Comments on: Guest Post: So You Want to Rip Some Face?

By: Galani

Galani — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:54:54 +0000

Armor Pen has been updated, and it is now over powered…Stacking this is now the best way to drasticly increase your dps, don’t go out of your way to get it, most uldar feral gear has a healthy amount of Arm. Pen. As well stacking some AP gems is very usefull.

By: Need Relish? » Blog Archive » Some Useful Feral Links :)

Need Relish? » Blog Archive » Some Useful Feral Links :) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:07:35 +0000

[...] Resto4Life ~ Guest Post: So You Want to Rip Some Face? [...]

By: Karthis

Karthis — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:38:47 +0000

Well, strength will still provide AP.... it just won't be as valuable on a point-per-point basis as agility. So if +str is thrown in, don't reject it.... just don't try to optimize for str in 3.1 Karthiss last blog post..Warhammer: Age of Reckoning Review

By: Wolfenkite

Wolfenkite — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:33:36 +0000

Ok wicked, thanks for the quick response.
So you’re saying after 3.1 it doesnt matter how low your str is? Agi will always be worth more so expect to see alot of kitties with no str at all?

By: Karthis

Karthis — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:08:37 +0000

@Wolfenkite: Until 3.1 strength will remain slightly better than agility..... Once the next patch lands, however, agility will be the clear-cut winner, and the lack of +str leather gear will cease being an issue. Karthiss last blog post..Drake-tanking Sartharion-3D

By: Wolfenkite

Wolfenkite — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:05:12 +0000

Thank you for this great posting. I am primarily a bear tank, but being the most flexible of the tanks I am usually the one asked to go Dps when 3 tanks aren’t needed in the boss encounter, so I stumbled across this post when browsing the internet for guides to maximise my kitty dps.
I have collected dps gear when the only rogue in guild passes, so its not ideal but I think its not bad for a kitty.

However, all the gear I have picked up has no strength at all, in fact when I’m in my dps gear I have only 10 more str than base (which comes from +10 all stats chest enchant). Quite a few threads I have read seem to imply that str is around as important as agi, so I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed the lack of str on leather items and if they think this is a problem?
Does it mean I should be using str gems instead of agi gems? Same question for enchants.
And should I also be after the same rings that pally’s and DKs are after? Or still using the more rogue-ish rings with agi.

By: Karthis

Karthis — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:34:52 +0000

Doh. I do believe that you are correct. Lemme dig a bit more, and then potentially revise the post. Thank you! Karthiss last blog post..Swiping your way to the top

By: Juver

Juver — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:06:10 +0000

Sorry for that (and thanks for pointing it out), please replace line 12 and downwards in my previous post with “haste doesn’t affect special (yellow) attacks”. :/

I still don’t understand how the attack speed would matter though. Yes, the slower you are, the more a single point of haste affects you — but that’s per swing, not per second! Consider these two fictitious characters:

Cat: Avg dmg 100, 1.00 speed = max 100 white dps
Warrior: Avg dmg 300, 3.00 speed = max 100 white dps

Now give them both 10% haste:

Cat: Avg dmg 100, 0.90 speed = max 111 white dps
Warrior: Avg dmg 300, 2.70 speed = max 111 white dps

Ergo, dps increase from haste is independent of attack speed.

…or am I missing something again?

By: Karthis

Karthis — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:48:13 +0000

The GCD for melee specials is not affected by the GCD anyways

Also, while 30-35% of our damage does come from bleeds and 15% from shred/mangle, an awful lot still comes from plain old “swing” white damage. (35% is about average for white damage I’m finding.)

Haste affects attack speed by a percentage. The slower you are, the more a single point of haste affects you.

Karthiss last blog post..A Feral UI

By: Juver

Juver — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:29:19 +0000

@ Karthis:

Thank you, this is a great summary! However, I think you’ve misunderstood something about the way haste works with cat druids, and since we’re doing some theorycrafting anyway I want to set it straight. Your original post states:

“Since Druids in cat form have an attack speed of 1, this stat is of minimal impact to our bottom line DPS.”

You’re right about it not being very useful, but it’s not really related to our (white) attack speed. It’s rather because a big % of our DPS comes from special (yellow) attacks. The contribution of haste to special attacks consists of lowering GCD, but:

1) Cats are limited by available energy rather than length of the GCD, which makes a lower GCD irrelevant in the medium to long run.

2) Haste won’t bring GCD below 1 s, which cats already have, rendering it utterly useless for their special attacks even in the very short run (burst damage).

So in short, since cat druids do a lot of yellow damage and haste won’t improve their yellow damage, it’s not a very good stat for a cat.

(I haven’t actually done any number crunching, so don’t take my word for it. However, it seems much more logical to me than the notion that our attack speed would matter.)