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re: Cat WotLK Pre-Nax Gear and Info

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Draivin

Cat Gear
http://wowthinktank.blogspot.com/search/label/cat

HIT cap is 296 at level 80.
Expertise cap is 214 rating without primal precision, 148 with it.


Strength is now slightly better than Agility when looking at pure DPS but don't do away with your agility for strength just keep in mind that strength is now much better than it used to be and should be seriously considered.

Note:
a lot of the gear simply isn't that good for dps. I think part of it is that AP and strength became better stats than agility, and before we focused almost entirely on agility. Crit also became a lot better, and armor pen became much worse. That meant a lot of the better traditional rogue gear becomes better for cats - but that wasn't what we were looking for before. So your old cat gear will not take you as far as your bear gear.

As an example, the midnight chestguard from Archimonde wasn't nearly as good as the Nether Shadow Tunic because of the lack of agility on the former. Now? It's better.

Bears, by comparison, didn't change nearly so much in terms of the stats. So the older gear still holds up and Agility is still your main stat to stack. This is our only mitigation stat which directly affects dodge.

Cat Attacking: (Rake and Savage Roar are very strong so use them when you can). Also cat DPS has gotten a bit more complicated and just spamming shreds with an occasions mangle in raids is not the way to go.

I had used a rotation something like this -SOLO- Mangle,Mangle,Mangle,Mangle,Ferocious Bite with 4-5 Combo points.
Testing a new rotation with something like -SOLO- Rake,Mangle,Savage Roar, Mangle, Rake, Mangle Ferocious Bite. (so far they die too fast LOL)

I have also noticed that rake seems to crit more often and give a bonus to combo points. Its also cheaper on energy so is available more often.

I have used a rotation for Raiding - Mangle, Shred, Shred, Shred, (PowerShift)Shred, RIP
Testing a new rotation for Raiding - Rake, Mangle, Shred, Savage Roar, Mangle, Shred, Shred, RIP (now the trick is to keep mangle, Rake and Savage Roar always running so watch your timers closely. I use Dotimers addon)

Mangle is only required if you don't have a warrior applying trauma. So it looks like this:
if rake is not applied then - Rake
if trauma is not present and mangle is down then - Mangle
then Shred
then Rip for your finisher

Bad News:
Do not powershift anymore. The global cooldown loss lowers your dps.
The 2 Tier 4 set bonus no longer works at level 80 it drops to 0% chance.

When Do I use Berserk?
Best Time is - Savage Roar is up, Ferocious Bite, Tigers Fury, then Berserk, Then Shred like crazy
For Bears you can open up with Berserk and spam mangle (10-15 mangles is a ton of threat and dps)
This also strips fear off of you so if your fighting a mob or boss that you know fears hold back and clear it with this. It works awesome and instantly.


Enchants:
Q: What if there's a choice between enchants? How do I choose?
A: It really depends on what your gear is, but in general:
Expertise and Hit are worth 1.3 Agility points
Agility is still great to go for when you can
strength is 1.05 AEP
crit is worth .85
AP .425ish (though you tend to get double the value out of it)
haste/armor penatration are worth .7
Use Rawr!


Weapon Enchants:
The jury's still out on Berserking; it should add about 150 AP over time, but it's not clear what the uptime will be.
Massacre or Accuracy are both other good options.

Shoulder Enchants:

1. Greater Inscription of the Axe - Exalted with Sons of Hodir
2. Greater Inscription of the Blade - Exalted with Scryer
3. Lesser Inscription of the Axe - Honored with Sons of Hodir
4. Greater Inscription of Vengeance - Exalted with Aldor

-if I can impress on you one thing, it's to start as early as you can grinding rep with Sons of Hodir. They start at hated and it's

a similar questline and grind to Netherwing dailies.

Head Enchants

1. Arcanum of Torment - Revered with Knights of the Ebon Blade
2. Arcanum of Ferocity - Revered with Cenarion Expedition

-This isn't nearly as important to grind rep with, as CE gives hit rating and is perfectly acceptable if you're below the cap.

Weapons:

1. Staff of Trickery -146.92. Heroic Violet Hold
2. Lightning Giant Staff - 129.59. Heroic Halls of Lightning.
3. Stave of Shrouded Mysteries - 112.86. Revered with Kirin Tor
4. Hewn Sparring Quarterstaff - 111.64. Normal Halls of Lightning
5. Staff of the Sorrowful Chieftain - 95.67. Quest in Zul'drak.
6. Stanchion of Primal Instinct - 93.70. Sunwell Plateau
7. Staff of the Forest Lord - 85.31. 150 Badges

- No surprises or odd rankings here. If you were lucky enough to get the Stanchion or the Brutal Gladiator staff, you won't find a

meaningful upgrade for it until Halls of Lightning.

Idols:

1. Idol of Worship - Naxx-25 badges
2. Idol of the Ravenous Beast - 15 Emblems of heroism.
3. Deadly Gladiator's Idol of Resolve - Arena points, arena ranking
4. Savage Gladiator's Idol of Resolve - honor
5. Idol of the Wastes - Quest in Dragonblight
6. Idol of Terror - 15 Badges

- yeah, I know. No ranking values and even gear that you can only get from Naxx. There just really isn't that much to get here. Idol

of the Wastes is likely fairly good though I've not tested the proc rate. Same goes for the Idol of Resolves. The real big winner is

the Idol of Worship, which thanks to the smaller frequency of shreds, the buffing of armor on bosses and the improvement of rip time

should be the winner.

Ring:

1. Surge Needle Ring - 24.13. Raid BoE
2. Hemmoraging Circle - 19.02. Heroic Gundrak
3. Band of the Kirin Tor - 18.57. 8000 gold, Dalaran
4. Ring of Scarlet Shadows - 16.69. Jewelcrafting BoE.
5. Mobius Band - 15.94. Heroic CoT Strat
6. Titanium Impact Band - 14.10. Jewelcrafting BoE.
7. Signet of Edward the Odd - 13.50. Raid BoE
8. Deadly Gladiator's Band of Victory - 13.46. Arena points, arena rating.
9. Bjarngrim Family Signet - 13.04. Normal Halls of Lightning
10. Signet of Bridenbrad - 12.91. Quest in Icecrown
11. Hard Khorium Band - 10.64. Jewelcrafting BoE (from Sunwell)

-you'll definitely be upgrading your rings soon; armor penetration really isn't all that strong, and there are a lot of great rings

out there. The Surge Needle ring is not only the best you can get pre-Naxx, it's the best you can get post-Naxx; I'd be shocked to

see it on the AH. But maybe you'll be lucky. Otherwise, start saving that 8k gold...

Amulet:

1. Pendant of the Outcast Hero - 18.13. 25 emblems of heroism.
2. Necklace of Arcane Spheres - 15.40 . Heroic Violet Hold
3. Titanium Impact Choker - 14.13. Jewelcrafting BoE.
4. Necklace of the Chrono-Lord - 13.78. Normal CoT Stratholme
5. The Severed Noose of Westwind - 13.64. Quest in Icecrown
6. Hateful Gladiator's Pendant of Victory - 12.03. Arena rating, Honor
7. Choker of Endless Nightmares - 11.65. Black Temple
8. Draconic Choker of Ferocity - 10.93. World BoE.

-the Violet Hold neck is pretty sweet, but it takes a lot of luck to get the right boss. The emblem of heroism neck is the biggest

upgrade from non-badge gear to badge gear you can get for a cat, so it should be a high priority to spend if you're so inclined.

Trinket:

1. Mirror of Truth - 40 emblems of heroism.
2. Darkmoon Card: Greatness. From Darkmoon Nobles deck
3. Meteorite Whetstone. Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle.
4. Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood. Heroic Nexus.
5. Oracle Talisman of Ablution - Exalted with the Oracles.
6. Incisor Fragment - Heroic Drak'tharon Keep
7. Vestige of Haldor - normal Utgarde Pinnacle.
8. Fezzik's Pocketwatch - Quest in Icecrown.
9. Chuchu's Tiny Box of Horrors - Quest in Icecrown

- This is, honestly, the hardest one for me to evaluate; without ideas on what the proc rates, internal cooldowns and values are,

it's hard for me to stack-rank these. That being said, I think the Darkmoon Card: Greatness is going to turn out to be exceptionally

strong for a class that likes strength and agility so much, and keep in mind you can get a +90 strength version of the trinket as

well, and the uptime of it seems to be about 33% - meaning you'd have about +190 of a stat over time. That's pretty incredible.

Mirror of Truth is a great crit/AP trinket similar to BC trinkets, and should scale well. Meteorite Whetstone appears to be another

DST-like ability. Sphere of Red dragon's blood is just amazing for the hit rating, but otherwise meh. Vestige of Haldor could be

really, really fun if it procs on per hit instead of per swing. More testing is required. Happy

Cloak:

1. Cloak of the Gushing Wound - 14.51. Heroic Violet Hold
2. Embrace of Sorrow - 14.22. Normal Halls of Stone
3. Ice Striker's Cloak - 13.58. Leatherworking BoE
4. Hateful Gladiator's Cloak of Victory - 11.94. Arena rating, honor
5. Cloak of Unforgivable Sin - 11.58. Sunwell Plateau
6. Bloodbane Cloak - 10.75. Quest in Icecrown.
7. Shadowmoon Destroyer's Drape - 10.54. Black Temple

The Ice Striker's cloak is good enough to get most people by before heading to Naxx.

Chest:

1. Heroes' Dreamwalker Rainments - 37.33. 80 emblems of heroism
2. Custodian's Chestpiece - 35.77 - Heroic Azjol-Nerub
3. Carapace of Sun and Shadow - 29.87. BoP Leatherworking in Sunwell
4. Hateful Gladiator's Dragonhide Robes. 27.49 Arena points, arena ranking
5. Bladed Chaos Tunic - 26.71. Sunwell Plateau
6. Darkheart Chestguard - 26.66. Exalted with Knights of the Ebon Blade
7. Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Robes - 24.04. Honor
8. Exotic Leather Tunic -22.48. Quest in Utgarde Pinnacle

- Because of the gem slots, the Carapace of Sun and Shadow gets very good. Same with the PvP gear. Midnight Chestguard and Nether

Shadow Tunic are both quite strong too. I would recommend against buying the badge chest until you've gotten everything else; the

expense is very high.

Feet:

1. Boots of the Neverending Path - 26.06. Exalted with Argent Crusade
2. Boots of the Whirling Mist - 22.19. Heroic Halls of Stone
3. Hateful Gladiator's Boots of Triumph - 20.10. Arena ranking, honor.
4. Slag Footguards - 19.68. Heroic Halls of Lightning
5. The Darkspeaker's Treads -18.10. Quest in Icecrown
6. Thunderheart Treads - 17.38. Sunwell Plateau
7. Jormscale Footpads - 17.37. Leatherworking BoE.
8. Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots - 16.85. 60 badges

- While they're #1, I'd not recommend grinding rep for the Boots of the Neverending Path; the big reason they're #1 is because of

that huge hit rating.

Hands:

1. Gloves of Fast Reactions - 28.71. Raid BoE.
2. Gilt-Edged Leather Gauntlets - 26.28. Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
3. Heroes' Dreamwalker Handgrips- 25.24. 60 emblems of heroism.
4. Handwraps of Preserved History - 22.92. Quest in CoT Stratholme
5. Gloves of Immortal Dusk - 19.37. Leatherworking BoE (from Sunwell)
6. Shadowed Gauntlets of Paroxysm - 19.14. Sunwell Plateau
7. Hateful Gladiator's Dragonhide Gloves - 18.92. Arena points, arena ranking.
8. Sidestepping Handguards - 17.12. Normal Oculus
9. Eviscerator's Gauntlets - 16.38. Leatherworking BoE

- The high hit on the Gilt-Edged Gauntlets are what puts them over the top (and make them arguably better than the Naxx-10 gear).

The Handwraps of Preserved History are already the best pre-Naxx piece for bears; they'll do really well for cats too. The badge

hands are not that strong either. Save the badges for bigger upgrades.

Head:

1. Weakness Spectralizers - 31.88. Engineering BoE, Engineering rating
2. Mask of the Watcher - 30.26. Heroic Oculus
3. Duplicitous Guise - 28.20. Sunwell Plateau
4. Cursed Vision of Sargeras - 27.01. Black Temple
5. Hateful Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm - 26.10. Arena points, Arena rating
6. Headguard of Retaliation - 24.39. Quest in Utgarde Pinnacle
7. Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm - 22.66. Honor
8. Eviscerator's Facemask - 22.16. Leatherworking BoE

- while the best is the engineering helm (and it's better than Naxx-10) I can't recommend engineering; the item is just too easily

replacable and the overall benefits aren't there compared to the other professions.

Legs:

1. Gored Hide Legguards - 33.17. Heroic Gun'Drak.
2. Mind-Expanding Leggings - 31.14. Revered with Kirin Tor
3. Hateful Gladiator's Dragonhide Legguards - 27.49. Arena points, arena rating.
4. Azure Strappy Pants - 27.36. Revered with Frenzyheart Tribe
5. Leggings of the Immortal Night - 26.98. Sunwell Plateau
6. Leggings of Visceral Strikes - 25.58. Leatherworking BoE
7. Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Legguards - 24.04. Honor
8. Trousers of the Scryer's Retainer - 23.06. 100 badges

-The Gored Hide Legguards are going to be this expansion's version of Midnight Legguards. I put in a second rep reward because I

want every druid out there to be wearing strappy pants. STRAPPY PANTS. There really aren't any good quest rewards compared to this

stuff.

Shoulders:

1. Spaulders of Egotism - 27.88. Raid BoE.
2. Trollwoven Spaulders - 22.50. Leatherworking BoE are bought from a vendor in Dalaran for Arctic Furs
3. Spaulders of the Careless Thief - 21.85. Heroic Nexus
4. Hateful Gladiator's Dragonhide Shoulders - 20.10. Arena rating, arena points
5. Demontooth Shoulderpads - 19.75. Sunwell Plateau
6. Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Spaulders - 17.62. Honor
7. Charred Leather Shoulderguards - 17.07. Quest in Halls of Lightning.
8. Thunderheart Pauldrons - 16.96. Black Temple

This time there's a treat though - the best pre-Naxx shoulders you can get are crafted and BoE, and shouldn't be too insane to make.

Waist:

1. Jorach's Crocolisk Skin Belt - 28.18. 40 Emblems of heroism
2. Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt - 24.71. Heroic Utgarde Keep.
3. Trollwoven Girdle - 24.41. Leatherworking BoE.
4. Hateful Gladiator's Belt of Triumph - 20.10. Arena rating, honor.
5. Ley-Whelphide Belt - 19.09. Normal Oculus
6. Belt of One-Hundred Deaths - 18.25. Serpentshrine Cavern
7. Thunderheart Waistguard - 18.08. Sunwell Plateau
8. Belt of Deep Shadow - 17.04. Leatherworking BoE
9. Belt of Njorndar - 15.96. Quest in Icecrown.

- The Trollwoven Girdle is almost the best in slot here, but is beaten out by the gem power in the Sharp-Barbed piece. The only

other surprise is how good the BC gear is. If you're still wanting to keep a 2pT6 bonus this is not a bad candidate, though the

boots and (surprisingly) the shoulders might be better. The emblem of heroism belt is a clear #1 as well, though I'd get the neck

before getting this.

Wrists:

1. Dragonfriend Bracers - 18.71. Exalted with Wyrmrest Accord.
2. Drake-Champion's Bracers - 16.58. BoE from Heroic Oculus
3. Wristwraps of the Cutthroat - 16.50. Raid BoE
4. Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands - 16.32. Heroic Halls of Lightning
5. Hateful Gladiator's Armwraps of Triumph - 14.92. Arena rating, honor.
6. King's Square Bracers - 14.23. BoE drop from Stratholme
7. Eviscerator's Bindings - 12.39. Leatherworking BoE
8. Insidious Bands - 12.39. Black Temple
9. Shackles of Dark Whispers - 12.20. Quest in Drak'Tharon Keep.
10. Thunderheart Wristguards - 11.10. Sunwell Plateau

-I wouldn't grind to get exalted for the dragonfriend bracers either, though that's a lot of nice crit and are really good if you're

hit-capped already. I was pretty surprised at how poor the T6 bracers are here. The Drake-Champion's Bracers are a great BoE

surprise; see if you can find 'em on the AH or get lucky running Oculus.
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