Tuesday, October 12, 2010

First Impressions - Feral dps

 Really impressed with the patch thus far. Even though it took forever to install, the graphics are amazing, and I'm kind of in love with the glyph and runeforging systems. I'm also really happy that they've changed heroics so you can't just mow everything down with AoE. Tanking on Ky seems a little scary now as dps/healers don't seem to realize that things have changed and they need to cc, so I've been messing around with the new talents on Eva in her dps spec.

Some first impressions about kitty dpsing -

FERAL CHARGE/RAVAGE COMBO - pretty excited about using ravage. It was my favorite attack while leveling, and being able to use it for FREE after an opener I do anyways is pretty awesome. It crits all the time for 8k+ (probably way more for kitties better geared than I).

MANGLE/SHRED- We've lost the talent that reduces the amount of energy that Shred requires - its now at 40e, as opposed to 35e for Mangle. Not sure which is better in a rotation - I'm assuming Shred, but Mangle+Mangle glyph might be decent if you can't get behind your target. Not sure on that one

RUNECRAFTING - As I said, I'm kind of in love with runecrafting.I've been converting all of my extra hit into mastery - I'm not sure if I should convert some of my haste into mastery too. Is feral druid attack speed still based on the one handed weapon craziness? If not, I'm definitely converting some of the haste into mastery.

GLYPHS  - One part of me really enjoys the new glyph system. Another part of me is a little resentful of how much scribes are charging when you supply the mats. Some are asking for over 100g -.-
  • PRIME - Rip, Shred, Savage Roar 
    • seriously considering Tiger's Fury
  • MAJOR - Ferocious Bite, Entangling Roots, Rebirth/Faerie Fire?
    • Ferocious Bite seems to be the only obvious choice - other than that, Entangling roots for cc, and a kind of blah third glyph
  • MINOR - Dash, Unburdened Rebirth, Mark of The Wild
    • Aquatic form if you like swimming around - will probably be very useful come Cata

ROTATION - I'm assuming that for the most part we're keeping the same rotation, only now at level 80 rake will be lasting up to 9 seconds longer if talented and in t9. Savage Roar seems to be lasting longer now at 1cp, but I don't remember how long it used to be and I'm too lazy to look it up.

What I've been doing....
  • Feral Charge
  • Ravage
  • Savage Roar
  • Mangle
  • Rake
  • Shred as needed till 5 cp
  • Rip
  • Ferocious Bite if all dots are up and there is extra energy/combo points/time
    • make sure to keep an eye out for things to cc - cyclone, entangling roots and hibernate are available to all druids - use them!

On the whole, I'm ok with feral dps. They gave us a few more buttons to press, but the heart of it stayed the same. Tomorrow I'm planning on trying out some bgs  - I'm a little afraid of the pain of playing with non-pvpers, but excited about bg ratings :)

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