Patch 4.0.6 and other news
So the latest patch hit last week.
About the only thing that changed for feral (once the energy bug was fixed) was that Unheeded Warning is now near BiS or is BiS until Heroic ilvl trinkets.
Agility is still king, Mastery is still next, Crit and Haste seem to be about even or close enough that you shouldn’t fret over it.
We downed Twilight Ascendant Council.
We have started on Cho’gall and we are learning that this is going to be a tough fight with 3 melee and only 2 ranged.
I have slowly been working on my Boomkin set. Unfortunately my Kitty set is so epic I can’t get near my DPS output to switch over and help at range. Should have a Volcano card soon which will help and hopefully some caster gear will start falling for us that isn’t cloth pants.
I am going to update my gear page to reflect my current kitty gear. I am going to ditch any references to bear gear on that page as it is perfectly acceptable to tank 5 man heroics in my kitty set and I don’t tank raids.
Don’t let anyone tell you feral DPS is toward the bottom of DPS charts. If you are doing it right and you are geared properly you should be toward the top on just about ever encounter. This takes holding certain abilities at certain times, using kitty leap, keybinding and using macro’s, using Dash, and giving 110% effort. It’s not a face roll to top charts, but it is entirely possible.
Having fun in Cata… and a few tips…
Ding 85!… Like last week.
Sorry for the lack of updates but I have been playing with what time I have between work, family, and working out/running. I am working on getting fit for the next summer so I can surf a little more than this last year…. on that note, Ding 40! I turned 40 this year… and I want to get back into pre 30′s shape.
Anyhow, Cata is proving to be a lot of fun thus far. The 5 man instances, quests, cut scenes, etc. are all really cool. I will try and post kitty pro tips specifically about Heroic boss fights soon but I can give some general tips I have been using to help reduce the amount of wipes… Heroics have been pretty challenging but far from impossible wipefest when playing in guild with some skilled players. We have had a wipe or 2… or a couple more… figuring out mechanics since we did read any strategy prior… trust me when I say it is more entertaining that way.
On to some tips while I am flying to my next Archeology point…
- CC is your friend, get the Glyph of Entangling Roots… you will be happy you did. Use focus and Keybinding to make sure your mob stays put.
- Spec for Hybrid in 1 Spec. Don’t take Pulverize, Perseverance, Stampede, Predatory Strikes, Brutal Impact, or Nurturing Instinct. This spec is perfect for Kitty DPS with the fail safe in a tank death and you can use your 2nd spec for Boom, Heal, or full on bear. This is perfect but might change when raiding starts.
- Do Hyjal… go back to Vash after 85.
- Check Quartermasters for gear and build rep through tabards and dailies. It is the fastest way to get geared up for Heroics.
- Be patient. Explain instance fights to new people. Take your time.
- Reforge Crit/Haste to mastery. Reforge Hit/Expertise to Mastery once you have enough.
- Use Mongoose on your weapon until you get a really good one, then go with the new agility enchant.
- Make sure you Quest deep into Twilight Highlands and get this staff… Staff of Draconic Pacification. The CoC (New Ring of Blood) is only good for your caster or healing spec.
- Be careful with buying gems, your Meta will require more blue than red… which makes gemming tricky… think it out first.
- Try not to pug heroics… seriously, join a guild.
That’s all for now, I will try to get strategy up for each Heroic as time allows… maybe one instance a day.
Pre Raid gear for Cataclysm.
So I decided I was going to get this list together tonight… and BAM, I had already been beaten to the punch…
So what can I add to this…. well, not a whole heck of a lot. The list and explanations at the Fluid Druid at first glance look really good to me.
I am sure things will change somewhat post release and pre raiding so stay tuned. I will definitely do my usual tweaking of the list to highlight how to best utilize your time and still gear up as best as possible.
Back to Beta…
Finally figured out through the Beta forums that I needed to delete my Cache folder in my Data folder in order to not have WOW crash when I logged in while standing in the Temple of Earth in Deepholm.
Just finished up the couple of quests that lead me to Stormwind for the breadcrumb to Uldum.
Changing gear to Cataclysm greens and blues is looking like a necessity now that mob damage has shot up. Old Wrath gear does not have enough stam methinks come level 83.
On to Uldum VIA Stormwind, will report back on the new zone soon.
Gearing up in Cataclysm.
So I am sure a lot of you are wondering, when will I be switching out my 264 or 277 Wrath gear for Cata greens?
Let me start by saying all your ArP gems will convert to Crit gems, so one might want to stock up on agility gems before the xpac… however, I plan on just leveling in the Crit gems with the knowledge that greens and blues before or by level 83 will be replacing my Wrath gear.
Let me tell you why you will be replacing gear rather early.
- Mastery – Old Wrath gear has none, most of the quest rewards has lots. Look below for the Mastery tooltip in the character screen for an idea of what this means to DPS.
- Stamina – All the new gear has a lot of added stamina. If you plan on tanking new 5 man content early in the xpac you will be harder to heal with your old gear.
- Agility – The new gear rewards come level 83 content starts surpassing old gear stats on more than just stamina and mastery.
- Leveling not Raiding – For leveling, pure stats not set bonus or procs tend to be more beneficial. Fights are short and usually trinket procs are wasted as you run between mobs.
This being said I am at level 83 and I still have not seen a weapon worth switching out my Heroic Wrath weapon for (though I hear a blue polearm at the end of deepholm questing fits the bill). I think there was a weapon or 2 with tons of mastery but I wasn’t sold on the stats over my current staff.
Note also that Idol’s are becoming uninteresting in the xpac and are expected to no longer be limited to certain classes. For example I was surprised when I headed to the bank hoping my old idol would be better for leveling….
Note the new gems sockets. Notice the lack of interesting procs. Meh.
So, level 83 and here is my new look…
Sexy huh?
I geared myself in greens and blues to max stats like Hit and Mastery… see below…
Notice you can now get a quick answer to your hit chances in your current gear, this is the new Hit Tooltip.
With all old Wrath Epic gear Mastery was at a base of 20%.
Here are my melee stats in old Wrath Epics. It doesn’t tell the whole story as you don’t readily see procs but as I said, leveling wastes them more than not and the lack of stamina will hurt when running instances especially as bear.
I wish I could do some test dummy parses but with no recount and the chance that some things are not working (not sure Mastery is functioning) I can’t do much. Notice I lose about 7% Crit. Not sure yet if that loss is worth the added damage from higher AP or the mastery bonus, but as I start leveling again I will report back on my findings.
I am in a holding pattern atm in beta since I am at the level cap, as soon as they break that open I will start leveling Jacemora again. My plans are to start leveling my hunter in beta… I need to find the new foxes.
