Guide

Restoration druids are the mobile healers (healing on the move), next to Holy priests. We focus our healing tactics in active and preemptive situations. An active fight has recurring damage as preemptive fights have anticipated damage. You either keep hot uptime and/or predict incoming damage, then healing when and where needed, while keeping a steady flow of hots on your tank(s).

Table of Contents

I. Statistics
II. Spells, Specs, and Glyphs
III. Gems, Enchants, Consumables, and Professions
IV. Addons, Keybinds, And Macros * Coming Soon *
V. Closing Credits and Other * Coming Soon *

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Statistics

Stat numbers taken from EJ forums. Credit to them.

Bonus Healing: Spellpower

Spellpower is the stat that increases how low or big your Bonus Healing will be. Obviously the more Spellpower you have (ilevel gear), the more your hots and burst heals increase your hps.

Talents: [Genesis], [Master Shapeshifter], [Improved Rejuvenation], [Gift of Nature], [Empowered Touch], and [Improved Tree of Life]. They all may not increase your Spellpower, but increase the healing to specific spells.

Shaman: [Flametongue Totem] or [Totem of Wrath]. *They do not stack.*

Warlock: [Demonic Pact]. *Does not stack with totems.*

Healing received: [Tree of Life Aura] or [Improved Devotion Aura]. *They do not stack or with other trees' auras.*

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Mana Regeneration: Spirit, Intellect, and Mp5

Spirit (with Intellect contributing and appropriate level) will increase your Mana Regen. Spirit will also increase your Spellpower slightly when in Tree of Life by 5% 1/3, 10% 2/3, and 15% 3/3 (you must have Improved Tree of Life talented). 1 Spirit increases Spellpower by 0.15. Example: 50 Spirit = 7.5 Spellpower (usually rounded).

Talents: [Living Spirit] and [Improved Mark of the Wild].

Druid: [Mark of the Wild] or [Gift of the Wild].

Paladin: [Blessing of Kings] or [Greater Blessing of Kings].

Priest: [Divine Spirit] or [Prayer of Spirit].

Other - Basic Campfire: [Cozy Fire].

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Intellect increases your Mana Regen, Mana Pool, and Critical. 1 Intellect = 15.3 Mana and 0.00612 Crit. Intellect also scales with [Replenishment] (1% of their maximum mana every 5 second for 15 seconds or 3% for 15 seconds).

Talents: [Living Spirit] and [Improved Mark of the Wild].

Druid: [Mark of the Wild] or [Gift of the Wild].

Mage: [Arcane Intellect] or [Arcane Brilliance].

Paladin: [Blessing of Kings] or [Greater Blessing of Kings].

** [Fel Intelligence] will increase Intellect and Spirit, but doesn't stack with Mage or Priest buffs. **

[Replenishment] - Classes and Abilities [Paladin - Judgements of the Wise], [Priest - Vampiric Touch], [Hunter - Hunting Party], [Warlock - Improved Soul Leech], or [Mage - Enduring Winter].

Regeneration from Spirit/Intellect When increasing your Mana Regen, this is the way to go. 1 Spirit will not increase your Mana Regen. Your Mana Regen will increase with how much Spirit and Intellect you have with talents, spells/raid buffs, gear/gems, and consumables.

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Mp5 is another way to increase your Mana Regen (it doesn't do anything else, except increase your Mana Regen). Mp5 isn't a bad stat and you may have a piece of gear (via neck and/or ring[s]) with some on it, but it should be the last stat to think about. Not many Leather pieces provide direct Mp5 now, as it did in the Burning Crusade. Many trinkets provide

Talent: [Intensity].

Druid: [Innervate].

Paladin: [Blessing of Wisdom] or [Greater Blessing of Wisdom]. If you are tree punching a boss, you can gain mana back from [Judgement of Wisdom].

Priest: [Hymn of Hope].

Shaman: [Mana Spring Totem] and [Mana Tide Totem].

** MS Totem or Greater/Blessing of Wisdom do not stack like they use to. **

Spell Haste

32.79 Haste Rating gives 1% Haste at level 80.

Global Cool Down or GCD starts at 1.5 without talents, raid buffs, or gear. It's our job to get it to 1.0 second and it can't go below that. I want to say that it's our butter, where as Spellpower is the bread. With having your gcd capped, you increase your healing and raid healing output. You're able to cast more spells at 1.0 vs 1.5. Lag and FPS will also have a toll.

[Gift of the Earthmother]: 10% 5/5 Spell Haste to all spells and 10% 5/5 Spell Haste to Lifebloom. (2% 1/5, 2/5 4%, 6% 3/5, 8% 4/5, 10% 5/5)

[Celestial Focus]: 3% 3/3 Spell Haste. (1% 1/3, 2% 2/3, 3% 3/3)

[Wrath of Air Totem]: 5% Spell Haste. *Does not stack with other Wrath totems.*

[Swift Retribution]/[Improved Moonkin]: 3% Haste. *They do not stack.*

Old GCD Requirements (before patch 3.3): 359 (without CF)

New GCD Requirements (after patch 3.3): 856 (without CF)
New GCD Requirements (after patch 3.3): 735 (with CF)

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Direct Heals Spell Haste will also effect your direct spells casting speed. Talents like, [Nature's Grace] or [Power Infusion] do this. There is [Bloodlust] or [Heroism] as well. They can drop your gcd below 1 second.

** [Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation] is also effected by how much Spell Haste/Haste Rating you have. The more you have, the more you will see Rejuvenation turning into Lifebloom, without the 3x stacks or bloom.**

Spell Critical

45.9 Critical Strike gives 1% to Critical at level 80. Critical is an amazing stat, but not something I would stack unless necessary. Intellect will increase your Critical.

Crit procs these: [T94P], [Living Seed], and [Nature's Grace].

Chance to Crit with these spells: Nourish, Regrowth, Healing, Swiftmend, and Lifebloom's Bloom.

Talents: [Nature's Majesty], [Nature's Bounty], and [Natural Perfection].

Crit provided from other classes: [Elemental Oath] or [Moonkin Aura]. *They do not stack.*

Stat Foundation

With T94P - Haste Cap > Spellpower/Regen > Crit
No T94P - Haste Cap > Spellpower/Regen > Haste

** The reason I didn't list Stamina is because I let this stat balance around talents, raid buffs, and whatever is on gear. I will never gem for it. There are a few enchants that WILL provide it. It's good because it's your life/health, but really isn't necessary to actually stack it. **

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Spells, Specs, and Glyphs

Healing Spells

[Rejuvenation] and [Wild Growth] (5:1 ratio) You will use these to cushion the raid, while others use effective burst heals to top the raid off. You can get off five Rejuvenations every time Wild Growth is on cool down. Maybe six? These will also be your top spells on your foundation.

[Nourish] is our "Flash Heal." There will sometimes be outbursts when you cast this to top off 2-3 or more people (Nature's Grace plays an effect here). I see this as a method. Also, if Regrowth (and Rejuvenation) are applied to your tank(s) at all times and they dip, it's good to cast Nourish for a quick topping. This most likely will show up 3rd on your foundation.

[Regrowth] is used for the long hot and not much of the burst heal. I like to keep this on my tanks 86% of the time and Rejuvenation 14%. I don't use it for anything else except the tank(s). If you have Living Seed talent, it should be up most of the time because of the 25% Crit to Regrowth/Nourish from Nature's Bounty (raid buffs and gear apply 25%+ more Crit).

[Swiftmend] is our *emergency* instant burst heal (which can Crit). Quick topping of a tank or raid member.

[Nature's Swiftness] + [Healing Touch] are used together. NS allows a direct heal (HT, Nourish, or Regrowth) to be an instant burst heal (which can Crit). NS doesn't Crit, but the actually heal being used with NS. HT is best suited with NS because it has the highest chance to crit a 20k. Side note, Healing Touch shouldn't be used for anything else. Except for heroic Anub when using an HT spec.

[Lifebloom] Sadly, LB isn't our bread and butter like it was before the change. It can still be used if you allow it to bloom (gain half mana back). I'll use it on the main tank before a pull - that's it.

[Tranquility] I wasn't going to post about this because I only use it on one fight. But it does have it's importance: keeping YOUR group alive. This does not effect the whole raid.

Other Spells

[Tree of Life Form] is the form we use to heal in 97% of the time. Once in ToL, an aura is applied to the raid that increases received healing. The aura does not stack with [Improved Devotion Aura] or other trees' auras.

[Mark of the Wild], [Gift of the Wild], and [Thorns] are your standard buffs other than the aura you apply to the healers while in Tree of Life. Thorns is used for the tanks and/or fights where you need damage to kill some type of mob(s).

[Innervate], [Rebirth], and [Revive] You know the obvious of these spells.

[Barkskin] and [Dash] I use these all the time for survivability. Barkskin for reducing damage impact and Dash to kite the purser.

[Abolish Poison] or [Remove Curse] At times you'll have to use these spells to cleanse poisons or curses. Fights like Maexxna, Noth, Yogg, Faction Champs, and Deathwhisper for example. I believe Cata is bringing us a cleanse ability (fml)?

[Faerie Fire] You'll use this if you're the only druid, and FF isn't being put up.

[Wrath] (maybe [Starfire]) and [Moonfire] Fights where you'll need to dps because there is no healing or you have to kill something, that no one else can't. Fights like XT2 or Leotheras for example.

[Nature's Grasp] and [Entangling Roots] *may* be used somewhere in an instance to root a mob. Kinda like the scouts in Zul'Aman back in BC.

Specs And Glyphs

I wont go into much detail about each talent, as you can read the talent tooltip. However below are listed specs for 98% of encounters and 2% of major encounters.

Patch 3.3 - CF Spec Your main priority is getting your gcd capped. CF gives you 3% = 98.37 Spell Haste.

* Click This For The Spec *

Patch 3.3 - Drop CF For Other Talents When you reach your gcd cap, CF will play a small role, but not enough to override other talents you'll need. This is the current spec I'm using. I have no need for Nature's Grace because I'm not casting my direct heals at a rapid pace (think tank healing or Val encounter in ICC).

* Click This For The Spec *

Heroic Anub - HT Spec Before patch 3.3 went live, many druids were working on the Anub'arak encounter in ToGC. A specific spec was required to keep up with Penetrating Cold damage. A Healing Touch spec came into play. Additional talents were dropped and gained. You can see Master Shapeshifter was dropped because with every druid who had it, 2% or 4% was a percentage that would increase Anub'arak's healing in phase 3.

* Click This For The Spec *

Valithria Spec You want to increase your healing output much as possible. A Nourish + with hot priority spec or a well organized direct healing spec. Tree Bark Jacket and Restokin for more information on healing Val or Nourish/Direct Target specs.

Major Glyphs You'll do a lot of glyph of swapping while raiding. Try to keep stacks of whichever glyphs you think you'll use the most.

[Glyph of Swiftmend] is used in every spec.

[Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation] and [Glyph of Rejuvenation] are both important and will be used on certain boss encounters (or working together). Debate between normal and hard modes, on where you think it would be suitable to use these.

Note: Rapid Rejuvenation will still do the same amount of hps, but quicker topping of raid members' health. What you truly are losing out on is time. 2:1 ratio.

[Glyph of Wild Growth] Having a sixth target is important, but may be outweighed by other glyphs.

[Glyph of Nourish] is used if committing to a direct target. Perfect in a tank healing build.

[Glyph of Healing Touch] is used in a HT spec, for healing PM targets on heroic Anub or something close to it. It's solid when leveling (healing low level instances).

Others you may use: [Glyph of Rebirth], [Glyph of Innervate], [Glyph of Regrowth], and [Glyph of Lifebloom].

Minor Glyphs Below are the glyphs you should have as minors. Screw the increased time to Thorns and improved swim speed to Aquatic Form.

[Glyph of Dash], [Glyph of Unburden Rebirth], and [Glyph of the Wild].

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Gems, Enchants, Consumables, and Professions

Gems

I'll only be listing level 80 epic gems. You should be min/maxing your character to the fullest. I can understand if currency is tight, then downgrade. But get to farming! It's your personal preference on what you want to gem for your character.

Red Sockets: [Runed Cardinal Ruby].

Yellow Sockets: [Reckless Ametrine], [Quick King's Amber], and/or [Luminous Ametrine].

Blue Sockets: [Purified Dreadstone].

Meta Sockets: [Ember Skyflare Diamond] or [Insightful Earthsiege Diamond]. If you plan to socket Insightful, use one [Nightmare Tear] to clear the requirements.

Blacksmithing Sockets (bracers and gloves)/[Eternal Belt Buckle]: Socket any gem color/type into these/this. You need to be a Blacksmith to use the bracers and gloves sockets. The belt buckle can be bought via auction house or have a Blacksmith craft it.

Dragon's Eye (can only use three of them): [Runed Dragon's Eye] and/or [Quick Dragon's Eye]. You need to be a Jewelcrafter.

** Many ask me why I gem full [Runed Cardinal Ruby] and my reason is I'm so far in the game's content that:
A) I want to increase my hots'/healing output.
B) Getting gcd capped is easily tamable. "
C) Regen is never an issue. **

Enchants

Again I'll only post top enchants, nor am I posting the shoulder enchants from Inscription. You should be working on/exalted with Hodir and I have other options for professions for you.

Head: [Arcanum of Burning Mysteries] or [Arcanum of Blissful Mending].

Shoulders: [Arcanum of Burning Mysteries] or [Arcanum of Blissful Mending].

Cape: [Greater Speed].

Chest: [Powerful Stats].

Bracers: [Superior Spellpower].

Hands: [Exceptional Spellpower].

Legs: [Brilliant Spellthread].

Feet: [Tuskarr's Vitality] or [Greater Spirit].

Weapon (mace or dagger): [Mighty Spellpower]. Weapon (staff): [Greater Spellpower].

Both Rings: You need to be an Enchanter to enchant your rings. Use [Greater Spellpower] on both rings.

Consumables

Keep a good amount of currency, so that you can keep stocked on consumables and glyphs. Listed below are top consumables. For example, I'm only listing Fish Feast rather than a Great Feast.

Food: [Fish Feast], [Firecracker Salmon], or [Tender Shoveltusk Steak] Direct Spellpower increase.

[Spicy Fried Herring] or [Mighty Rhino Dogs] Direct Mp5 increase.

[Imperial Manta Steak] or [Spicy Blue Nettlefish] If you need a Haste or Crit boost.

[Sagefish Delight] I haven't checked on this since the Burning Crusade. It should still stack with regular buff foods. It's nice to keep these around for an extra effect.

[Golden Fish Sticks], [Poached Bluefish], or [Blackened Basilisk] If you want solid Spellpower, but also slight Mana Regen increase + slight Spellpower. I usually keep a stack or two of Golden Fish Sticks on me.

[Cuttlesteak] Gain Spellpower and Mana Regen, but also Stamina vs [Golden Fish Sticks].

Drinks: I'll usually grab mage food/water from the table, but I also keep [Star's Sorrow] on me. Star's Sorrow is pretty cheap compared to other water or liquid brands. 1g/12 honor for 20x.

Reagents: Keep a bag full of [Wild Spineleaf] for your Wild buff.

Potions: [Crazy Alchemist's Potion] (if an Alchemist) and/or [Runic Mana Potion]. There is also potions that restore health, but I usually have hots on myself. Other: [Swiftness Potion], [Potion of Wild Magic], and/or [Potion of Speed].

Flasks:: Keep stacks of [Flask of the Frost Wyrm] and [Flask of Pure Mojo] on you. You can also use [Flask of Distilled Wisdom]. I'm not going into much detail about Elixirs because I don't care for them. There are some that you may use (stat + regen or stat + spellpower increase). Whatever floats your boat.

Personal Note: Try to keep stacks of gems, enchant scrolls, glyphs, and whatever else that wasn't listed in your bags.

Professions

I wont go into much detail about every profession. I will say this, keep TWO primary professions on you (screw the gathering professions).

Alchemist: I believe this is one of the best professions for us in a PvE content. You are able to create your own flasks/potions, extra time for flasks, and gain 46 Spellpower.

Jewelcrafting: Being able to cut your own gems and usage of Dragon's Eye. If my calculations are correct, you gain 48 Spellpower compared to 46 Spellpower from say, Inscription/Leatherworking/Blacksmith/Enchanting.

Cooking (+ Fishing): Being able to provide your raid or yourself food.

First AID: You never know when you will need this.

Edit this article: Patch 3.3 - PvE Restoration Druid Guide

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Audience

I intend this to be an end-all Restoration Druid guide. As such it will be more focused toward a beginning Druid, and more detailed then an advanced Druid might want to read though. But you might get an idea or two, or might be able to give some valuable feedback yourself.

Guide

CONTENTS

Healing is not for the Faint of Heart

Healing is by far the most demanding role, and takes the most skill to really master in my opinion. I’ve been 3 different caster dps classes, a Tank, and a melee dps, and healing is unique in that instead of going through a set rotation on a set target(or priority rotation), I am literally deciding on a gcd to gcd basis, which spell on which target will be the most beneficial.

You need uber fast reflexes to save people, often from their own stupidity.

Most importantly, you need to do all that while maintaining flawless situational awareness. Because if you die, the raid is likely to die.

Some Pro tips:

In most cases, you should use every single gcd in the duration of an encounter. I like to practice this even in five mans, and see how high I can ramp up the over heals. And it’s the best way to get a handle on how much regen you need. (More on that in the gear section.)

Always know each boss fight before you ever go in. ESPECIALLY for a resto druid this is important because one difference between a mediocre druid, and an amazing resto druid is the ability to predict who is going to take damage and have hots ticking in advance.

Always carry all useful glyphs on you. Glyphs are CHEAP, they usually cost 3g each for the mats, so if you’re not a scribe, find one, give them the mats, and have them make you a full stack each of the glyphs and tip them well for their time. Some glyphs are completely useless for certain fights, but can make a significant difference in others, so if you're not switching them when required your gimping yourself.

Always keep hots on the tanks. Worst case scenario if they are taking heavy damage, and especially if there’s any moving the tank healers have to do, you keep full hots on them at all times. Regrowth, Rejuv, and 3 stacks of Lifebloom. You don’t let the lifeblooms, bloom in that case unless you’re moving and the tank needs it. Having all those hots ticking in between the big holy lights can make the difference, and that bloom for in case your cc’d or moving, in addition to a Swiftmend on the run makes resto druids awesome for that pinch healing. For a little less intensive tank healing keep your regrowth and rejuv up and slow stack the lifeblooms. Use one lifebloom, 7-9 seconds later stack a second, then 7-9 seconds later stack a third, then let it bloom and repeat. MUCH easier on your mana. In most farm content keeping either a Rejuv or Regrowth on the tank so you can Swiftmend if needed is sufficient.

Always use Innervate the first time at 50-70% mana (depending on how much mana you have) and then again every time its up, (assuming your below 50-70% of course).

In a heavy raid damage scenario all you do is roll 5 Rejuvs, 1 Wild Growth, rinse &
repeat. Watch for a good chance to use Swiftmend every time it’s off cd.

When it’s necessary to spot heal;
• If speed is not a pressing concern (imminent death in less than 1.5 seconds) and the target has no hot, use Regrowth
• If imminent death looms, use Nourish
• If the target has the Regrowth or Rejuv effect, and Swiftmend is up, use it. (most cases)
• If the target has any hot on them, and Swiftmend is NOT up, use Nourish.

*Note. In most cases, in my opinion reactive spot healing is not our strength, we should be predicting damage, and rolling hots. So to appeal to our strengths more appropriately, I do most of my spot healing with Regrowth. With Nature’s grace up, it’s only 0.14 above the gcd cap for me. If 0.14-0.4 of a second is likely to make or break the fight, then spec into Naturalist, and use the Healing touch glyph. The only time I’ve found that necessary is ToGC 25 Anub.

About overhealing. It doesn't matter. At all. I don't care if your the highest in overhealing, or the lowest. If you don't oom, you can't overheal too much. It can be useful to look at merely to calculate your total raw healing, especially on 5x1 fights to see how tight your keeping your rotation. Just add the total effective healing for that encounter, with the total overhealing for the same encounter, and divide by the number of seconds in combat. Or use world of logs ;)

Even the Effective Healing Meter, while useful doesn't mean everything. Which is most useful in say ToGC Twins: A Resto Druid with 13k hps, or Resto Shaman with 8k hps? I'd put them as equal, most of the Druids healing is small ticks on people who are over 75% hp and not in danger of dieing, while the Shamans healing is a smart cast hitting the people most likely to die (maybe they ate an orb). Without the Druids massive raw healing a lot more people would be in danger of dieing, and without the Shamans smart heals more people likely would die.

Restoration Spell and Glyph Breakdown

REJUVENATION

This is our bread and butter. It’s my #1 heal in at least 95% of fights. It scales with our spell power better than anything else and has the second highest hpct, as well as amazing mana efficiency.

In a nutshell, the more Rejuvs you have ticking on more people, the better. A main strength of the Resto Druid is the ability to heal while moving, so don’t ever stop spamming those hots. Knowing the fight is key, if like in a lot of fights the melee take the most damage, make sure they have a rejuv at all times. Another reason (albiet minor) to prioritize melee is they get the most benefit dps wise from revitalize.

Knowing when, and when not to use the 2 different Rejuv glyphs is important. Since we use a lot of haste now, and rejuv scales sooo well with our spellpower, and now crit, the Rapid Rejuvenation glyph is amazing…. for some fights. And utterly useless, even detrimental in others. Basically the smaller the spread you need for your Rejuv the better this glyph is. In any 5 man, or 10 man, it’s a no brainer. Use it. In 25’s you want to use it in fights where less people, will be taking more damage. As in maybe the melee will be taking the only reliable damage, and there are only 7-10 so it’s a great chance for RR. Saurfang is the best example of a RR fight, your only hitting people who get Blood Boil, Mark of the Fallen Champion, and tanks with your rejuv so having it hasted is essential. However in aura constant damage fights it is useless, to even detrimental, because it’s the same hpct glyphed, but it lessens the spread of how many people you can have rejuv on, and for more minor damage the glyph will put a much higher % of your healing into overhealing.

Glyph of Rejuvenation increases healing received from rejuv by 50%, under 50% health. Obviously this is by far the best glyph… if your raid spends much time under 50%. In actual use I find it rarely surpasses 1% of my healing. However in especially difficult encounters, and progression encounters it can be very beneficial. Don’t forget in a strict 5x1 fight, the only 2 glyphs you really need are WG and SM, so it doesn’t cost much to have it. Unless its progression, I’ll keep my Nourish glyph.

Basically, whenever there isn’t a compelling reason to cast any other spell, your filler is Rejuv, cast it on whoever you think is most likely to take dmg, but don’t stress on it, USE IT, you want to use every single gcd, it’s better to mindlessly Rejuv the whole raid start to finish then stop to think about who should be next outside of your gcd.

WILD GROWTH

Our highest hpct spell. IF there are 3 or more people who took damage, are taking damage, or are likely to take damage within the next 1-2 seconds within 15 yards, you use it. Every time it’s up. A good way to make sure you are using it is the 5x1 healing strat. You do this on any heavy raid damage fight, especially aura type constant damage. (Think Toc Twins, Sapphiron, Sindragosa etc) Its simply 5 rejuvs, 1 WG, 5 rejuvs, 1 WG. I’ll actually count in my head 1-5, then hit WG. Plan ahead who your going to cast it on. Melee gets 90% of mine because:

A. They are clumped up by nature.
B. Once again they benefit the most from revitalize.
C. And finally because they are the most likely to take damage.

Just make sure you don’t accidentally cast it on someone who’s off by themselves. Situational awareness is key, if you hit the one melee who happens to be running away with Legion Flames… you just failed.

The Wild Growth glyph makes it effect a 6th target. And since in a 5x1 fight your WG is 30-40% of your healing that’s rather huge. IF it’s going to hit a 6th target. Which makes it utterly useless in 5 mans, and largely useless in 10 mans. If a fight requires more spot healing and doesn’t have much raid damage this is the first glyph to go.

SWIFTMEND

My favorite spell ;) It’s our lifesaver. In most cases every time it’s off cooldown, I’ll be watching for any target I have hotted to drop to 50% or lower so less of it goes to overhealing and hit them. This is where fast reflexes pay off. Since your likely to have half the raid hotted at any given time in a 25, or an entire 10, you can INSTANTLY heal a spike. The less time anyone spends below 100%, the better. Some might call it heal sniping, but the faster people get healed, the less chance of them getting rng’d to death. You can use an addon like Power Auras, or have it in a key place so you can watch its cooldown.

The exception would be situations where you might want to save it for a key moment. If a fight requires movement you want to keep hots on the tanks at all times (should be doing that anyway) and be ready to wiftmend them if the tank healers are busy moving and can’t heal. Rather then just use it off cooldown, on difficult fights you may want to prioritize key people for your Swiftmends. Like in Faction Champions anyone who’s tasked with cc should have a hot at all times, and save your swiftmends for them, healers, or yourself.

The Swiftmend glyph is the one glyph I almost never swap out. Think of it as a free Rejuvenation every 15 seconds.

REGROWTH & NOURISH

At one time our main spell was Regrowth back when it alone had +50% crit. Having an initial good heal, and an extra long swiftmendable hot is excellent. If you just read the tooltips you might assume spamming regrowth instead of rejuvenation would be higher hps, but in fact, it doesn’t scale as well with your spell power, and the hot can’t crit.

However if the initial heal isn’t wasted, and there is constant damage so the hot does its job, it is right behind Rejuv. Without the t10 or t9 4pc bonus’s, with none of either Rejuv or Regrowth going into overheals the Regrowth would win. My Rejuv (no buffs) tics for 2,721, and averages an easy 1 crit per so 2,721x5+4,082= 17687. Regrowth’s initial heal is 5,500ish, and crits for 8,250 (easy 50% crit rate with talents). The hot tics for 1,414 x9 = 12,726 + 5500 = 18,226 or + 8,250 = 20,976.

So even on an aura type 5x1 fight, don’t be afraid to switch to Regrowths if people are below 60% hp. It will usually be less slightly less hps in comparison due to scaling raid buffed (especially with the sp from a Demo Lock), and of course Regrowth is slower then Rejuv, and more expensive mana wise, but it’s definitely worthwhile as a spot heal.

While both nourish and regrowth now get the +25% crit, only nourish gets the +20% bonus from your spell power with Empowered Touch. Plus with the glyph Nourish will scale with hots much better, making it the primary spam heal. Nourish is obviously much faster as a spot heal as well, but you’ll find once your haste capped Regrowth is better on a target with no hots, because with nature’s grace up its nearly as fast as Nourish (about 1.14 cast, while the nourish dips below the gcd at .85ish) Plus the Regrowth leaves a 27 second hot that heals in its own right, plus being swiftmendable. As well as buffing your Nourish, for any subsequent spot heals.

To reiterate the spot heal rules I mentioned earlier;
• If the target has no hot, use Regrowth
• If the target has the Regrowth or Rejuv effect, and Swiftmend is up, use it. (most cases)
• If the target has any hot on them, and Swiftmend is NOT up, use Nourish.

A single target rotation is Regrowth/Rejuvenation/Lifebloom/spam Nourish, slow stack Lifeblooms and let them bloom, and keep up Regrowth and Rejuv as they fall off.

The Regrowth glyph buffs it by 20% (including the hot part) if there is a regrowth effect still on the target. It was the best second tank healing glyph, but imo the Rapid Rejuvenation glyph is better now. If you glyphed for both Regrowth and Nourish and were to heal the same target that has a Regrowth effect on it, you might think they’d be comparable, but the nourish scales better with empowered touch, and is faster so it wins. I’ve considered using this glyph, and spamming Regrowth instead of Rejuv, it would be higher hps IF the initial heal wasn’t wasted, which if your spamming it through the raid it would be 80% of the time. Plus it would require gearing for more regen as it’s so much more expensive.

Any fight that won’t be pure 5x1 and will have a fair amount of spot healing, and definitely in 10 and 5 mans where I’ll be doing more tank heals, I’ll have the Nourish glyph. It buffs the Nourish by 6% per hot on the target (Don’t forget it has a base +20% for the first hot).

LIFEBLOOM

Lifebloom is without a doubt, our lowest hpct hot and pretty much sucks if you don’t use it properly. Math incoming ;)

A single Lifebloom in my current gear, without buffs tics for 531 which x 9 = 4,779. The bloom hits for 3,346. For a total heal of 8,125 per gcd… which is crap. My Rejuv is 2700 a tic and is guaranteed to crit at least once for a total of about 17,500 in one gcd (no buffs). Plus the bloom is almost always wasted.

BUT before you throw it away, look at what happens when you slow stack and let it bloom. We’ll refresh it after the 8th tic at 1 second left for this. 1st gcd, 8tics = 4,248. 2nd gcd 531x2x8= 8,496. 3rd gcd, 531x3x9 = 14,337 + bloom for 10,038 = 37,119 healing for 3 gcds, which is 12,373 healing per gcd. Not too bad, if I 3 stack it fast and let it bloom its only 25,968. If I keep it rolling, refreshing at 1 second left (after the 8th tic), it’s worth 12,744 a gcd. Worth noting is that the gcd is 10% faster on Lifebloom as well thanks to Gift of the EarthMother.

Since they doubled Lifeblooms mana cost, but it refunds half of it on bloom, keeping it rolling can be expensive, so keep an eye on your mana. Also keep in mind the bloom CAN crit, but with no talents for it, it’s only off your base crit.

What all that math tells us is Rejuv>Lifebloom ALWAYS. You use Lifebloom when 1 hot isn’t enough. Usually that's just the tank; either slow stacking it, or keeping it rolling. The only time I’ll use Lifeblooms on the raid, is if I'm moving and can't spot heal, and someone needs more healing then just a Rejuv. And sometimes if you’re pro, you can find ways to time the bloom. Timing Lifeblooms to have the bloom go off after a Gravity Bomb on XT is one example, most recently on our Sindragosa kill I was timing them for myself when I had Unchained Magic.

The other thing about Lifebloom is it ticks once a second, while Rejuv and Regrowth tick every 3 (excepting RR glyph). Since the tank is taking constant damage and Lifebloom ticks so fast less of it will go into overheals. And having that bloom in the que can be a life saver if you get stunned/knocked back/ am moving or whatever the encounter requires, it’s nice to know if no one gets a heal on the tank for a couple seconds, they’ll have that 10-20k bloom.

Interesting note ;) If you cast a Lifebloom with Omen of Clarity up, you still get mana back. Making it free mana, I use power aura's to alert me to omen proccing, you won't use them all on Lifeblooms if your healing like mad, but if your watching for it you can get a decent amount of extra mana back throughout an encounter.

The Lifebloom glyph adds 1 second to your Lifebloom. I wouldn't consider it worthwhile unless you are keeping stacks rolling on 2-3 targets (Blood Princes maybe?) and have a free glyph slot. On blood princes 25 I'm using SM/WG/Nourish glyphs, and in 10 RR/SM/Nourish, so I can't really think of a time I'd use this glyph.

TRANQUILITY

Very rarely does this great spell get any use. It’s basically like spam casting Regrowth on all 5 people in your group at the same time. The reason it doesn’t see much use is because its incredibily rare for any 1 group to take enough sustained damage to justify it. And of course because other groups get ignored. The only time in recent history I’ve used it outside a 5 man (where it does sometimes save the day) is on the ToGC Twins door strat, where no one moves and you heal through the vortex. Usually as close to 1 Druid per group as possible, and 1 Paladin per group and they all blow their divine sac/tranquility right as the vortex starts, in addition to all the Priests using Divine Hymn.

One other interesting point in regard to Tranquility, is it can’t get line of sighted ;)

HEALING TOUCH

Last and least. The ugly stepchild of our healing arsenal. Healing Touch.
The 3 main reasons it’s not used much are because:

A. Even specced into Naturalist, it’s extremely slow.
B. Because it doesn’t get the + 25% chance to crit that regrowth and Nourish get, giving it a crappy nature’s grace, and living seed uptime.
C. With the Healing touch glyph it makes it less efficient mana wise, and waaaay too fast, as it’s under the global cooldown.

Therefore it’s rarely used but I’ll enumerate the only times it’s worthwhile.

First it’s what you use with Natures Swiftness for your biggest “oh shit” instant cast heal.

Next many druids spec into it and glyph for it for the ToGC 25 Anub fight. The glyph reduces HT's cast time by 1.5 second, mana cost by 25%, and amount healed by 50%. Its usually just used for leveling. It’s the biggest (with no hots up) and fastest spell we have. If you’re healing PC targets, having a spell under the gcd cap is actually beneficial. Sure you can only cast 1 a second, but the initial 2 heals are the key, and if it’s a 0.7 cast time, then you can cast your first 2 heals in 1.7 seconds. Saving 0.3 seconds, which trust me, will save your ass.

And last but not least, it’s actually higher hps on a single target, IF you spec into naturalist, and only use it during a Bloodlust/Heroism (unglyphed). There is only one fight at the moment that it is worthwhile to spec into naturalist for that reason imo, and that is Dreamwalker. Since you want to spec only into talents that increase throughput and don’t care about regen talents, it makes it the one time I spec into, and use it. You may also spec into Lunar Guidance in balance for more spellpower. Use the typical single target rotation I described earlier on Dreamwalker, use Wild Growth off cd if the raid takes damage (not targeted on Dreamwalker btw, it didn't seem to link), but at some point probably in the last minute or so of the fight when all the healers come out of the portals buffed up and the raid blows Heroism/Bloodlust, switch to spamming Healing Touch. On Paradox’s “kill” Healing Touch was 13% of my healing which was rather amazing to me as I only used it for the 40 second duration of Bloodlust, and twice with Natures Swiftness, in a fight 7:12 long.

REBIRTH

The ability, in combat to restore life to a raid member. Obviously very powerful, and with the cd reduced to 10 minutes, there isn't much point in saving it, as you can usually use it once per boss encounter. Usually the raid leader will call for it to be used, and which druid to avoid confusion. Regardless you should have either a macro, or can configure Healbot to announce when you use it, and on whom. This macro (from http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t88239-resto_pve_compendium_general_discussion/) not only announces your Rebirth, but out of combat will switch to Revive.

#showtooltip
/use [nocombat] Revive
/stopmacro [nocombat]
/use Rebirth
/ra Rebirth on %t

There are cases where a FAST enough Rebirth can save a situation, in which case I don't wait for a call. ("So shoot me, I did it without being told and it saved the day") An example would be a progression fight where a key person died and the boss is near death. Tank dies at 5%. An instant battle rez, followed by an instant Nature's Swiftness/Healing touch and he's back in the game, and hopefully either A. Whoever was 2nd highest on threat had the reflexes/awareness to blow cd's, or B. the boss didn't have enough time to kill enough people to wipe you.

The Rebirth glyph allows players to come back to health at 100% hp. If you have a spare slot (a strict 5x1 fight) this can be a useful progression glyph especially in a fight with constant damage where the person is likely to just die again. However I usually have Nature's Swiftness for this.

Innervate

This returns about 8k mana, on a 3 minute cd. I use it as soon as I get to about 65% mana (% used at will depend on the size of your mana pool) to make sure none of it gets wasted, and its up again asap.

The Innervate glyph adds (if used off cd) about 40 mp5. Useful for a new Druid, but shouldn't be necessary at advanced gear levels.

BARKSKIN

USE IT! It’s on a short cooldown so the more often you use it the better. I recommend having it as your most accessible keybind. Besides if your 5 man tank is being slow I find it fun to hot myself and pull with Barkskin up ;) TREE TANK FTW! (warning: high probability of pissing people off ;)
I actually use a complete “oh shit” macro that pops everything useful in one click. Something like:
/use Fel Healthstone
/use Crazy Alchemist's Potion
/cast Lifeblood(Rank 6)
/cast Barkskin

With both the potion and healthstone its almost as good as a NS Healing Touch, in one click with no gcd. This has saved my ass in raids more times than I can count.

Yes... I’m an Alchemist/Herbalist. I will be going into more detail as to professions at a later date, but Alchemy (unless you want to dualspec feral) is imo the best raiding profession. You get the same extra spell power you get from most professions, plus double duration on your flasks, extra benifit from your potions, and access to the awesome Crazy Alchemist's Potion. They are cheap to make, I usually use 1 per fight. To maximize their use, wait until you can use the health, and you get the free mana and random potion effect while you're at it.

As to Herbalism.. that is not a raiding profession. I'm an Herbalist because I enjoy herbing with my Druid late at night while chatting or watching tv. (310% Swift Flight Form=win)

Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment or pm me any advice, commentary, or ways I can improve the guide. My next guide will go into Gear, Talents, and Professions. Tuun's guide, also posted here has an excellent overview of stats.

P.S. Apparently 6 people have voted my guide down without any comment as to why when I clearly said its not finished yet? Please if you have any advice, corrections, or commentary on how I can improve it, it is a work in progress, so say something. Also while I'm hoping advanced Druids can pick up an idea or 2, clearly it will be more useful to a beginning Druid.

Reference

cc = crowd control. Can refer to any ability that renders a player or npc useless.

cd = Cooldown. The time between when an ability is first used, and when it can be used again.

gcd = Global Cooldown. The 1 second cap (at haste cap) for all your abilities.

hot(s) = Healing Over Time spell

hpct = Healing per Cast Time

NS = Nature's Swiftness

regen = Used exclusively in this guide to refer to mana regeneration from all sources.

Rejuv = Shorthand for Rejuvenation

Rng = Random Number Generator

RR = Rapid rejuvenation glyph

Smart heal = A heal that automatically targets the lowest health eligible target.

SM = Swiftmend

WG = Wild Growth

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Guide

Introduction

This guide will cover how to play a Feral Cat DPS, from the basics of spec and rotation to the more advanced tips & tricks of the class. If you are a veteran Feral Cat most of this guide will probably be useless to you, but if you are an up-and-comer who understands the fundamentals of the playstyle or a beginner Druid looking to try it for the first time, this guide is for you.

At the time of writing I'm on a break from raiding, so I will probably not be updating this guide if significant changes are made to the spec during 3.3. My character is Ark of the Darkmoon Faire EU Server, in the guild Prophecy.

Armory Link

Why play a Feral Cat?

Ferals are one of the strongest hybrid DPS specs. We have unparalleled mobility, bring the 5% melee crit buff and utility in the form of Rebirth and Innervate to the raid, and the priority style of play makes Feral DPS dynamic and fun.

The Basics

Spec

There are more or less two standard Cat DPS specs, one for absolute maximum single-target damage at the expense of AoE damage and a few utilities, and the other with those points swapped around. The AoE spec has a free point that can be place wherever you'd like.

Single Target

AoE + 1

Savage Roar, Rip and Shred are the only Glyphs worth considering for Feral DPS.

Toolbox & Priority System

Feral single target DPS uses 5 main abilities: Mangle, Rip, Rake, Savage Roar and Shred. The goal is to keep the first 4 abilites active as much as possible and use the 5th to burn energy and generate combo points.

Ferals use a priority system rather than an standard rotation. Your next action is not determined in advance but will change depending on your Energy level, the number of Combo Points on your target, the time remaining on Savage Roar, Rake, Rip and Mangle and encounter-specific elements such as target switching.

There are a few basic rules that govern how you work with the priority system:

> > > >

- Only Rip at 5 Combo Points
- Savage Roar at any number of Combo Points. The higher the better, but do whatever you can to keep the buff active.
- If the 30% bleed damage debuff is being applied by someone else, either through an Arms Warrior with Trauma or a Bear Tank, you don't need to keep Mangle up yourself. It's still worth tracking those debuffs in case you need to apply it.

If you're following the system properly your job will be more about refreshing everything one by one as it falls off rather than having to prioritize one ability over another.

There are a few other abilities that you will use:

Tiger's Fury. Restores 60 Energy and gives a small damage boost for 6 seconds.
Use this ability as much as possible, but never waste the energy it provides.

Ferocious Bite. Big-hitting ability, hugely inefficient when it consumes more than 30 Energy.
A difficult ability to work into the system. When used thoughtlessly it can result in other stuff falling off and a DPS loss. When learning how to Feral DPS just pretend this just doesn't exist, the DPS increase it offers when used well is outweighed by it's fiddliness. Should never be used at less that 5 Combo Points.

Berserk. Your damage cooldown.
Only ever use this when you have high energy, preferably after a Tiger's Fury. You want to Shred as much as possible while this is up, but continue to refresh stuff as you go. Wasting CP is guaranteed to happen while Berserking, don't worry about it.

Swipe. Your AoE.
Remember that it's conal unlike the Bear version. Only really useful on add-heavy fights (Yogg+0, Anub'Arak) and trash.

Opener

-> -> 2-4CP -> -> -> * X ->

Where X = the amount of Shreds needed to reach 5 CP. The opener will change depending on the initial Mangle/Rake critting for extra CP, Clearcast procs and misses/dodges. Learn to adapt in order to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. Once everything is ticking, keep everying up according to the priority rotation.

Don't forget to cast Faerie Fire on bosses if there isn't a Bear Tank, Balance Druid or Warlock already applying the -%5 Armor debuff.

The best advice that can be given to someone learning how to play Feral is to practice. Practice, practice, practice! Find a training dummy and glue yourself to it until you have a handle on the system, then go to a VoA pug or such to practice in a raid environment.

Gearing your Cat

While I wanted this guide to contain some gearing information, the emphasis is on practical playing advice. There's enough to get started here but I recommend that you use Rawr to plan your gear progression.

Basics

Gearing for Feral DPS is pretty simple. I'm not going to list all the enchants you should get because it should be pretty easy to figure out. I should say that Agility > Crusher on gloves, Agility > Icewalker on boots even under the hit cap, and Berserking is the best weapon enchant. However, Mongoose is very close to Berserking for DPS, so if you want to use the same staff for tanking and DPS feel free to enchant it with Mongoose.

Hit and Expertise are not particularly desirable for Ferals because an ability failing to land will cost you only a GCD, not Energy or Combo Points. The worst that can happen is you have a second or two of downtime on one of your abilities. While constant misses or dodges can be irritating and cause you to muddle the rotation a little, it will not show on the meters the way you might expect. For reference, the Hit cap is 262 and the Expertise cap is 26.

You should use the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond, and activate it with a Nightmare Tear so that you can use Reds for the rest of your gems.. Put the tear somewhere it will activate a worthwhile socket bonus.

Agility vs Armor Penetration

As you start you should be gemming for Agility only. Once you get a decent amount Armor Pen from gear you should swap all your gems to it. The actual threshold is not particularly important, but 400-500 Armor Pen is a good point to swap. There are currently 2 ways to gear for Armor Pen. One is to soft cap it and get an Armor Penetration trinket, the other is to go for the hard cap.

"Soft Cap" means to get a trinket that gives Armor Pen on a proc, deduct that amount of Armor Pen from the hard cap, and gem Armor Pen until you hit that number. In other words, you want to have 1400 Armor Pen when the trinket proc is active.

At lower gear levels, soft capping is a good option especially with the introduction of the easily attainable Needle-Encrusted Scorpion trinket from the Forge of Souls heroic. Here's a table of the 3 Armor Pen trinkets in the game, where they drop and their stats information.

Name	Drops in	Passive Stat	ArP on proc	Resulting ArP softcap
Grim Toll	Naxxramas 25	83 Hit	612	788
Mjolnir Runestone	Thorim 10 (Hard mode)	102 Crit	665	735
Needle-Encrusted Scorpion	Devourer of Souls (Heroic)	114 Crit	678	722

Depending on what trinket you have, you should change the maximum amount of Armor Pen that you gem for. Once you hit the soft cap you should gem the remaining sockets with Agility. Needle-Encrusted Scorpion is by far the superior item to use, the stats are higher and its proc has a shorter internal cooldown than the other two which results in higher uptime.

EDIT: Apparently NES was hotfixed to have the same 45-second internal cooldown as the other two trinkets. This makes it more or less the same as Mjolnir; it's stats are higher but the fact that it procs off a crit rather than just a hit means that it's uptime will be slightly lower. If you have Mjolnir already then don't tear your hair out trying to get NES, the difference is minimal. (Thanks to Stave of Semper Fortis)

Hardcapping will likely be the superior option in Icecrown Citadel. Gear has such large amount of Armor Pen that the cap of 1400 will be realistically attainable. The trinkets Banner of Victory and Deathbringer's Will are good if you are stacking Armor Pen with the hard cap in mind.

Remember that Armor Pen food exists, Hearty Rhino. You should eat it unless you're capped or not stacking ArP, in which case you should eat Agility food, Blackened Dragonfin. It's so easy to farm as Feral that you really have no excuse not to use it!

Quick T10 note: 4 pieces of Tier 10 ARE worth getting, both because the set bonuses are good and because the set pieces have great stats for Cats.

Tips & Tricks

Feral DPS is like juggling. You are constantly trying to keep 4 timers from going, while managing Energy and Combo Points, Berserk/Tiger's Fury cooldowns, and of course encounter elements such as fire-dodging, target switching and aggro management. However there is always room for refinement, even with something so complex.

For example, here are a few things to think about:

- Rip and Rake will be affected by Mangle at the time to tick occurs. For example, Rake is active without Mangle and it ticks for 100 damage, Mangle is applied and the next tick will hit for 130 damage.
- Rip and Rake will be affected by Savage Roar at the time they are applied to the target.

You may thinks that these are minor points and, well, you'd be right. But they can affect how you apply debuffs. Hypothetical situation: Mangle, Rake and Rip are all down. You have Savage Roar up, 5 Combo Points and enough Energy to apply both Mangle and Rip in immediate succession. The priority system tells you to apply Mangle, then Rip, then Rake However if apply Rip first, then Mangle before the first Rip tick, then Rake, you gain DPS by not wasting a Combo Point and having higher Rip uptime. It it minor things like this that will improve your DPS.

Maximizing Uptime

- Get a good, clear timer bar mod. I use NeedToKnow, but others such as ClassTimer are good too. Whatever works for you.

- Learn the fight. Know in advance when you need to swap targets or move and mold you DPS around it.

- Think ahead. For example, if Savage Roar and Rip and both going to expire soon, consider clipping Savage Roar to free up CP to reapply Rip. Don't burn all your Energy on Shreds when you'll need to refresh Rake and Mangle in a few seconds.

Clearcasting

I haven't mentioned the Clearcasting effect from Omen of Clarity much so far. To new Ferals it can be "helping hand" in keeping the rotation going, which is very useful early on. Like all your tools, you want to get the most use out of it. The most efficient way to use Clearcasts is with Shred as it is your highest Energy move, though I prioritize refreshing debuffs over it.

Note that Savage Roar is not affected by Clearcasting as it is not an offensive ability.

When to Ferocious Bite

I don't like FB much. There are 3 situations in which I use it:

1) I have more than 10 seconds left on both Savage Roar and Rip, Rake and Mangle are both up, Tiger's Fury is off CD, and I have no more than 30 Energy.
2) During Berserk when I have ~15 energy and there's no danger of stuff dropping off once Berserk ends.
3) "Big" adds on fights such as Jaraxxus or Yogg P1, Rip doesn't last long enough to be useful so I just FB at 4 or 5 CP instead, as long SR isn't going to run out.

It's worth noting that the Clearcasting effect will only reduce the initial 30 Energy cost of Ferocious Bite to 0 - the extra Energy to damage conversion remains.

When to Berserk

As with all DPS cooldowns, the more times you use it in a fight, the better for your overall DPS. I like to pop it at the start of the fight as trinkets and Berserking enchant will proc pretty quickly and be active at that time, though of course you should be very careful with threat at this point. If threat is not an issue due to Tricks/MDs, I open with:

-> -> 2-4CP -> -> -> -> * X -> 5CP -> until low Energy ->

Again, where X = the number of Shreds needed to reach 5CP.

Make friends with the Rogues and DKs in your guild, get them to give you Tricks or Hysteria, and time it with Berserk for maximum effect. I should mention that unlike most DPS cooldowns, you should not use Berserk during Bloodlust. The haste will increase your amount of Clearcast procs, as a string of Energy-free moves makes Energy cost-reducing affects useless. The same goes for Speed Potions.

Remember that Tiger's Fury cannot be used during Berserk, but you can use it to immediately fill your Energy bar before using it, or to fill up after Berserk fades. The first is far more common, as it's difficult to let Energy tick up to a Berserk-ready level while maintaining buffs/debuffs.

Spec tweaks

I prefer to use the spec that takes Feral Instinct rather than Feral Aggression. For me +15% damage on Ferocious Bite would equal roughly a 0.5% DPS increase on single target fights (your mileage may vary). The Swipe damage is great on fights like Anub'arak or Yogg-Saron, and Survival Instincts is a great panic button

Of course, you can and should respec according to the fight and your raid setup. For instance, if there is another Feral Druid in your raid the 2 points in Improved Leader of the Pack are wasted, you can swap them out for whatever is necessary. If you're in a progress raid against a Patchwerk-style boss, use the single target spec and so on.

Miscellaneous

- We have a passive 30% movement speed increase from Feral Swiftness, 70% movement speed increase on a cooldown with Dash and Feral Charge for closing distances. Our rotation requires a lot of ramp-up time so we are pretty ineffective where constant target switching is concerned, but these bonuses help alleviate some of that. Make the most of them.

- Be raid-aware. With such a complex rotation is is easy to tunnel-vision on your timer bars and ignore what's going on around you. This will make you a very dead kitty. Pay attention to other raid members and the boss as much as possible.

- We are able to survive much more raid damage than most other classes, due to our 30% AoE damage reduction from Predatory Instincts, Barkskin and Survival Instincts. This is not an excuse to be sloppy, but it affords us a bit of slackery when dealing with incoming damage. For instance, popping Barkskin & SI and having my finger poised over my Healthstone button lets me ignore a opposite-colour Vortex on Twin Valkyrs and continue to DPS.

Professions

If you want to seriously min-max your Cat then Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting are the two best professions, as they allow you to stack more Agility or Armor Penetration, whereas the other professions only give you Attack Power bonuses. Really though, as long as you have two crafting professions you'll be fine.

Gathering professions are inferior for raiding because they don't offer useful stat bonuses for DPS.

Interface and Addons

It is important to have a UI that lets you do you job as well as possible. It's vital to have some way of tracking buff/debuff uptime, ability cooldowns, and Combo Points as well as raidwide things like boss timers and Raid frames.

Here are a few addons I find helpful for Feral DPS.You will probably already have some raid frames and BigWigs (or an equivalent), so I've excluded those from this list.

NeedToKnow

I highly recommend this for tracking Savage Roar, Rip, Rake and Mangle durations. You can track multiple debuffs on the same bar, for instance adding Trauma to your Mangle bar so you can tell if an Arms Warrior is keeping it up.

BasicComboPoints

A simple addon that represents CP numerically rather than with a series of dots. A personal preference thing for me.

BasicComboPoints and NeedToKnow

PowerAuras

I use this to let me know when I get a Clearcast proc and when Tiger's Fury is available for use. Also useful to alert you to debuffs such as Sara's Favour or Paralytic Toxin.

ForteXorcist

Cooldown tracking.

ForteXorcist Cooldown Bar

Example of my UI, slightly outdated.

If you'd like to contact me regarding this guide, PM me here on Stratfu or on Prophecy's website (www.warcraft-prophecy.net). My username is Ark in both cases.

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