T9 set

So I have now gotten my 4 piece set of T9 and my question is, where is the damn armor pen? The set is pretty good for bear and I'm happy about that, but I was hoping to use it for cat as well. The whole set only has 59 armor pen. What the heck?

I know to get some really great damage out of cat that is the stat I need the most. So I guess I have to turn to non-set pieces to get it. And yes, I know there are quite a few leather items out there with armor pen, I just am getting pissy about not having very much on the T9 set. I was running around as kitty in ToC25 the other night and was only pulling around 6K dps, but I also only had 20% armor pen. And hit rating....I can't seem to figure out how to get rid of it. Yesh.... I'm almost 100 points over cap and I'm not gemming for it. I'm wearing gear based on the other stats.

So my quandary is, why does our gear seem to have so much hit but not near enough armor pen?

Nobles Deck

So, I finally got my Nobles Deck put together the other night.  Yeah!  I am so sick of grinding herbs and begging from my friends for theirs just so I could make those cards.  I just couldn't bring myself to pay over 1000 gold per card but I have at least repaid my friends with a other decks and cards.

Anyway, my point is: Which greatness card do I want?

Strength 

Agility

Now, the reason that I ponder this is that since Savage Defense is coming, I may really want that strength.  And if I get the strength card, that will give me 90 strength (210 AP) but when it procs I will get an additional 300 agility because that is my highest stat out of strength, agility, intellect and spirit.  

I have approximately 113 strength and 979 agility in my cat set, but that won't change much with my bear set at the moment.  So even if I choose the strength card, I would still be getting the proc for agility.  To me this is a win win situation.  I could get both stats bumped up, even if one is only when it procs.

What are ya'll thinking of doing?

What to wear?

Here you go!

Bear

So I updated my bear list given that I need more +hit than other things.  My growl has missed several times in the last couple of nights and my hit rating wasn't that low I didn't think.  It was right around 180 which I know isn't capped, but since I had not gotten the drops with +hit, I wasn't that stressed about it.  Then I missed my growl twice in a row on Gluth.  It ended up being okay, but it could have been very bad and I wipe the raid.

So I am now going to make it a priority to run heroics so I can get exalted with the Argent Crusade so I can get those feet.  

One thing that I have noticed is that two stats are quite useful for tanking/dps for a feral are expertise (131 cap with PP) and hit rating (263 cap).  However our T7 or T7.5 only has 82 expertise and no hit on all 5 pieces.  This means that we need to gather these stats on other pieces such as our feet, waist, wrists, cloak and jewerly/trinkets.  

Now for tanking, we have a pretty good idea of what should be our trinkets. Darkmoon Card Greatness, Essence of the Gossamer, Indestructible Alchemists stone, and a few others are good.  But the point is we won't have hit or expertise on any of these.

So there are only 4 sets of boots that have either of those stats.  And none that have both of those stats.  Hmmm, that doesn't seem quite right.  I guess that would be why Footwraps of Vile Deceit came out on top.  You can at least gem them for hit.

So, on to the waist.   So here we have 5 choices that have either expertise or hit on them.  And considering them I think I would choose the Belt of the Tortured so that I could get that +hit.  

Wrists have one lovely, lovely piece that has both hit and expertise on it.  The Thrusting Bands.  Get them if at all possible!

Cloaks don't have a lot of choices on this topic.  I personally recommend the Platinum Mesh Cloak that you buy with 25 Emblems of Valor since you have the same stamina as the Cloak of the Shattered Sun and you gain 32 hit and only lose some strength and 1 dodge.  Seems like a really nice trade off to me.

For your neck, I recommend getting Heritage since it had hit on it as well as defense and dodge.  You can get quite a few that have dodge rating on them, and that is nice, but if you are having problems hitting or being dodged/parried, Heritage has both hit and the defensive stats.

So that leaves us with rings.  I think a must have is the Gatekeeper.  It has armor which is still nice but not have to have like it used to be, but it also has dodge and hit rating!  Next up I would recommend the Strong-Handed Ring since it has 28 hit on it and the other stats on the ring would help your threat generation.  (plus when 3.1 comes out, you will want that crit)

Which actually gives you at the end, 150 resilience and 202 hit rating.  Which means, you might want to keep those Boots of Neverending Path for those fights you really need to make sure you don't miss on.  You can always also use Extreme Snapper and Elixir of Accuracy but  you have other foods and elixirs you should be using!

Gear and Loot ramblings

Okay, so we cleared Heroic Naxx last week for the first time, we were excited.  

The Betrayer of Humanity dropped.  Now we are a melee heavy guild and have been for quite some time.  Now our Raid Leader/Loot Master decides that this is a hunter weapon and therefore the only hunter in the raid should get it.  Understand, we have a lot of people in the raid for which this is a very big upgrade.  Lots of melee still using blue weapons.  But the RL says this in vent and argues with others who try to explain that LOTS of classes consider this an upgrade for them.  But he gives it to the hunter instead of having a roll off like we do for everything else.

Now, last night, we cleared 3 wings of Heroic Naxx; military, construct and spider in that order.  In he spider wing, we were trying to beat the timer, so we were hurrying and apparently the RL (same guy) decided to take his headset off.  So he never heard the MT warrior say, "hey man, I need those gloves" while he and I were still pulling trash to the last boss.  And so he let people roll for off set and gave it away before the MT warrior realized what happened.  The MT Warrior is pissed but as luck would have it, the guy (another warrior) who won the gloves doesn't mind giving them to the MT warrior, so we have to open a ticket and get that taken care of. Okay...done.

And then the RL was too far away when Inevitable Defeat drops and the GL repeatedly says to pass so we can discuss and roll.  However, this one warrior who always gets the high rolls and NEVER passes to someone else even if it is only a minor upgrade for him and a major upgrade for someone else rolls need and gets the item. (he has the full T7.5 and epics and others who have been on the same raids don't have a single piece from Heroic Naxx, LT Share!)  

Well, so now we have to deal with this.  We have another roll off and as luck would have it, the mace goes to the warrior who gave up the gloves to the MT Warrior and he was replacing a blue (Runeblade of Demonstrable Power).  So hopefully that balances out some Karma!

Now, the other issue is we have a group of people in the guild who want loot to be awarded first to those who regularly attend raids.  WTF?  Have they missed the fact we are a casual guild?  Its sign up if you can make it to a raid, not required.  Our loot rules have never said, "those who show up the most get to roll first".  Real life always comes first to us.  This is a game, and yes, while it is nice to have the same people there raid after raid, what if they can only make it twice a week?  Does that mean we shouldn't help gear them up until after everyone else?   And if you show up regularly, you will have more chances to roll on stuff anyway.  And it isn't as though they aren't some of the best geared people in the guild anyway.  They haven't exactly missed out on loot.

And then last night, Origin of Nightmares dropped.  And a hunter wanted it.  And I wanted it for tanking given it is better than my Staff of the Plague Beast.  However, I had said to give it to the hunter but I wanted it next time it dropped since the hunter had a blue.  But it was given to me since it has armor on it and so I have mixed emotions.  I am happy I was given the staff, but I feel bad for the hunter.  I really hope he gets Journey's End tonight!  I got it last week for cat when we downed Kel'Thuzad and he wasn't in the raid and the other hunter had gotten the Betrayer of Humanity so no one else rolled against me.

All in all, Loot is such a head ache.  

And in other news, I went as cat last night for the first 2 wings.  I got up to 3600 DPS on Razuvious but the fights where I have to move a lot or have a lot of adds I can't do quite as well as the ranged with the massive AOE.  Overall for the night, on boss fights I was in the top 10 every time on DPS so that makes me happy.  I didn't do quite as well on the trash pulls but once I get the hang of cat, I might can do better!

Gear Link Updates

Since we are now doing 25 mans in our guild, I got to thinking I needed to update my gear sheets to include them.  This is using Loot Rank.

Bear

Cat

Naxx

So, once again, I have created my Raiding group, only this time it is with a group of 5 friends that have been playing together for a while.  The good news is that they are all extremely well geared and know how to play their classes.  However, the rest of us kind of feel like outsiders to the group. I guess with more runs, we will all get to know each other better.  

We were able to down the 3/3 Arachnid, 3/3 Plague, 2/3 Military and 1/4 Construct.  And we got Grobbulus down to 28,697.  Argh.  But given that this was the first time that 6 of the people had been in Naxx, I think we did pretty well.

Our guild is up to 39 level 80s, which is nice, but also means that people are feeling left out of stuff. We had two people quit the guild because they didn't feel needed.  Not quite sure why, they had been going on dungeon runs and hit 80 last Friday, so they would have been invited on this weeks Naxx runs.  I don't quite understand it all, but maybe I'm not supposed to.

A friend of mine has been pretty good DPS out of going cat.  He went complete cat since at the time we had quite a few tanks.  He seems to be really liking the cat dps.  

Personally, I'm up to 28,000 armor, 33,000 health and 35% dodge unbuffed, so I'm getting there.  I hope to buy another new piece soon.  I'm getting the Savage Gladiator's Sanctuary set. I think it is better for bear than the T7.  I have the chest and should be able to buy the hands this week with honor/arena points.  That will be nice at least for arenas.  

Of course, I will be out of town for the next two weeks, so no real play time.  Kind of hard to play at the lake!  

Have a Happy Holiday!

Gear and Naxx

So we have now cleared the Arachnid, Plague and 2/3 of the Military quarters.  We would have finished the Military Quarter, but 2 of the guys had to go to bed.  I mean, it was only 2:30 in the morning there and they had to work today.  I just don't see the problem.  I'm kidding.

Overall, I think we are doing pretty well.  We now have enough people that we should start 2 10 man Naxx runs.  I will be in charge of the second one again.  I kind of wish we had gotten further with the "core" group before the split but we just have so many people ready to go.

I also got my first upgrades from Naxx.   Staff of the Plague Beast and I also got Cloak of Armed Strife  so I am pretty pumped.  I am now 6 emblems away from my new chest!  So I'm getting some nice upgrades.

Gear Updates

So I have been watching and reading all the links about gear upgrades for bears.  And it looks like a lot of Utgarde Keep heroic runs for me.  But just so I can keep track of everything, here are a couple of links for gear.

Think Tank

Feral Druid Thread at EJ

Karthis' Tank

Karthis' DPS

Karthis' Spreadsheet

Hit Me!

Using Rawr, and doing some of my own calcualtions, if I get most of the good pieces I need to drop, I will be sitting around 30,000 armor and hit points with 34% dodge and 80% mitigation.  I wish my dodge was higher, but I can work on that.  I'm hoping that will be enough to start running Naxx in a few weeks. 

We hit 75 last night, and since once we get home on Thursday from eating with relatives, we can just play until Monday, I'm hoping to be really really close to 80 by Monday.  

Here is hoping!

What You Wearing?

There are tons of places that you can find gear lists for starting druid tanks. Emmerald's , Adventures in Azeroth and Big Bear Butt. Let me just say this, the heavy clefthoof set is going to be your best friend to start out. Get it and get it early. And gem it!

I had mine ready and waiting for me when I hit 70. I had also done quite a few BGs so I had the merciless gladiator shoulders and hands waiting for me. My wife and I were able to hit 70 on a Tuesday night, and run Kara on Thursday with our guild. I was off tank (OT) and she was off healer (OH). Were we just a little low, maybe, but we did it.

The point is, plan ahead and get the gear before you turn 70. Don't wait until you hit 70 to decide, "hey, maybe I need good gear to run Kara or heroics".

Now, keep in mind that there aren't that many Bear Kara drops as far as leather goes. You will have to get badge gear or 25 man raid drops. So you will be keeping some of your gear for a long time. Keep a list of what would actually be an upgrade for you. You don't want to take something someone else could use if it really isn't an upgrade. I recommend getting the Rating Buster Addon. It is quite useful to evaluate quickly whether or not something is better for you.

Also, use Rawr to plan ahead. You can get a lot of information for both your cat and bear forms using this tool.

As far as cat gear goes, speak with your guild about the Kara drops. My guild has the rule that you only roll for your main spec and if no one wants an item, then people can roll for an off spec. This has caused some issue since I say my spec is feral and should then roll on both cat and bear items, since I do both in the runs. However, my guild disagrees and I had to pick what I wanted to roll on, Cat or Bear. I chose Bear because I want to tank, but it is a discussion you need to have with your guild leaders and raid leaders. Don't let it become an issue, find out what the rules are before you go.

Overall, for a feral, gear is important, and you will be spending a lot of time getting it. But if you plan ahead, you can be ready to roll when you hit 70.