Feral PvE DPS guide (Now updated with BiS list)

[Errorista]

what about that AP RS wrist? I will use it for bear definately but what about cat spec?

[Relina]

what about that AP RS wrist? I will use it for bear definately but what about cat spec?

Offhand I would say, that its needed for cat & bear both.
Just run a Sim on ur druid to test.

[Myaoming]

Ohhh I totally forgot about that one. Thanks Errorista And yeah it is indeed BiS for Bears too.

I've added Umbrage Armband to the list. I've also added an Enchanting priority for each item. If I forgot something again, please let me know.

[Longi]

Ohhh I totally forgot about that one. Thanks Errorista And yeah it is indeed BiS for Bears too.

I've added Umbrage Armband to the list. I've also added an Enchanting priority for each item. If I forgot something again, please let me know.

its only tank item for feral, for cat it sucks

[Myaoming]

You're probably one of those that dislike Haste on Feral Druids, and pick ToC25hc tribute back over Gunship 25hc back too <:

Please do your researches well, read the whole guide, see what Haste does to Feral Druid, run simulations, and test things out. And most importantly, provide proof. Math!

[Longi]

You're probably one of those that dislike Haste on Feral Druids, and pick ToC25hc tribute back over Gunship 25hc <:

Please do your researches well, read the whole guide, see what Haste does to Feral Druid, run simulations, test things out, then come judge. And most importantly, provide proof, Sammara.

I dont judge anyone ...
Simulation doesnt matter, you re not a robot so there wont be perfect "run" as your simulation does
I know haste is important for ferals, but if you want extra haste use sockets / food, rather instead of destroying your arpen cap.
68 arpen from ICC wrirst vs 73 haste + 3-4 more sockets with arpen you need to add to your gear if you want to get back arpen cap
So what sockets re you using ? Hit, Str, Agi, Exp ..which of them you will put out for a bit faster auto attack,
73 haste vs arpen cap, 73 haste vs hit cap, 73 haste vs exp cap, 73 haste vs agility ( crit, amor, ap ) or 73 vs str ( more ap )
There is a ring in RS25hc for feral cats

[Myaoming]

Meow. I know it's quoted. But meow <:

[Longi]

I didn't say you're judging someone. It's in the meaning of coming up with a conclusion about something.

Anyway, simulators are there to calculate things for you. The encounter used in the simulation I was working on, is something with no movement. There will never be a perfect copy of the situation presented in the simulation that's sure, you have many RNG factors. But you should also keep in mind that there are many BiS builds depending on the encounter, and we're not getting in-depth with this because it's pointless: you're not going to modify your gear on each encounter, are you?

First you talk about destroying the ArP cap, then you suggest a Ring with no ArP on it as a BiS item instead of an ArP one?
The ring you suggested is not BiS. Simulators will put it as BiS because you're getting extra stats from the item itself, you're reaching the Hit cap with barely 3 Hit gems, and you're also capping ArP, but with more gems there. Simulators care a lot about caps.
Well, if we wanna talk about caps in-depth, I'm here to tell you that the Hit cap is not important for Cats, especially on TrueWoW. Why?

My Feral Druid has ~5% Hit Rating, and not even once I've caught white attacks missing (bug?). That's one. Secondly, you are refunded 80% of your energy if your abilities fail to land. That's a maximum of 9 energy lost per each ability that missed, which is not something to consider. If you're really worried about those 9 energy, you might also consider speccing in Improved Mangle, it saves you energy too. Juuuuust kidding!
The only negative effect of lacking Hit, is a missing attack under Berserk, then this is a lot of energy lost, and will possibly result in 1 less Ferocious Bite under Berserk if you're slow or lagging. But what are the odds?
So with that said, you're replacing Str gems with ArP gems for replacing Frostbrood Sapphire Ring with Signet of Twilight. In other words, you are favoring Hit over Str. I wouldn't do that, personally.

Haste... Haste is just like any other stat, and with endgame gear, it is the most valuable stat. First, you land more auto attacks which are basically, on average, 71.2% Crits, 76% on TrueWoW because apparently the -4.8% Crit on level 83 targets isn't working properly. Second, you're getting a higher chance of acquiring an Omen of Clarity proc. If these 73 Haste points or whatever they are, grant you just 1 additional Clearcasting in an encounter, then these points are already outweighing the other stats you were talking about.

If you don't want to rely on average numbers from simulators and Omen of Clarity RNG, feel free to use the build of you're liking. But please, we're talking about average values and situations here, the build that has the highest success on average, on TrueWoW.

well, never mind, but whats different if you do 18100 dps or 18152, do you rly care that much about these 50 more, lets say I respect ppl like you who does this perfect things. Its awesome, but its damn game where you re playing with 24 more ppl in raid, it wont be perfect.

With " bist " gear you will have like 4-5 " free" places in your gear for sockets where you have now agility ( 1%+ of crit, 80+ ap) all time or str (200ap) all time . with your new wrist from RS25hc you will need re-build your sockets, so there will be 1-2 free places for sockets so something like 0.4% crit 40 ap with agi or 80 ap with str all time. With that haste you will get a chance to proc ..thats nice, but what better a chance for something you can get in any moment of boss fight or stats you have all time
about the ring, I didnt mean arpen one
about hit rating, if anywhere on forums or discusions or so on ppl re talkin about 8% of hit and you dont miss with 5% is it bugged or dont.. well you live in perfect world where raid setup is perfect and you have all benefits from other classes, but reality is .. you know

but as i wrote, never mind.. its just my opinion from not perfect world

[Myaoming]

My Feral Druid has ~5% Hit Rating, and not even once I've caught white attacks missing, not on a reasonable scale. Maybe it' because of the Crit-Glancing interaction but from what I know, misses have the highest priority usually (bug?).

I wanted to provide proof for this.

This is my 30 minutes long fight with a Heroic Dummy:



Yeeeeees my gear sucks
5.22% Hit, 2033 attacks, 0 misses.

To make sure this is not an issue with dummies, I landed few yellow attacks to see if they miss:



5.22% Hit, 59 attacks, 2 misses.
So, is this a bug? Or does the 8% Hit Rating rule apply for yellow hits only? Would be silly to know that after 5 years

Anyway, I initially didn't want to modify the BiS list based on this odd thing. I based the BiS list on this: reaching all caps with the highest amount of Str and Haste possible, and that's how it is at the moment.

If you'd ask me, I personally prefer a 5% Hit Rating build, with Haste gems instead of Hit ones on yellow sockets
Someone called me the "Haste Druid" once xD

[Vaen]

Is there any reason why you're gemming strength over agility? I can only think of being past the crit cap which shouldn't actually happen with bis gear as far as I remember. Hit should by all means be more valuable than strength at very high level gear, and is probably on par with agility (genuinely on par, not just that more hit lets you gem more agility; it is so to the point that it's better to have 253 hit and 10 agility than 263 hit because the last point of hit is partially wasted).

[Myaoming]

You're past the white Crit cap (76% on TW) with end-game gear, buffs and Idol. And of course, you're also easily past the CP cap (66.66% on TW). This is the "2 Crits out of 3" cap, the fastest way to get 5 combo points. Crit becomes much less valuable after each cap, so does Agility compared to Str. You will start wanting more AP, and Str gives you 2 AP per point. I feel like im telling you things you already know
About Hit, yeah it should have the highest priority between those, or anything, like all classes, but I explained above how things work on TW at the moment, and I don't believe it's that valuable here.

[Myaoming]

about your miss, if you want to miss with white attack you need less than 3% of hit or so for miss hit on boss, elite

http://wowwiki.wikia.com/Hit

/sigh, get your facts straight.

White/Yellow Hit cap is the same for single-wielding classes. Now I'm 100% sure there's something going wrong on TrueWoW regarding this.

[Longi]

about your miss, if you want to miss with white attack you need less than 3% of hit or so for miss hit on boss, elite

http://wowwiki.wikia.com/Hit

/sigh, get your facts straight.

White/Yellow Hit cap is the same for single-wielding classes. Now I'm 100% sure there's something going wrong on TrueWoW regarding this.

well my bad, I meant if you want to miss with white attack on TW you need less than 3% of hit ( tested it on heroic dummy ) anyway agree with you expertise and hit doesnt work correct on tw

[Crown]

Hit works perfectly fine on truewow (It's just the dummy that has wierd hit cap.)
About the expertise, I did some tests on PTR against 83 level target (Deathbringer Saurfang), and it seems that melee expertise cap is 20, while special expertise cap is somewhere at 24.
And regarding BiS lists, even gems include which items are BiS (Trying out every possible viable combination of items/gems/enchants is how I suggest making BiS lists, rather than taking them for granted.)
One more thing, eating 40 ArP food will provide more yellow gems to be activated (which can be filled in some valuable yellow gems, such as Rigid Ametrine.)

[Myaoming]

No, Hit doesn't work fine on TrueWoW, and it's not just dummies, like I already explained here

This is my 30 minutes long fight with a Heroic Dummy:



5.22% Hit, 2033 attacks, 0 misses.

To make sure this is not an issue with dummies, I landed few yellow attacks to see if they miss:



5.22% Hit, 59 attacks, 2 misses.

More proof? With the exact same gear:



This is a Rotface fight.



This is a Marrow fight.



This is some half Halion fight.
0 misses everywhere. I can get you more if you want.

And, I don't get my BiS items for granted, thank you Crown. I run simulations and do calculations just like you. Simulators will not consider our Expertise and Hit bugs and the BiS list I have posted is for a Feral Cat that CARES ABOUT CAPS. Again, if you're like me, and you don't care about the Hit cap due to the bug, PM me for a different list.

Regarding the food.

For those already questioning the usage of Strength food instead of ArP food: I've taken in consideration cases where you die in mid-fight. Upon a battle resurrection, losing the 40 Str buff is not an issue, but going below the ArP cap can drop your DPS considerably. Remember that the last points of ArP are the most valuable. <<< Credits to Andruid, aka Merkava.

And to correct you, eating ArP food will provide you with 2 RED sockets, that you will fill with Bold Cardinal Ruby, so it's exactly the same as eating Str food and using ArP gems, but you lose significant DPS if you die and get ressed, even if you get all your buffs back.