Feral questions? - Page 2

Boevis · 11/18/08, 11:29 AM

When grinding my rotation goes along the lines of: Rake, SR, Mangle to 5 cp, SR, next mob Rake, Mangle to 5 cp, FB repeat twice then reapply SR.

Often I will forgo FB if I happen to have high energy when the mob is almost dead, I prefer to start the next fight with 80+ energy and the overkill/energy wasteed by FB is often a hindrance.

Mysticum · 11/18/08, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by Rangifer

While the initial damage of Rake is applied via a bleed mechanic (bypasses armor), it does not benefit from the Mangle debuff. I tested this post 3.0.2 but pre-WotLK.

Thanks for pointing that out! It's true, the initial bleeding damage is not increased by Mangle, just tried myself. That means, for a quick fight, Rake+SR is a great opener.

Habba · 11/18/08, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by Mysticum

Thanks for pointing that out! It's true, the initial bleeding damage is not increased by Mangle, just tried myself. That means, for a quick fight, Rake+SR is a great opener.

Wouldn't it still be better to mangle + SR then rake as the initial damage and the rake dot would be modified by the savage roar attack power buff?

♦ Regen · 11/18/08, 1:28 PM

Doing very competitive damage with limited level 80 gear (most important thing is probably 10man KT staff). Broke 5k dps (#6) with 20 people in the raid on Thaddius, similar numbers on Loatheb, more or less tanked everything else because my HP pool was 10k higher than our warrior/paladin (40k raid buffed). Neck and neck with rogues, only really getting destroyed by frostfire mage / TG Warrior.

Rangifer · 11/18/08, 2:09 PM

Originally Posted by Habba

Wouldn't it still be better to mangle + SR then rake as the initial damage and the rake dot would be modified by the savage roar attack power buff?

Not if the mob dies in under 11 seconds of combat, as you'd lose at least 1 tick of Rake. Once you drop a tick, Mangle scales better with AP than Rake (not to mention that you may get an extra tick applying Rake earlier).

Also, not after factoring in crits. With all 3 ticks, Rake scales by 0.19 AP, but only by 0.01 AP for crit damage. Mangle scales by 1/7 AP (a little under 0.143), all of which is in play for a crit. Assuming PI but no meta gem, buffing Mangle with SR is better than buffing Rake at a little under a 32.3% crit rate.

Balroth · 11/18/08, 2:31 PM

I'm trying to create a macro based on my old powershifting macro. I was able, using a seperate macro, to turn the powershifting on and off. I want a macro that will turn the second macro on and off and I want the second macro to, if enabled, cast maul and mangle, and if disabled to just cast mangle.

Here's what I'm looking for...

I would prefer a macro that could do both of these things but if only one is possible, I'll deal.

The first thing I want the macro to do is to cast maul and mangle under the condition that I have at least 25 rage, otherwise, just cast mangle.

The second thing is I want a macro to be able to turn mauling on and off so if it's disabled, the previous macro will only do Mangle, not maul, under all circumstances.

Right now I'm using a macro that switches between 2 bars. One has maul macros, the other doesn't. It's very impractical though and would much rather have this macro set up.

Here is the old powershifting macro, if that helps.

/run local c=DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME if pws then
pws=false c:AddMessage("Powershifting disabled",1,1,1) else
pws=true c:AddMessage("Powershifting enabled",1,1,1)end

#showtooltip
/run if pws then local f="Cat Form";f=GetSpellCooldown(f)>0 or UnitMana('player')>15 or not IsUsableSpell(f) or GetComboPoints()>3 or CancelPlayerBuff(f) end
/cast [form] Shred
/stopmacro [form]
/cast Cat Form

I have heard that none of this is possible anymore but I figured if anyone would know, it would be the people here. If it's NOT possible I would like to ask, how the hell do you guys manage to keep all your stuff on your bars? I'm a Feral and I was pretty pressed for space before but now that I'm 75 I've got Tiger's Fury and Savage Roar to on my bars too. Basically, I have all my cat only stuff on my cat bar, my bear only stuff on my bear bar, and the things that overlap like berserk on my bar above action bar 1 (my bottom left action bar). Buffs are on the bottom right action bar, and then forms and stuff on my right action bar, bound to my mouse. That doesn't leave room for healing spells which are now bound to action bar 2 that I can swap between but I would like to use that bar as a stealth bar for cat form because I can't fit all my abilities on my cat bar. Any suggestions? Are there good macros that would allow me to say, have Feral Charge on my bottom left action bar so that it would use the charge appropriate to form?

Harmonics · 11/18/08, 2:38 PM

I'm doubt either of those things you are asking for are possible, but I'm pretty weak in the macro department. However, if you are having trouble with things like "your bottom left action bar" you will probably want to pick up a bar mod (I really like bartender) also a mod like Spellbinder will let you bind actions from your spellbook directly to keys, no bars required.

• Abradix · 11/18/08, 2:47 PM

Originally Posted by Balroth

Are there good macros that would allow me to say, have Feral Charge on my bottom left action bar so that it would use the charge appropriate to form?

/cast [stance:3]Feral Charge - Cat(Rank 5)
/cast [stance:1]Feral Charge - Bear(Rank 5)

This can be used in any other way you want, for example Mangle:

/cast [stance:3]Mangle - Cat(Rank 5)
/cast [stance:1]Mangle - Bear(Rank 5)

But it can be even two completely unrelated spells, or you could include another one for caster form, etcetera.

Habba · 11/18/08, 3:02 PM

Originally Posted by Balroth

I have heard that none of this is possible anymore but I figured if anyone would know, it would be the people here. If it's NOT possible I would like to ask, how the hell do you guys manage to keep all your stuff on your bars? I'm a Feral and I was pretty pressed for space before but now that I'm 75 I've got Tiger's Fury and Savage Roar to on my bars too. Basically, I have all my cat only stuff on my cat bar, my bear only stuff on my bear bar, and the things that overlap like berserk on my bar above action bar 1 (my bottom left action bar). Buffs are on the bottom right action bar, and then forms and stuff on my right action bar, bound to my mouse. That doesn't leave room for healing spells which are now bound to action bar 2 that I can swap between but I would like to use that bar as a stealth bar for cat form because I can't fit all my abilities on my cat bar. Any suggestions? Are there good macros that would allow me to say, have Feral Charge on my bottom left action bar so that it would use the charge appropriate to form?

You can check for your current form, a modifier key and a target's disposition to you. What you can not do is create a macro that decides game actions for you. Power shifting was possible through a macro because cat form functions like a buff and the macro centered around canceling and reapplying that buff.

In regard to my personal setup, I use 4 bars total.

Bar 1: Caster/Travel form
Bar 2: Bear
Bar 3: Cat
Bar 4: Utility

For a "stealth bar" I have created macros for a few attacks so that they perform differently when I'm prowling.

For example.

#showtooltip
/cast [stealth] Pounce; Rake

I have ravage in a macro with shred as well. Other than that there isn't really anything else that is going to change on my bars when I'm prowling. This eliminates the need for an extra bar.

In bear form I have my situational abilities in a macro that I use modifiers to control.

Example.

#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:ctrl] Challenging Roar; [modifier:alt] Demoralizing Roar; Growl;

This frees up 2 slots on your bar from moves that you might not use as often.

All in all you need to sit down and plan out a button configuration that works best for you.

kalbear · 11/18/08, 4:29 PM

My understanding is that Mongoose still has a slight advantage over +35 - is this still true or is it just a matter of preference?

Mongoose is more than slightly better than 35 agi for bears. Even with a single mob it averages to about +49 agi. With multiple mobs you end up getting close to 100% uptime.

Ghoselle · 11/18/08, 5:36 PM

RAWR heavily favors stamina for me. But after a while, it feels like I have enough.

For sunwell, people had come up with recommended raid buff health totals to target, after which the advice was to gem/consume for agility. Do people have advice for what health totals I should be shooting for before starting to gear more for avoidance?

In the past, I was an agility fanatic. I've not just not tanked anything hard since diminishing returns have been put in place to see if that is still a valid world view.

Anksunamun · 11/19/08, 5:25 AM

I've rerolled a feral druid for this expansion so I'm a noob forgive me :P
I know that every melee dps like rogues, warriors etc have a limit for their speed, like 0,7 sec for every swing.
Does a cat has the same limitation?
Does haste rating is a good stat for a cat?

Malazaar · 11/19/08, 5:51 AM

I distinctly remember rogues and warriors stacking haste with the inventory bug and finally reaching 0.0 attack speed so i don't think there is a limitation.

Haste rating is not a good stat for cat because we only deal 30 to 40 percent of our damage with autoattack. Even though we also get more ooc procs with more haste, it's not the best stat for us.

Sotalammas · 11/19/08, 6:43 AM

I have a faint recollection of reading something about a parry rating to dodge conversion somewhere, but i have no idea where I read it. Anyone that can can either confirm reading something similar or is it just my demented mind teasing me again?

charriu · 11/19/08, 7:16 AM

Originally Posted by Sotalammas

I have a faint recollection of reading something about a parry rating to dodge conversion somewhere, but i have no idea where I read it. Anyone that can can either confirm reading something similar or is it just my demented mind teasing me again?

That was only a tooltip bug on a trinket in beta. There's no such thing in live.