Improve your feral DPS with a level 40 helmet.

[Grizzam]

First, before I make my "debut post" please take note of this: as it contains a lot of useful information regarding feral druids and DPS. I'm going to be making my post off the assumption many of you have read, or have an inkling of an idea how to power shift.


Greetings! Today I'll be explaining why Blizzard totally sucks at feral itemization, and how a level 40 blue BOE helmet is the best in the game. What I'm going to explain only applies to feral druids not wearing shitty greens.

Wolfshead Helm Binds when equipped Head Leather
109 Armor
+10 Spirit Requires Level 40
Passive: When shapeshifting into Cat form the Druid gains 20 energy, when shapeshifting into Bear form the Druid gains 5 rage.

First let me show you how little wearing this helmet affects my stats:

Overall I lose:
-2ish % Crit
-200ish Attack Power
-My meta gem (+12 Agility and 3% Increased Critical Strike Damage)

But really, not as detrimental as it sounds...

Mangle (Crit and non crit) with Tier 6 Helmet:

Mangle (Crit and non crit) with Shitty Level 40 Helmet:


As you can see the difference in mangles, while minimal, is still there. Why would anybody choose to do less damage overall? Here's where it begins to make sense. When you power shift you gain 40 energy from Furor, and must wait 2 seconds for your energy to tick to use Shred (costs 42 energy when fully talented). Your average dps rotation looks like: Mangle, Shred x3 depending on crits, Rip.

For sake of my post I couldn't get anyone to tank a mob for me to show you the crit difference with screenshots, but you lose about 200-280~ish damage on your Shred Crits when using the Wolfshead Helm.

So assuming you get zero crits, and ignoring global cooldowns, 3 shreds would take you 9 seconds to put up (Shift (1), 2 second energy tick(2), shift(1), 2 second energy tick(2), shift(1), 2 second energy tick(2))

However when you shift with this helmet you get instant 60 energy, cutting out the 2 second energy tick wait, making 3 shreds take 3 seconds instead of 9.
So for a 4 or 5 combo point rip it would only take approximately 6 seconds instead of 12. That's 1/2 the time to get your combo points out there, which equates to a lot of haste

I chug mana potions in raids, use my innervate on myself for less healer intense fights (ie illidan) and get enough combo points going that I can afford to Ferocious Bite half way through a rip duration while still getting combo points for my next rip.
This was my first thread, hopefully not my last. Cheers~

[Rav3n]

Wooh
Sounds quite strange. But in a long combat it would be the most efficient to use the t6 helm. As the 20+ energy only appears on form changing? But for farming. this would prolly be the best helm!!
+rep!

[dotOrion]

Surely, a pounce should be enough to test some shred numbers.

[Meppuh]

GJ on explaining this 1 and I've heard/read that Feral druids cant get above 1.5k DPS or something because druids don't realy benefit that much from all the high end gear. doesnt make their DPS go woosh like other classes

[Earelad]

So my lvl 40 druid gonna have the best item in the word since lvl 70 :O

[dotOrion]

I've heard/read that Feral druids cant get above 1.5k DPS or something because druids don't realy benefit that much from all the high end gear. doesnt make their DPS go woosh like other classes

I'm afraid that was someone just trash talking about druids, there's plenty of nice DPS numbers out there for druids. It's not top DPS like a rogue or a warlock of course, but more than 1500 is definitly possible.

On-topic: when do you time your powershift, OP ?

[lol989]

u can make macro:
/cancelform
/cast [noswimming] Cat Form


it just changes cat form to cat form u can also write travel form instad of cat and it will change from travel to travel, which is good for carrying flag in WSG

[WarsChildren]

Pretty nifty Sometimes I wonder why Blizzard puts items like this in the game... :P

[Tyman729]

To OP,
While doing this are you still wearing the 2 pieces of T4 for the chance on hit to gain +20 energy cause that would be 4% chance per swing so that mean (not including yellow swings) 2.5 ppm that would either mean +damage for you FB cause of the energy dump or extra energy for wherever you seem necessary or is it just energy overkill cause that set bonus is considered the best thing for feral DPS to have.

[Grizzam]

If I quit being lazy, later I'll update my post with my dps macros. Basically the macros will do an energy and mana check before form shifting for you, allowing best use of mana over a longer fight.

Also please note that this is one of those rare occasions that if you only have 2 paladin buffs, Might + wisdom are your preferred buffs for dps.

As for the 2 piece T4 bonus for the energy gains, No I do not wear it. I'll be wearing it again once I gain more pieces of T6 in Sunwell so I can maintain the 4 piece bonus (Increased Rip damage).

[J-A-K-E]

another trick is even in t5+ content using 2 pieces of t4 for the bonus will increase your dps more then having even t6 on

[Ferag]

It isn't as good. In a raid environment you should be starting the fight in cat form as DPS or bear form as a tank. You should rarely shift in and out.

You could make a macro as a tank to equip it, shift into bear and equip T6 again, then pull to keep the 5 rage but not the terrible stats.

I can't think why this would be better. It really isn't.

[Grizzam]

It isn't as good. In a raid environment you should be starting the fight in cat form as DPS or bear form as a tank. You should rarely shift in and out.

You could make a macro as a tank to equip it, shift into bear and equip T6 again, then pull to keep the 5 rage but not the terrible stats.

I can't think why this would be better. It really isn't.

I'm going to politely call you stupid. You've either read perhaps 1/4th of what I'd posted, or have no idea what you're talking about. Read the topic name, what does it have to do with tanking?
Ignorance is not bliss.

[meir_500]

I Agree with the OP.. it is quite pro