Thursday, December 17, 2009

Feral Cat vs Mutilate Rogue

Patch 3.3

After mostly healing on my druid through pug-5s, I was given the opportunity last night to dps in cat form through a couple of the ICC instances. Most recently, all of my dps play has been on my rogue, and I was shocked at myself for needing to consciously break my rogue habits in order to get back into the "groove" of cat dps.

I literally had to tell myself, "stop playing like a rogue."

(note: table looks nicer on the blog itself than through a reader. Go CSS.)

Mut RogueFeral Cat
Both can open from stealth or unstealthed.
Opening:Get SnD and HfB upGet Mangle, FF, Rake, SR up
Bleeds:
Optional;
Garrote or Rupture
to start HfB if no one
else puts a bleed up.
Necessary;
Rake and 5-CP Rip
Mangles or Trauma boost these
Threat Redux:ToT misdirect
Feint
Cowerlol
Ack! Aggro:"Stop it/ Flee it"
Vanish
Evasion
Kidney Shot
Gouge
Cloak of Shadows
"Tank it"
Barkskin
Survival Instincts (if specced)
Bear + Bash, Frenzied Regen
Maim
DPS Cycle:Mutilate <-> Envenom
1 min HfB refreshes
Juggle to keep these up:
SR, Mangle, Rip, Rake
Shred around the timers
FB finish if timers look good
5 min FF refresh
Combo Points:lolUse Shred, Mangle, Rake to build to:
5-CP for Rips
3-5 CP for SR
4-5 CP for FB (if you can work it in)
Interrupts:Kick
Gouge (incapacitate)
Kidney Shot (stun)
Maim (incapacitate, requires CP)
Bear + Charge
Energy Boost:.... Thistle Tea?30sec: Tiger's Fury!
AoE:FoK, 50 energySwipe, 50 energy
Versatility:er, diff kinds of poison? (heavily nerfs damage, though!)Heals (weak unless geared and dualspecced)
Tank (weak unless geared and specced)
Misc:Love anyone who will put a bleed up
Envenom refreshes SnD
+3%crit to party from poison
No poisons to reapply
No weapon skill to level
Love Arms Warriors (trauma) and Bear Tanks (mangle)
Love moonkin (FF)
+5% physical crit aura to party
4% heal on crit with aura


Is one better than the other? No, not really. Both have their ups and downs, and both can do similar amounts of damage... in fact, they buff each other and synergize well together. However: they do have a different playstyle from each other, currently. With a ruptureless cycle on my rogue, though, I must admit that playing her feels a lot simpler than playing my feral druid!

I enjoy both. I like the free and "easy" mutilate/envenom, with her vanish and ToT; I like the feral DoTs and weaving them together, with bear form to help a tank handle an unexpected circumstance. I just need to remember that they do play differently from each other... and to stop using SR at 1-2 CP when it's just going to run out in 10 seconds, because no, Rip and Shred won't refresh it :D

Acronyms/Abilities:

SnD: Slice and Dice, attack speed buff, refreshes on each Envenom/Eviscerate
HfB: Hunger for Blood, 10% damage buff
ToT/TotT: Tricks of the Trade, a misdirect
FoK: Fan of Knives
Mutilate: CP-generating attack boosted by poison on target
Envenom: finisher attack boosted by Deadly Poison on target; buffs poison applications for a short time
Garrote: bleed opener from stealth
Rupture: bleed finisher; I personally run a ruptureless rotation atm.
Kick: interrupt, requires no cp
Gouge: incapacitate, requires no cp

FF: Faerie Fire, -armor debuff
SR: Savage Roar, 30% damage buff
FB: Ferocious Bite, high-damage finisher
Mangle: attack with debuff that boosts bleed and shred damage
Shred: CP-generating attack, requires being behind the target
Rake: CP-generating bleed DoT
Rip: bleed finisher
Feral Charge: Bear-form provides a short root/interrupt; cat provides a daze
Maim: incapacitate effect that requires CP

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That's funny as I just recently started heroics on my rogue, and my main is a feral druid (usually tanking.)
I found it to be so similar to Kitty DPS that I actually synchronized my toolbars on both characters so my muscle memory can take over.

Combat Rogue = Kitty Kat
Slice and Dice = Savage Roar
Sinister Strike = Mangle/Shred
Rupture = Rip
Adrenaline Rush = Tiger's Fury
Eviscerate = Ferocious Bite

No real surprise given the energy based system... but I was still surprised :-)

And yes, there is more to the Kitty to keep an eye on and time properly for sure.

Kae said...

Mutilate spec used to play very similar, as well... but the new ruptureless rotation results in high dps while all but ignoring combo points, and it... well, spoiled me, and threw me off when I went back to my kitty :) It's mostly an issue of combo points and trying NOT to equate SnD to Savage Roar, simply because I then take for granted that SnD gets refreshed and I have to spent CP to refresh the roar!

1cp SnD = cool.
1cp savage roars... not so much a good idea. :D

I'm not as familiar with rogue Combat spec. I love my daggers too much :)

Anonymous said...

Hey,

Forgot to mention under Misc:

Inervate, Battle Res, Thorns, GoW

I think its those things that help differentiate a druid from rogues.

Kae said...

Was more focusing on playstyle than what they bring to a raid with my comparison ;)