The cat

In marked contrast to their ursine cousins, there were quite a few cats in Cataclysm dungeons. However, the John F%^$ing Madden rotation's going to be a bit harder to sustain with rapidly dwindling crit rates between levels 80 and 85.

Resources:

• A feral guide to Cataclysm pre-raid progression Kintourn's post is just as useful for the cat as for the bear.
• The Fluid Druid's 80-85 feral leveling guide Alaron's one-stop shop for all your leveling needs. As he notes, many of his recommendations are made with an eye toward the very high mob health in zones like Deepholm, Uldum, and the Twilight Highlands.
• The Fluid Druid's Cataclysm Feral DPS Guide This is oriented more toward a cat at 80, but still has a lot of valuable information.
• Yawning's definitive cat DPS FAQ (4.0.1) While some of this information doesn't apply to cats at level 85 (Yawning is still in the process of updating it), most of it will. A comprehensive and frankly amazing look at the spec and its numbers.

Hit cap at 85 Like the bear, the cat is considered a one-handed attacker, so your hit cap in tier 11 will be 961 hit versus a raid boss or 721 hit versus a heroic 5-man boss. Again, the hit cap is likely to rise in tier 12. As with the bear, hit isn't something you should go out of your way to get. Most of our damage is yellow with an inherently better chance to hit, and there's only a small penalty for missing a finisher given that the now-vanished talent Primal Precision's energy return component has been baked into the spec.

Expertise cap at 85 Try to get to the soft cap (26 expertise/781 rating), beyond which expertise is functionally useless for a melee DPS. Mobs can't parry from behind, so once you've knocked dodge off their avoidance table you don't need more expertise. As with hit, don't drive yourself nuts trying to get it.

How should I spec? This is the basic cat DPS spec at level 85. You'll have four points left over to do whatever you want, and what you do with them is a function of in-game priorities. If you're raiding, you'll probably want Survival Instincts for the inevitable "Oh S%*t!" moments, and the three points left after that drop nicely into Perseverance. The additional survivability from both talents is extremely valuable in both heroics and raids while healers are struggling to keep groups alive, and Perseverance is the poster child for talents Ghostcrawler thinks you should take. Even if you're not raiding, the cynic in me says to expect a lot of really bad 5-man and heroic groups at level 85, and the first and greatest contribution to your damage is simply going to be the ability to stay alive. Even in good groups, collective inexperience with new content tends to result in a lot of unnecessary damage taken.

Fights where you'll be needed to interrupt will almost certainly require two points in Brutal Impact. If you expect to do any amount of tanking on your cat spec, three points in Thick Hide are required.

How should I glyph? Cat glyphs are a little more interesting than their bear counterparts.

• Prime Glyph of Rip and Glyph of Shred are mandatory at level 85, but theorycrafters haven't made up their minds as to whether Glyph of Savage Roar or Glyph of Tiger's Fury is the larger DPS increase. On the beta, Glyph of Savage Roar was better for me personally at a target dummy, but you'll probably want to experiment for yourself. As Alaron observed, Glyph of Mangle will be a big help while you're leveling as you're unlikely to be behind mobs for an appreciable length of time.
• Major Major glyphs for cats are pretty uninspiring. Glyph of Ferocious Bite is the only one that might result in a DPS increase, and even that's not certain. Strictly speaking, it's actually a DPS loss if your rotation is note-perfect, but there are two recommendations for it in Cataclysm. The first is that you won't have the crit rate to guarantee a perfect rotation for quite some time, and the second is that Ferocious Bite will replace Rip in your rotation once your target is below 25 percent health (assuming two points in Blood in the Water). You should be Biting at 5 combo points, and the glyph will prevent you from killing your energy supply. Otherwise, helpful major glyphs include Glyph of Faerie Fire and Glyph of Feral Charge. Glyph of Maul is required if you do 5-man tanking. For raids, I can't over-emphasize the importance of Glyph of Rebirth now that battle resurrections are limited.
• Minor Cats have historically glyphed Dash, as that's the only minor glyph that has any direct impact on us. If you tank at all, Glyph of Challenging Roar will be helpful, but otherwise you can glyph whatever's most convenient for you personally.

Numbers before entering 85 heroics? On the beta, Blizzard "strongly recommended" creating a premade character with Cataclysm blues in order to tackle heroic content, and the average item level on said premades was around 333. For a cat, this worked out to around 8,000 attack power and 30 percent crit. Your hit and expertise are unlikely to be amazing as you step into heroics (I think I had around 5 percent hit and maybe 10 expertise, although my main was still saddled with a few greens), but don't worry about it.

What should I reforge? Raw crit rating and haste are OK but not fabulous for cats; feel free to reforge them to mastery. If you have a choice whether to reforge one or the other, reforge haste before crit. If you encounter a piece of gear without either haste or crit, you can probably leave it alone.

As with the bear, look for agility leather with mastery, then reforge the haste or crit on it into additional mastery.

What stats should I look for? The ideal piece of gear for a cat prioritizes agility, mastery, haste, crit, expertise, and hit, in pretty much that order. Of these, agility and mastery are by far the most important in tier 11 content.

What should I gem for? Agility is king, but you should also try for useful socket bonuses (agility or mastery).

• Meta This is a bit of a problem at the moment. There is currently no level 85 equivalent to the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond; the most analogous meta is the Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond, which is not only a small DPS loss in itself but also requires more blue than red gems. While that's going to be reverted in a future patch, 21 agility is still slightly better than 54 critical strike rating. As of now, I'd keep the Relentless around.
• Delicate Inferno Ruby Sock this into any red slot.
• Adept Ember Topaz
• Sensei's Dream Emerald For those inevitable times you can't avoid a blue or yellow socket.

What reputation should I grind first? As with bears, you'll want to get started on Therazane as early as possible for their shoulder enchants. However, your helm enchant will come from Ramkahen in Uldum, which you probably won't encounter as early as they'll find the Earthen Ring. Once you've gotten to revered with Ramkahen, schedule a trip to their quartermaster (Blacksmith Abasi at 54,33 in Uldum) for both the Arcanum and the Quicksand Belt.

As with the bear, keep an eye out for Guardians of Hyjal rep as well; their Sly Fox Jerkin can last you all the way to heroics, and you can get it as early as level 83.

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Every week, Shifting Perspectives treks across Azeroth in pursuit of druidic truth, beauty and insight. Whether you're a bear, cat, moonkin, tree or stuck in caster form, we've got the skinny, from a look at the disappearance of the bear tank to thoughts on why you should be playing the class (or why not).

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Filed under: Druid, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives