Holy Feral DPS Batman!!!!

Since 4.0.1 my cat has been doing extremely good DPS. Pre 401 she would do 850dps on the target dummies, and was far behind on dmg meters in instances. Post 401 she does 1600 dps easily on the dummies, and is wayyyy ahead on the meters when in instances. She's only level 74, I cannot wait to see how she performs at 80.

Does anyone know if there's some sort of overpowered feral ability now? I don't know why she is so good. I basically just slapped together a quick castsequence and she was good to go. I'm really surprised.

Does anyone else have a cat in their group and noticed this?

I have no idea about damage done etc. The only thing I do know is that there's quite some nerdrage on wowforums about ferals being OP in pvp. But nerdrage isn't generally based on facts :P

So I guess it's possible they're a bit to good atm.

I have a cat in my group but havent had him as dps in a long time so cant really make a comparison... im pretty happy with the numbers though. I knew since I wasnt going to depend on shred (positional) that i wouldnt be doing high numbers, but he keeps up well enough where i dont feel bad for bringing him along.

Another thing that will help is mangle damage is going up by 20% if i recall in a newer beta build so since im spamming mangle instead of shred that will help quite a bit.

Anyways, i ramble.

Blizzard has stated that they think cat dps is too low right now. Though I'm wondering if that's based on PTR level 85 data or the level 80 data. My cats were pulling 2500ish DPS before 4.0 and with the same gear, about 3900dps after 4.0. This is on the target dummies so YMMV, but the bleed stuff is insane right now. If you can keep bleeds up with a good rotation, it's crazy.

In PvP (as an elemental shaman) any cat dies when i see it coming, without scratching me. But when they go in stealth, and attack me from the back, I die in seconds. Hardly enough time to trinket out and do a thunderstorm / cast earthbind.

Cat damage is heavily based on the bleeds.

You want the Mangle debuff up, to increase the bleed damage.
Then maintain both Rake and Rip.
Faerie Fire lowers armor, so that's good to keep up, but the bleed damage is the key.

The talent where Ferocious Bite refreshes the duration of Rip, never works on the target dummies; guess you need a live opponent for that.

They have heavily buffed Mangle, so it is not as drastic of a DPS loss compared to Shredding from behind.
Although if you can position for Shred, that is definitely higher DPS then Mangle spam.



I'm using:

Feral Charge
[Stealth] Pounce / [noStealth] Ravage
(+50% crit, vs targets at or above 80% health... x5... is fun).

Mangle
Savage Roar
(Don't use this a lot, probably more worthwhile on bosses).

Mangle, Rake, Mangle, Mangle, Finisher.
(This is my main DPS spam/sequence)

Finisher =
Rip, Null
Ferocious Bite
(Averaging around 90k per druid, vs the 80 normal target dummy at the point of the first FB; my druids are in a mix of 187-245 PvE gear).

Feral DPs is alot better, thats for sure. But it's not near OP. In fact I bet they will make tweeks again to them... Most likely in the glyph and talent section.

Feral dps if you know the rotation does well, but its probably one of the most complicated ones in the game. Also, feral lacks burst dps outside of stealth. Most classes have much better burst dps.

Bump.

Okay it is ridiculous now, my cat is outdpsing my rogue and paladins by two fold, she is even able to keep up with my tank.

Anyone else running a mixed melee team and seeing this too? I'm seriously expecting some sort of nerf coming soon to druids.....

I'm running the five Cats.
They're fairly close to each other in DPS.
Although I don't track it often.

Leader of the Pack is enough healing, for almost everything.
But mobs die really quickly with five Cats.

Haven't logged into warcraft in a five days.
But should get some time today.
The druids should have a lot of rested now.
And are 82.89% so see what they get by tonight.