[Guide] Feral Druid DPS PVE & Pre-raid BiS

Hello fellow crusaders, today I am here to present a kitty dps guide. Kitties have this bad stigma around it and its very deserved. It probably has the hardest rotation out of every class since it has to manage 3 resources: combo points, energy, mana. There damage is also subpar until t5/t6 and requires a lot more effort than most classes, but if you want a very challenging spec, thats fun to play in both pvp and pve. Druid or most specifically feral druid is the class for you.

How stats work on Feral:
Strength = 2.266 (2.49) AP

Agility = 1.133 (1.25) AP, 1% crit per ~25 agility (1% crit per ~22 agility).

Critical Strike Rating = ~1% crit per 22.1 critical strike rating.

Hit Rating = 1% hit per ~15.8 hit rating [[You need ~9% hit to
become hit capped, so ~142 hit rating total]]

Attack Power = 1.1 AP

Expertise = Expertise gives 0.25% less dodge and parry per point.
This makes expertise a lot less desirable in comparison to the
old form of weapon skill for a player that isn't hit capped, and
marginally less desirable than the old form of weapon skill for a
player that is hit capped.Currently Agility is accepted as the best stat to stack lots of, with good reason (decent AP per point, very good amount of crit% per point). The value of Agility in comparison to Strength varies. There's a chart that shows that if you have minimal raid buffs, that you will always have Agility as more worthwhile than Strength. even without raid buffs, the majority of the time Agility will be better than Strength.

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 a 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 planning item.



Talents:
http://calculators.iradei.eu/talents...01000000000000

Some points can be swapped for example putting points away from Feral agression and into Feral instinct if you want to be more of an offtank.
you will not be using Ferocious bite in your rotation so its not a dps decrease.


Rotation:
Prowl
Ravage
Faerie Fire
Mangle
Shred
Powershift for 40+ energy when about to gain energy
at 4 combo points apply Rip
Keep mangle and Faerie Fire up and keep shredding for combo points spend those combo points on rip

For AOE you want to turn into bear form and spam Swipe


Powershifting:
In the talent tree there is a talent called Furor, which gives you +40 energy when you shapeshift into a cat. When you do such thing when your energy is about to restore, you gain the +40 + 20 = 60. This is the best way to manage your energy, but requires a lot of timing and precision. This makes ferals rotation very engaging, but also very difficult when trying to master it.

Pre-Raid BiS Item List:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing


Gems: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...8Ojl4JgM4/edit

With this item list you should have around 37% crit , around 2800 AP, around 200 strength, around 500 agility without flask or food.


Enchants:
Enchants are generally pretty easy to work out. Cenarion Glyph for the helm (16hit/34AP) or the Lower City (17str/16int) if you're hit capped, Aldor/Scryer AP/crit enchant for shoulders, +6 stats for chest, +12 strength for bracers (possible to use +4 all stats if you prefer), +15 agility for gloves, +50ap/12crit for legs, +12 agi for boots, +35 agi 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.

For Ring Enchants, +2 weapon damage is very marginally better in terms of pure DPS to +4 stats when fully raid buffed, however +4 stats will also give you extra stamina, int and spirit so is probably more worthwhile when taking everything into account.


Idols:
Idol of the Raven Goddess is BiS from the flight form quest (need 300 RIDING SKILL) - it adds 20 critical strike to Leader of the Pack.

Everbloom idol can be bought from G'eras for 15 Badges of Justice. Adds 88 damage to Shred

Idol of Terror can be bought from G'eras for 20 badges of justice. almost as good a Everbloom but it is more useful for tanking. It has a chance of adding 65 agility for 10 seconds every time mangle is used


Macros:
Powershift macro

#showtooltip Cat Form
/cast !Cat Form

Places you into human form and back into cat with 1 button



Addons:
Druid Mana bar:
https://wow.curseforge.com/projects/...ar/files/86307
note: Might be glitchy with powershift macro

Energywatch:
https://wow.curseforge.com/projects/...te/files/83418
tells you when your energy is about to refresh






source on idols, stats and enchants: http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/worl...ral-druid.html

Hello! Fellow kitty dps here! Have you ever heard of helmet called Wolfshead Helm? I know its only level 40 helmet but its equip stacks with furor. So you get 60 energy every powershift! With this helmet you can use 2 Shreds after one energy tick. I think its amazing helmet and gives more dps than any other helmet. Id like to hear some opinions.

Link to the helmet: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=8345

Also why would you put 5 points into feral aggression when you don't use FB except maybe 1-2 times on a fight. Would be better off with the 15% move speed and armor. Also Gyth has a point that helmet is BiS until BT/Sunwell and at then its debatable if its better or not; but during T4-5 you should be using that helmet if you are min-maxing

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gyth

Hello! Fellow kitty dps here! Have you ever heard of helmet called Wolfshead Helm? I know its only level 40 helmet but its equip stacks with furor. So you get 60 energy every powershift! With this helmet you can use 2 Shreds after one energy tick. I think its amazing helmet and gives more dps than any other helmet. Id like to hear some opinions.

Link to the helmet: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=8345

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2 shreds costs 84 energy though, not 80.

What about professions ?

Is this guide good for leveling too? Thanks

Two things about the wolfshead helm...if you are under the impression that it can't be THAT good, and losing stats/meta isnt worth it...it is. It's very good.

If you are under the impression that the wolfshead helm is BiS always this expansion, you need to get it in your head that its a terrible helm that you lose a bunch of stats and a meta.

The reason I say this is it seems like ferals have the mindset of one or the other, and the truth is the value of the helm depends on how often you are powershifting during raids. If you shift twice per cycle the helm becomes about 3 times the EP worth of sunwell gear. You will also go completely oom in a minute, even with pots and raid mana regen buffs, wont be able to sustain, and the helm becomes useless for a large portion of the fight. If you are shifting once per cycle you are pushing your mana to the limit and barely sustainable but the helm still comes out just ahead of t6 level gear.

If you are shifting once every 2 cycles, the value of the helm drops to just slightly below blue heroic gear, blue quest gear. Stealther's helmet from SMV beats it out at that point easily.

The only caveat to remember about feral dps gearing is that 2pc t4 is the best in the game and will never be replaced, if your 2 pc needs helm then always take it over wolfshead.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Auraiz

Two things about the wolfshead helm...if you are under the impression that it can't be THAT good, and losing stats/meta isnt worth it...it is. It's very good.

If you are under the impression that the wolfshead helm is BiS always this expansion, you need to get it in your head that its a terrible helm that you lose a bunch of stats and a meta.

The reason I say this is it seems like ferals have the mindset of one or the other, and the truth is the value of the helm depends on how often you are powershifting during raids. If you shift twice per cycle the helm becomes about 3 times the EP worth of sunwell gear. You will also go completely oom in a minute, even with pots and raid mana regen buffs, wont be able to sustain, and the helm becomes useless for a large portion of the fight. If you are shifting once per cycle you are pushing your mana to the limit and barely sustainable but the helm still comes out just ahead of t6 level gear.

If you are shifting once every 2 cycles, the value of the helm drops to just slightly below blue heroic gear, blue quest gear. Stealther's helmet from SMV beats it out at that point easily.

The only caveat to remember about feral dps gearing is that 2pc t4 is the best in the game and will never be replaced, if your 2 pc needs helm then always take it over wolfshead.

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Man the helm is here to allow you a proper rotation, you will powershift like 80-90 % of the fight (with alchemy trinket, and intensity template)
No need 2t4 when you can have t6 and t6.5 for sure, powershift energy will be enough, most of the time you gonna have a proc of t4 at the moment you powershift and gonna loose the energy proc.

is it required to use the alch trinket for mana pots and staff of natural fury for reduced shifting? or just wolfshead helm?