Meowing in The Moonlight: Kitty Litter dps!

WoW Blogs - Meowing in the Moonlight Druid Blog

User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 

Hello and welcome to read the druid blog, Meowing in The Moonlight.

Today's post is about feral dps. John F*cking Madden, anyone? I have decided to make this a 2-parter, with this first post pondering the nature of feral dps and the next one being a more step-by-step-guide completed with pictures and all that good stuff.

So, before anyone can really start doing damage as a feral, they must understand that kitty dps is about priorities, not a rotation. Some classes could theoretically fit their rotation in one macro and just keep pushing that, but feral isn't one of those. With feral, there's always an optimal choice, but it varies depending of situation. I call it 'the flow'.

'The flow' is a game of elimination. For example, if you have Mangle up, you can eliminate that from your priority list. If you have Savage Roar (SR) up, you can eliminate that from your priority list. What moves remain? Rake, Rip, Shred, Ferocious Bite (FB), Faerie Fire and utility (such as Barkskin). But you have Faerie Fire up already, since that's what you use first; because it's free and buffs all non-bleed physical attacks, including those of your friend's. So which move to use next? Not Rip, you don't have combo points (cp). Not Ferocious Bite either. Shred or Rake? Talented Shred does more damage with bleeds up and it's also more efficient dps-wise to always have bleeds rolling, so Rake. Then you'll only have Shred left. Go at it for a while and you learn to figure out the optimal skill by eliminating the rest - in most situations.

But it's not always simple. For a fleeting second it might be optimal to use your 5 cp's on a FB, but if you even blink your eyes, you've already made a blunder that'll drop your dps. If you have 9 seconds left on both Rip and SR and 5 cp's, but you hesitate for a second and don't FB plus refresh your SR, you'll have downtime on Rip and you'll lose dps. If you hesitate a second and then FB and build up 5 cp's and Rip, you will have your Rip, but your SR will have run out and your Rip will be 30% less potent.

How about feral AoE? Most players don't realize that feral is actually one of the most potent AoE-specs. Especially if the mobs are bunched up tight and have a bit more than 20k hp. Most people would say "just swipe away, man", but they're incorrect. You want to SR first. Most good players would say "Mangle and SR, dude", but they're also incorrect. You want to Rake and SR, especially if the mobs have high hp. Why? Because Rake costs 5 less energy and does more damage (even unbuffed) than a single Mangle - assuming the Rake does its full duration. Actually, with T8-set, it was even beneficial to Rake more than 1 target, because Rake ticks could proc Omen of Clarity (OoC).

And speaking of OoC: you should always try to spend your OoC procs on Shred. Why? Because it's the most expensive and highest instant damage ability that generates combo points. Some people argue if you should use OoC procs on Shred even with 5 combo points, but the extra damage FB does depending on whatever energy you had simply can't compare with Shred. So when in doubt, Shred.

One of the peculiar things about ferals is their extended capability to use and provide utility. This is a huge advantage that many purely dps-oriented ferals are ignoring. For example, Barkskin coupled with the talent Predatory Instincts provides a huge amount of damage reduction versus AoE. Take an encounter like Sindragosa and have a well timed Barkskin, and you can just sit in and dps while everyone else needs to run off. Use Survival Instincts next and you'll have another advantage. It's not completely without risk, but then again, raiding never is. Rebirth, better known as 'combat ress' is another tool of utility that can save the day, but the less-known-yet-awesome abilities also include Tranquility and instant Cyclone.

Feral dps may seem very logical and mathemathical, but in the end it is (in my opinion) very intuitive. This is why I, and many experience feral dps'ers, don't suggest using an addon that tells you what to do next. Not even during the learning process. Sure, you should use addons that show you when one of your bleeds is going to end, but you should be the one making the decision on what skill to use next - as there isn't a program that can see and understand the situation around your character, or predict what will happen in the next 20 seconds. And don't get me wrong, I think addons like Feral By Night are awesome and a real show of skill, but they could only teach you priorities that would work in a situation in which you are always behind the boss and never moving, never innervating and never ressing anyone. When you play feral for longer periods of time, you'll notice that most of your moves start coming from your backbone. This is why I call it 'the flow': as if everything's just flowing without interruption.

One could say feral dps is an art.

Last Updated on Monday, 20 September 2010 13:49 Written by Vepres Sunday, 19 September 2010 23:24