Thinking of respecing Boomkins

[sync00]

If you're running as a Kitty

Is a kitty good for soloing instances? I'm not clear on the distinction between cat and bear capabilities.

Also, how much stamina and agility do I need for soloing instances at level 70?

[Ualaa]

RAF used to be 1st to 60th.

And with a semi-geared level 70 toon (ie., Burning Crusade era in say full quest gear or maybe normal instance gearing or auction house purchased gear), you would have no problem at all in boosting lower level toons up to 60th.
From 10th to 45th or so, the instances were so trivial that anyone at 70th should do them with ease.
The 45th to 60th level boosting is a bit harder, but should be doable.

An actual tanking toon is a strong asset and will speed things up.
You can pull half of the instance (or all of it) in one massive pull.
And survive running the mobs most of the way back to zone in, or close to where the lowbies (toon's being boosted) are...
And then kill the mobs with your version of Consecration/Retribution Aura or Swipe/Thorns or Death & Decay, etc.

If your toon is a level 70 Hunter, instead of a 70th tank or mage...
You severely lack both the armor/survival mechanics of a tank and the AoE of a mage.
So your pulls cannot be immensely huge.
But a level 70 can boost pretty much as quickly as any other toon in lower instances.
And in the higher ones, you'd basically just kill small groups rather than pull massive groups... and regularly move the lowbies up to keep them in range.

If your boosting toon is 70th...
You're not likely going to be running instances much higher than level 60 (say Hellfire as the instance hub), at least not in a boosting (solo the instance with your toon) capacity.
You could likely clear a level 58-62 instance fairly easily with a group of 4x 58 + 1x 70, but you would be relying on the lower toons playing effectively in a support role.

So your 70th toon (Cat or Bear) will be rather effective at lower stuff.
You'll boost/get the lower combinations to 60th with ease.
But from 60th to 70th, you'd likely quest or pvp faster than boost in instances.

RAF goes to 80th now, instead of 60th.
But you can still get a lot of combinations to whatever level you can quickly boost to.

There aren't really a whole lot of Bear specific talents that your Kitty spec wouldn't have.
A Kitty spec essentially uses the same stats Agi/Sta, so gearing is very similar.
For the instances that you'd boost through, ie be high enough to basically solo, a kitty specific spec who happens to be in Bear Form would likely be easily sufficient.

You can of course go Bear Form and pick up some of the Bear specific talents.
That lets you do larger AoE pulls...
But these talents are more of a requirement for a Bear Tank, that is doing current level content... rather than a Bear or Cat that is boosting lower stuff.

If you like to do massive pulls...
You'd probably run wide of mobs, being able to almost touch many mobs without aggroing them.
With the option to Stealth past a bunch.
Then possibly cast a HOT spell on yourself.
Aggro a mini-boss or whatever...
In Scarlet Monastery (Cathedral) which you'd run from say 20th to 45th (might leave at 40th... and the levels of instances did change a bit with Cataclysm, but it was 20th to 44th for me during RAF)... basically attack the last guy, then run the swarm of mobs to almost the zone in area...
Well massive pulls would be Bear Form to survive...

Alternatively you could small pull groups of 8-10 or smaller mobs.
And just very quickly (likely one or two shot) each mob.
And down the group fast.
And move to the next group.
It isn't necessarily as quick as the massive pulls, but it is very effective.
For questing, where the group of toons takes the quest...
And the level 70 kills stuff with ease, while grouped with the lowbies...
Who get very little experience per kill, but the quest is completed extremely quickly...
And they get full experience for the quest turn ins...
I'd think Kitty would be drastically faster than Bear form.

If the content is trivial to you.
Bear and Cat will both work well.

[sync00]

Thanks for the great tips.

I tried a feral spec. Even though I have crappy feral gear and barely know how play feral yet, it was a lot easier to pull mobs than with the Boomkin. I'm amazed by how much easier it is. I'm looking forward to getting better gear and developing the skills so I can pull larger mobs.

I went with a bear because I have crappy gear and don't know how to play this spec yet. Once I get those things sorted out I'll try the cat.

[sync00]

Alternatively you could small pull groups of 8-10 or smaller mobs.
And just very quickly (likely one or two shot) each mob.

Which spell can one or two shot a group? I'm only using a few spells right now and it will take a while to learn them all.

[Ualaa]

With a Kitty...
You're not necessarily one/two shotting the entire group, but rather each mob one at a time... and they fall rather rapidly.
You do have Swipe as a Cat, but that's not often the best move.

Start in stealth.
Ravage a mob, which should outright kill it or put it very close to dead.

Stampede also allows you to Feral Charge Cat Form.
And then Ravage (Ravage is to Shred, as Ambush is to Backstab) without needing Stealth or having a positional requirement.
Predatory Strikes increases the crit chance of Ravage by 50% against fresh (over 80% health) targets.
Anytime you can Feral Charge Cat, you're basically going to kill that target (I believe there was a range requirement such that you couldn't use it on adjacent things, but could still attack casters who were a very short distance away from you).

The basic Kitty rotation I used was:
Mangle, Rake, Mangle, Mangle, Rip.

When questing against current level targets...
One Mangle (from Five Druids) dropped almost everything that was within +/- 2 levels of my toons.
That was in level appropriate questing gear.

When boosting, Mangle (and the Auto Attacks that follow) will drop most targets almost immediately.

Cat Form has a massive increase in DPS over Bear Form.
And like a rogue, you'll have a high amount of dodge (especially against lower mobs).
Bear Form has very high mitigation as well, but much lower damage.
Essentially, any time you can survive the mobs as a Kitty, go Kitty because they'll die in a quarter of the time.
But if you pull 100 mobs at once in Cathedral (SM), Bears will handle massive mobs much better.

Kitties have Stealth, Pounce/Ravage (both requiring Stealth), Sprint (Dash), Tiger's Fury (Energy Boost), Berserk (DPS Boost)...
Their Shred does more damage than Mangle, but requires being behind the target... while Mangle (boxed) is easier in that you can do it from any direction.
You can Rake (which is a combo point generating move) and Rip (a finishing move, which does more damage based on more combo points); these are both DOT effects, so the mobs armor essentially isn't there.

Bears have several survival options.
One reduces their Rage levels, but heals them as it does so.
And rage builds as they're hit.
Both have Survival Instincts, which is a health boost like Last Stand for a warrior.

If you have lowbies nearby, you could open with Hurricane as your pulling option.
That is AoE, so you'll have initial threat on everything.
But without spell power, it won't kill much if anything at all.
You could Bear Form - Charge, and then Swipe to hit things for threat.

[sync00]

When boosting, Mangle (and the Auto Attacks that follow) will drop most targets almost immediately.

I'm surprised you use Mangle when boosting. I use it with Berserk for bosses but stopped using it for large groups of mobs. When surrounded by a large group I can't tell what is targeted and I had facing issues with Mangle. So I just use Swipe.

[sync00]

I tried cat form but could not pull very well with the loss of health compared to bear form.

[Ualaa]

There's a gearing point, where the Cat Form drops things a lot faster than the Bear Form.
The Bear Form always lasts a lot longer.

If your Druid is not very geared as a Feral, go with Cat Form for the really low stuff.
But switch to Bear Form, once Kitty is having some issues.

[sync00]

I was thinking the cat didn't have enough health. I see now the solution is more AP.

I'm already having difficulty with the cat in Scarlet Monastery. I replaced some of my Intellect gear on the AH. But there is still a lot of room for better gear.

[sync00]

I did some testing with the cat. Cat Swipe takes 45 energy and I only have a total of 100. My bear form actually does 50% more dps than the cat form and the bear has 4x armor.