Shifting Perspectives: Cat 101, part 3
by Allison Robert 
Feb 9th 2010 at 11:00AM
9. Basic cat gameplay:
Three words: JOHN F^%*$ING MADDEN.
The cat "rotation" is, in reality, a series of debuffs with varying priorities. Under ideal circumstances, you are able to keep all of them up for the length of a boss fight.
Three words: JOHN F^%*$ING MADDEN.
The cat "rotation" is, in reality, a series of debuffs with varying priorities. Under ideal circumstances, you are able to keep all of them up for the length of a boss fight.
- If there is not another source for Faerie Fire or Feral Faerie Fire in the raid, apply it.
- Get behind the boss and stay there.
- Get Savage Roar up quickly and do not allow it to drop if at all possible. If dropped (this is unavoidable on many encounters), get it back up again. This cannot be over-emphasized. Not having SR up puts your DPS in the toilet.
- Get Mangle up, or ensure that it is on your target (via another cat, a bear druid's Mangle, or an arms warrior's Trauma).
- Get Rake up.
- Shred to 5 combo points.
- Rip at 5 combo points.
- Here's where things start getting weird. You now have a series of cooldowns and debuffs to juggle for the length of the fight, with the aim being never to allow Savage Roar, Mangle, Rake, or Rip to drop (or at least to keep their dropped time to a minimum). Keep reapplying them as necessary.
- If Omen of Clarity procs, use it for a free Shred. If Rip and Savage Roar are both up with 8 seconds or more to go on their timers and you have 5 combo points, use Ferocious Bite. It is very difficult incorporating FB into the rotation as it consumes all of your energy. If you are learning cat DPS, don't bother using it at all until you're adept at recognizing the periods where FB can be used without endangering another debuff.
- Tiger's Fury at 35 energy or less (assuming 3/3 King of the Jungle).
- Time Berserk around a trinket or weapon enchant proc (ideally both, but there's an element of luck there). Using it during Bloodlust/Heroism isn't as important.
Sound complicated? It is. Cat DPS is arguably the game's most difficult rotation, and certainly the easiest to screw up. If you have any amount of latency or don't have a Mangle bot (being able to drop Mangle from the rotation simplifies matters greatly), it becomes still more difficult.
I highly recommend use of the mods FeralByNight and/or BadKitty to school yourself on the proper rotation. Although FeralByNight is no longer being updated (and the community sorely misses Nightcrowler, its author) the basics are still there. It's a "suggester" mod telling you the most ideal skill to use at a given moment. While not flawless, it's an invaluable tool that shows what an ideal rotation looks like, in addition to giving you a breakdown on your exact stats (chance to hit, crit, etc.) versus a given target. There is no better way to get a handle on what cat DPS looks like when you're new to the spec.
I highly recommend use of the mods FeralByNight and/or BadKitty to school yourself on the proper rotation. Although FeralByNight is no longer being updated (and the community sorely misses Nightcrowler, its author) the basics are still there. It's a "suggester" mod telling you the most ideal skill to use at a given moment. While not flawless, it's an invaluable tool that shows what an ideal rotation looks like, in addition to giving you a breakdown on your exact stats (chance to hit, crit, etc.) versus a given target. There is no better way to get a handle on what cat DPS looks like when you're new to the spec.
After you're more familiar with with the basics of a cat rotation, you should download and use BadKitty. BadKitty allows you to watch debuff timers and clearcasting procs without "suggesting" skills, and it's significantly easier to customize and use than FeralByNight. Additionally, experienced feral players with a better handle on the rotation and the particulars of a given fight will recognize when FeralByNight gets things "wrong" (i.e. FBN will keep suggesting the same rotation regardless of fight conditions), and get better DPS out of the more hands-on approach afforded by BadKitty.
Plenty of other players customize other debuff and cooldown mods to work with cat DPS, but whatever you do, the default UI does not work very well with the spec and should be avoided at all costs.
10. Gems:
Unfortunately, gem choice is entirely a function of the stats your existing gear supplies, which is one of the reasons that a tool like Rawr is virtually required.
- Meta: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond. For the socket bonus (which requires a blue gem), you should use a Nightmare Tear in a blue slot somewhere on your gear (traditionally in the helm or weapon).
- If the armor penetration on your gear is less than 400: Socket pure agility or (when needed) agility/hit, agility/haste (at high gear levels), hit, or hit/expertise.
- If the armor penetration on your gear is greater than 400: Socket pure armor penetration.
- If the armor penetration on your gear is greater than 400 and you have an armor pen proc trinket (Mjolnir Runestone, Needle Encrusted Scorpion, or Grim Toll): Subtract the amount of armor penetration granted by the trinket's proc from 1400 and gem armor penetration until you reach the number that's left. After that, gem agility. Actually, because this probably makes no sense whatsoever, just go read the Elitist Jerks page on this and scroll down until you reach the section on armor penetration rating, which will tell you what number you'll need by trinket. The goal here is not to waste the armor penetration proc by putting yourself over the hard cap.
- If you can reach 1400 armor penetration (the hard cap) passively between gems and gear: Whatever's left for your sockets should be gemmed for agility, hit, expertise, or some combination of the three.
- Should I gem for socket bonuses?: If you get more than 4 agility for doing it and it's convenient, go for it. If not, don't bother.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why stats are being simplified for Cataclysm.
11. Glyphs:
The three primary choices are:
11. Glyphs:
The three primary choices are:
It is not for nothing that two of the above glyphs directly impact your ability to keep debuffs going for an extended period. However, if you do not have a "Mangle bot" with you, you will want to substitute Glyph of Mangle for the Shred glyph. For 5-man work, Glyph of Berserk is often preferable, as trash and often bosses die so quickly.
Minor glyph choices for feral druids do not have any direct impact on DPS, and are mostly a matter of personal preference. However, Glyph of Dash is convenient, Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth will save you money on reagents, Glyph of Aquatic Form will make you the fastest thing in the existing game while in water, and Glyph of Thorns or Glyph of Challenging Roar are both convenient if you spend time tanking.
Minor glyph choices for feral druids do not have any direct impact on DPS, and are mostly a matter of personal preference. However, Glyph of Dash is convenient, Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth will save you money on reagents, Glyph of Aquatic Form will make you the fastest thing in the existing game while in water, and Glyph of Thorns or Glyph of Challenging Roar are both convenient if you spend time tanking.
12. Endgame enchants:
Enchants for cats are pretty straightforward:
- Helm: Arcanum of Torment (Ebon Blade quartermaster).
- Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe (Sons of Hodir quartermaster), or Inscription equivalent.
- Cloak: Enchant Cloak -- Major Agility, or Engineering/Tailoring enchants.
- Chest: Enchant Chest -- Powerful Stats.
- Bracers: Enchant Bracers -- Greater Assault, or Leatherworking equivalent.
- Gloves: Enchant Gloves -- Major Agility, or Hyperspeed Accelerators (Engineering).
- Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle.
- Legs: Icescale Leg Armor
- Boots: Enchant Boots -- Superior Agility or Icewalker (if not hit-capped).
- Weapon: Berserking.
Every week, Shifting Perspectives treks across Azeroth in pursuit of truth, beauty, and insight concerning the druid class. Sometimes it finds the latter, or something good enough for government work. Whether you're a Bear, Cat, Moonkin, Tree, or stuck in caster form, we've got the skinny on druid changes in patch 3.3, a look at the disappearance of the bear tank, and thoughts on why you should be playing the class (or why not).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Wellsee Feb 9th 2010 11:18AM
I love your articles . I was rereading the leveling 41-50 article when this one popped up. I keep coming back to get refresher lessons!
jam Feb 9th 2010 11:28AM
Good old Mongoose is actually better than Berserking at higher gear levels.
As for rotation, do not be afraid of refreshing Savage Roar even if there's still time left on it.. You want SR and Rip dropping off at different times, so you'll have to "desynchronize" those two timers from time to time.
Snap Feb 9th 2010 1:24PM
Mongoose > Berserking for sure. It's funny that this article doesn't even mention Mongoose considering it stated that pure AP is bad as it doesn't scale... And of course Haste is better in the long run as it helps proc more clear casts.
So, Mongoose all the way.
Coldbear Feb 9th 2010 2:13PM
Rawr
Toskk
Askmrrobot
Problem solved.
Pyromelter Feb 9th 2010 2:48PM
Great catch, uprate the post for mongoose IMO. However, I really thought gear level wouldn't matter - mongoose is just the better enchantment for feral druids (bear and cat), bar none.
Jorges Feb 9th 2010 2:58PM
It really depends and gear level/combination and proc times. As Coldbear suggests, just check Rawr or Toskk's to determine wich one is better. That is, if you want to min/max your cat.
Right now, Massacre is the best enchant for me. But I was using Berserk not so long ago, until my gear changed.
Liz D Feb 9th 2010 11:31AM
I've been struggling with getting a handle on playing my kitty well, presently in mid-60s, and am so glad to have all this information IN ONE PLACE. Thank you thank you thank you.
RaydenUni Feb 9th 2010 11:32AM
JOHN F^%*$ING MADDEN.
All that needs to be said.
I like playing my cat. My first was a Shadowpriest, and then my Druid, so I've only ever played dot/priority classes at a high level. I enjoy the challenge of the rotation, I'm not sure how other DPS survive the boredom of whatever their rotation is. I've been trying to level a Paladin and cannot get past the COMPLETE LACK OF DAMAGE SPELLS early on. Judgement, autoattack till dead is super boring.
Bear however, is in some serious need of complexity. Going from the most complicated rotation in the game to what is arguably the simplest (swipe, maul ad infinitum?) is stupid.
The most annoying aspect of cat is that I expect to be able to tank or dps, and that requires two sets of gear. It's not as much of a problem for some pieces as they work equally well for both, but anything with a serious enchant: head, legs, wrist (for leatherworker), you have to have two pieces.
Good introductory article, and kudos for modern druid memes (minus points for no Alamo reference though, unless I missed it).
CAT DURID IS 4 FITE!
Ozzard Feb 9th 2010 11:38AM
Now come on, you can Mangle in bear as well. And... erm... and... erm... ah.
Yeah.
Something more interesting would be nice. Perhaps even some way of handling casters at range, though I suspect that's asking Ghostcrawler for a pony.
Angus Feb 10th 2010 1:11AM
Look at the enhance shaman 101, you will see almost familiar amounts of stupid complexity.
Evelinda Feb 13th 2010 7:37AM
hey, bears have at least 5 buttons to push... ff, mangle, swipe, maul and lacerate... and frankly, i'm alright with that. when i'm tanking, i LIKE being able to keep things simple. I went from tanking on a druid (my first max level tank class), to tanking on a warrior, and while i kind of like that whack-a-mole feeling when i'm dpsing, i just find it way to annoying when i'm tanking!
also, complaining about having to have a second set of gear in order to tank and dps is a bit ridiculous... every other class has to have a second set of gear AND a second spec to tank. Right now on my druid i'm carrying around three sets of gear (one on and two in my bags), and i can queue as tank, heals and dps (not that i get to do anything but tank if i do), and that is AWESOME. Nobody else gets that flexibility, and thats what makes druids the only real class ;)
Mike Feb 9th 2010 11:34AM
I've been playing kitty dps for a while and absolutely love the challenging rotation. This was a great read (and a must read) for new kittens to the litter. I do have a couple of points to add though.
-Points in Feral Aggression: It's not needed unless you're capable of keeping all your priorities in the rotation up enough to work in a Ferocious Bite. If you find that you can't work an FB in at all, move the points to something else, like infected wounds. But once you master the "rotation" you can put the points back in and you'll see a dps increase.
-Using Ferocious Bite: You mention that you should FB with 5 combo points. To my knowledge, this is incorrect. You should FB with 4 or even 3 Combo points. It will be easier to work in and it's a much better dmg to energy cost ratio than a full FB with 5 combo points. I also think it's better to FB when you don't have max energy, because it can burn your energy and the dps increase on the FB is just not worth it. Use that energy to shred instead.
-Weapon Enchant - (this is a highly discussed topic so there's not really a right or wrong answer) As you described, we don't scale well with raw AP, yet berserking gives it. I use Mongoose for the added agi. Also, any extra agility will help out with your rotation.
-Gemming for Agi or ArPen: I see greater returns when gemming only for armor penetration. It is a greater static DPS increase. However, if you are having trouble with your rotation, gem for agi. Agility will increase your crit rating which increases your combo point generation.
Coldbear Feb 9th 2010 11:39AM
Good stuff. I'm sure there's a few minor mistakes, but let's not play that game.
FbN is no longer in development. Use the non-class-specific Ovale addon and the EJ thread rotation developed by Furion and Bkim among others.
It's very good and takes a lot less memory than FbN. As always, it gives recommendations based off static targets - and there's only so many of those fights, but it'll teach and is of immense use on Putricide/Blood Queen type fights where you're too busy to even glance at your timer bars.
Wowwiki now has a decent feral dps guide that'll hopefully be updated by the community instead of depending on one single person updating a guide on some forum.
QQ:
I feel bad every time the first words out of my mouth when someone asks about feral dps is:
"Here, go download this addon."
Allison Robert Feb 9th 2010 12:21PM
Oh, for an experienced cat I *expect* they'll read this and take issue with a few things, because at higher gear levels a few things are definitely different (people have already pointed out the Berserking vs. Mongoose deal in the comments). But I'm OK with a few incidental things floating around as long as the basics are firmly here.
I actually tried Ovale earlier and have to admit I didn't have a very good experience with it -- lots and lots of errors popping up, although I do frankly expect that from a new mod. For the moment I still prefer BadKitty, but I think Ovale has some nice potential. FBN still works, just a shame it's not being updated -- the moment that anything in the rotation seriously changes, it'll be obsolete.
Coldbear Feb 9th 2010 2:12PM
http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t84378-visualising_optimal_cat_rotation_ingame/
Furion has finally given in to peer pressure and (I think) is keeping his latest rotation in the first post - this version is VERY MUCH superior to the default one in Ovale.
That said, it's still just a guide - and FbN still works, just bloated as all heck. Thanks for the link and the kind words about the wiki page, too.
BadKitty is by far the superior feral timer addon right now imho. Cat's Eye and DroodFocus are good, too, though. With a combination of Ovale and BadKitty you can reduce BadKitty to just track Mangle, SR, Rip and that's it - unless you need Feral Swiftness (instant nature cast) for pvp purposes. Rake is best taken care of by Ovale since you absolutely cannot allow yourself the slacker's luxury of accidentally clipping Rake with the bug/feature that it'll cost energy and give a combo point but won't refresh the bleed effect...
Oh, and The Fluid Druid is BY FAR the superior theorycrafting/advice feral blog out there. That guy is way too smart. Feral Aggression is good too. My little thing isn't much about theory - I just do cool stuff and film-making, so don't look there for advice really.
Lastly, I'm glad you didn't point people to these "BiS" lists that's all the rage these days - since they lead people into passing on good, big upgrades just b/c they're not on "the list" or don't have the "right" stat.
Anyway, yeah - The Fluid Druid.
Coldbear Feb 9th 2010 2:21PM
Forgot to mention http://Askmrrobot.com
Functions kinda like Rawr 3 or a smoother version of Toskk but is very slick, not as complex and confusing - and works pretty well unless you're really on the cutting edge of content/gearing.
Only supports Ferals, Dps DKs and Moonkins but will be expanding afaik.
Allison Robert Feb 9th 2010 11:01PM
Askmrrobot I didn't know about -- thanks, I'll give that a try!
SovietBear Feb 9th 2010 11:42AM
I sometimes spam fairie fire in whenever I'm waiting on my cooldowns. Usually procs omen of clarity and i get a free attack out of it.
biglou Feb 9th 2010 11:41AM
Im not a druid, have no desire to play a druid, I have too much self respect to play a druid, and if my kids ever mention druids I will drop them off in the most barren wasteland I can find and hope that their will to survive is greater than my utter discontent for druids.......but damn your articles are funny. GJ...keep up the good work.
Coldbear Feb 9th 2010 2:36PM
this downrating **** is getting outta hand. it was just a joke, nothing malicious