Cataclysm [Guide] Feral DPS PvE

[Kenn]

Greeting my Druid brethren, I am Kenn of Neltharion,
I noticed that there wasnÔÇÖt any Feral PvE DPS guide on the forums so I decided to write one to help the budding Feral DPSers tackle arguably WoWÔÇÖs most difficult DPS spec and to discuss theorycrafting with experienced druids.
I am certainly not the best Feral DPS there is but I have a fair amount of skills, experience and knowledge with druids.
I do realize that I might miss on some points and may even be wrong at some places so I request you all to provide your constructive criticism and keep trolling and hating to a minimum.
Contents
1. Overview
2. Talents, Specs and Glyphs
3. Stats, gems, enchants, professions
4. ÔÇ£RotationÔÇØ
5. Addons

1.Overview
Why feral DPS you ask? Cause it is the most challenging of all dps specs the game has to offer, Feral offers the best mobility in the game, one of the best DoTs , and some crazy burst (well not at high as Ret Palas or Warrs). Energy and combo point management is quite interactive and entertaining and doesnÔÇÖt make you feel bored like playing a 2 button fire mage spec. Feral although slightly difficult to play but is extremely difficult to master. But donÔÇÖt worry this guide along with some practise will help you become a Pro(:P) Feral DPS.

1.1 Raid Buffs/Utilities

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Combat Ress
Great emergency Off-tanking ability
Mark of the Wild - Same as Blessing of Kings of Paladins ( Dont stack)
12% Armor reduction through faerie fire
Leader of the Pack - 5% crit chance increase - Same as Honor Among Thieves(Sub Rogues) or Rampage(Fury Warriors)

2(a).Talents & Specs

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Explanation of some talents ÔÇô
ÔÇó Feral Swiftness ÔÇô Flat 30% movement speed buff in cat form. This is an indirect dps increase as it helps you to reach boss and switch boss adds more fast more over it help you get behind many a times
ÔÇó Furor- What this talent does is it enables you to regenerate Energy outside cat form, this is not extremely essential but I donÔÇÖt see any place else where you can spend those points for dps increase and this talent shines occasionally in encounters where you would have to change forms to maybe tank, or heal etc.
ÔÇó Predatory Strikes- Extremely essential talents as it makes your ravage almost guaranteed crit on enemy with health more that 50%. The second part of the talent makes your next nature spell with base case time of <10secs instant cast, this includes Healing touch, Regrowth, Cyclone, Entangling Roots, Rebirth which can come handy in situations.
ÔÇó Primal Fury- Grants 2 combo points on every critical strike from Shred, Mangle and Rake. No brainer
ÔÇó King of Jungle- This is the talent that will help you maintain bleeds and get combo points faster, every time you use TigerÔÇÖs Fury you get 60 energy, more energy more spamming!
ÔÇó Feral charge + Stampede- This combo pack allows you to close gaps during movement phases and every time you use Charge ability you get a proc that enables you to use Ravage with out stealth and positioning requirement and cost 0 energy.
ÔÇó Primal Madness- Now altogether this talent is useless as it has almost no benefit. But I recommend this talent if you have problem timing TigerÔÇÖs Fury. The only benefit this talent has is it prevent the wastage of energy granted by TigerÔÇÖs fury if used at higher energy levels.
PureDPS Build-(0/34/6)+ 1 floater point


This PureDPS build includes Primal Madness for more burst Berserk or extra shred . Unfortunately this doesnÔÇÖt allow you to interrupt every 10 secs.
About that floater point, Use it anywhere you want it wonÔÇÖt affect your dps directly.
This is my personal spec you, one could try not to include Primal Madness but i dont think that would make any difference as there are no DPS talents left to give those extra points to.


2(b). Glyphs

These are the best glyphs you can use before T13. There is not much explanation required as they are straight forward. Glyph of Berserk will change when T13 comes out. I will update the guide when it comes.

3. Stats, Gems, Enchants, Professions

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Agility
Agility increases your attack power and crit chance. Each point gives you 2 AP and it takes 324.85 agility for 1% crit. It is by far the best stat for dps and should be stacked whenever possible, though usually that only means gems and enchants because you cannot reforge for agility.
Mastery
It takes 179.28 mastery rating to gain 1 point of mastery. Each point of mastery increases your bleed damage by 3.1%. This affects Rake and Rip, it does not affect Shred.
Crit
You need 179.28 crit rating to gain 1% crit chance. This now affects all damage including bleeds.

Haste
You need 128.05701 haste rating for 1% haste. Haste increases your auto-attack swing speed and energy regeneration.

Hit/Expertise
You need 120.109 hit/expertise rating for 1% hit/expertise. Note that interrupts can no longer miss, so there is never a specific need to cap hit. As a feral you donÔÇÖt need to cap these stats as you get 80% energy refunded whenever any of your attack fails to land and you will always be DPSing from behind the boss unless itÔÇÖs not possible to behind.
Now there are basically two Stat priorities-
1. If you are low geared ÔÇô Weapon DPS>Agility>Mastery>Haste=Crit>Hit>Expertise
2. If you are well geared- Weapon DPS>Haste>Mastery>Crit>Hit>Expertise
Explanation-
At low geared you wont have sufficient haste on gear that would actually be benefitting but you can get a good amount of mastery through trinkets like TiaÔÇÖs Grace.
At higher gears you get access to a lot of haste through t12,off pieces, trinket reforges.
Haste increases your energy regen and enables you to use more shreds and Ferocious bites. One can argue that Mastery may over power haste in encounters with lot of movements, that maybe true but in encounters where you will be sitting on the boss Haste will greatly over take Mastery. Haste also enables better switching of targets and more AOE through more swipes. I personally recommend Haste over Mastery but you can test this out yourself which stat complements your play style better. Also haste is a better stat for T12/13 so as soon as you enter these tier I suggest to go all Haste.

Gems, Reforging

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As already explained above gems and reforging also follows the simple logic of stat priority.
+40 Agility in Red sockets
+20 Agility + 20 Haste/Mastery in yellow sockets
+20 Agility +20 Hit in blue sockets
Agile shadow sprint diamond as Meta gem
I try to get my socket bonuses as they are mainly agility, mastery, or haste
Reforging is pretty simple- Regorge a lower priority stat to higher priority.
For eg if a piece has Haste+Crit, Reforge crit to mastery etc

Professions, Enchants

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Untill you get the epic gems all professions (non gathering) are exactly equal i.e 80 primary stat
Let me explain that ÔÇô
Alchemy- 80 Agility flask
Jewlcrafting- 3x67 agility = 81 Agility (subtracting 40 from each)
Black smith- 2 extra slots = 2x40 = 80 Agility
Engineering ÔÇô Synapse Spring = 80 Agility per minute when used at every CD
Inscription ÔÇô 130 Agility on shoulders ÔÇô 50 Agility enchant from therazane = 80 Agility
LW- 130 Agility on wrist- 50 Agility from standard wrist enchant = 80 Agility
Enchanting ÔÇô 40 Agility in both rings = 80 Agility
Hence there is no best profession just level the one which is easiest for you.

Encahnts

Head, Shoulders ÔÇô Use the enchants from Uldum and Ramkahan rep
Weapon ÔÇô Use +130 Agility, It is better than landslide even though it might not look like that
For rest of the gear just follow the stat priority, its not rocket science.

4.ÔÇØRotationÔÇØ

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Ferals donÔÇÖt have a set rotation , they have a priority system, You need to manage 4 things in totality for the most optimum rotation-
1.Debuffs on target
2.Buffs on self
3.Energy and CDs
4.Combo points
The priority list is as follows ( Starting from high to low) ÔÇô
1. Mangle debuff on target
2. Faerie Fire
3. Rip
4. Rake
5. Savage roar buff on self
6. Feral charge CD
How to do this-
Start the fight with feral charge >> Mangle >> use free Ravage >> Rake >> Shred to 5 combo points >> Rip >> shred to gain CP else use Rake to reapply the bleed>> Use Savage Roar with 2-3 combo points >> Repeat
Now that is just the simpler version of it, there are lot many things to it,
ÔÇó Never let Mangle drop off
ÔÇó Always try to de-synchronize Rake and Rip even if you have to clip it once or twice
ÔÇó Never Savage roar for more than 3 combo points , It will mess up your combo points for next 5 points finisher
ÔÇó Use TigerÔÇÖs Fury on every CD but make sure you are <40 energy when you use it
ÔÇó Try to predict and anticipate the timers on your DoTs, energy level, TigerÔÇÖs Fury CD, Feral Charge CD
ÔÇó Always use Shred as combo point generator unless you absolutely canÔÇÖt go behind the boss
ÔÇó Whenever using Ferocious Bite make sure you will have 5 CP by the time your rip is about to expire
ÔÇó Try not to clip bleeds
ÔÇó Using Berserk- You cannot use TigerÔÇÖs Fury during Berserk so it is better to macro the two so that you use TigerÔÇÖs fury first and then Berserk to take the most benefit from it.
Use this macro for that
Berserk ÔÇô
#showtooltip Berserk(Cat or Bear Form)
/use Trinket
/cast Tiger's Fury(Cat Form)
/cast Berserk(Cat or Bear Form)

ÔÇó Use Berserk when you have applied Rip on the target so that you can use all of the 5 CPs gained during Berserk in Ferocious Bites
ÔÇó You wont be able to manage all this in the starting but with practice this will be in your muscle memory.
ÔÇó For AOE(3 or more) just swipe, swipe, swipe and swipe some more

5.Addons

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Any kind of DoT, Buff/Debuff monitor is highly essential as a feral along with some standard PvE add ons like DBM
I use ÔÇ£Tell Me WhenÔÇØ to manage DoTs and Buffs. It is a simple but highly customizable add on .
Quartz for cast bar mod
OmniCC to track CDs
Pitbull frames for Unit frames
Again these are not the best or essential add ons use whichever ones you like

I hope this guide is useful to the community, I am not the best druid and myself am learning so if I have written anything wrong or you might like to add more info please do comment or pm, If you play on neltharion and would like some help I am just a wisp away
Some information has been taken from elitist jerks
Guide will be updated with release of new gear.
As far as BiS gear is concerned just use the list by CruleD or Google it
Sorry for any grammatical or typo errors
Thank you

[Valrion]

Tnx bro :)