So maybe you’ve been playing your druid for while, and been overwhelmed like many by the amount of timers to keep track of. Perhaps you’ve even experimented with addons that help watch these for you. You might have heard of an addon called Feralbynight and maybe you’re wondering if being suggested moves is a good way to go. It could be that you’ve heard it’s pretty good, but you’re still unsure about relying on code to make decisions for you. And rightly so, as you may guess sometimes there are situations that an addon can’t predict. Not so fast! Just because it can’t tell you everything, doesn’t mean it won’t be useful for you. And after hearing what other people have to say about these types of addons, it got me to thinking about what FeralByNight does, and doesn’t do, for me. I had a genuine realization that, the best part isn’t even that the addon makes the DPS cycle simple. The truth is, I have less to distract me. I’ve heard people argue that, with practice, you can keep make decisions for yourself that will increase DPS depending on circumstances the add-on isn’t aware of. And I won’t argue that there are times I might use a move suggested to me, then realize I shouldn’t have. This happens rarely enough that I don’t really worry about the DPS difference, quite honestly the reminders to use Tiger’s Fury and Berserk help me more than I could be hindered, as does reminders to refresh Rake. I also react more quickly with the add-on to reapply everything than I otherwise would. I view it as an overall DPS increase. But even this isn’t the most important thing to me. What makes the biggest difference, in my personal experience, is the sheer time I’m not spending watching timers go off and the focus I’m not using on fancy timer addons. I can shift my focus away from an otherwise complicated DPS cycle, and back to the fight mechanics. Ever died in a void zone because you were looking somewhere else? That’s what I’m talking about here. My reaction time to circumstances in the raid that require my attention is so much greater for using FeralByNight. So long as the DPS is similar to what it would be if I were engrossed in my timers, I view it as an excellent tool for raids, most especially those with elaborate raid mechanics. When I’m the bomb, I move immediately. I have time, I daresay, to notice the healers are struggling and throw out an innervate, or to barkskin/pot/heal. I just plain notice more as I am DPSing, enabling me to react better to every circumstance.

I also notice what FeralByNight misses, though I see fight specific modules in the works and I can only approve. FBN, first of all, often suggests Tiger’s Fury and Berserk. I rarely follow the Berserk suggestions because timing is so important on most bosses. On XT I wait for the heart to lay into it. And even if FBN started heeding this, if your raid is weak on heals, it’s better to use Berserk before the first heart phase. FBN can’t decide everything for you. I can tell it certainly tries to! What it can decide for you is when to Ferocious Bite, when to refresh DoTs and SR. My own experiments have found these suggestions to be very reliable, and an increase in DPS even if you know the rotations pretty well. Incorrect suggestions are frustrating, granted. And sometimes, FBN fails to suggest anything for a few seconds, listing no move or current move even with enough energy for one, meaning players must be able to react and decide on their own what to use. It doesn’t remove the need for the player to use their own judgement on things, and that’s an important distinction. Making the cycle easier, in no way removes the need for every feral to understand what their cycle is.

FeralByNight also comes with many optional and often unnecessary displays. It has a far too large OoC proc display. I watch this proc with EventAlert, so I have this disabled. Luckily, if desired, the options allow you to remove and resize everything. A good thing too, because right now these extras are not all that attractively displayed. Nightcrowler seems to have the start of some good ideas with many of the displays, but lacking in appearance and intuitiveness. I had to read the options menu to discover what quite a few did, at all.

Despite a couple of down sides, I believe the net worth is there, and is enough for any feral to give this Addon a serious try.

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Continuing my screenshots display, here’s a compilation of bearform screenies off the PTR. These are the all new models. As you’ll see, the old gaping jaw has been replaced by a toothy grin. It’s an improvement and I think quite funny. The variety of styles is disappointing here. I managed to get a comparison shot of the NE and Tauren white bear forms, they’re standing next to eachother. One thing you won’t notice easily is the size difference. The Tauren bear form is much bigger than NE! I also felt it was more attractive, not just for white but for every other type, too. Personally, I believe the NE cat model wins but the horde bear model hands down beat out the alliance one. So, without further ado, I give you the new bear form:

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I decided to visit the PTR and check the goodies a few days back. Finally got some screenshots assembled! I’m including all the cat varieties for now, check back soon for some bear wonderfulness. My feelings are very mixed right now about the changes. I want the models very much, and the cat, well.. it looks great really. Yet I can’t help but want to ask for more. I know I know.. it’s been years coming to get this much. Well, I’m sorry folks. But honestly the different models don’t nearly look unique enough. It’s almost as much as well, just adding a better model but only having the 1 option. And don’t get me started on bear form.. ugh. But that’s a topic for another day. Anyways enjoy the screenshots.

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You’re not going to believe this, but.. I’m casual.

I play WoW and I play often. I raid seriously and I take my performance seriously. If I’m not doing the very best I can, using the gear I have, including making good gear choices, I’m disappointed in myself. But I’m not hard-core. Wait.. what?

Look, I enjoy playing, a lot, and if I am in a team I want to give them my best show. It’s IMPORTANT that I do all that I can. I expect others to do their best and to try. If they don’t have time to learn their class, and/or get the gear, I expect them to do the raid a favor and sit out.

So why am I casual? It is because, I am here socially. My availability does not affect who I play with, and I don’t want to have guildies leave because they went to school, switched jobs, got married, moved somewhere, or whatever else. I advance as I am able, and even if I’m behind on my server, I enjoy being at the top in my guild and helping others along. It’s not about the gear I have, the gear is good enough for 25 man Ulduar. It’s not about the time I spent, more than I even like to admit. It’s the attitude, and the type of atmosphere I look for. I don’t want to be put down for making mistakes, even stupid things like standing in the fire. Heck, sometimes you’ll get a lag spike, sometimes you’ll just plain become distracted. Hard-core raiding is less forgiving, and less flexible with schedules or life changes, or ‘well my buddy wants to join the guild so we can play together’ type of issues that arise. I see it as a sacrifice both ways and in no way do I mean to devalue hard core raiding. They sacrifice something in the process of seeking the most finely tuned team for progression. We sacrifice something in the process of seeking an inclusive and relaxed environment where we can hang out with all our friends – high or low. Everyone plays for a reason, but I play to be social and I don’t enjoy the idea of changing the group I play with every time my availability shifts.

I think this epitomizes the type of guild I joined. I joined a guild who’s goal is to meet with friends and like-minded individuals regardless of circumstances, including which game they play. You read that right, they’ve stayed together not only despite serious real world changes, but also cross-platform. I’m not always going to know the people in the other game, but the point is, I’ll always be in a casual atmosphere that recruits in a manner emphasises attitude instead of skill and time. I love having a mature group to play with and, if another MMO comes along, I’ll hopefully be able to meet up with old friends as well as new. I feel pretty blessed that there is such a coalition so well suited to my own playstyle, and happy that I will be accepted no matter how my situation may change. So what can I say? Thank you, Asher.

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A semi-regular pugging group for my server, Uther, has been raiding late into the night, or early you might even say. With limited evening time, I enjoy having some extra opportunities to raid during the week with them.. however, raiding late into the night has it’s disadvantages. And people who usually know better can do some pretty silly things Thus was my experience last night attempting obsidian sanctum.

You might think a group regularly running Ulduar 10s and 25s, would have no trouble with 1 drake up. Things were looking well, we had a decent group, we’d just finished on high spirits running Naxx 25, saving WG from capture – against the odds of numbers, time, and alliance screw-uppery, and a fairly easy go at 10 VoA.

But perhaps not..

It became clear that the raid leader was getting tired and bored, when he first strutted off after loot rolls and charged into a trash pull. Even more clear when, as he’s being wailed on, someone speaks up asking “Aren’t you going to assign the loot?” At that point the sensible thing may have been to ask, your resident DPS turned offtank druid to taunt, or simply finish trash and turn back. Instead of doing those things, the raid watches in horror as the tired paladin turned his back to the 2 mobs and fled, forcing the DPS, and most especially, the healers, to chase along, struggling to keep up. Being that he wasn’t the only tank affected, I watched in faint amusement, not thinking that perhaps it was a good time to switch to bear form until I realized.. shockingly, our over-geared paladin tank had succumbed to raid damage and quite probably range issues for the healers. Momentarily startled awake I finally rushed into action, losing a DPS before being able to bounce over and rescue the rest. But mistakes happen, and we were nearly done, or so we thought.

After a brief encounter with Archavon, a trivial fight for most, we discussed our options. Option 1: go to bed.. it was afterall around 5am on the server. Option 2: a final, and mostly trivial fight against Sartharion. Of course, expectations being high, we considered 1 and even 2 drakes up. The team was looking for short, however, and we were probably shy a tank anyhow, so we settled on 1. This probably would have been a good idea. Sure, great.. just a few minor problems. No healer, no 3rd tank. Sleepy and most likely overconfident tank/raid leader heading into the fray and convincing the rest along, to start trash pulls before our 2nd healer had arrived. The tree spoke up, once, twice, thrice.. explaining how he was new to healing, it was his offspec.. and perhaps they could wait for another healer to arrive. The ominous “we’ll be fine” in ventrilo was spoken, and we were pulling again. And the raid members were getting sloppy, and body pulling adds. I don’t think I’ve wiped so many times in that instance, ever. I’ve definitely not done it so much on trash. On Vesperon we struggled, our other healer still not being ready we of course went forward anyway. But.. we had a portal to take.. although I can’t remember how it happened, I was dead early in the fight and the raid was missing not only a healer, but a tank as well. The paladin bubbled and urged everyone to enter the portal, but with bubble not lasting so long as the portal, the tank finally fell. Everyone was shocked when they reappeared suddenly, adds, boss, and all despawned.

He did return, eventually, but our surviving members had time to return to their senses and get the hell out of there.  Our pally finally decided he’d been up long enough and asked a DK to take over. ooh boy! We also decided we’d need the 2nd healer before trying our mini-boss again. The tree, of course, rushed toward the stone. I followed. The Deathknight cockily spoke in ventrilo “So while we’re waiting for the priest to get here, I’m going to pull some trash! If you’re with me, come stand behind me..”

No one called for summoning said priest. No one noticed the ONLY 2 classes capable of healing said tank, were not inside at all. I flew over to the stone.. looked at the tree. He looked back. I swear he sighed. I turned to him and said “I wonder when he’ll notice he has no heals” He said “Soon.” I said “I wonder if anyone noticed you go” he said “Nope.” and we solemnly summoned our savior.. the priest.

We had many other screw ups. At one point, over an hour past when we had begun, after giving up on 1 drake up, I stated simply.. “this is sad.” everyone agreed. We all laughed about being tired and losing our senses. We killed the last drake, barely killed the boss, sorted out loot and finally, thankfully, went to bed. My thoughts probably echoed the rest, when I noticed it was 7am and I had only agreed to start the run because, of course, OS was so fast and simple. I mean, how could a solid group, that had easily pulled through Archavon and Emalon screw up? How.. indeed.

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My druid currently plays with separate cat and bear specs. We now have a talent tree that is so bloated, even spread into Resto, that it’s not possible to be fully effective at both in one spec. There are too many specialized talents that are either only for bears or only for cats. Yay for being the only class with 4 talent trees! We can steal all your loots >:-}

But really, I wanted to discuss feral rotation a while. My own experience and why there is a blue post with the opinion that feral druids are the most complicated DPSers. Yet we’re popular! Right now my guild has 4 feral cats that are mains. Now, on the one hand, I’d have to say it’s easy to know what to do. It is pretty intuitive that a 30% damage boost is the most important ability to use. Always keeping your Savage Roar buff up, with it’s short duration, is the most important thing. In AoE situations I try to get this buff before I spam swipe. I can get very good AoE dps. On ulduar trash fights like Razorscale, where I know I have time to use an SR, I will rake for the bleed damage and the combo point for SR. I should probably have 1 swipe in me after this, apply it and then use Tiger’s Fury instantly for energy, giving me another 2 or 3 swipes in a row. How many depends on how often omen of clarity will proc.

Location is key on these fights. Positioning for the most adds possible can be iresome when you need to be in melee range of your target, keep the adds in a frontal arc directly in front of you, and avoid the all too frequent fires. Given a good location, I’ve found my AoE outdoing casters, which makes sense when those casters have a much easier time of it, and will often be able to target more than cats. In situations that aren’t ideal, casters are often able to target more mobs than I, for longer, which will skew DPS results back in their favor.

If you’re wondering, resorting to Swipe is ideal only if you have 3+ mobs. That is, 3 that are certain to be close enough to be affected. This is based off of in game experience, not theorycrafting.

Single target fights are where things get really complicated though, instead of constantly worrying about finding the biggest pack of mobs and the right spot to lay waste into them, you must focus on constantly refreshing several abilities: Savage Roar, Mangle, Rake, Rip, and Faerie Fire Feral..

First off, the odd one out: Faerie Fire. I generally use this before I’ve reached melee range, during the run/pounce to the boss. If somehow I am in melee range and this debuff is missing, I’ll typically wait for a second that I’ve run out of energy, Tiger’s Fury, and Omen of Clarity procs. If you have a moonkin in the group, ask if they are using FF so you don’t need to.

Your rotation will vary a lot depending on how often you crit, how fast you attack based on haste, and your glyphs and tier gear. To begin, you have to refresh 4 abilities. Savage Roar, then Mangle, then Rip, then Rake. You should keep a reminder up telling you when Omen of Clarity procs. I use EventAlert. When you get a proc, Shred. NEVER use a finishing move except for Savage Roar, which does not consume the proc. In other cases, if all 4 abilities are up, Shred for combo points. Rip when you reach 5 combo points, if you have time (~6 seconds) on Rip and Savage Roar, use Ferocious Bite. On Savage Roar, you won’t have much control over how many combo points you have when this wears off. 2 points is best, more is OK if you are about to lose the buff. Avoid a 1 point SR. Notice that if another druid is applying Mangle, or if an arms warrior has Trauma, you will not need to use your mangle at all. Shred > Mangle as long as the debuff is up.

There are several add-ons that can help you with this rotation, which is not really a rotation at all but a priority list. Event Horizon will display, graphically, how much time you have left on your abilities, and on your cooldowns. FeralbyNight uses theorycrafting calculations to recommend your next ability. I recommend both. Try testing out your DPS with the first and then the second. Sometimes FbN will recommend a Ferocious Bite, or simply remind to use Berserk/Tiger’s Fury, with greater results. The best thing I’ve found is helping to guage when to Ferocious Bite as it’s not always intuitive.

If you’re near to a point where you will lose contact with the boss, do your best to apply fresh DoTs, even if you lose SR. Something > Nothing. Many fihts have down periods like this. I’ll apply my DoTs before they wear out if I know I’m going to be going out of combat. I’ll miss some chances for Shred in the process.

Posted in General Gameplay, Strategies

There’s a new raiding guide up! This guide was originally created for my guild forums and has been included here for everyone. It is a simple repository of information on feral DPS and as such, suggestions are very much welcome. The formatting is a little rough looking still, but I wanted to get this one up quickly.

My LOL for the day!

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Hello, I’m back again! It’s taken me awhile to re-educate myself on feral after the big 8-0. So I left this project on the backburner for a bit. Sorry! Now, looking at our lastest changes, I’m glad I did. I strongly feel the druid is becoming much closer to what Blizzard has in mind for us. Frankly, since Wotlk feral cats and bears have been pretty lackluster and their performance unimpressive. Savage Roar tipped the balance away from Agility and in favor of more strength and AP, causing issues with the roguish leather drops we depend on. Agility wasn’t bad, mind you, but for a stat that is so prevalent, it was under-performing badly. But no more! Agility scales now better than ever for both Cats and Bears. I know my DPS increased substantially, and I’ve finally started to really compete for top rank for raid DPS, something I was nowhere near before now. We needed the boost. We really did. Tanking is much easier now with the new Swipe mechanics. No more frontal cleave effects. Swipe targets everything near you, even if it is behind you. They might as well add in a spin animation.  I’ll admit I was nervous. With such a major change coming our way, one cannot help but be nervous. After trying it out on heroics, though, I am confident in my tanking, more than I was previously. I can keep aggro more easily, I’m not making my healers sweat more. I miss my armor, but the loss is not as noticeable as I’d expect. I’m hopeful for some more improvements, but the current threat boost is a good start.

Just a final thank-you Blizzard for making my spec worth keeping. I resisted the urge to plunge head first into something different, but finally my resilience has paid off.

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Everyone knows the frustration of sorting through upgrades, it’s confusing and as you level increasingly complicated with the many stats you can find. Special abilities on items, or talents that can change how your stats work make it nearly impossible to keep track of what, really truly, is better. It is not a hopeless task, however daunting, and has been truly simplified by the efforts of Astrylian & friends. They have created a marvellous theorycrafting tool dubbed RAWR. And with a few simple clicks you can see for yourself precisely how differing gear drops compare. Druids of any role are supported, as well as many other classes. If you’re curious about the support of other classes the list is here. It’s a stand-alone program that automatically loads your character information out of armory, and has a list of upgrades along with corresponding DPS/Healing/Mitigation values to compare. One of the most useful tools for its ease of use, but also powerful in its ability to model nearly every factor, such as buffs, gems, talents, and Boss difficulty.

This comes as one of the most recommended tools to have, not only for druids, but for every class. The only caveat is that some models are still in development, and not every class is included just yet. But it’s constantly updated, and still looking for developers interested in contributing new models. If you are such, consider this worthwhile cause. If not, consider donating to help keep the project up and running.

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I just learned Flight Form. Actually, I relearned it. You see, flight form is learned in the Outlands once you access The Burning Crusades. It’s learned at level 68. Everyone else has to wait until 70 to fly in the Outlands. But for Wrath of the Lich King, you have to learn it all over again to fly in Northrend, which you cannot do until level 77. This is called “Cold Weather Flying”. Unlike the first flight form, you have to pay the same 1000g for the riding skill before you learn. Epic flight costs 5000g, and once you have it for Outlands, if you got it that early, you can also keep it in Northrend for the cost of the Cold Weather training. The Swift Flight Form no longer requires a quest chain, and the old speed buff trinket does not work for level 71 or above. Way to go, Blizzard, making that totally useless to everyone.

I think everyone gets a little giddy when they first train their flight form. Well, I didn’t get the chance to right away. I was in the middle of a heated argument at the time, and a second after hitting the trainer, I logged out. There was nothing else I could do.. it was nearly bedtime, and I had ended my night’s efforts questing just minutes before. Then, crankier than a crab sleeping in a crooked shell, my male counterpart came into the room with an axe to grind about my less than timely return to bed. Nevermind that I’ve been keeping late hours for as far as I can remember, and nevermind that he’s not mentioned to me any time before then that he had wanted or needed me for something in the morning. An angry male can dodge, parry, and block any reason a girl is able to muster. That is, until she breaks into a fit herself. Hell hath no fury and all that. The night ended poorly after a rampage of cleaning out the spare room and a lecture filled with my fury and disgust for his antics. Yes that’s right, I slept in the spare room. He moaned, he begged, pleaded, and manipulated to prevent it, and when I woke up he brought me breakfast in bed and apologized profusely.

But you wanted to know about the flight form! Well, the thing is I used to have it. Yes, of course if you’re here you probably did too. I missed it terribly. I missed the Outlands and the Burning Crusade badly. It seems such a horrible thing to suddenly become flightless. This special ability is one of the beautiful things about the druid class, the unique ability to instantly go to flight, and add this that an attacker cannot knock you out of the air either (Horde territories are an exception. Guess how I found that out? Go on, guess.) Oh and if you ever find yourself in freefall you can avoid certain death so long as you hit your form in time. It almost makes up for not being a mage with their ability to teleport everywhere without limit. I said “almost”. But add to it 100% speed Aquatic form, stealth capacity, and the ‘Oh Shit!’ dash or speed form, and I’d say a druid easily competes with mages in their utility.

So, the day after I officially learn flight form, I was able to try it out in Northrend for the first time. Gush! I visited new lands and marvelled. I quested and everything went by so quickly, it was transformational. My next step is Epic Flight Form, and I am sure I will doubly gush when I learn that trick. 280% speed boost, compared to 60%. Well, they call it epic for a reason.

(note: edited to provide additional information for visitors)

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