Kitty Spec

Well since I just updated my kitty "rotation" thread to reflect current times and a little more information I thought rel event I think it is time to review where you should stick those talent points for maximum DPS.

Lets start with the absolute must haves. In the feral combat tree you need...

5/5 in Ferocity to reduce ability costs and in turn increase damage done.

3/3 in Feral Instinct for more AOE swipe damage and the improved stealth which lets you sneak places others can't even with stealth.

2/2 in Savage Fury which increases your mangle and rake damage. Not really an awesome talent, but we need 5 points to get to the next tier and this is the most bang for your buck.

2/2 in Feral Swiftness to increase your movement speed and your chance to dodge. Mostly it is the speed boost that is helpful to increase damage. If you aren't in melee range you aren't doing damage so the faster you can get there the better. A little dodge is always nice too if you happen to pull aggro.

3/3 in Sharpened Claws for more crit, more combo points and more damage.

2/2 in Shedding Attacks for decreased cost of shred which is you primary combo point builder when you can be behind your target (that is usually always unless you are alone).

3/3 in Predatory Strikes for more attack power; plus it is a requirement for Heart of the Wild. As an added bonus this talent will give you an instant cast nature spell after a finishing move, 100% chance with 5 combo points. More of a PVP thing, but it can certainly come in handy to toss a healing touch in a pinch.

2/2 in Primal Fury for extra combo points when you crit.

At this point we need three more points to get to the next tier and have some options:

You could take 1/1 in Feral Charge to be able to instantly jump behind an enemy. I love this for starting fights, knockback effects and such so I can keep hitting more or less uninterrupted. More time smacking stuff is more damage.

If you aren't expertise capped then one or two points in Primal Precision is an excellent choice to get 5/10 of the 26 expertise desired (213 expertise rating). This talent will also refund energy if your finishing moves if you miss which is really nice if you aren't yet hit capped (163 hit rating).

If you don't like either of those then Feral Aggression is probably the only other damage related talent and will make your ferocious bites (which you won't use all that often) more ferocious.

So now we have our 3 points and are back to required talents.

5/5 in Heart of the Wild for increased attack power. As an added bonus you get more intellect and in turn more mana from this as well so if you have to shift/cast for any reason you will have more mana to do that.

3/3 in Survival of the Fittest for a 6% increase in every stat not to mention you are now crit immune.

1/1 in Leader of the Pack for increased chance to crit, for you as well as everyone in your party/raid.

Now we have a lot of choices to get through the next couple tiers and need to spend 4 extra points to make it to the end of the tree. If you are only interested in damage and would like to max out Feral Aggression now would be the time, you'll still have at least a couple points to blow.

You could take 1/1 in Survival Instincts to provide an emergency ability to give you some temporary hit points and provide healers with an opportunity to keep you up. This is handy if you ever hop in to tank in an emergency as well, you are already crit immune after all.

You could take one or two points in Brutal Impact to increase the duration of your pounce stun. Great for soloing and will also give your tank a little more time to build threat on your stunned target as you rip its spine out through its neck without waiting.

You could take one or two points in Improved Leader of the Pack to heal you when you crit as well as healing anyone else in your party/raid that crits with a melee/ranged (aka not a spell) attack. You also regain mana when you crit.

If you skip ahead to the next requirements and come back you will have access to some additional options to spend points in to get to the end of the tree such as Improved Mangle which I mention later.

Now that that filler is out of the way here are the rest of the feral combat requirements.

3/3 in Predatory Instincts for extra crit damage and the added bonus of taking less damage from AOE which is quite handy in melee range.

3/3 in King of the Jungle for more energy returned by Tiger's Fury. This makes shifting forms cheaper as well, yay.

1/1 in Mangle because if you don't I will hunt you down and show you why or at the very least you will be mocked.

5/5 in Rend and Tear for more damage on bleeding targets and your target should always be bleeding. Also increases the chance of your ferocious bite to crit if your target is bleeding (as if there was a chance it wasn't).

1/1 in Primal Gore to make your Rip ticks able to crit. This is quite possibly the best talent in the tree.

1/1 in Berserk to pump out dish out a lot of hurt in a little bit of time. This is also a fear breaker/immunity so you can continue to DPS while everyone else is running around filling their underpants (cats don't wear underpants so even if you are feared no worries).

So now you have 19 points left... what? you don't? You greedy little kitty! You haven't even seen what the resto tree has to offer. Well lets keep going and hope you still have enough to get all the required resto talents. A working knowledge of healing gains insight into reversing the process. ;)

2/2 in Improved Mark of the Wild to increase all your stats by 2%. This also makes your buff better like the resto druids of old when we didn't take the talent. We still make them buff, but we get more damage out of it.

3/5 in Furor to keep some energy when flipping back into cat form rather than losing it all.

5/5 in Naturalist to do 10% more damage. See the healing tree isn't too bad now is it?

3/3 in Natural Shapeshifter to decrease the cost of shifting, but more importantly to get to Master Shapeshifter.

1/1 in Omen of Clarity for free attacks. Damage without any energy cost is quite nice.

2/2 in Master Shapeshifter for more chance to crit.

Ok that is enough in the resto tree, you have 3 more points (unless you already spent them) to go back and fill in something you like in the feral tree. You can go back and fill in any of the options already mentioned or go for the following.

You could take 3/3 in Improved Mangle to reduce your energy cost and in turn do more damage. If you want to put on the hurt this is pretty much the only option. Mangle is only used as a debuff for the most part, but when you can't be behind your target it is also your primary combo point builder.

Anything else won't do anything for your damage, but would come in handy for tanking or PVP or just because it sounds cool. It is up to you and since you already have all the important talents no one will think any less of you so long as you stay in the feral tree.

So now you need glyphs. For major glyphs you should take Glyph of Savage Roar first and foremost since the buff will be up pretty much all the time and give you more damage. Glyph of Mangle is another good one to give you more time and energy to concentrate on more damaging attacks. Finally take Glyph of Shred. Glyph of Shred provides potentially 6 seconds more of Rip (2 seconds per shred) while Glyph of Rip provides only four seconds all the time. Chances are you will always get at least two shreds in during your rip and probably three making Glyph of Shred as good or better than Glyph of Rip.

For minor glyphs take Glyph of Dash under the assumption that moving faster more often means more damage. You probably want Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth as well so you don't have to remember reagents for you battle rez. Last one is up to you, Glyph of Aquatic Form perhaps on the off chance that you need to hit something on the other side of a body of water and want to get there faster.

Be sure to read up on how to use your new spec to its full potential. :)