[Feral] 3.2 Patch Notes

Kitty nerfs below

# Mangle: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
# Rake: Ranks 6 and 7 base points on initial and periodic damage reduced by about 7%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
# Rip: Ranks 8 and 9 base points and points per combo point reduced by about 6%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
# Savage Defense: The animation for gaining this buff will no longer make the bear stand upright
# Shred: Ranks 8 and 9 base points reduced by about 10%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
# Swipe (Cat): Percent of weapon damage done reduced from 260% to 250%.

All of these changes are clearly designed to lower the starting kitty druid's dps a bit which makes perfect sense as a proper player can easily outperform anyone else at that gear level. The one thing i am unsure about is they'r mangle change, i WOULD assume that it refers only to the cat version of it as i personally do not believe that anyone would argue that bears need a nerf right now -.-

Long Overdue Update (Guild Failure & New Druid Dorms)

Some of you might have noticed that i haven't come around to updating my blog lately and that is due to a number of reasons; Biggest reason was just work related pressure and then racing home to barely manage to be on time at raid time while eating in front of the computer.

Then when raids get cancelled because other people just don't show up without any explanation people get frustrated which i can completely understand. This is followed up by said people leaving which means the guild goes in a ever worsening spiral leading to untimely death.

Which happened yesterday, Shafted is now a casual non raiding guild

Due to the stress that this gave me i will probably take at least two weeks of a break from WoW because it felt like work and was no longer fun at all with all the hassle around it.

Now on to the main point of this post:



In case you missed it, here's a recap from the blue post about it:

In our next major content patch, druids will find a host of new textures for two major forms, cat and bear. There will be five different designs for each of these forms for the Horde and Alliance. Night elves can choose to change their cat and bear look at any time by visiting the barber shop and changing their character's hair color, while tauren will be able to change which look they use by switching skin tones in the barber shop -- a new feature for tauren in the next major content patch. Given that there are more hair colors and skin tones than unique form looks, some colors and tones will overlap with these new textures. The hair and skin colors chosen will, in most cases, correspond with the color seen in the look of each form. Some similar colors that may share a particular cat texture will not necessarily share the same bear texture.

At first i was like YAY! customizable forms like i (we?) wanted but when i looked at the preview i was getting a nasty feeling like: "Wait, isn't that exactly the same as old model but with just some extra texturing on it? I mean it still has the fly catcher mouth"

Then when re-reading the blue post i noticed this thing: "Night elves can choose to change their cat and bear look at any time by visiting the barber shop and changing their character's hair color"

All i can say about this entire thing so far is .... FAIL BLIZZARD!!!

I mean i get to select a slightly different texture for my bear form while keeping the OLD MODEL by changing my hair style in night elf form to neon pink? Wtf....

UPDATE: I just saw a reply from Neth: "Also, in the screenshots the bears are roaring, but when just sitting normally, their mouths will close in a toothy grin so to speak", if this is true then it's not as bad but still having to change my hair colour is retarded...

How expertise and hit influence Improved Mangle

A recent post made by Monedula at Omen of Clarity shows that when you have the Idol of the Corrupter Improved Mangle can be worth it again, his reasoning and math can be found here.

The ammount of misses and parries you get obviously has some influence on this all but how big this influence is was left unclear, therefore i decided to look into that using part of his math.

Below math is a shameless copy of the format Monedula used in said article, just with different numbers and a different approach to calculate the downtime because i used downtime percentage and not duration to compare in the end.

NOTE: I use the word hit here to mean not getting parried and not missing (hard cap expertise and hit).

Scenario 1 - 100% Hit, 68% Proc Chance and 6 Sec Mangle CD

Chance that the idol buff is not refreshed on a mangle:

1 time = 32%
2 times = 10,4%
3 times = 1,0%
4 times = 0,01%

The duration of the buff is 12 seconds so to have 6 second downtime of the buff you need to miss twice in a row (= 10,4%), continuing this path you get the following numbers:

18 seconds = 0,01% of the time
12 seconds = 1,0% of the time
6 seconds = 10,4% of the time

This means the chance to not lose the buff is 100 - (10,4 + 1 + 0,01) = 88,59% which relates to 11,41% downtime

Scenario 2 - 100% Hit, 68% Proc Chance and 4,5 Sec Mangle CD

Chance that the idol buff is not refreshed on a mangle:
1 time = 32%
2 times = 10,4%
3 times = 1,0%
4 times = 0,01%

The duration of the buff is 12 seconds so to have 1,5 second downtime of the buff you need to miss thrice in a row (= 1%), continuing this path you get the following numbers:

6 seconds = 0,01% of the time
1.5 seconds = 1% of the time

This means that the chance to not lose the buff is 100 - (1 + 0,01) = 98,99% which relates to 1,01% downtime

Comparison

The difference then is 11,41 - 1,01 = 10,4% uptime difference off the buff between both situations, to put this into perspective we first have to look at what the proc actually gives:

2.44% dodge and 1.98% crit

10,4% of this means that with the Improved Mangle talent you gain 0,25% dodge and 0,21% crit IF you have the idol of the corruptor and never get misses or parries.

Scenario 3 - 90% hit, 68% Proc chance and 6 sec Mangle CD

Chance that the idol buff is not refreshed on a mangle:
1 time = 35,5% (0,32 / 0,9)
2 times = 12,6% (35,5^2)
3 times = 1,6% (..)
4 times = 0,03% (..)

The duration of the buff is 12 seconds so to have 6 second downtime of the buff you need to miss twice in a row (= 12,6%), continuing this path you get the following numbers:

18 seconds = 0,03% of the time
12 seconds = 1,6% of the time
6 seconds = 12,6% of the time

This means the chance to not lose the buff is 100 - (12,6 + 1,6 + 0,03) = 85,77% which relates to 14,23% downtime

Scenario 4 - 90% hit, 68% Proc chance and 4,5 sec Mangle CD

Chance that the idol buff is not refreshed on a mangle:
1 time = 35,5% (0,32 / 0,9)
2 times = 12,6% (35,5^2)
3 times = 1,6% (..)
4 times = 0,03% (..)

The duration of the buff is 12 seconds so to have 1,5 second downtime of the buff you need to miss thrice in a row (= 1,6%), continuing this path you get the following numbers:

6 seconds = 0,03% of the time
1.5 seconds = 1,6% of the time

This means that the chance to not lose the buff is 100 - (1,6 + 0,03) = 98,37% which relates to 1,63% downtime

Comparison

The difference then is 14,23 - 1,63 = 12,6% uptime difference off the buff between both situations, to put this into perspective we first have to look at what the proc actually gives:

2.44% dodge and 1.98% crit

12,6% of this means that with the Improved Mangle talent you gain 0,31% dodge and 0,25% crit IF you have the idol of the corruptor and get 10% misses and/or parries.

Conclusion

Comparing the 100% Hit and 90% Hit situations shows that the more misses or parries you get the better Improved Mangle is for mitigation and threat IF you have the idol of the corruptor.
The actual effect of getting misses or parries is a lot bigger without the Improved Mangle talent then with it, a 10,4% difference (100% Hit rate -> 11,41% - 1,01%) versus a 12,6% difference (90% Hit rate -> 14.23% - 1,63%).
That itself means that by gaining 10% more hit you gained 2,2% (12,6% - 10,4%) uptime of the buff, which relates to 0,05% dodge and 0,04% crit.

For threat the talent Master Shapeshifter still outperforms Improved Mangle even if you have the idol because a flat 4% damage increase (4% * 2,07 ~ 8% threat) out performs a 0,25% - 0,20% critical strike chance increase, so in the end it's all about your situation....

Main Tanking Build

This post is dedicated to showing and defending the build that i personally view as the best tanking build out there, altho it should be known that some people would use different builds because they use different raid set ups or have very specific gear (Idol of the corruptor and improved mangle).
I will post my reason for having each talent when i discuss the talents that are in the build.

This is the build i am referring to.

Feral

Ferocity [5/5]
At first i would have thought that with the advent of Ulduar i might not be rage starved and could switch these points into Feral Agression for the added effect on demorolizing roar, sadly i was quite disappointed that i still badly needed this talent to keep my rotation going.

Feral Instinct [3/3]
Swipe is important skill for AoE tanking and also quite a good threat move to have in your rotation so you can't go without this for threat.

Savage Fury [2/2]
The massive damage increase on maul and mangle make this a must have for tanking damage and threat.

Thick Hide [3/3]
Must... have... more... armor (damn 3.1 nerf).

Feral Swiftness [2/2]
You are a tank, you want to take as little as damage as possible so can't say no to 4% dodge.

Survival Instincts [1/1]
Proper oh shit button, use when you get to low on health.

Sharpened Claws [3/3]
Crit makes savage defense proc so can't miss this, it's also a pre-requisite for Primal Fury and Primal Precision.

Predatory Strikes [3/3]
Attack power increases our bear-block value and it's also a pre-requisite for Heart of the Wild.

Primal Fury [2/2]
Can never have enough rage.

Primal Precision [2/2]
Free expertise means less parry/dodge and more threat/rage/savage defense procs.

Feral Charge [1/1]
Technically not so important, but i kinda like it. Needs to be seperate cooldown for bear and cat however ;(

Natural Reaction [3/3]
Grants extra dodge AND rage? Yum

Heart of the Wild [5/5]
Grants more health, your bread and butter as a bear.

Survival of the Fittest [3/3]
Increases stats which is nice but the key part of this talent is that it makes you uncrittable versus boss level encounters.

Leader of the Pack [1/1] + Improved Leader of the Pack [2/2]
Healing yourself every time you crit effectively makes you have more health which is a very good thing, the buff it offers to other players is also very nice.

Protector of the Pack [3/3]
Pure godly talent, grants more attack power which increases the bear-block value and reduces damage taken by a flat ammount.

Infected Wounds [3/3]
Could do without this talent on single mobs as a lot of classes overwrite the attack speed part of the talent but on multimob fights like Razorscale it helps a lot in terms of reducing the damage taken.

Mangle [1/1]
Mangle it self is a good threat move, reducing the cooldown is just useless however, if you don't know why read this post. NOTE: If you have the idol of the corruptor then improved mangle offers a substantial increase in survivability, read here to see how and why.

Rend and Tear [5/5]
The damage and threat this talent gives is simply amazing, can't live without it.

Primal Gore [1/1]
The threat this gives is not great but every little bit helps, the main point in my opinion is the critical hits that trigger Savage Defense.

Berserk [1/1]
Great to pop during heroism or at the start of a fight for a threat boost, once lacerate is going.

Restoration

Improved Mark of the Wild [2/2]
This talent is so godly with the 2% added stats now that i can't see any druid not having this talent (no matter the build).

Furor [3/5]
Furor always has been a PvP talent in my opinion so not always having the 10 rage when i go into bear is no big deal for me as i pop enrage before i pull a boss anyhow.

Naturalist [5/5]
10% extra damage is a lot of damage and threat, take it.

Natural shapeshifter [3/3]
Useless, pre-requiste for Master Shapeshifter however.

Omen of Clarity [1/1]
Free attacks helps a lot as you will have times when you just seem to dodge everything and not have any rage to use.

Master Shapeshifter [2/2]
A flat 4% damage increase helps a lot for your threat (2.07 modifier so that's ~ 8% threat), also the damage it self is quite nice.

Glyphs

Glyph of Survival Instincts (Major)
This new glyph is very helpful when healers let you get to low on health.

Glyph of Growl (Major)
Nothing is worse then getting a resist on growl.

Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration (Major)
When you pop this you need health, so taking extra healing is a perfect bonus.

Glyph of Challenging Roar (Minor)
Nifty little glyph to have when pulling lots of big packs in short succession (ie Naxxramas).

Glyph of Thorns (Minor)
A lazy druid's best friend *cough cough*

Free Minor Glyph
No real nice minor glyphs left that are really important for tanking, you could pick up Glyph of Uburdened Rebirth if you want to be sure you never have to say 'oh shit, i ran out of reagents'.

Things i did not take but could be handy

Feral Agression [0/5]
Would like to have it but can't lose points anywhere else, just use normal demoralizing shout.

Shredding Attacks [0/2]
Having 2 rage cheaper lacerates is nice but not good enough to warrant losing 2 points somewhere else.

King of the Jungle [0/3]
The added threat when you use enrage is nice for threat-bursts but it requires you to enrage, which is something you should not want to do as a (Main) Tank. The type of bonus is nice i'll agree and that's why i included Master Shapeshifter in my build.

Glyph of Maul (Major)
Nice glyph to have for when you want to get high on the damage meters or doing 5 man heroics but with 3.1 Glyph of Survival Instincts is a far better choice for pure main tanking purposes.

I hope this helps some people finding their builds specifically aimed towards tanking.

Tarskin's case against improved mangle for a main tanking bear

First of all it’s important to notice that I do not run with the cookie cutter 0/60/11 build but with 0/55/16 because I believe the added dps/tps from master shape shifter is worth more then whatever you can throw at me from within the feral tree.

Pre-3.1 I used to go with 3/5 R&T as I wanted improved mangle which meant higher threat in my rotation but with the changes to the threat and damage done by faerie fire it is damn good, good enough to always use it whenever it pops off cool down.

This is where we run into a problem as faerie fire is on a 6 second cool down and mangle is on a 4.5 second cool down (if talented), for those who do not see this yet here below is a representation of 18 seconds worth of fighting.



As you can see on GCD 10 there’s a problem that both mangle and faerie fire come off the global cool down at the same time which means that you are losing threat as one of the moves will be not used while ready.
Therefore the threat offered by improved mangle talent is not as high as it was or as most people think it is, I therefore make the case to not take imp mangle so that mangle and faerie fire have the same cooldown which makes for a better rotation as follows.



Which is a rotation that makes perfect sense and frees up 3 points which can be put in 5/5 R&T and 1/1 primal gore which makes more threat then a 3/5 R&T build where 1 out of 3 improved mangle cool downs are wasted.

This would mean that the perfect build for 3.1 Main Tanking in my opinion would still be a 0/55/16 build and the defense of this build will be a seperate post as it goes beyond the scope of this post...

HOT OF THE PRESS!!!
Monedula from Omen of Clarity makes a case that improved mangle is worth it IF you have the Idol of the Corruptor and threat is not an issue, read his reasoning here.