Its happened... I struggled so hard for so long, but I found a replacement for my baby.

Staff of the Forest Lord
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34898

Staff of the Sorrowful Chieftain
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?item=41987

Yes... I wanted to cry... Ok not that bad, but WoW... It added about 100 AP and about 1.3% crit at lvl 76. Yes... it was a sad day... now I need to look up the other staffs i could get... hmmmm

omg !

a blue !

lol.

Hey, it lasted until 76! That's not bad, not bad at all. What are you using for tanking, just out of curiosity?

You know... god I need to find it.. I oddly found a green that was slightly better item level than my T5 staff that's like the god staff of tanking BC... Hmmm but I can't bring myself to like the stats... you gain a little armor a TON of expertise, but the lack of stamina and dodge just kill it

http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?item=37073

At some point I need to take the time to figure out which of the two starting zones is "the best" for Feral druids. Based on quest rewards, 5-man drops, rep available, etc. Any ideas?

One more thing...

How is the new OoC? Does it proc far more often than the live version?

I think the proc rate is about the same.. I haven't noticed it mostly because now I have SO MANY proc rates that is a nightmare to figure out what's procing when. Between, OOC, Mongoose and I have a few trinkets that proc its kind of nightmare to keep track of.... plus I haven't bothered trying to do any log analysis. Personally I think for a newbie I'd have to look. However there is a trinket that I'm deeming my "god" trinket. Its called I think the Deathknight's Anguish that you get in Borean Tundra that is amazing. When it procs it can stack up to 10 (maybe 20??) times and each hit has a chance to add a crit %. I think at lvl 70 its over 10% crit addition. Its amazing. Plus with our super fast attack speed an instant abilities it stacks very quickly... so it lasts 20 seconds or so. So personally I'd go to Borean Tundra just for that trinket if you dual weild or are a druid.

How are you liking Mongoose in cat form?

Are kitties now doing (even more) ridiculous damage?

Are kitties now doing (even more) ridiculous damage?From what I've read, Blizzard hasn't done much with Cat DPS yet. They added now skills and abilities, but they haven't been tuned up yet. So, cat DPS is stupid low compared to other DPS classes. We are suppose to have rogue-like DPS if we spec for it.

The initial pass... if you change your rotations your dps will amp quite a bit. For instance I'll regularly get 5k crits on ferocious bite. That seems pretty dang spiffy to me. I can stack up my combo points and as long as I've got bleed effect on there I can get almost 100% crit chance on ferocious bite. So its a lot sexier than it used to be. The Tiger's Fury is something you need to smack pretty much any time its up. Its just too damned good. I think my DPS with and Without mongoose is really nice. Mongoose when it procs does a ton for us. The biggest problem is as they said, they haven't changed the core of our class enough that our dps has scaled. Honestly I haven't seen my dps really change since I got to Northrend. I'm doing the same DPS at 70 (which I think went up quite a bit with the new talents) that I was doing at 76. So really it doesn't feel like its scaling up much.

I can stack up my combo points and as long as I've got bleed effect on there I can get almost 100% crit chance on ferocious bite. So, how are you currently spec'd? I know that R&T boost FB, but how you make a mob bleed? Shred? So, for questing do you open with shred and then mangle? Or are you just talking about group PvE where you get to do DPS?

Ok you'll laugh.. I actually use that useless thing called Rake (I think that's it) just to get a bleed effect on there... now I'm guessing our DPS in groups should be obscene. With mangle now offering a 30% boost in damage to Shreds as well as bleed effects we should get a substantial bump in DPS. Honestly I have always believed for PVE soloing that its a waste of time to pounce, mangle, shred... so I always pull with FFF and then just mangle, rake, Mangle, FB and that almost kills most mobs.

I'll look up my spec tonight some time... I messed up a couple of points, but I'm pure dps spec for the moment. I rarely get to dps in instances. because as usual there are NO dang tanks available at all in the beta... everyone wants to test their dps.

[QUOTE=Allahanastar] Honestly I have always believed for PVE soloing that its a waste of time to pounce, mangle, shred... so I always pull with FFF and then just mangle, rake, Mangle, FB and that almost kills most mobs.
QUOTE]
yep i agree.

i rarely bother to stealth and pounce etc when solo pve.

i just want to kill asap and pull with FFF to.

its going to be very interesting to see who viable kitty as a dps raid spot is in WotLK.

Ok you'll laugh.. I actually use that useless thing called Rake (I think that's it) just to get a bleed effect on there.Wow! I might have to put that on my bar. Though, unless you take R&T the usual Mangle Mash with a touch of Tiger's Fury (for the King of the Jungle energy boost) is all you'll need while questing.

I'm a big fan of quick finishes. Using rake in my rotation can shorten the fight to half if I get that big 5k crit on a Ferocious bite. Otherwise I'm waiting for my energy regen and need 2-3 more mangles to finish mobs off.

I'm a big fan of quick finishes. Using rake in my rotation can shorten the fight to half if I get that big 5k crit on a Ferocious bite. Otherwise I'm waiting for my energy regen and need 2-3 more mangles to finish mobs off.Understood, unfortunately I don't see anyway to take R&T unless I avoid some nice tanking talents. Guess I could level with R&T and re-spec later to a more tank focused build.

Here's the latest talent calc... (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000)

What is your current build?

Two more questions about the beta...

How do you like the new Furor for cat? Where you keep XX energy (that you gained while not in cat) when you shift into cat? That has to make leveling so much quicker. Shift out to self-heal, back to cat with full energy! Travel form to next mob, shift to cat with full energy. Mount up shift to cat at destination with full energy. No more waiting for that damn yellow bar to fill up.

Should I start collecting mats for Mongoose enchant on my DPS staff (PvP staff)? That enchant is stupid expensive. But if my staff will last until I'm lvl 76 it just might be worth it.

Furor is Fantasic... now the new version is 100% worth it. For cats it means 99% of the time I can shift mid fight do some stuff and shift back and be assured to have a decent energy bar. If my bar was full when I shifted out I always have 100% energy when I shift back to kitty. That's just amazing.

ongoose is worth it. Save your mats now. The buff adds a ton of crit and some decent damage when it goes off. Should be even more once they change our itemization to favor Agi more.

Sorry I forgot to look up my build last night. I think this is it... its close anyway

Feral Combat (51 points)

5/5 Ferocity
3/3 Feral Instinct
2/2 Brutal Impact
1/3 Thick Hide
1/2 Feral Swiftness
1/1 Faerie Fire (Feral)
3/3 Sharpened Claws
1/2 Shredding Attacks
3/3 Predatory Strikes
2/2 Primal Fury
2/2 Primal Precision
2/2 Savage Fury
1/1 Feral Charge
5/5 Heart of the Wild
1/1 Leader of the Pack
2/2 Improved Leader of the Pack
4/5 Predatory Instincts
1/3 Infected Wounds
2/3 King of the Jungle
1/1 Mangle
2/3 Improved Mangle
5/5 Rend and Tear
1/1 Berserk

Restoration (16 points)

5/5 Furor
5/5 Naturalist
3/3 Natural Shapeshifter
1/1 Omen of Clarity
2/2 Master Shapeshifter

For now I've skipped a lot of the tanking stuff because:
a) I don't need it. If you are tanking in Kara you will be tanking the first three or four instances in your dps gear anyway. The extra tanking talents are just kind of extra anyway.
b) You can easily tank in a pure DPS spec up till 80. So until you are doing serious end game tanking or lvl 80 instance tanking you should be able to easily tank without the extra talents I think... (big I think) I've used my full Kara/SSC tanking set to solo group quests fairly regularly and it almost feels like cheating and I'm not spec'd for hard core tanking.

Furor is Fantasic... now the new version is 100% worth it. For cats it means 99% of the time I can shift mid fight do some stuff and shift back and be assured to have a decent energy bar.Good to hear. The change doesn't get much press since it nerf'd powershifting, but it has to make leveling so much easier. Not sure it will have much impact on end-game stuff. I'm thinking I might do 2/2 iMotW and 3/5 Furor as the new iMotW gives quite a boost. If I was able to level only having 40E when I shifted to cat, I ought to be able level with 60E when I shift to cat plus have a major boost to my stats.

Edit: Now that I look at it, iMotW doesn't really help all that much (only +6 stats) until you get MotW Rank 9 at lvl 80, so there is no point taking it (iMotW) until you reach 80. So, for leveling, I'm gonna take 5/5 Furor. Once I reach 80, I might respec to 2/2 iMotW 3/5 Furor as with Rank 9 MotW, iMotW adds +15 stats, 400 armor and +52 res(?) over unimproved MotW.For now I've skipped a lot of the tanking stuff because:
b) You can easily tank in a pure DPS spec up till 80. So until you are doing serious end game tanking or lvl 80 instance tanking you should be able to easily tank without the extra talents I think... (big I think) I hope this is true. I, too, plan to focus a bit more on DPS talents while leveling and hope that my T4/badge gear (along with new items) will be good enough for pre-80 5-man tanking.

So, at lvl 70, I'm going with this build (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid=5030221323222100531003003133000550001000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000). I'll pickup Berserk at 71 and finsih R&T at 73.

If I find myself tanking more that I expected and need help, I'll take 3/3 Natural Reaction next. If not, I'll take 5/5 PI, then re-spec out of it to pickup 2/2 Master Shapeshifter. At Level 78 (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid=5030221323222100531003003135100550301200000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000). Not sure where I'll put the last 2 points. Once I hit 80, start mostly running 5/10-mans, I'll re-spec to a more tank focused build like this (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid=5030321323222103531003533130120350001000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000).

Today iLotP is nice for solo questing, but with the new Furor, shifting out to self heal is no longer as painfull because you will no longer lose energy, so I'm not going to take it while leveling.

I honestly think we will see at least one more change to our trees, which means all of this could change.

Thus far we've seen nothing in the beta related to what will happen with the "dual spec" thing. I have no idea what they are going to do with that. I'd anticipate that if they did that, and you were deep feral you could either plan on tank/healer or tank/melee DPS or tank/ranged dps. However there isn't anything in the game yet dealing with having two specs and swapping easily. That may get dropped or added later as they haven't seemed to implement anything yet.

Thus far we've seen nothing in the beta related to what will happen with the "dual spec" thing.I wonder if it has been dropped as the new Heirloom items (http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/9679633896-binds-to-account--new-badge-vendors.html) seem to encourage alts, whereas the dual spec feature would not.

That said, if they let me have 2 specs, I'd make a tank (with whatever melee DPS I can take along the way) and healer specs. In my casual raiding guild (:grin:), being a healer and a tank would be a huge boon.

Yes it would. I'm really debating which I'd do. I'm thinking for ease of gear I'll do Tank/Melee and then Boomkin/Healer, but for utility, Tank/Healer and Boomkin/Melee would be nice too... hmm decisions decisions.