Okay I have been over the gear lists from both:

http://www.emmerald.net/Cat_High_DPS/Head.html

and

http://druid.wikispaces.com/ToskksDPSGearMethod

both of which say that Belt of the Silent Path (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34929) is an upgrade to Waistguard of the Great Beast (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33583)

And that Handwraps of the Aggressor (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34911) is an upgrade over Nordrassil Handgrips (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30223) w/o set bonus.

But with my current stats I don't see the benefit for me. Here are my stats:

AP 3560
Crit 38.36
Hit 163
Expertise 2

I power shift after every 5 and bite, I have Idol of Terror (http://thottbot.com/i33509)
and my meta is the Relentless Earthstorm Diamond (http://thottbot.com/i32409)

So my hit rate is max and my other stats are good. Both the belt and the gloves up my attack power marginally but lower either my agil or my stam and the +hit is wasted on the upgrade.

So my question is...is eiher really an upgrade for me??

What a nice problem to have....

I can only dream of having 3.5K AP. Man, I though 2.4K was imba. I can't imagine what is like at 3.5K.

FWIW, have to tried Rawr? It has a cat mode. Might be worth downloading.

Also, what's up with the "power shift after 5 and bite"? I understand the power shift, but why bite? I always thought that was a "bad idea" and to use Rip instead.

I use a rip bite combo for bosses. Thing is rip doesn't drain all of your energy liek bite does so there is really no reason to power shift after the combo sequence.

On trash I just use the 5 and bite routine.

With this attack rotation I push between 700 to 800 DPS on average and more if I have a shammy in group or using pots etc.

Rawr is a windows application that can be found on the druid wiki site, http://druid.wikispaces.com/Rawr

So, the bite rotation is on trash, that make sense. I'll have to give that a try. I've been using rip on trash as well.

Also, looking at Tokks gear evaluator, did you make sure to uncheck the "ignore hit/exp cap" box? Did you set gems to match or to use "all red"?

With the hit/exp box unchecked and all red set, the belts are very close. Only ~10 points separate them, consider using "/rand 2"....:)

I left the hit box unchecked but did not set to all red..I don't always use only all reds. It depends on my needs at the time of the upgrade.

Here is my armory link as well..let me know if there is something out there I don't have that I can get outside of raids(since we only do kara atm). Sitting on 75 badges and they are burning a hole in my bank lol.

Armory (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Lothar&n=Kaillon)

Bah. Don't use online calculators to decide which item is better. They are wrong. All of them. ::shakes fist::

Trust your instinct, druid.


-Annikk

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure most of them that are used by Rawr have actually be tested and proven accurate on encounters. But then again, if you don't like the color of your pants, /shrug.

There's no accurate way to test it because of the sheer number of variables involved. A cat druid who uses effective, timely rotations will do more dps than a druid who doesn't. A druid who gets a few more lucky crits will do more damage too. The idea of "proof" doesn't seem very laudable imho..

Of course, I'm sure Rawr's creators will vehemently disagree ;)


-Annikk

Okay I have been over the gear lists from both:

http://www.emmerald.net/Cat_High_DPS/Head.html

and

http://druid.wikispaces.com/ToskksDPSGearMethod

both of which say that Belt of the Silent Path (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34929) is an upgrade to Waistguard of the Great Beast (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33583)

And that Handwraps of the Aggressor (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34911) is an upgrade over Nordrassil Handgrips (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30223) w/o set bonus.

But with my current stats I don't see the benefit for me. Here are my stats:

AP 3560
Crit 38.36
Hit 163
Expertise 2

I power shift after every 5 and bite, I have Idol of Terror (http://thottbot.com/i33509)
and my meta is the Relentless Earthstorm Diamond (http://thottbot.com/i32409)

So my hit rate is max and my other stats are good. Both the belt and the gloves up my attack power marginally but lower either my agil or my stam and the +hit is wasted on the upgrade.

So my question is...is eiher really an upgrade for me??
Belt of the Silent Path is a minor upgrade to Waistguard of the Great Beast, but not much of one. I don't think it's worth spending the 75 badges on, unless you have so many badges right now you don't know what to do with them.

On the other hand, Handwraps of the Aggressor is a significant upgrade over Nordrassil Handgrips. Only 5 less strength, but an extra 18 AGI (when socketed with +10 AGI) and the addition of 13 haste rating. Definitely worth getting IMO.

There's no accurate way to test it because of the sheer number of variables involved. A cat druid who uses effective, timely rotations will do more dps than a druid who doesn't. A druid who gets a few more lucky crits will do more damage too. The idea of "proof" doesn't seem very laudable imho..

Of course, I'm sure Rawr's creators will vehemently disagree ;)


-Annikk

Well, the maximum dps rotation has been vigorously tested and proven by many players (see EJ forums) and these formulas are based on that rotation (including rotations including powershifting). They also utilize statistics to determine an average benefit rating because of course crits can be random. But in the long run, the statistics prove which is the better overall item. Yes, it's kind of depressing that WoW is mathcraft based, but if you can't beat them, join them.

i am currently trying to deicde if i should farm & buy mats for the Belt of Natural Power and replace my Tree-Mender's Belt ?

i looked a couple of weeks ago at what was involved but seeing the Vortexes going for 600g or so each i decided not to bother !

now they seem to be hovering around the 250-300g mark on my server its a slighlty more appealing proposition.....

Belt of Natural Power is the best pre-sunwell bear belt in the game. It is absolutely worth it to get one.

It's not as stellar for cats, but for bears it's incredible.

yeah i took the plunge over the BH weekend and bought 2 nether vortexes. already had the rest of the mats in the bank from collecting motes etc as i've been playing.

found a guy i know a bit and his alt could make it.

so i now have http://thottbot.com/i30042

just gotta sort out wot to Gem it with now.....

I like shifting nightseyes for the sockets. The belt isn't particularly great for cats so socketing with rubies isn't special, but you want to get that socket bonus and the best way to do so is with nighteyes. Doing so gives 8 more agility and 16 more stamina. And in general, trading one agility for one stamina is a worthwhile tradeoff.