy.

Certainly not "at whatever cost" But it's so easy to reach hit cap, and so terribly annoying when you miss (this is the reason for me anyway) that I haven't seen a good reason to not cap it. My cat gear is far from the best, however there's very little room for improvement beyond a weapon upgrade (Fleshling Staff ftl).

Just like I favor dodge for tanking, I favor crit for DPS (I'm at 2.3k AP, but 35% Crit unbuffed) and I fairly often TF-Shred on OOC procs just because my energy is about to tic to full and I'm already at 5 CPs with rip/mangle still up (I do this instead of FB because of the way I run my cycle as posted earlier)

Druids get energy back on a missed special. Has to be spent to be returned (so a missed Omen of Clarity proc is wasted).

Finishing moves that don't hit only return energy if you have the 3pc AQ20 set, which I really doubt any sane druids would bother with (maybe in pvp?) given the massive hit in stats you would have to take to keep it.

Not precisely. SnD is always used, but most builds have cycles that allow you to swap between finishers while maintaining SnD. Mutilate builds can run 3-finisher cycles(e.g. SnD/Rupture/Evis or SnD/Rupture/Expose), Combat SS builds can run two-finisher cycles, and Combat Daggers can occasionally toss off a 1-2 point finisher in addition to SS.

If the mob has Mangle on it, Rupture is more damage than Eviscerate, so you'll tend to see it a lot. :P

I'm just starting Karazhan with my guild, but in 5-man/quest blues and assorted craftables I am now at the point where I find myself *avoiding* pieces with +hit because I simply have too goddamn much of it. If I put on all my quote-unquote optimal DPS gear, I have about 20-25 more hit rating than I need to cap out. If I ever land the Stranglestaff, my hit rating would be even sillier.

I am desperate for some leather with something other than AP/+hit on it, but it sure seems to be scarce. I'd love to see non-set leather with STR/STA/+crit, but that's pretty much nonexistant at the moment (and the rogues would have a bloody conniption). For now, my philosophy for cat DPS is to cap out my hit rating (or get really close) and then devote the rest of my gear to AP and survivability; dead kitties do no damage.

Cats get very nice returns from +crit, but I usually find myself having to pop Cower when I get a string of frequent crits, which mutes the benefit of the extra damage and combo points. It's not necessarily borne out on paper, but in application I've been seeing the best results from capping out +hit and then binging on AP and stamina. Despite what I just said about +crit, I feel mine's a little low, but I prefer to pick up crit via agility rather than the direct modifier because agility is so amazing for just about all things feral.

I've had the same problem, but this is only really true when you are running around in your best levelling/dungeon blues. The entire Tier4 set has just +12 Hit rating and once you start making your way through Kz you'll pick up other excellet DPS gear (Zierhut's Lost Treads, Mithril Chain of Heroism, Girdle of Treachery to name the better ones) that lack +Hit. It becomes much easier to get just over the cap as opposed to +20 points over.

+Crit Rating on the other hand is another matter as there isn't a lot of that, but like you I prefer Agility anyway as it scales with Kings and there are a few good Rogue Agi + AP items around. Just a shame there's isn't more +Str & +Agi.