To Nytkin and similar posters: discussing +hit here is all good and nice, but please read all the cat dps related threads on EJ before posting misinformation like "hit is vital for good dps".

It all boils down to:

Is paying attention to dodges/misses in addition to the standard DPS cycle and boss mechanics too complex for you? Try to reach hit/dodge cap.

Can you handle all this tasks? Will you adjust your next move immediately after missing an attack? Then Agi or ArP will grant you more DPS than Hit/Expertise even though some critical debuffs miss from time to time.

Exceptions are fights like XT, where there are short effects which increase damage and you don't want to miss here.

Every time this discussion comes up there is one big factor people miss which is events which require movement. If you miss your finisher when moving out for an AoE effect, or on adds that must be bursted down or to finish a cycle before innervating/CR, you don't get another chance at that, you max out on energy and you start losing damage.

I don't really try gem for hit but I do my best to maintain a decent figure. I think I'll likely use [Blood of the Old God] over DM:G if I ever get it, I've put off replacing Grim Toll with my Runestone for the time being because I didn't really want to lose that big chunk of hit and the reliability it provides.

Also I find your claim that "If you can't pay attention, cap hit, if you can don't" to be downright absurd.

The "But you may miss in a critical situation!" argument regarding hit has always seemed odd to me. Sure, if you're 2% under the hit cap, then one in every 50 times you'll miss that ferocious bite when running out of AoE instant death X. The other 49 times, you'll connect and do slightly more damage as a result of your higher ArP.

Arguing that hit is better because of a situation like this seems akin to arguing that crit is better than ArP since "Think how much damage you are losing if your FB fails to crit at a crucial moment!" In the end, it all balances out, and unless undercapping hit leads to the problems described above (you routinely shred without debuffs up etc due to reaction time) then the simulator result will generally reflect how you'll do on average.

Obviously the one instance where a critical move misses at exactly the wrong time will look bad for Joe UnderHitCap - but all the times he doesn't miss, he's doing slightly more, and in the end, it evens out (or in many cases, comes out with ArP ahead).

Yes, any time you miss is a DPS drop for the moment. However, due to the nature of ArP the times you do hit will more than make up for the times you don't. This same discussion went on in the ret paladin forum at 3.0 when ret became viable for raiding. Theoretical numbers, paperdoll testing, WWS parses, extensive in-game testing from all possible gear combinations all pointed to strength > hit/exp because it makes you hit so much harder. Feral druid is in a very similar same situation. It's not when you miss that matters, it's how much you hit for when you hit...as all testing and mathematics has shown to be true.

No, you're completely missing the point. Say on Freya. A lot of the time you have rapid target swaps and need to get everything up on each one, decide what finisher to use on each (if at all). Other times you dodge in and out of range due to fight mechanics and end up in front of the mob a lot (Hence expertise becomes twice as valuable, though I'm not condoning going over 6.5). Other times you -need- mobs killed ASAP or people die.

THAT is the conclusion you're saying compares to arguing crit is better than ArP. And even then the above point is just topping on the cake.

The main thing is if you can react fast enough to every single miss, while paying attention to the overall DPS cycle, WHILE paying attention to boss mechanics. I'm sorry but as much as I'd like to say I'm an amazing person with cat-like reflexes, this isn't my case. Playing consistently with 300-600ms doesn't help. Guaranteeing that every ability lands is the workaround.

The main issue isn't a 2% chance of a yellow attack missing and losing 1/5th of that energy. The main issue is having to pay more attention -constantly- to the possibilty of a miss and a much more severe DPE/DPS loss from not pressing the right button in the event it happens.

Actually I don't like to play to far from hit/expertise cap, but I'm not gemmin' specifically for it. If we look at BiS gear (T7.25-T8.25-T8.25 hard mode) are all very very near hit/exp cap so it's not a really big problem (my main problem is usually to not over cap them).

As for attack from the front / changing target, I don't see fights where it happens so often. The only fight were you should attack from the front is Kologarn and some part of Yog. Freya if you know how to move and your tanks know it, you'll basically always attack from behind, the same with aruya. For the miss problem, in wich fight you switch target so often?
Razor = AoE add + Kill boss, not so much change.
XT = Single target
Ignis = Single Target
Aru = single target + AoE but without target switch
Kolo = switch target about every 60 seconds
Freya = switch target around every 60 seconds, I use to build a 5cp sr (with 4t8) between phases on freya so I usually don't have to refresh it while doing adds, the little plant = build cp on her and aoe swipe = high arpen value.
Vezax = you don't switch target
hodir = you don't switch target (we use casters to down iced)
thorim = into arena built 2-3 cp sr + swipe, and then single target him.

That's because crit is important for us.

First, we've got a talent which increases our critdmg by 10%, additionally to the meta gem.
Second, and this is the important point, for every yellow crit, we get 2 combopoints instead of one.

Actually, Strength is not far behind Agility and I consider it the third best stat (ArP > Agi > Str), but Agility is clearly better.

Actually str=2*1.1*1.06 = 2.332 AP
agi = 1.1*1.06*( 1 AP + 0.012% crit) = 1.166 AP + 0.01272% crit

as said by murna we do 2*1.1*1.03 = 222,6% normal damage with a crit and we also generate 2 combo points. Due to max combo points being 5, with an high crit you have an higher chance to waste a combo point. If you graph it vs. crit % you'll se a change in slope at around 60% crit, but the dps value doesn't change a lot.

Basically if everything your feral druid should gem arpen (we are probably the class that benefit more from it) or at least agility, feral druids doesn't gem str since the last patch.

Something I didn't see nightcrowler or Murna mention is that another significant reason that agility overtook strength in patch 3.1 for feral druids is the addition of a talent that gives rip bleed ticks the chance to crit. This crit chance is modified by the ferals own crit rate, making agility affect your rip damage with both its AP and crit components.

I was looking at it more from the standpoint that, as far as my understanding went, that gemming strength was the way to go in patch 3.0. The only thing that changed from 3.0 to 3.1 (besides gear) was that we got critting dots and SR swapped from AP buff to damage buff, and that shifted the weighting in favor of agility over strength. The extra crit damage and bonus combo points existed in 3.0, and that didn't change from 3.0 to 3.1. I could be wrong about the pre-3.1 gemming, but I didn't DPS as much in Naxx and consequently didn't do as much research as I do now.