Preface

I made this guide to begin with since a lot people (pre-patch 3.1.0) were complaining about low cat DPS although you were able to put out a stable DPS around 4-5k back then.

I will try cover up all aspects of feral DPS, and if you happen to find any flaws at all, even down to a misspelled word, I would be more than happy to read your criticism :) (Keep it in a civil tone though).

After reading this guide I hope you've learned something, at least I did when writing it :).

Best Regards
Fanthom

Rotation

First of all: You should know that feral DPS is by many considered the hardest DPS spec to excel in. Blue-post about this =P:

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Q u o t e:
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/28/16474150120-zomg-too-hard.html

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Theres no specific rotation for kitty, instead it's a matter of keeping buffs/debuffs up at all times

You have one buff you need to have up: Savage Roar. Then you have 3 debuffs you need to keep up: Rake, Rip and Mangle (you dont have to think about mangle if there's a bear tank in the group, or an Arms warrior using "Trauma")

The priority are as follows:
- Savage Roar
- Mangle
- 5-point Rip
- Rake

Get Faerie Fire up whenever you don't have enough energy to make a special attack.

Starting on bosses (how to get your debuffs up the most efficient way):
I normally start out on bosses with a Mangle and then using Savage Roar to have it up from the beginning, then I'll apply Rake, Shred one time, blow TF, Shredding to 5 CPs for a 5-point Rip. After that I just keep everything up.

Shred:
To build up combo points you should use shred, and therefore it's a good idea to always place yourself behind your target (which also avoids parries and blocks)

Ferocious Bite:


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Q u o t e:
At high enough gear levels, you'll want to use Bite or you're wasting combo points and/or Energy. The trick is doing it without jeopardising your SR at the very least. Optimal would be to have both Rip and SR on enough duration to be able to build enough CPs again.

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You can use FB as finishers on bosses too, like if you estimate theres less than 20 seconds left of the fight.

Use FB and Heroism/Bloodlust at the same time as Berserk?:
Berserk only affects yellow damage or special attacks, therefore it doesn't matter whether you use it at the same time as Heroism/Bloodlust, since that only affects white damage.

Don't use FB while under the effect of berserk, even with 5 CPs you cant spend on anything else, DME (damage per energy) is highest with shreds (while keeping usual bleeds up of course) under the effect of Berserk.

Spec

This is my 3.1.0 cat spec:



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Q u o t e:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#0ZxGMsfrz0eR0huAkbyczb:mpcVz0

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Strenghts:


It has all +dmg talents maxed out, except FA - which in my opinion isn't neccesary, since I'll rarely Bite, especially in Ulduar, where position combined with having to follow a kited boss, fx. Ignis or General Vezax makes it hard to maintain a flawless rotation, where there's room for Bites
Additionally, R&T has been nerfed to only 25% extra crit on Bite, and assuming your crit chance is around 55% raid buffed, you're left with 1/5 of the bites not even critting, which makes the ability even less useful.

This spec has great utility. 4/5 Furor will give you 80% chance to regain energy when swiftshifting. You have SI, 30% speed, Feral Charge, better stealth and extra AoE damage. You will regain 4% health approx every 6-10 second, nice help to healers.

Weaknesses:


It's not very viable for tanking, but of course you can have a bear-spec as your dual spec.

Furor isn't maxed out, so that means you sometimes will lose all your energy when swiftshifting out of a snare or the like. If you prefer maxing out Furor, I suggest taking a point from Imp. Mangle



Theoretically this would be the 'highest' dps spec in 3.1.0


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Q u o t e:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#0ZEGzcfrz0eo0huAkbAczb:mpcVz0

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Glyphs

After 3.1.0 hit the servers, druids have had a lot more choices of glyphs in PvE, which is nice =).


1st Glyph: Glyph of Savage Roar.

3% more damage pretty much speaks for itself, right?

2nd Glyph: Glyph of Shred.

This glyph gives you 6 more seconds on your Rip, definately going to make your rotation a lot easier. (This choice is based on me having the 2 set bonus from T7, buying me enough time to fill in at least 3 shreds per Rip - Perhaps when I got full T8, Glyph of Rip would be the best choice. [Feedback from other druids here please])

3rd Glyph: Glyph of Mangle or Glyph of Rip.

Pick Glyph of Mangle if you, like me, don't have an Arms warrior to use Trauma, or a feral tank to spam Mangle for you. If you are lucky enough to have one of the above, you should of course pick Glyph of Rip



If none of these glyphs apply to you, you can always take a look at

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Q u o t e:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Druid_glyphs

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for a complete list of glyphs available for druids :).

Stats

For ferals:
ArP/Agi > Str > Crit > Haste > Hit/Exp

1 Strength = 2 AP (2.38 AP with talents and full raid buffs)
1 Agility = 1 + 0.012% crit (1.19 AP + 0.014% crit with talents and full raid buffs)
1% hit = 32.79 hit rating
1% -dodge = 4 expertise = 32.79 expertise rating (8.2 rating per 1 expertise)
1% crit = 83.3 agility = 45.91 crit rating
1% haste = 25.22 haste rating
1% armor penetration = 12.23 armor penetration rating (actual penetration depends on target's armor)


Stats:
You should have a decent hit rating, around 200 would be good - get it from items, not from gemming. (The main reason for having around this hit rating, is that it makes your rotation easier, and it's hard enough already :p)

Agility or ArP?
Armor Penetration rating - Armor penetration was buffed by about 25% in 3.1, however it also has a cap on the amount of armor it can reduce. For a level 83 raid boss, ArP works on 8625 of its armor (which is 10,643). So if you have 20% penetration on your character sheet, you're actually getting 1725 armor ignore, or 16.2%. Despite this, it becomes the best DPS stat if you have enough of it - generally more than 400 or 450 plus a Grim Toll. Since it stacks with itself, if you don't have much it is worse than strength and agility, if you have a ton it becomes very good.


Hitcap for ferals is 263, and with 2/2 in Primal Precision, expertise cap is 132


Get Rawr for finding the best dps gear, it can be downloaded from here:


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Q u o t e:
http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx

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Gear

Best enchants:

Head:
Arcanum of Torment - 50 AP, 20 Critrating.

Shoulder:
Greater Inscription of the Axe - 40 AP, 15 Critrating.

Back:
Major Agility - 22 Agility.

Chest:
Powerful Stats - 10 to all stats.

Wrist:
Greater Assault - 50 AP.

Hands:
Major Agility - 20 Agility.

Leggings:
Icescale Leg Armor - 75 AP, 22 Critrating.

Feet:
Superior Agility - 16 Agility.

Weapon:
The best DPS enchant is apparently a toss-up between Berserking and Massacre now. In 3.1, Massacre became affected by Predatory Strikes, buffing it to 132 AP, which is the approximate same benefit of Berserking with a 33% uptime.
Berserking's proc rate can be frustratingly low soloing, and it is very expensive and therefore best used on weapons you won't replace for a while.
Massacre is a little cheaper than Berserking, and is always active. It's the preferable enchant for soloing/5-mans, and raids without Windfury.
Mongoose is just slightly behind Berserking and Massacre.


I will try and make a complete list with the best gear available, when all Ulduar's loot tables have been given out, and Rawr has been updated.

For starters:
You should probably go for 4 pieces of T8, since the set bonuses are quite neat (Although I don't know if keeping 2 pieces of T7.5 still will be superior). If going for ArP get gear with ArP on, and use Idol of the Ravenous Beast - Gem for ArP until you hit the cap, then Agility. If going for Agility, get gear with Agility on, and use Idol of Worship

Addons

Taken from US forum thread:


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Q u o t e:
DruidBar (shows your mana bar in feral forms)
BadKitty (feral ability timers)
Facemauler (recommends next ability, to help you get a handle on the cycle)
Other non-class-specific timer mods such as NeedToKnow, Classtimers, and Elkano's are also popular for monitoring the many timers Feral druids have to keep up.

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Result

I haven't tried feral DPS enough post-3.1.0, to be 100% sure about everything, but usually I'm 1st on DPS meters in my guild though, - While moving out of bad stuff, mind you ;) - being around 5-7k dps on most bosses.

The highest I've gone after a boss fight was on XT-002 Deconstructor, where I hit 8,5k dps :]

Good luck everyone!

Legend

SR = Savage Roar
FB = Ferocious Bite
CP = Combo Points
SI = Survival Instincts
FF = Faerie Fire
GCD = Global Cooldown
FA = Feral Aggression
ArP = Armor Penetration
DME = Damage per Energy

Useful links

http://d9550218.u125.surftown.se/summlan/feraldps.html
[ul]- Link to html flash program that simulates a feral cat on a mob. [Might be outdated]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#0ZtGMsfrz0eR0huAkbAczb:mpcVz0

- My 3.1.0 Cat spec

http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx

- Rawr, program that calculates the best gear available to many DPS classes, including feral. [Might be outdated]

[b]http://www.w

Nice thread! I'm sure we can find a spot in it when we launch our revamped informative stickies! :)