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11/12/08, 2:47 AM
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#2 |
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Piston Honda
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The main Cat post.
Explains about being a cat in a DPS role. I don't know what other role you could do as a cat, but whatever. Contains stuff like stats to go for, what enchants, items, gems, set bonuses and professions are good and some other stuff. All gear suggestions in this post are summaries which are true for the majority of gear setups. If you're in doubt, use the spreadsheets/DPS calcs at the bottom of this post to put in your own gear and work it out for your own setup! ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Basics - Stats Stats and what they give you. Brackets are raid buffed (+10% stats, +10% AP) values while the normal ones are unbuffed. All values are assuming HoTW and SoTF. All values are per 1 point of stat. Also see Athinira's Stat/DPS Analysis on the druid wiki, linked at the end of this post.  Strength = 2.332 (2.82172) AP
Agility = 1.166 (1.41086 AP), 1% crit per ~78.62 agility (1% crit per ~71.47 agility).
Critical Strike Rating = ~1% crit per 45.91 critical strike rating.
Hit Rating = 1% hit per ~32.79 hit rating [[You need ~9% hit to
become hit capped, so ~295 hit rating total]]
Attack Power = 1.21 AP
Expertise rating = -1% dodge/parry per ~32.79 expertise rating.
Haste rating = 1% haste per ~32.79 haste rating.
Armor penetration rating = 1% armor reduction per ~15.4 armor penetration rating.
The issue with both Armor Penetration and Haste are that they scale a lot in comparison to what gear you have and what values you have of them. Armor penetration gets better as you get more, for example. You're best off just using something like Rawr to model how much you have/planning to have and see if the items it's on are worth it - remember you can't ever really take a particular stat as a set value, you have to evaluate the piece of gear you may want to get with it on and compare the whole stat set it has to your current/other planned item. On hit rating: White hits will miss for full damage, as will finishing moves (unless specced for Primal Precission) and OoC procs. Standard yellow hits will not be affected as heavily due to the energy use being lower on missed specials. Hit-rating is a matter of personal preference, to a point. Simulators and spreadsheet model an ideal world with an ideal player who will benefit less from having a stable combatcycle that you get from capping hit. Note that after capping hit, you also need expertise rating to counteract the 5.6% dodge-chance of the boss in order to ensure that your moves never fail to land. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Gems From the stat analysis it can easily be seen that purely +strength gems are the best things to socket with. However, you need to have a yellow and a blue gem for the [Relentless Earthsiege Diamond] (generally accepted as the best meta for druids), which are best made up with either a +strength/+crit gem or a +agility/+hit gem for the yellow socket and a +strength/+stamina gem for the blue socket. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Enchants Enchants are generally pretty easy to work out. [Arcanum of Torment] for the helm (50AP/20crit), sons of Hodir AP/crit enchant for shoulders, +10 stats for chest, +50 AP for bracers, +22 agility for gloves, +75ap/22crit armorpatch for legs, +16 agi for boots, [undetermined yet] for weapon. Some of these are interchangable with more tanking oriented ones dependant on your exact role in the raid/what piece it is on. A table of how run speed enchants stacks with other bonuses can be found here. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Set Bonuses The 2T7 bonus is okay for both cat and bear, but it's not something that you'll want to focus on keeping. The 4T7 bonus is fairly useless for cat, it's okay, though not briliant for bear. TBC set bonusses are of limited value. The powerful 2T4 bonus has its procchance drop down with level, to 0% at 80. 2T6 and 4T6 are still decent at 80, a spreadsheet/program will tell you exactly how and when they're replaced best. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Idols [Idol of the Ravenous Beast] is the L80 replacement of the [Everbloom Idol], the choice for DPS. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Trinkets To be filled in at a later time. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Other Items There hardly ever is a "single best item" for a given slot. An items power depends strongly on your current stats, your precise talentspec and the raidbuffs you're getting. Therefore, when deciding which items to shoot for, consult your favorite theorycrafting utility. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Glyphs Major glyphs relevant for cats are: [Glyph of Mangle] - Essential for your DPS-cycle unless you consistently raid with an Arms Warrior providing the Trauma debuff. [Glyph of Rake] - For solo PvE only, but even then it's of questionable worth. [Glyph of Rebirth] - Not necessarily a DPS-glyph, but one worth considering nonetheless. [Glyph of Rip] - Essential for your DPS-cycle. [Glyph of Shred] - Mainly for solo PvE and PvP, has some use in 5mans, where mobs are still stunnable, but that's minimal. Minor glyphs: [Glyph of Aquatic Form] - For the regular swimmer. [Glyph of Challenging Roar] - More of a tank glyph. [Glyph of Dash] - This one is quite handy, being able to get to places more quickly can be a great boost in some encounters. [Glyph of the Wild] - Convenience mostly, though chances are your spec won't include imp MotW and another Druid will handle the buff. [Glyph of Thorns] - Nice for soloing, little use for raids as you won't be getting hit as DPS. [Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth] - Saves you one bagslot, nifty. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Professions The main professions in the game are Tailoring (craft), Leatherworking (craft), Blacksmithing (craft), Alchemy (craft), Jewelcrafting (craft), Engineering (craft), Inscription (craft), Enchanting (gather/craft), Herbalism (gather), Mining (gather), and Skinning (gather). The general rules are that gathering professions are good for making money, and crafting professions are good for making lumps of money if you can get rare items, or making nice stuff that you can use. All crafting professions have some sort of crafter-only benefit, ring-enchants being one example. These benefits are generally fairly balanced. For all the details, see WotLK Profession Thread. Right now, there are no really worthwhile BoP craftable items available. Chances are that these might be added in later raid dungeons, but only time will tell. Ignoring perks that have no effect on raiding (such as desirable trading products or cost reductions), Jewelcrafting gives you access to BoP gems that have 35% more stats than epic gems of the same type (27 instead of 20). Additionally, these Dragon's Eyes are so-called "prismatic gems", which means they count as all colors, making it easier to obtain socket bonusses and meta-gem activation. The number of prismatic gems you can have equipped is limited to 3. Leatherworkers gain the ability to apply "fur lining" to their bracers. This doesn't stack with enchants and increases AP by 120 (compare to the +50 AP from a normal enchant). Enchanters gain ring-enchants, +32 AP per ring for cats. Blacksmiths can add a socket to their gloves and their bracers. Scribes will be able to make BoP shoulder enchants (details unknown to me as of yet). Tailors can create "Embroideries", which are cloak enchants. The DPS one gives you a chance that your attacks ignore 1000 armor. Alchemists have a passive ability that increases the duration of flasks and elixirs by 100% and increases the effect by ~30% (exact value differs per flask/elixir). In addition, alchemist stones are available that increase the effect of potions by 40% as well as provide stats (100 AP, 50 critrating) in a trinket slot. Engineers can create special enchants with various effects such as rocket launcher on gloves, a 340 haste for 8 seconds clicky on gloves or a sprint-clicky on boots. As for the gathering professions, skinners gain 25 crit rating, miners 500 health. Herbalists get a 3min cooldown HoT (self-only) that heals for 1800. Gathering skills are good if you want to make money (generally herbalism and mining are better than skinning) or to support a main skill (skinning is good if you have leatherworking, generally). The gathering perks are generally not as strong as the crafting perks and only skinning provides a direct DPS benefit. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Consumables [Elixir of Mighty Strength] is the Battle elixir of choice. Alternatively, there are elixirs that give 45 haste, hit, expertise or crit rating or 45 agility. [Flask of Endless Rage] provides better stats and lasts longer than the elixir. There is very little useful stuff in the area of Guardian elixirs. [Elixir of Mighty Fortitude] is the best one, though it gives no direct DPS benefit. [Dragonfin Filet] is the food of choice, though there are similar options with the other offensive stats rather than strength. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Powershifting in WotLK & the new Furor Due to changes in the way Furor works, powershifting is no longer possible. Before WotLK, shifting into cat form would reset your energy to 0. Furor would give you 40 energy, which resulted in the fact that by shifting out of cat form and directly back in (this could be macroed to become truely instantaneous), you'd end up with 40 energy from Furor, where you might've started out with alot less. This energy gain was a decent DPS boost and a way to turn your manabar into added DPS. Since the 3.0.2 patch, Furor no longer gives you 40 energy when you shift into cat form, but instead it allows you to retain 100 energy between forms. Energy keeps on ticking while you're in other forms. So for example, if you shift out to combat rezz someone while you're at 30 energy and you spend 4 seconds out of cat form, you'll reenter cat form with 70 energy. ---------------------------------------------------------------- DPS Cycle When speaking of cycles, people usually think of a strict order in which to perform their moves: Move A -> Move B -> Move B -> Move C -> Move A -> repeat. With WotLK, this is no longer the case for cat DPS. Instead, we now use what's called a "priority rotation". Here there is a list of priorities for each ability and the condition under which it should be used. You then use the ability whose conditions are met that is highest on the priority list. The optimal cycle has not been entirely fleshed out yet. And again, it depends a bit on your gear and precise choice of talents. However, it will most likely look somewhat like this: 1. If Savage Roar is down and you have more than 1cp, use Savage Roar. 2. If you have 5cp and Rip is not up, use Rip. 3. If Mangle is down, use Mangle (skip this if another Feral is doing Mangle or there's an Arms Warrior applying Trauma). 4. If Rake is down, use Rake. 5. If you're at 3+ cp, Rip still has 8+ seconds left, Savage Roar still has 8+ seconds left, use Ferocious Bite. 6. If you're at <40 energy and the TF cooldown is up, use TF. 7. If you have 42+ energy, use Shred. 8. Reapply Faerie Fire (Feral) NOTE: I'm not claiming that this is the perfect DPS cycle. Work on this is still being done. The above is just to demonstrate how a priority rotation would look. It has some sensible parts, but alot of it is still open for speculation on what the best course of action is. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Linked DPS Tools/Charts/Analysis These links are provided as is - support for these links lies with the owners, and I take no credit or responsibility for the content. Rawr - A theorycrafting tool for alot of classes/specs, including cats and bears Toskks DPS Gear Methodology + webbased gear calculator WoWCatSim by Nightcrowler Sumlans DPS simulator, allows you to practise your DPS cycles in a flash application or simulate optimal scenarios using one of several rotations Last edited by Rannasha : 11/12/08 at 4:47 AM. |
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11/12/08, 3:48 AM
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#5 |
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Piston Honda
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Last edited by manapaws : 11/12/08 at 9:51 AM. |
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11/12/08, 3:55 AM
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#6 | |
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Piston Honda
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In general, i think the opening post should contain the conclusions rather than the actual derivations and simulations, which can be found in threads and websites linked in the opening post |
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11/12/08, 10:28 AM
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#9 | |
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Von Kaiser
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Fur Lining - Attack Power = 114 Enchant Ring - Assault x 2 = 64 Enchant Bracers - Greater Assault = 50 Similar story for shoulder enchants with inscription: Master's Inscription of the Axe = 104 Greater Inscription of the Axe = 40 These 3 increase your AP by 64 compared to what you can get without having the profession. I can't speak as much to JC, BS. To add to enchants: Swordguard Embroidery = 300 over 15s or average of 75 AP/min (assuming 1 ppm - unsure) |
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11/12/08, 10:40 AM
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#10 |
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Piston Honda
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11/12/08, 10:41 AM
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#11 |
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Bald Bull
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11/12/08, 10:44 AM
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#12 | |
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Piston Honda
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11/12/08, 11:40 AM
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#14 |
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Piston Honda
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11/12/08, 12:17 PM
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#15 | |
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Von Kaiser
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It is all about state-of-the-art rotations used for maximized damage output. For quick information: Shred takes an important role in these rotations and a mangle-spam is behind by approximately five to ten percent. |
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