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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsShifting Perspectives: Feral cat druid DPS 101
by Chase Hasbrouck 
Jan 30th 2011 at 4:00PM
Tired of being a laser chicken or green-glowing broccoli? Just got your druid alt to 85? Mostly a bear, but want to up your DPS during non-tank phases? This guide's for you. It will cover the basics of the feral druid DPS spec at level 85 for you Cataclysm cats, including rotation, gear stats, talent and glyphs. I'll be focusing on PvE -- but don't worry, I'll address the many sorrows of feral PvPers soon.
Feral DPS strengths
- Strong single-target DPS Currently just a bit behind that of assassination rogues and unholy DKs.
- Excellent survivability With Survival Instincts, Barkskin, and Nurturing Instinct, we definitely don't overwork the healers.
- Excellent mobility Most melee have a passive +15% run speed buff available to them, but we're the only one that gets +30% via Feral Swiftness. Combined with Feral Charge, we're typically the first melee DPS to reach an add.
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Lots of raid-wide buffs, including +5% crit
and some small raid-wide heals viaLeader of the Pack. Also +30% bleed damage via Mangle and -12% armor reduction with Faerie Fire. - Tranquility is awesome and not just for restoration-specced druids. Often overlooked, it remains a great raid-wide party heal when paired with Nurturing Instincts. My feral Tranquility has healed for over 200k. That's a lot of healing for 8 seconds. Between LotP heals and Tranquility, I'm often the largest source of raid-wide heals not coming from a dedicated healer.
- Battle rez Not as overpowered now that you're limited to one rez (or three in 25-man), but still game-changing.
- Hybrid spec potential A shared talent tree with bears makes a combined DPS/tanking spec very viable.
- A challenging, interesting, and dynamic DPS rotation
Filed under: Druid, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives
