The Cat Form PVE Super-Post!

Today I'd like to write about something I vastly enjoy discussing, and that's.. drum roll please... cat form! *collective groaning ensues* Now, now, this blog is relatively new and it's best I start with something I'm familiar with, and if there is one thing I am familiar with, it's druid cat form. I'm going to tell you a bit about my experience with it and how I use it to the best of my abilities.

First off, if you're going to dps as cat form you need to have the right talents. While a few of the talents in the feral tree are preferential, you'll find that some may be a waste of your points more than others. Before I tell you what to take from the feral tree you need to know right off the bat that you want 11 points in restoration because these 11 points are going to give you at least 10 percent more dps flat out. What you want is full points in Furor, Naturalist, and Omen of Clarity, like this. Now, in case it isn't obvious from the tooltips let me tell you why. Furor ensures you that you have at least some energy to do -something- flat out when switching into cat form. It also increases your dps through the use of powershifting, should you choose to do that as part of your dps cycles. (Powershifting is something I will talk about later on.) Five points in the Naturalist talent in the second tier of Restoration is a solid 10 percent more physical DPS. I don't need to explain why you need that. Omen of Clarity is a gem of a talent that gives you a chance on hit to use a special move or spell free of energy, rage or mana cost. You want this spell. It will add to your dps, in addition to giving you an opportunity to shift out of form and heal yourself for free if the need arises. This is more useful in pvp because in a raid dps or comfortable 5 man group situation, you should not have to shift out to heal yourself during combat. (When out of combat, however, feel free to save your healer some time and mana by topping yourself off, kay?) Well, that's 11 talent points right there that as a cat form druid, I wouldn't go without.

Now, lets talk about the big ole feral tree! It's so vast that for a first time feral druid you may be at a loss of what to do. However as cat PVE DPS there's some bare bones talents you'll definitely want; and those are the following:

Ferocity - Anything that involves spending less energy means that it's more energy that converts into more damage.

Sharpened Claws - Much of a cat druid's damage comes from our special crits. The more, the better!

Shredding Attacks - Shred is your main pve dps move. You want this. Again, energy conservation, and the ability to shred more often, is what makes this a must-have.

Predatory Strikes - This is just an extra chunk of attack power. Take it.

Primal Fury - One of the best talents for both cat and bear. Free combo points on your crits! This means less time between when you can use your finishing moves and allows you to keep rip up full time on bleed vulnerable enemies.

Faerie Fire (Feral) - This armor decrease seems small, but it can make a big difference in the damage output of your entire raid group. Also a must have for pvp to help you keep track of pesky rogues.

Savage Fury - Despite the general uselessness of Claw and Rake, take this puppy for an increase to your kitty cat mangle damage. It will help soloing as well as those situations where doing front side damage is unavoidable. Unless you have a druid tank who is keeping bear mangle up for you while you dps, you'll welcome any increase to the damage of your own mangles. You can get some pretty good crits on them, too!

Heart of the Wild - One of the best druid talents, bar none. Switch into cat form and this talent increases your attack power by 10%. (It also increases your intellect in caster by 20%, and stamina in bear by 20%). This talent used to increase your strength in cat by 20%, but was changed to 10% attack power to give cats more flexability with gear options. (I.E. - To make rogue gear better for us means less feral itemization labor for Blizz. Kudos!)

Leader of the Pack - Everyone will love you, including yourself, for this sexy 5% crit aura.

Predatory Instincts - Extra crit damage? Yes please. And the more crit you get, the more this talent will benefit you.

Mangle - The 41 point feral talent that you have to have. It does instant damage and increases the damage of your shreds and bleeds by 30%. In cat form you want this debuff up full time.


Some other very good talents that aren't as so focused on DPS but are DEFINITELY recommended by myself are:

Feral Instinct - Great for pvp, stealth runs, and bear tanking!

Improved Leader of the Pack - Heals you when you crit. Works for your party members crits too. Awesome all around.

Feline Swiftness - Incredible for pvp and incredible for your dps in outdoor instances. Less time spent running means more time dpsing and more time dpsing means more damage output overall from you, rawrrrrr! (Oh, you'll love it if you're leveling up and don't have a mount yet, too!)

And if you are planning to have to tank, ever, please, for the love of God and for your own sake take:

Feral Charge - I don't even need to explain how good this is, especially with furor.

Thick Hide - Retardedly high armor is the trademark of bear tanks.

Survival of the Fittest - Not only is it excellent for pvp (free resilience anyone?), but it's a nice chunk of defense that you don't need to acquire through gear. With this talent, a bear only needs 415 defense to become uncrittable.


And just because it is awesome, I like to take:

Primal Tenacity - Resisting a fear or stun means more tankage or more dps-age from you, m I rite? Also quite fanciful for pvp.

Now that I just listed most of the feral tree, what did I leave out? Well, I personally do not take Feral Aggression, as I feel that 5 points are too much for an increase to damage on what is currently a rather crappy finishing move (Ferocious Bite), at least in comparison to how much more use you will get out of the talents I've listed above it. If they made Feral Aggression into a 3 point talent instead of 5, or improved Ferocious Bite it -might- be more worth it from a dps standpoint. While the demo roar can aid tanking you can -definitely- tank just fine without it. I've also skipped Nurturing Instinct as I feel it is strictly a pvp and soloing talent and a talent for people who are passionate about frequent role shifting (this can be excellent for 5 manning, but if you have a stable 5 man group with a good healer, you probably won't be seeing yourself turning into super emergency feral healer all that often.)

Whew, that was a lot of talk about talents, but I've barely brushed the service of my discussion of cat form here. Next lets talk about how to gear yourself. It's really quite easy once you know what stats are best for you. Strength and Agility are what growing kitties need, and raw attack power and crit rating to a lesser extent. You'll also want stamina of course, but that comes on pretty much all of the gear so you won't have to worry about it really.

Now I'll start by saying that Strength has always been THE cat stat, however, over time, agility has become more and more useful. It used to be that druids did not gain anything but dodge from agility (crazy, right?) and yet there were druids everywhere in all this strength-less rogue gear, due to lack of understanding cat mechanics and overall dreadful itemization for ferals on Blizzard's part. Later on, Blizzard said "And let cats have crit, armor and attack power from agility!" and suddenly agility got a lot sexier for us. So, agility became a real cat form stat and we became happy, critty little monsters. However, some people still forgot that we get 2 attack power per point of strength, and it remained our main statistic. With the addition of Heart of the Wild, Blizzard increased the usefulness of Strength even more by increasing it 20% in cat form. From then on, it meant that we got 2.2 attack power per point of strength instead of just 2. Excellent! Then they changed Heart of the Wild again, so that instead of 20% strength in cat form, we got 10% attack power. While being a slight nerf to strength, it was a buff to agility and raw attack power, so now we get 2.1 attack power per point of strength and 1.1 attack power per point of agility. That's not to mention 1.1 attack power per point of.. well.. attack power! Anyway, it was a worthy trade off, and now all of that strength-less rogue gear isn't quite so blah for us, while our pure feral gear is also still really darn good. We suddenly have a lot more good options for gear!

Much research has been done on the topic of strength versus agility. Like other classes, we must seek a balance between our attack power and our crit. The big appeal of agility is that it adds to both attack power AND crit, but that doesn't mean strength is no longer important. The more crit you have, the more valuble your attack power becomes. The more attack power you have, the more valuble your crit becomes. The two support each other and make each other more effective, so don't say "I want to get 50% crit and I don't care about my attack power!" or vice versa. You want both, and as you acquire gear you will gain a sort of instinctual ability to decide which one you need more or less of. Overall, the value of strength over agility or agility over strength depends on your current attack power and crit. For a really great write-up on this subject, take a gander at Tossk's Feral DPS Gear Methodology and become enlightened.

Like any melee class, we have a chance to miss, so when we're fighting those big honking level 73 elite bosses, we need to get some hit rating. If you're decked out in full rogue gear, you're going to find it really easy cheese to max your hit. If you're not, it becomes a bit more challenging. You may have to socket your tier gear with hit gems (Glinting Noble Topaz is your friend, but if you're desperate for hit, you can also put a Rigid Dawnstone in your yellow sockets) or get necks, trinkets or rings with hit rating on them. While theorycrafters seem to frequently change their mind about what our real hit cap is, it's somewhat safe to say it is, high end, around 9 percent or 142 hit rating. The amount of hit rating needed can be lessened by gaining Expertise (formerly weapon skill or feral combat rating), which many druids decide to acquire in the form of a rather formidable little ring called Shapeshifter's Signet (available to purchase from the Lower City quartermaster at exalted). A total of 20 expertise rating (which is equal to 5 weapon skill) decreases the amount of +hit you need from 9% to 6%, making the Shapeshifter's Signet a formidable investmest.

You might be wondering now about the value of crit rating. While we love crit, the best way of getting it for us is through agility. 1 point of crit rating, for a druid, is a mere .005 more crit than 1 point of agility. Yes, it is more, and you might say "more is more", but remember, you're also getting 1.1 attack power, 2 armor and ~.07 dodge, which I think I would value over .005 more crit, wouldn't you? Some druid gear will come with crit rating (particularly pvp gear) because it is a 'cheaper' itemization stat than agility, but most of the time, it is not a druid stat, and is more beneficial to rogues, dps warriors, enhancement shamans, etc. The one place you really want crit rating? Trinkets. ( You'll never get crit on a trinket in the form of agility unless you're an alchemist and can make an Alchemist's Stone. ) Some of the best cat trinkets in game are items like Tsunami Talisman ( God, I'd give my left front paw for one of these!! ) which give boatloads of delicious crit. If you're not a raider you can get crit trinkets like Bladefist's Breadth, Hourglass of the Unraveller, Battlemaster's Cruelty (acquirable through heroics OR pvp!) or Skyguard Silver Cross.

Now, to decide on gems, bear in mind what I've told you about stats above, and consider the following gems.

Red Socket - Delicate Living Ruby (+8 Agility) and Bold Living Ruby (+8 Strength)
Yellow Socket - Glinting Noble Topaz (+4 Hit Rating and +4 Agility)
Blue - Shifting Nightseye (+4 Agility and +6 Stamina) and Sovereign Nightseye (+4 Strength and +6 Stamina)

So, now you know how to gear yourself. I must now teach you kitty fu. Let's start with what should be obvious. If you have Claw on your hotbar, get it the hell off. Mangle is a total replacement for Claw, like Mutilate is for Backstab on Assassination rogues. Take Rake off your hotbar if you don't pvp, or put it somewhere out of the way if you do. The only reason to ever use rake is to aid you in bleeding high armor enemies in pvp or to keep rogues from stealthing in pvp. Otherwise, don't use it. It won't benefit your pve dps at all. Okay? Also, you probably won't ever be using Tiger's Fury except for right before a Ravage, and that is only an opener, so I won't be discussing it as part of the DPS cycle. It is also assumed that you are always keeping up the Faerie Fire debuff on the target.

The basic cat attack rotation is simple to remember, but can be surprisingly difficult to master depending on a lot of variables. This includes the hp of the mob, the armor of the mob, whether or not the mob is vulnerable to bleeds and more. But I won't make it too complicated yet. Here's what you do, plain and simple:

Mangle
Shred to 4 or 5 Combo Points*
Wait until your Energy Bar is at least 2/3rds full
Rip
Repeat

Simple, right? It is very simple. Execution of the cycle flawlessly takes practice and patience and it is ultimately where "skill" comes into play. On boss fights where you literally never have to do anything but repeat this cycle, you will find it most feasible to do your best DPS, however, most fights involve running around, halting DPS and possibly emergency tanking. You will lose your combo points for various reasons, or you'll have to mangle more often than you want to in order to keep your Rips doing their maximum damage ticks. You never want to shred without a mangle up, ever, but it will happen, and you will cry out "D'oh!" and then remind yourself to be a lot more careful and observant and to make sure you keep that sodding mangle up so that your shreds stay at their most potent. Yes, you can get lucky and steal a killing blow with a shred that has no mangle when you would have otherwise done less damage, but TRY to resist it because it will potentially breed a bad habit. You want to get into good habits. And good habits are keeping up mangle, waiting for your energy ticks before using a finishing move, and generally being patient. In the long run, these things will without a doubt effect your dps and total damage output. Thank me later!

*Note that Rip damage scales with attack power, but only for your first 4 combo points. This means that the 5th combo point adds only a bit more damage to rip than the 4th. You may find it more within your personal style to Rip at 4 points instead of 5. It can make the cycle itself 'easier' to maintain. Try both and see which you like best!

Now I want to discuss finishing moves for a moment. You always want to use Rip. Period. Unless the target is immune to Bleeds, in which case you curse and cry and sigh at Blizzard's creation of stupid bleed immune bosses and then you most regrettably must use Ferocious Bite. Now, Ferocious Bite is pretty awful. At least it is when you don't have Feral Aggression, which is a talent I refuse to waste points on. Without that talent, my best ferocious bite crit, on a non-vulnerable mob, is usually between 4 and 5k. Let's also bear in mind that my best shred crit, on a non-vulnerable mob, is also between 4 and 5k. That alone should tell you something. Quite frankly, my mangles crit more often than my Ferocious Bites, and my mangle crits are about equal to my Ferocious Bite non-crits. You must be screaming by now "Get Feral Aggression so they don't suck so much!!" but I won't, because I am convinced those 5 talent points remain better used in other talents right now. The biggest problem with Ferocious Bite is that it takes all of your combo points AND all of your energy for an amount of damage that really isn't all that great comparitively unless it crits. I avoid using the move as much as possible, but it is simply unavoidable on mobs that don't bleed. I've found the best way to help make up for the loss of DPS from having to use Ferocious Bite is to powershift right after using it.

Powershifting is the act of shifting out of a form and back into it immediately in order to gain an instant burst of energy or rage from Furor. When used correctly (such as when you are at zero energy, which will always happen after you perform Ferocious Bite), you will see a DPS gain. Powershifting after a Ferocious Bite correctly will allow you to more swiftly get back to your mangle + shreds dps cycle. Bleed immune mobs are when you will be most grateful for crit as you will not be able to benefit from the sustained damage you would normally be putting out from Rip. Need a Powershift macro? Easy.

/cancelform
/cast Cat Form

That easy macro will allow you to shift directly from cat form into cat form, or from bear form into cat form, with one press. Note that you WILL be in caster form for a brief moment. Depending on any lag you have you may or may not see yourself in caster form for that brief moment. If you have no lag, you'll just see a poof of smoke and you'll still be in cat form. Either way, don't panic. All this costs you is a moment and the mana cost of shifting into cat. Powershifting is, essentially, a mana to dps conversion, so make sure you watch your mana bar with an addon such as Smarty Cat Mana Bar which you can pick up at Wow Ace. It'll allow you to keep track of your mana when you're in forms.

The Powershift macro is useful for other stuff too, like removing snares with the press of one button. (I freaking love it on the last phase of the Vashj fight!) You can rewrite the macro and replace Cat Form with Bear Form or Travel Form so that you can run around and hit that button whenever someone snares you in Warsong Gulch. All the other classes will hate your guts! Try it. It's bloody awesome!

Finally, I think I've touched on all of the basics of cat form and some of the more depth aspects of it. I've laid out the information you need you become a super kitty warrior and now it is up to you to use it and master it and show all those saucy bastards that you can dps as good as the rest of them and sometimes better. I promise that with enough practice, patience and of course great gear, you can stretch cat from dps to its limits and it can be downright shocking to other classes who didn't think it was even possible. I don't claim to have mastered it and I think every time I get out there and do some damage I am gradually getting a little bit better at it. Learn what gear you need, practice perfecting your dps cycles and know when it simply isn't your turn to do DPS, and you will become a respected kitty form master!