WotLK [PvE Guide] A comprehensive guidebook to WotLK for the wandering feral cat

**Kovachut** · September 13, 2024

I'm planning on taking a break from WoW/the raiding scene for the time being. Before I do that, however, I want to share my impressions from trying out the pre-pull SR in ICC.

Let's get the obvious out of the way - timing the pre-pull SR was horrible, as I lost the CC proc from the pre-pull GotW and a couple of seconds of the Haste pot, and I started attacking the boss with a small delay. Moreover, I was faced with an awkward situation in the time frame 0:47-0:51 when SR's expiration was synced with the second Bone spike, as generating CPs for the 33% buff and refreshing it on time would have left me with less resources for Swipe. Despite this, I see potential in using a pre-pull SR in that fight. All of the negative things I mentioned in this paragraph can be managed by a warlock summon.

It might seem wasteful, and most warlock players, I presume, wouldn't like it to summon us when we're just a few yards away from them. However, this would allow us to 1) buff the whole raid with the druid buff, 2) cast SR 3-4 seconds prior to the pull, which would be enough to desync SR's expiration with the second bone spike (assuming we do it with 4pt8), and 3) teleport to the LM's room and immediately engage the boss.

Originally Posted by Kovachut

As for ICC, I haven't tried it in actual raid yet, so I don't have first-hand experience there. Having said that, I have plans trying the following on DBS:

I decided to utilise this idea in my last raid, and here's what happened:

(the fight starts at 1:06, everything prior to that is part of the preparation)

Once again, SR was timed poorly, however this attempt was enough to give me a good impression of my initial suggestion. Doing what I did here synchronises SR's duration with Rip's which makes it harder to generate enough CPs for them before they expire (like what happened in the time frame 1:34-1:40). A Berserk-TF would be more preferable under these circumstances. Had I had a warlock summon prior to the boss fight, I would have spared myself quite a few headaches.

In conclusion, having a warlock summon in ICC makes the pre-pull Savage Roar A LOT better. kthx

22.09.2024
Before officially taking yet another break from WoW, I decided to update the guide one last time. I updated the part about the cat-specific tactics in most ICC boss fights. In case someone is interested, I also added a clip showcasing Festergut w/ a pre-pull SR. You can find a more thorough commentary in the third post (i.e. the one concerning the GotVV-shift).

**darlanzinho** · October 11, 2024

Alright, man !!!!

**Kovachut** · April 19, 2025

The guide is currently under maintenance. I'm halfway through the 1st post, and I haven't started the other two. I'm taking my time with this, so no ETA when I'll be done.

Recent changes to the Ulduar BiS list

Now, before I say anything, I'd like to clarify that I've already finished this section and written a thorough description. Here, I would simply like to expand on it. I don't want to do it in the guide because otherwise the section would become too long and complicated.

After revisiting my proposed BiS list, I was incentivised to experiment more with it. I read the analysis of the Ulduar items on wowhead, and I considered to give some strong standalone items (more specifically https://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=45461 and https://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=45611) another shot. According to the wowhead guide, those gear pieces weren't optimal because they had exceeded the Hit and Exp caps. However, now is the time to shed light on the biggest difference between Classic WotLK's version of Ulduar and the one in the original retail WotLK, which warmane is currently emulating. In warmane, Ulduar items retain their original, "retail WotLK" stats unlike Classic where the same gear had increased stats. Logically, the BiS build in wowhead reflected the environment there, but it cannot be applied to warmane.

Spoiler: Show

So, after revisiting the Ulduar section in the guide, I wanted to try out more builds and see whether I would find other gear combinations, and sure enough I did. I began comparing Horde builds feat. the Faceless cloak and Icy Intent:

(yes, I'm aware that the audio quality is Scheiße, but I'm not going to buy a new mic just for this video)

As you can see in the video above, both Rawr and the feral simcraft supported the usage of "Icy Intent" in the context of a Horde player. This is why the current BiS list promotes it. Now, before I move onto the Alliance build, I'd like to mention that the Faceless cloak surpasses Icy Intent when a player sockets 3xhttps://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=45987s:

Admittedly, the damage diff. is small, but the Faceless cloak outperforms Icy Intent due to the extra socket slot which is why I decided to include it in the guide. I'm going to talk about the Stormjewel gems a bit later, but as you can see being able to socket more of them leads to (slightly) higher numbers, and in this train of thought going for Icy Intent or Faceless as a Horde player depends on a person's budget.

I repeated the same experiment with an Alliance cat, but as expected the Hit rating from the Icy Intent Cloak collided with the one from https://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=45869 which resulted in wasted stats. Because of it, I considered using the wrist from Algalon and see how it would fare:

vs

It was inferior due to the wasted Exp stats, though I should mention that the same "Icy Intent + Solar bindings" Alliance build in full Agility showed higher numbers than the other one in full Arp:

vs

For Horde, the same tendency is also true but there are no changes to the items (arp build vs agility build).

Now, I want to tackle the topic of Agility vs Arp. In the original game, Arp first capped at 1232 and somewhere in ToC the cap was increased to 1400. So, during retail Ulduar the soft Arp cap was 567 with Mjolnir, and people still had room for delicate gems. Back when Frostmourne was running, it was based on the 3.3.5 patch for the most part (instances and content-specific items like the epic gems were released with the respective patch) which included the 1400 cap for Arp. As you can read in the ElitistJerks guide, post-nerf Arp outshines Agility by a bit when a person has around 400 with https://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=42995. With the proposed BiS list (and no gems), a person's Arp sits at around 408 which is exactly on the edge.

If we compare the pure Agility build with its Arp variant, we can see that Rawr favours the prior stat; it considers Arp to be below the desirable threshold. It only acknowledges the power of Arp in short fights, i.e. below 3 mins:

Now we need to take the length of the Ulduar boss encounters into consideration. In this youtube channel, most of the fights last around 5-6 mins. If we trust Rawr's assessment on the "Agility vs Arp" case, we should go with Agility as the majority of the boss encounters last longer than 3 mins. However, things become complicated when I take into consideration the feral simcraft. Even with lowered stats, it considers Agility to be inferior to Arp:

Spoiler: Show

Honestly, as I'm updating this post, I don't know which program to trust on this. In my opinion, going for either Agility or Arp is a matter of personal choice as 1) the damage diff. is very small and 2) both programs show diff. results.

After giving it an unhealthy amount of thought, I decided to change the gems in the BiS list section to Arp. While the damage diff. between both stats was relatively small according to Rawr, the feral simcraft heavily favoured Arp regardless of circumstances. Having said that, this doesn't take into account the fact that during Ulduar the Stormjewel gems were released without the "unique" tag which allowed some players to stack them. In the original game and apparently in Classic Wrath, people were restricted to using only one, but Frostmourne was an exception because, as stated above, it was based on the 3.3.5 patch while the Stormjewels became stackable in ToC. Now, I don't know if this will be the case when Onyxia releases, but stacking those epic gems is, objectively speaking, the best way to gem your character, as the extra stats are further increased by our talents (https://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=33856 and https://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=17051) + https://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=25898 from paladins:

**Kovachut** · May 4, 2025

I'm still working on the guide. Currently, I need to check the information in the following sections:

Feral cat's piority list 101
How to open as a cat?
What's the value of a CP?
FB. Energy investment and proper timing
Different playstyles for a feral cat
Pre-pull Savage Roar
Tips for all 25-man instances

so things concerning the priority list of a feral cat. I'm taking things slowly because a) I want to structure my thoughts better, and b) I want to improve the sections by adding more video footage. This is the reason I'm going to leave "pre-pull SR" and "tips for all..." for last. Dunno how long it would take, but once I'm done with the 1st post, I'll check the other two.

Here, I'd like to explain what I'm working on during raids. Apart from improving my performance (i.e. minimising mistakes), I am trying to engage some bosses with a pre-pull SR. Since I'm a Horde player, I'll explain the individual steps I need to make to achieve this, but Alliance players can just...

and I'm not going to mention anything else in that regard.

.
.
.
So, I'd like to begin with LM as imho it's the easiest boss for which one can obtain CPs. This is because players can do the setup while the group is still forming, so before the raid officially starts. As explained in the guide, once the trash has been cleared CP-users can attack one of the skeletal spellcasters (i.e. Servants of the Frozen Throne). If there's a lot of time to kill, rogues can easily pop their Vanish and chill. Horde cats have a more sophisticated setup to fulfill. First, they need to get rid of their threat. They can achieve this by either going through the main entrance or taking the portal to Dala, which can be found next to the instance merchants. However, if they go straight away, then the skeleton(s) will follow suit and will be killed by the friendly NPCs. This is why the cat needs to root it and then leave the instance:

However, if they go straight through the exit, there's a chance for them to be ganked. A dead cat loses all CPs, and they need to do the setup again. This is why I recommend taking the portal near the merchants:

and using the engineering parachute midair before they enter the instance (2:58). Afterwards, it's a matter of positioning and activating SR at the right time:

There are a lot of things to cover here, so I'll begin in a chronological order:

00:03-00:10 - The reason I go to this corner is because I want to be in range of SR (100 yards). As one can imagine, it would be very annoying for the everyone if a trap is activated as a result of this, so rogue players need to make sure that all traps are disabled. Another reason for why I pick this corner is because I want to use my chicken. If I stand at the door, it goes to the enemies to the side. It dies, and then I take aggro. Lastly, I want to be as close to my group, so that they can be in range of GotW which would ofc net me a CC proc. Doing so, I can be greedier with my pre-pull SR and cast it with a delay.
00:41 - GotW into a CC proc as mentioned above.
00:46 - I use 4pt8 in order to increase the duration of my first SR by 8 seconds. As you can see, this triggered a 30-sec ICD for the Haste enchant on my gloves. While doing what I did in this clip made the pre-pull SR less valuable, this doesn't mean that using 4pt8 is bad - it just means that feral cats need to obtain the following set pieces - chest, legs, shoulders, head - either from Uld 10 or 25 (or from the vote shop). If I have time and I'm in the mood for it, I'll try to farm the shoulder set piece from Uld 10 or 25.
00:46-00:47 I accepted the warlock summon, just so I could be closer to the boss when I pop Nitro and Feral charge. In hindsight, I don't think that a warlock summon was necessary here.
00:49 - I cast GotW for a CC proc which was a MISTAKE because I already did it at 00:41, and my proc wouldn't have expired by the time I reached the boss. The reason I did it in the clip was simply a reflex, but you can imagine the whole setup without this mistake. As a result, I joined others with a small delay.
00:50 - failed pre-pot. Skill issue.
01:03 - going for FB was intentional. When I have a pre-pull SR, I can afford to be greedy with the CPs. Furthermore, the chances of getting CCs while I'm under the effect of BL are high, so I can swiftly regain those building blocks. Another reason is that I prevent my energy from overcapping in case I get spiked.
01:08 - first spikes => AoE
01:12 - Berserk ends, and I have 5CPs for Rip
01:18 - I refresh Rip
01:26 - I refresh SR
01:28 - seconds spikes => just in time for TF + AoE
01:41 - I refresh Rip
01:41 - third spikes. Sadly, I didn't have time to go for another floweshift, but if I hadn't made the mistake at 00:49, I would have cast Rip sooner so that it would expire before the third spikes.

This is the reason I wanted to attempt this fight with a pre-pull SR - everything is desynced perfectly. When it's time to do something (like an AoE or refresh SR/Rip), I don't need to worry about other stuff. Unfortunately, I ****ed up the rest of the fight, but the clip above should at least give a good idea what one can expect from a pre-pull SR on LM.
.
.
.
Now, it's time to explain the setup for DBS. Both factions face a long role play before they're able to attack the boss. For Horde, it's the longest (1:40), but it helps us obtain CPs in the meantime. Since the ICD of DBW is 1:45, a short pre-warning is needed. Before I go into further detail, I would like to mention that having an existing ID (either from 10-man or 25-man) helps an individual practise the setup:

- 00:00 - 01:54 going through the entrance
- 01:55 - 03:25 taking the portal to Dala near the merchants

As mentioned above, both of these versions help the Horde player get rid of his threat. The first one requires only one summon, whereas the 2nd - two. I should mentioned that going through the main entrance puts you at risk of getting ganked:

(1:26)

This is why I recommend taking the 2nd approach.

Here's what these versions have in common:
1) You unequip DBW.
2) The RL sets a 5-sec pre-warning.
3) You immediately equip it.
4) When the pre-warning ends, the RL starts the encounter.
5) You go to "Light's Hammer".
6) You attack the spellcaster skeleton and GTFO out of the instance.
7) You enter the instance ASAP.
8) 8-10 seconds before the fight begins, you cast SR.
9) You accept a warlock summon
10) GotW for a CC proc.
11) Pre-pot 1s before the fight begins.

If you go to Dalaran via the portal, then after point (8) you need to accept a warlock summon. You'll be teleported in the DBS room, where you head towards "Light's Hammer" and ask for another summon.

If you're using the chicken, as you already know, you need to trigger its effect 45s before the fight begins and immediately equip STS (or wtv trinket you have). However, you shouldn't use it if you're changing zones because the chicken will disappear:

In other words, the chicken needs to be used inside the instance when you're already done with the setup.

With that out of the way, here are some clips from yday's raid:

1st attempt, no Hysteria

00:00 - I unequipped and re-equipped DBW.
00:06-00:07 - I waited for the fight to begin and teleported to "Light's Hammer". The reason for that is quite simple. I need to be on the DBS's balcony when the RP is started, otherwise DBM won't show me the pull timer.
00:18 - MISTAKE. I shouldn't have used Dash.
00:24 - normally, I would jump on the skeleton and immediately acquire CPs. However, the other mobs were close, so I had to do this instead.
00:25-00:42 - LoS (so that the skeleton would go to me) + 5CPs + roots
00:50 - since the fight was going to begin in 54 seconds, I knew that I would cast the chicken with a delay. I contemplated on taking a portal to Dala, since it's faster, but the RL asked me to use only one summon, so I respected his decision. As a result, I used the chicken at 01:09 (10 seconds after the preferred timing and thus I delayed the effect of my WFS).
01:36 - SR into summon into GotW into CC proc into pre-pot
01:56 - The CC encouraged me to go for a FB mid-Berserk.
02:02 - second FB
02:08 - Berserk ends, and I have 5 CPs for Rip.
02:12 - I refreshed Rip, and I had plenty of time to acquire CPs for SR.
02:18 - I refreshed SR after the effect of DBW.

Again, perfect desync. Imagine what it would have been with Hysteria.

2nd attempt, with Hysteria

00:02 - I unequipped and re-equipped DBW.
00:08 - I waited for the fight to begin and teleported to "Light's Hammer".
00:30-00:43 - LoS (so that the skeleton would go to me) + 5CPs + roots
00:43 - Nitro into Dash.
01:02 - I entered the instance when the pull timer showed 43s remaining. Had I used the chicken here, it would have still been cast with a delay, but I would have been able to snapshot Rip with the WFS's effect.
01:39 - SR into summon into GotW into CC proc into pre-pot
01:55 - The CC encouraged me to go for a FB mid-Berserk.
02:03 - second FB
02:10 - Berserk ends, and I have 5 CPs for Rip.
02:13 - I refreshed Rip, and I had plenty of time to acquire CPs for SR.
02:19 - I refreshed SR after the effect of DBW.

There you go.

**Kovachut** · 2 Weeks Ago

Guide update.

1) Almost done with the first post (I only need to finish "Tips for all 25-man instances"), and then I will check the other two. Taking a break for now.
2) As promised, I structured my thoughts better in some places and added more videos. For the most part, the contents of the guide remained unchanged.
3) I wouldn't call it an overhaul, but the layout in "Feral cat's piority list 101" received a huge update.

Spoiler: Show

4) Same goes to "How to open as a cat?", more specifically the last part.

Spoiler: Show

5) That said, there's one section that did receive a huge overhaul, which is "Pre-pull Savage Roar". It's not like my tips for it changed - they remained pretty much the same - but I've explained each aspect surrounding this trick more thoroughly (from the choices for a punching bag to how exactly we're supposed to clear our threat and obtain CPs). I've added a **** ton of videos, so I thoroughly recommend that you give it a read.

Before I finish this post, I would like to talk about the perfect opener. Please watch the following clip:

Now, this video doesn't actually show the perfect opener, rather the idea for it. The reason for that is because I managed to cast 4 finishers during Berserk - Rip, FB, SR, and FB again. However, had I started the fight with a pre-pull SR, I wouldn't have cast this finisher at 0:15, rather I would have gone for another FB.

To put this into perspective, with BiS gear FB deals around 28k damage which is 233.33(3) dps in a 2-min fight. This damage doesn't include:

- trinket procs
- ToT
- Hysteria
- the 30% ICC buff

Just from this, we get net 28k damage.

Let's say I add 700 Str from DBW - this number will become 30874 (257.28 dps) or 37,048.8 with Hysteria (308.74 dps) or 48,163.44 with Hysteria and the 30% icc buff (401.36 dps). Admittedly, this isn't game changing, but it's not shabby either.

PSA: Don't sleep on the pre-pull SR - it's more beneficial than it seems.

**halesk70** · 1 Week Ago

Love the pre-pull idea, the execution needs to be practiced, but as everything else. The bonus damage is guaranteed. Great vvork!

**Kovachut** · 1 Week Ago

Originally Posted by halesk70

Love the pre-pull idea, the execution needs to be practiced, but as everything else. The bonus damage is guaranteed. Great vvork!

^^

Hey, Nap. Thanks for the feedback. My current idea of a pre-pull SR was inspired by the usage of the Ogre Pinata, which you brought up in one of our conversations in the past. So, thank you for contributing to the theorycraft.

Btw, I don't know where exactly I should mention this in the guide, but the pre-pull preparation phase can be improved in ICC. Once we've obtained 5 CPs and cleared our threat, we can summon the Gnomish Chicken and cast Cyclone on a critter in hopes of getting an early Battle Squawk:

Tools

Posting Permissions