[Archived] Feral Druid 5.4

[Vlad 411]

Of course I meant that it's the best guide for this patch! You guys were also the quickest to update, which I very much appreciate!

And I totally didn't even consider the fact that I was using Glyph of Cat Form. Thanks for pointing that out haha

Thank you :)

The changes should go up soon, together with some fixes for a few other classes.

[Paloro 39]

Tier one displacer beast is listed as having no concievable uses out of being situational, I feel it's more appropriate to list it as a primarily pvp ability. It's useful for breaking combat to refresh potion usage, evading enemies to heal up/escape death, or to get stealth abilities like pounce out while in combat.

In a PVE setting, would displacer beast really reset potion usage? If it did, we could potentially get 2 potions every ~1.5 minutes (could be every 1 min, but you would want to pop the second one after the time expires on the first and potions have a 25 sec uptime). Having 4000 extra agility on those uptimes is by far the best choice in that tier if this is true.

[Guest squarepusher]

Thank you very, very much for your excellent comments.

I've updated the descriptions for Tier 2 and 6 talents.

I've added Glyph of Cat Form. I didn't remove Glyph of Shred because, while it might encourage poor play sometimes, it can still have a benefit in exceptional situations.

I've fixed the order of the rotation (I do believe that the one I had written was still correct, but as you said, this way it is clearer to understand).

I've included a small section about how to handle Dream of Cenarius in order to maximise its potential (please feel free to comment on this!)

Regarding starting with Ravage in Stealth, it should be pretty easy to do if you set up a 12-second Savage Roar on yourself right before the pull, should it not?

I've fixed the AoE rotations, as you suggested.

I've removed Death Coil from symbiosis, and added a mention that Feral Spirit is weak.

Finally, I fixed the two issues you mentioned regarding Tiger's Fury.

Thank you again for helping me make the guide better, and I'm looking forward to any other comments you make!

With regards to the Glyph of Shred! Currently it is broken and is a DPS lose. I noticed this in my own findings, but I also later read this on a Leafkiller thread on fluiddruid.net that gave an explanation. Blizz nerfed rake due to the DPE being better than shred, then buffed shred n mangle by about 15% ish but the glyph of shred never saw the buff so when you pop TF and shred u never get the TF effect. And just to get on the same page as Tinderhoof if the glyph did work as intended I would only use on kolo, ultra, or rag style fights unless there is a Derelict DK in the same grp who is consistently popping army while I’m trying to make use of TF and berserk.

[Squarepusher 0]

Thank you very, very much for your excellent comments.

I've updated the descriptions for Tier 2 and 6 talents.

I've added Glyph of Cat Form. I didn't remove Glyph of Shred because, while it might encourage poor play sometimes, it can still have a benefit in exceptional situations.

I've fixed the order of the rotation (I do believe that the one I had written was still correct, but as you said, this way it is clearer to understand).

I've included a small section about how to handle Dream of Cenarius in order to maximise its potential (please feel free to comment on this!)

Regarding starting with Ravage in Stealth, it should be pretty easy to do if you set up a 12-second Savage Roar on yourself right before the pull, should it not?

I've fixed the AoE rotations, as you suggested.

I've removed Death Coil from symbiosis, and added a mention that Feral Spirit is weak.

Finally, I fixed the two issues you mentioned regarding Tiger's Fury.

Thank you again for helping me make the guide better, and I'm looking forward to any other comments you make!

With regards to the Glyph of Shred! Currently it is broken and is a DPS lose. I noticed this in my own findings, but I also later read this on a Leafkiller thread on fluiddruid.net that gave an explanation. Blizz nerfed rake due to the DPE being better than shred, then buffed shred n mangle by about 15% ish but the glyph of shred never saw the buff so when you pop TF and shred u never get the TF effect. And just to get on the same page as Tinderhoof if the glyph did work as intended I would only use on kolo, ultra, or rag style fights unless there is a Derelict DK in the same grp who is consistently popping army while I’m trying to make use of TF and berserk.

[Vlad 411]

In a PVE setting, would displacer beast really reset potion usage? If it did, we could potentially get 2 potions every ~1.5 minutes (could be every 1 min, but you would want to pop the second one after the time expires on the first and potions have a 25 sec uptime). Having 4000 extra agility on those uptimes is by far the best choice in that tier if this is true.

I have tested this and, sadly, it does not work.

With regards to the Glyph of Shred! Currently it is broken and is a DPS lose. I noticed this in my own findings, but I also later read this on a Leafkiller thread on fluiddruid.net that gave an explanation. Blizz nerfed rake due to the DPE being better than shred, then buffed shred n mangle by about 15% ish but the glyph of shred never saw the buff so when you pop TF and shred u never get the TF effect. And just to get on the same page as Tinderhoof if the glyph did work as intended I would only use on kolo, ultra, or rag style fights unless there is a Derelict DK in the same grp who is consistently popping army while I’m trying to make use of TF and berserk.

If I understand what you are saying correctly, is that Shreds cast from in front of the target, while Tiger's Fury is active (thanks to Glyph of Shred), do not actually benefit from the damage increase of Tiger's Fury.

At least on the Beta, this is not the case. Tiger's Fury both allows Shred to be cast from in front of the target, as does it increase its damage. A Tiger's Fury Shred does the same amount of damage whether you are in front of or behind the target (both higher than Shredding without Tiger's Fury active).

It may be that it is a bug on live servers, but since it is working on Beta, I can only assume that a fix is imminent.

Also, regarding the narrow usage of the glyph, two things are worth noting:

• Analyzing the glyph's usefulness by the standard of existing encounters is a bit pointless, since many new encounters will be available in Mists of Pandaria.
• Even if it was only useful on or two fights in a tier of content, it is still worth considering. As we mention in the guide, it will almost certainly only be useful in restrictive situations.

Thanks for your comment! If you can sh®ed further light on this "bug", please do so :)

[Guest Leamen]

Hi there

Nice guide you wrote there, gave me an overall perpective non how to play my bearcat.

However I came across a minor problem when it comes to the rotation. You speak of maintaining the Faerie Fire debuff on the target when the actual debuff you whant to maintain, when no one else does this would be Weakened Armor !

The difference is Faerie Fire runs for 5 min. while Weakened Armor is only active for 30 sek.

Ergo, you one schould refresh Faerie Fire after 30 sek.

[Vlad 411]

Hi there

Nice guide you wrote there, gave me an overall perpective non how to play my bearcat.

However I came across a minor problem when it comes to the rotation. You speak of maintaining the Faerie Fire debuff on the target when the actual debuff you whant to maintain, when no one else does this would be Weakened Armor !

The difference is Faerie Fire runs for 5 min. while Weakened Armor is only active for 30 sek.

Ergo, you one schould refresh Faerie Fire after 30 sek.

Thanks for this! I've updated it :)

[Brunhill 4]

Its good to see that Force of Nature have gotten some love now that MoP has gone live. DKs have their Army of Undead, I got my Army of Trees! Very helpful to pull these guys out while questing through Pandaria. Thanks for all the great guides and info on Icy Veins, I have multiple toons and classes so visit here often and also recommend your site to other players a lot! Keep up the good work. :-))

[Vlad 411]

Its good to see that Force of Nature have gotten some love now that MoP has gone live. DKs have their Army of Undead, I got my Army of Trees! Very helpful to pull these guys out while questing through Pandaria. Thanks for all the great guides and info on Icy Veins, I have multiple toons and classes so visit here often and also recommend your site to other players a lot! Keep up the good work. :-))

Thank you :)

[Guest daskord]

I hope that this isn't a stupid question, but is agility still better than mastery? Last time I rolled over the tooltip on agility, it just said crit damage. Am I reading it incorrectly? I was under the impression that agility enhanced both crit and attack damage. Is this still the case?

If mastery enhances my bleed abilities (rip, rake, and thrash) that I use constantly, is this better than just crit?

Anyway, one of the basic guide pages was saying that agility enhanced both attack damage and crit chance. I'm not sure that this is the case anymore. If not, please correct.

[Vlad 411]

I hope that this isn't a stupid question, but is agility still better than mastery? Last time I rolled over the tooltip on agility, it just said crit damage. Am I reading it incorrectly? I was under the impression that agility enhanced both crit and attack damage. Is this still the case?

If mastery enhances my bleed abilities (rip, rake, and thrash) that I use constantly, is this better than just crit?

Anyway, one of the basic guide pages was saying that agility enhanced both attack damage and crit chance. I'm not sure that this is the case anymore. If not, please correct.

Agility is still better than Mastery. Agility still increases chance to dodge.

Agility increases Attack Power (thus damage) and critical strike chance.

[Guest labilo]

add MONKS to loot competition , they take everything

[Vlad 411]

add MONKS to loot competition , they take everything

This is a current issue in several of our guides. Priority set to high, thanks!

[Guest Tibbers]

Just a quick thing i noticed at the bottom of the final page you have which classes you will compete with for gear, there is no mention of monks in the Leather or in the trinket rings and cloak section.

[Guest Thaze]

Hi there!

I started in MoP with Mastery>Crit>Hit/Exp>Tempo.

Someone told me I should use the prioritiy from askmrrobot (and so Icy Veins).

I tested a lot, used SimCraft with my current gear and bis etc. etc. and came to the conclusion that crit>hit/exp is the better way to go.

So dunno, still can't believe it somehow. May I see your SimCraft results? Maybe I did something wrong in SimCraft.

Just want to play my Cat as good as possible.

[Vlad 411]

Hi there!

I started in MoP with Mastery>Crit>Hit/Exp>Tempo.

Someone told me I should use the prioritiy from askmrrobot (and so Icy Veins).

I tested a lot, used SimCraft with my current gear and bis etc. etc. and came to the conclusion that crit>hit/exp is the better way to go.

So dunno, still can't believe it somehow. May I see your SimCraft results? Maybe I did something wrong in SimCraft.

Just want to play my Cat as good as possible.

Hey!

There is no reason that I can see for why prioritising Critical Strike Rating would yield more DPS than prioritising Mastery.

I ran a simulation for heroic gear levels, and the stat weights I got were Agility=4.75, Ap=1.71, ExpertiseRating=1.61, HitRating=1.61, CritRating=1.59, HasteRating=1.62, MasteryRating=1.75.

The difference between Mastery and Critical Strike is pretty obvious there.

In normal gear levels, it's a lot less clear. Agility=4.49, Ap=1.71, ExpertiseRating=1.32, HitRating=1.32, CritRating=1.52, HasteRating=1.31, MasteryRating=1.53

So, Mastery Rating is a tiny bit better than Critical Strike, but still better (honestly, in my book that counts as equal).

Now, bear in mind that this can be erroneous, as we've already identified some issues with this version of Simcraft.

[Guest Prue]

You have to remember that Nature's Swiftness over Renewal allows you to get another Dream of Cenarious proc every minute.

[Guest Thaze]

Nonono ^^

You got me wrong.

askmrrobot and Icy Veins says Exp/Hit>Crit.

1. Basics

The stat priority for a Feral Druid is:

• Agility;
• Mastery Rating;

• Hit Rating and Expertise Rating (until 7.5% each);

Critical Strike Rating;Haste Rating.

That's the point. I'm not talking about Mastery, that stat is obvious.

And well, it's just a tiny bit, but with my adjusted weights in askmrrobot (str down to 1.92 - as 1 str = 1 attack power it should have the same weight, am I right?; crit up to 1.6) and BiS it's 108,804 dps

and with standart-PvE weights it's 107,782 dps for my little kitty. I know, it isn't that much, but still it's a difference.

But since you're also listing other weights for the stats I guess I should use rather my feeling for my cat than a website ;)

(It's just the first time for me in WoW I'm raiding ... phew- newbie :D And want to do my best ^_^)

[Guest Breadje]

www.youtube.com/emperorfozzy he makes good guides aswell

[Guest Vacillating]

I'd contend there's one macro for ferals again now that disentanlgement is back - powershifting.

http://wow.joystiq.c...acros-of-power/

#showtooltip/cancelform [nostance:0,mod:shift]/stopmacro [mod:shift]/cast [stance:1] !Bear Form/cast [stance:2] !Aquatic Form/cast [stance:3] !Cat Form/cast [stance:4] !Travel Form/cast [stance:5] !Moonkin Form

This one's pretty simple. Hitting it will use one global cooldown to re-shift to your current form, which will break any snare/root effects you have on you. If you hold down Shift, it will unshift you instead, so you can do things like use a flight point.

[Guest Aquneknight]

Hey guys I love your guide! I just have 2 questions on matters that I am confused about. So first of all Savage Roar. I understand that the glyph is a must and I do have it. But during a raid am I supposed to refresh Savage Roar only as the glyph suggests every 12 sec, or can I pop it before the encounter and then use Savage Roar on 5 combo points all the time ( unless it drops and i need a quick refresh by using the glyph until I can get another 5 combo points up). Will I lose any dps? And my second question would be if there are any well not caps, but good amounts of mastery and crit to have. Like how high should they be? is around 50% mastery good or bad? should it be more?

[Guest Ungala]

Just wondering why 90% of the ferals parsing on WoL right now are taking HotW/SotF over DoC/SotF? They are almost never using the HotW CD, so it seems to be simply for the 6% agility buff. I have not been able to really find any data behind the current HotW resurgence so I am hoping someone can shed some light on this for me since I am not a theorycrafter, so all of the coefficients and math go light years above my head.

[Guest Ciecle]

<~Ciecle(Hydraxis) 506 iLvl Feral Druid

I've did a few simulations, HotW/SotF ends up being less then DoC/SotF by ROUGHLY 35k Dps(max dps) average, that's out of 5 different simulations (based on my gear)

Recount has been one of the main factors of examining different setups... I've seen my dps based on recount drop down by ~20k since dropping my previous trinkets(supose to be better in slot according to AMR) and capping hit/expertise, which has had me questioning what's better... and why... or if Recount broke after 5.1... lol

As of right now, AMR has for stat priority: Agi > Hit/Exp > Mastery > Crit > Haste

Before AMR has stat priority: Agi > Mastery > Hit/Exp > crit > Haste

previous trinkets:

Relic of Xuen(+8), Bottle of Infinite stars

Trinkets now:

Viscious Talisman(SPA),Renataki's Soul Charm(522)

SimCraft:

Then: 96k dps(max)

Now: 115k dps(max)

Recount:

Then: 86k dps(roughly)

Now: 67-82k Dps(Non-Horridon fight

So... I'm really wondering what I'm doing wrong...

Long post is long? lol

[Guest Fenris]

Hi there,

as far as i know, you have to use Thrash in single target rotation if you got a Omen of Clarity proc, and there is no thrash debuff on your target or it will end in the next 3 seconds. In simcraft and my own data it makes approx. 10% of my damage.

Survival Instincts doesn't require bear form.

And a funny note: simcraft tells me that HotW is stronger for my current gear (509) than DoC. I must do something wrong...

[Tarazet 144]

<~Ciecle(Hydraxis) 506 iLvl Feral Druid

I've did a few simulations, HotW/SotF ends up being less then DoC/SotF by ROUGHLY 35k Dps(max dps) average, that's out of 5 different simulations (based on my gear)

Recount has been one of the main factors of examining different setups... I've seen my dps based on recount drop down by ~20k since dropping my previous trinkets(supose to be better in slot according to AMR) and capping hit/expertise, which has had me questioning what's better... and why... or if Recount broke after 5.1... lol

As of right now, AMR has for stat priority: Agi > Hit/Exp > Mastery > Crit > Haste

Before AMR has stat priority: Agi > Mastery > Hit/Exp > crit > Haste

previous trinkets:

Relic of Xuen(+8), Bottle of Infinite stars

Trinkets now:

Viscious Talisman(SPA),Renataki's Soul Charm(522)

SimCraft:

Then: 96k dps(max)

Now: 115k dps(max)

Recount:

Then: 86k dps(roughly)

Now: 67-82k Dps(Non-Horridon fight

So... I'm really wondering what I'm doing wrong...

Long post is long? lol

If you have Renataki's, you should refresh your bleeds with high stacks of Blades + TF + SR + DoC. Silly numbers when the stars align for you.