Any updates on feral dps scaling available?

As it looks currently, we get improved Tiger's Fury which is a very nice talent (60 energy on 30 sec timer => 2 energy per second, so 20% more yellow attacks), but the current gap with rogue scaling is much larger, and it does not improve our scaling based on haste. We would need a larger buff to our energy regen to keep up, maybe we could get that if the mechanics of power shifting were changed so that if we enter cat form again within 0.5 seconds of leaving it, up to 20 energy from before leaving cat form would be preserved?

Or replace the extra combo point on crits in the talent to give 10 energy on a crit? That should raise our energy regen rate sufficiently to ensure proper scaling without making us dual-wielders in cat form

Allowing WF would be one way. As for scaling there are talents in already that are helping. The 60 energy every 30 seconds is huge, as already stated. Berserk reducing the energy cost of attacks by half is huge, though the cooldown is large so this is probably more burst then sustained dps. The extra % AP from our weapons is another scaling factor that is actually very large. 20% more AP from our weapons is almost the same as giving a warrior or rogues weapons 20% more dps

e.g., Stranglestaff is 829 AP which converts to 114.6 DPS two hander. With the new talent its a 125.5 dps two hander. Thats approximately 1 tier gain in DPS.

Finally there's the 10% more shred damage against bleeding targets. Again this is a perfectly scaling talent that makes shred a total of 3.54*weapon damage (including Mangle, Naturalist and this new talent) in terms of scaling.

I think this has more to do with the fact that Enh Shaman are doing 2200dps at the Sunwell level whereas Druids cap out at 1800dps. Its the same old scaling problem with our 1.0 attack speed and lack of benefit from haste/armor pen/windfury as 25% of our damage is a bleed.

I was playing around with different PVE builds and I think this:

War Pirate :: Druid WotLK Alpha Talent Tree

Gives pretty much everything essential, without giving up too much that is terribly valuable.

You do lose Feral FF which is very nice, is by no means essential, especially if you have a moonkin. You also lose Imp LotP which again, is nice to have, but I can't ever really recall it saving my life, or anyone elses either.

Thoughts?

I completely agree with missing the FFF, but, just like you said I'd just end up doing a lot more moonfire pulls, which I suppose is better(for threat) just a little more work on our part.

And as far as infected wounds goes, I'd be incredibly surprised if they let that work on boss type mobs. Maybe on regular/instance mobs, but even then, while it'd be great for learning new dungeons, I don't think it'd be at all needed once you've learned them.

Why Savage Fury ?

This one, while not as raid useful as other feral talents, still probably is more helpful than FFF or Imp LotP because Mangle is usually a decent % of damage done....not huge, but I do think 20% would be noticeable...that and it's invaluable for soloing. It also has a use in pvp. While this obviously isn't a PVP build, I think most people like to be able to hop into a BG and not be too gimped with a normal PVE spec.

But if I do take out the 2 points there, what would you suggest? FFF and 1 point into Imp LotP?

I wouldn't say I hate on faerie fire, but it seemed like the most logical place to dump a point to me for 25 mans. My guild does run with a moonkin, and I have a feeling it's going to become almost required to have at least one in the expansion. 3% to both melee and spell hit is huge, the haste buff from imp moonkin aura is extremely good, and the debuff to increase arcane damage should also be very helpful if it stack with cos. Savage fury is the second talent I would take points out of, or where I would take them for 10 mans, 5 mans, or soloing, and it may end up being the better choice for 25 mans as well. Mangle is usually <10% of my damage, so losing 20% off each mangle shouldn't be terribly game breaking.

I couldn't bear to lose FFF personally. If im in a tricky situation where im faced with two stationary unmoveable casters then i'll MT whichever is the dps target and use FFF whenever its off Cooldown on the other caster, the 210 threat manages to out threat healers. This is opposed to having to run between them. I'll admit this use is limited, very limited, but nevertheless FFF is an essential part of the druid pulling system unless you intend to run like hell with Enrage on after a moonfire.

I've checked this topic but I haven't seen it being discussed so I'll just ask it here:

"Primal Aggression: Increases damage done by your Maul and Shred attacks on bleeding targets by 2/4/6/8/10%, and increases the critical strike chance of your Ferocious Bite ability on bleeding targets by 10/20/30/40/50%."

Rip versus Fero Bite getting a new twist isn't it?

Rip has always been the PVE choice cus it scales better with AP and it ignores armor. Fero bite crit scaling wasn't enough to make it a good substitute. However now with +50% crit (lets assume bleed effects are always up with a warrior/rogue) to ferocious bite, the critchance can get higher than 90%, even with the possible changes to agility scaling. Won't that change the balance between rip and ferobite, making the difference in dmg between the two pretty small? (ofcourse assuming you specced 15% fero bite dmg as well)

I guess in WOTLK it's going to depend on the armor of the boss whether you wanna use rip or ferocious bite, instead of currently: always rip (except if the mob dies in a few sec). Damage cycles will be way easier to keep up by only using fero bite. I really wonder what the dmg difference will be.
Lets say rip ticks for 700dmg, that's 700*6=4200dmg. In the same situation ferobite would prolly do around the same average dmg with a 90% critchance, on an average bossfight? Just a guess.

While FB will be better than it is now it still cost more energy base and drains all your remaining energy. Also Arms warriors will be getting a talent that increases a targets bleed damage.