[Guide] Cat DPS

[Anti-Christ]

Cat DPS Guide


Talents

Theoretically this is the best Single Target DPS spec This Spec <-- Clicky
But ofcourse some may have cat dps as there questing spec to and to make you more flexible in raiding you'll need some other specs without killing your dps to hard.
This is the spec that i prefer This Spec <--- Clicky
This spec has the possibility of being able to easily quest fast with the extra heals on crit with Imp. Leader of the Pack and it can also be used to tank HC's and maybe take that last add when your OT was to drunk to go any further.

That's the point of being a hybrid even tho you are focusing on dps you can still be able to take some dmg if something happens.That's why i also have Survival instincts and Feral Charge (to get to that mob fast).

Ofcourse more skilled players will take more points in Feral Agression for more Ferocious Bite dmg but it isn't used as much cause the Cat dps rotation is as hard as it is without ferocious bite.

Rotation

If you can't handle a class with a difficult rotation then go play a retadin. A cat dps doesn't have a specific rotation as a moonkin has but cat dps relies more on fast reactions and being aware of all the timers that are running on your screen and attempting to get a 95% uptime of all those timers.

So when i start dps'ing on a boss i ALWAYS open with Faerie Fire no matter what, that debuff is not allowed to go off the target at any given time.

IF you don't have a nice Arms Warrior in your raid then you will have to mangle as your first attack and then you start putting up bleeds and getting CP's.
You use Rake after mangle and then you will have approximatly 3 CP's most people use Savage Roar but cause i'm used to this i use Shreds till 5 CP's and then i use Savage Roar.

I always use Savage Roar with 5 CP's but that's not needed you just have to make sure that you have that buff the whole fight cause it's a very valuable buff.

And ofcourse to continue you just shred your way through the target till the magic 5 CP's and then you use your Rip, NEVER USE RIP WITH LESS THEN 5 CP'S !!!!

Now you have all the timers running (savage roar buff, Faerie Fire debuff, Rake, Mangle and Rip) now you have to make sure you use your clearcasting procs on Shred cause that gives best DPE.

You will use your tigers fury everytime it's up and you are below 40 energy. As a good cat you will probably know that Shred dmg is increased when the target has a debuff that increases bleed dmg Conclusion: Never shred without mangle.
If you have 5 CP's but your Savage roar was just refreshed and Rip has enough time left then just throw in a Ferocious Bite

Now you have everything running and the challenge is now to keep ALL those timers up as long as you can cause your guild will be thankful.

In a nutshell:

-FF and Mangle up on target as fast as you can
-Savage Roar up on yourself as fast as you can
-Do not Shred when there are no bleeds and don't use bleeds without Mangle (Shred dmg is increased when target is bleeding)
-Keep all your bleeds up at all times
-Alot of CP's when all timers are up and running ? Ferocious Bite then
-In need of CP's use Shred
-NEVER use Rip without 5 CP's

Gear

Now if you call yourself a Cat DPS then you already know basics of the gear (i hope).
You should know that if you really need an AP boost you should take something with a lot of Strength but you will not need it normally

So if you're just starting stack Agility as much as you can it will give you AP and Crit and these are your most valuable stats in the beginning. Now if you have done alot of HC's even some nice raids you will realize that there is some Armor Penetration Rating on some pieces now this is where it becomes a little bit more difficult gear wise.
Normally all your sockets are filled with Agility gems ALL of them, now when you hit the magic 200-300 Armor Penetration on your gear then it's time to spend some hard earned cash to regem it all to Armor Penetration. It becomes your most valuable stat after 200 ArPen.
Now i will say that it's best to wait till you get a Grim Toll or Mjolnir Runestone but i did it before i had one.

ArPen gives you the power to reduce the target's armor by a percentage.
Just as Faerie Fire and Sunder Armor do except they are 2 different things. If you get 100% Armor reduction through ArPen then you don't reduce the boss' armor to 0
and that's where FF and Sunder Armor come into play, they reduce a 24%-25% armor from that remaining bit of armor from the boss. This is made complicated by blizzard cause they want to feel as if they own the game but anyways.

The softcap for ArPen is 620 if you have a Grim Toll and 567 when you have a Mjolnir Runestone. The goal is to reach exactly 100% armord reduction on trinket proc.

Now what you don't do is really gear for ArPen cause yes the JC epic ring has ArPen and Naxx rings do not have that, so what you will still go for naxx rings because the gear with ArPen on before naxx 25 and ulduar 10/25 miss alot of needed stats as Agility and crit/haste/AP

One other thing that is highly discussed about is Hit/Expertise Cap, These are totally NOT needed i don't care what other people say being a cat i know what is needed.
I've been raiding ulduar with literally 0 hit rating and some expertise. As a cat you hit so fast that that lil bit of misses is not even feel able dps wise. Your 2nd best damaging attack will be just plain melee attacks and cause it's below 1 with some haste that you get standard on gear you will attack fast. Your first will be Shred and that's why some think you need Hit cap and Expertise cap.

Conclusion: hit cap and expertise cap is nice to have cause it just smoothens your rotation but that's it dps wise you won't gain alot so i don't want any cat japping about hit/expertise cap cause it's basically a waste of stats compared to what you can get in ArPen or Agility.

As for the idol, if you are stacking your ArPen go with the Shredding idol and if you are stacking Agility go with the Rip idol

Glyphs

Major Glyphs that are worth it are:

Glyph of Mangle
Glyph of Savage Roar
Glyph of Rip
Glyph of Shred

I'll make it easy for you and give you the 2 that you MUST have and those are

Glyph of Shred and Glyph of Rip now for your third it's a little bit harder.
For me i don't have the energy reducing talent for Mangle so i want it up as long as i can so i choose Glyph of Mangle
But if you don't need that you could go for extra increase in damage and take Glyph of Savage Roar (only 3% extra increase)

Raid Role

You are a druid and a druid is a hybrid SO you are able to do more things in specs, as for my spec i can OT but just a little bit cause when you start stacking ArPen it gets harder to go bear and tank succesfully during a fight where the OT died.

As a druid you also have one of the most awesome spells that you can give to someone and that is innervate, healers will be thankful that you give it to them even if they don't ask it cause as a druid YOU are responsible to keep the OOM healer back up in mana with an innervate and he doesn't have to shout it out on vent.

As a cat you give the raid a massive buff the so called Leader of the Pack buff and that's 5% crit chance + you give a nice 5% reduced armor on targets and an increase in bleed dmg wich is highly desirable to.

Patch 3.2

"O noes i see at feral my spellz and decrease % dmg behindz itz :O :O" Calm down the real theory crafters and math geniusses have calculated that it will be a very small decrease in DPS and it's more used just to let the whiners see that we are getting "nerfed" so actually it looks a hard nerf on paper but it doesn't mean anything in raids so you can relax.


Links
This guide is all written by me but I spent weeks looking up on forums and sites and trying to understand all those numbers that some posters throw down on their guides.

Elitist Jerk Guide This guide is very good but those elitists have fun playing with numbers so be warned !

Forum posted guide on WoW site This is a more simpler guide but still very useful






This guide is all mine and i never used copy pastes from other sites, the talents and gear info is all mine even tho the talents will probably look alot like the elitist jerks talents or other guides.

[logicb]

I quit reading when you said hit was pointless.

Your the one right.
Millions are wrong?

No thanks, I'll continue to stay hit capped on all of my damage-dealing toons.

/giggle

[madsherlock]

Good guide but the spec is a bit weird. At least, I think it could be better. No points are in Protector of the Pack, which I would think is a good talent for dps.
I would use this spec for maximum dps with no intention of doing any tanking or making it an easy job to heal me: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/ba...00000000000000
Good things compared to your linked dps spec: You get 6% more attack power.
Bad things: Mangle (Cat) will cost 2 more energy. Additionally, you will not receive extra healing when being healed, and your own heals will be weaker. But as a dps, you should not care about heals in any way, except if you're interrupting someone

Edit: And to the above poster, I agree with the OP that hit is not really necessary for cat, compared to what else you can get.

[Anti-Christ]

I quit reading when you said hit was pointless.

Your the one right.
Millions are wrong?

No thanks, I'll continue to stay hit capped on all of my damage-dealing toons.

/giggle

Please refrain from talking about something you have absolutely ni idea of, you are right if you talk about hit for ALL classes then it is most important but when you go cat dps hit is not important and you should never gear for hit. You hit faster then 1sec with normal melee attacks and my normal melee dmg is always my 1st or 2nd dps output. i've been raiding ulduar with 0 hit rating and still manage to get top 3 dps. So please don't say anything if you don't know what you are saying

/giggle back

Good guide but the spec is a bit weird. At least, I think it could be better. No points are in Protector of the Pack, which I would think is a good talent for dps.
I would use this spec for maximum dps with no intention of doing any tanking or making it an easy job to heal me: World of Warcraft Europe -> Talents
Good things compared to your linked dps spec: You get 6% more attack power.
Bad things: Mangle (Cat) will cost 2 more energy. Additionally, you will not receive extra healing when being healed, and your own heals will be weaker. But as a dps, you should not care about heals in any way, except if you're interrupting someone

Edit: And to the above poster, I agree with the OP that hit is not really necessary for cat, compared to what else you can get.

Well your mistake about Protector of the Pack is totally not your fault and is entirely blizzards fault because they used bad wording. Protector of the Pack gives more % AP IN BEAR this has been discussed numerous times and on WoWhead you can see enough posts saying that it doesn't change anything in cat.

About my spec, you are right i don't need the bigger heals to myself and from raid members or the + heals from the crits with leader of the pack but with me feral is also my all round spec so it's for questing aswell so the extra boost in the heals so i have less downtime is easier for questing.

The less mangle energy cost comes in handy for a smoother rotation but i don't feel a big of a difference when i have to put mangle up and sometimes theres a Druid OT or warrior DPS that can give that debuff.

[Wadoo]

I lol shit guide don't follow it I play feral dps top meters most fights you can't go with 0hit and expertise you have a skill called berserk attack missing and dodgeing during this will hurt your dps also your glyph and spec is awfull no SR glyph.....3% damage Also mangle glyph over it no imp mangle in spec man I could go on all day do s a favor and go read EJ and read a real guide with people who know what there doing

[Pthaos]

I can't help but wonder that if you've gotten "top 3 dps" with 0 hit rating, whether you'd be saying you got "Top dps" if you did have hit rating. But I play resto not feral, so I'll trust in your words. +rep for good guide.

[Anti-Christ]

I lol shit guide don't follow it I play feral dps top meters most fights you can't go with 0hit and expertise you have a skill called berserk attack missing and dodgeing during this will hurt your dps also your glyph and spec is awfull no SR glyph.....3% damage Also mangle glyph over it no imp mangle in spec man I could go on all day do s a favor and go read EJ and read a real guide with people who know what there doing

i lol at your comment actually. You CAN go with 0 hit or expertise, the only thing it does is smoothen your rotation dps wise it doesn't do much. During berserk you are just doing a faster rotation as before so you will miss or be dodges the same amount. with 0 hit or expertise i get like 5 misses on shreds during a whole boss fight at the most but i hit alot harder cause i'm not gearing for it. Please read the comments cause i replied to the imp mangle. I chose to put those points in a different place cause alot of the times theres a druid OT or a dps warrior that puts the debuff on. about the glyph with savage roar please read EJ yourself, mangle glyph and savage roar glyph are close to each other dps wise and it's just a matter of preference. I like to keep mangle up longer so i can do more shreds. if you are always raiding with another person that gives the debuff from mangle then savage roar glyph is better. and dude can't you be a little more adult here ? "omg lol shit guid" <-- you sound like a retard if you say stuff like that


can you maybe explain why it's a shitty spec ? and what spec you are talking about

[Benfica]

Good guide just what i needed thanks Anti. +Rep

[Anti-Christ]

Good guide just what i needed thanks Anti. +Rep

Glad i could help, nice to have a positive comment

[jozo]

thx good guide +Rep

[huurka]

Please refrain from talking about something you have absolutely ni idea of, you are right if you talk about hit for ALL classes then it is most important but when you go cat dps hit is not important and you should never gear for hit. You hit faster then 1sec with normal melee attacks and my normal melee dmg is always my 1st or 2nd dps output. i've been raiding ulduar with 0 hit rating and still manage to get top 3 dps. So please don't say anything if you don't know what you are saying

/giggle back

Tip: Before you make a guide make sure you have mathematical answers, because your "personal experience" is not good for a beginner, as this guide is most likely made for.
For beginners I'd suggest having hit and expertise on a reasonable number.

[Anti-Christ]

Tip: Before you make a guide make sure you have mathematical answers, because your "personal experience" is not good for a beginner, as this guide is most likely made for.
For beginners I'd suggest having hit and expertise on a reasonable number.

Well i've been playing with 0 hit from day 1 so that is really really not needed, however expertise you will automatically get with cat/bear leather items leather items with agility on will have some expertise but those stats aren't really things to enchant or gem for.

[Linzi2011]

Few things here.
If you're raiding with 'apparantly' 0 hit rating and expertise, then what gear are you wearing, since it certainly won't be proper druid gear (since I play one i am at 383 hit rating, and thats just passive from gear and gemming none of it). So whenever your shredding and see those nice crits, just think when you miss/dodge w/e that your missing out on say 12k shreds which hurts dps alot. The rotation is tight if you are pure dps build(www . wow-europe . com/en/info/basics/talents/druid/talents.html?tal=000000000000000000000000000050023213232201205312003031051120550 3012000000000000000000) (Take out the spaces between the full stops) with no imp mangle and no Glyph (your major glyphs should be Savage Roar, Shred and Rip for full dps), but you can still fit it in every round before it runs out. So really no need to take imp mangle, mainly because of that or if there is a druid tanking or arms warrior. This spec is fine for me as I'm able to tank Heroix and raids (exc. Ulduar and ToC) so don't see why you need to hybrid spec the feral tree if you plan to dps most of the time.

Taking up Feral Aggression is nice, simply because if your nuking down a boss say from around 5%, then your Rip isn't going to get the full dps benefit from ticking, so using FB here is a nice boost to your dps if you save your Berserk for then.

The thing about being 3rd on DPS with 0 hit rating/expertise? Really as a cat dps you should be top dps ALWAYS (depending if your similar tier gear to other dps, if so you should be top, either way pwning dps) so I've no idea what your gear is like but having 0 hit rating hurts when missing nice crits.
Another thing, haste doesn't affect druids at all (in terms of energy regen. as it does to rogues), the only thing it does is make you hit faster which isn't really THAT big a dps boost considering you hit a standard 1 sec swing timer.

One last thing before I sleep, as cat dps spec you shouldn't need to put 5/5 points in Furor, only 3/5 are needed since if you're going to be dpsing, you ain't gonna all of a sudden shift into kitteh form to dps. No, you will stealth and wait and obviously by that time you have full energy. So those 2 points can be put elsewhere.

If I was to go in /2 'Is hit cap/expertise cap important for kitteh dps?' I'd get 90% saying yes, simply because your dps is gimped with all those misses and dodges, so go ahead and ask high end raiding hardcore guilds about it.

[Anti-Christ]

1. i did ask alot of high end raiders about it and i get mixed answers, some say it's needed some say it's not.

2. currently i'm not raiding without hit cap i said i used to raid with 0 hit and i worked just fine. if you have gear and no hit at all you are not missing shred crits from 12k.. cause that gear is still on the low side and you would get 8k i think.

3. You're right about the furor thing BUT if you need to CR someone in the middle of a nuke then it rly comes in handy but yeah overall it's not needed to have 5/5.

4. The feral aggresion is nice if you like to use ferocious bite in your rotation, i prefer to put those 5 points somewhere else cause to just have it for 5% of the boss then it isn't worth it rly.

5. if you don't have imp mangle then it rly comes in handy if you have the mangle glyph, if you do have imp mangle you can idd drop the mangle glyph and get savage roar glyph.

6. even with 0 hit there weren't so much misses and/or dodges actually, it made my
rotation slightly less smooth but overall it went great and i didn't needed to gear for hit or expertise so that came in handy as a beginner.

7. where did you see me say anything about haste ? cause haste is totally not needed atm, (prob in cataclysm it will be cause then it will regen our energy faster)

Have a Nice Day

[Linzi2011]

I'm not forcing anything upon you. I'm just merely suggesting the best ways to maximise dps, which is of course what I said earlier. If you only manage to reach 8k shred crits, then there is something wrong here, simply because I manage to get 10-11k unbuffed.
But having hit cap and expertise makes it easier to build up your combo points, since if you were to dodge/miss whatever, then as you said it makes the rotation less smooth. But in order to maximise your dps you need to actually have almost all of your attacks land on the target.
All I'm saying is, dps is seriously gimped if you have low hit/expertise, since I manage to reach top dps almost all the time (except OP huntards - no offense, they are awesome :>) and thats being capped on both.