Bonus! Wickit examines T7 and T8 armor sets.
Wickit, of Ysera, was one of the winners of the Guest Yogger contest and offers up his two-copper about set bonuses for feral DPS.
Like everyone else, when I got my first two pieces of tier 7 armor I was thrilled by the +4 seconds it added to Rip uptime. Who didn’t love the idea of two extra free ticks of Rip? Then along came 3.1 and it became even better with Primal Gore. With the average 50% crit chance the bonus basically guaranteed a free Rip crit, but it couldn’t last forever, right?
Patch 3.1 also brought us our Feral Tier 8 set and two new set bonuses. The first of these two bonuses allows our bleeds to proc a Clearcasting state. This is fantastic for Feral DPS. Clearcasting from Omen of Clarity is a huge boon to Shreds, so increasing the chance we have to enter this “state” is great. The four-piece bonus, however, is heavily debated. The second bonus adds eight seconds to Savage Roar, but to get it you have to break your tier 7 bonus.
It’s an interesting dilemma, because it’s essentially doubling the tier 7 two-piece bonus. We aren’t increasing the DPS of Rip anymore and will have to reapply it four seconds sooner, but we’re now able to reapply Savage Roar eight seconds later. The problem is that most of us clip Savage Roar anyway, so just how helpful is this?
For every combo point after one point we spend putting up Savage Roar, we gain five seconds (on top of the initial 14 seconds from one combo point). This means we can equate T8’s four-piece bonus to 1.6 combo points, but let’s call it two for argument’s sake. What is the cost of two combo points? At the high end, a Shred crits for two combo points and costs us 42 energy. At the low end of the spectrum, a Mangle or Rake can crit for two combo points at a cost of 34 energy. Double those values if the ability doesn’t crit. We’re going to use those abilities anyway, but now those combo points can be put towards Rip or a Ferocious Bite.
The set bonus thus has a few benefits for Feral DPS:
- Generally, it’s best to get Savage Roar up as soon as possible in a fight. This means that it often applies with one-three combo points depending on your preference and luck with crits. With the four-piece T8 bonus, a one or two combo point Roar will be pretty close to a three or four combo point Roar.
- On trash your Roar will last a bit longer while you’re moving from mob to mob or Swipe spamming. This is nice since less time spent refreshing SR means more Shreds/Rakes/Swipes.
- I mentioned Ferocious Bite earlier and I meant it. By decreasing the number of combo points needed to keep SR up for a decent period of time, we open the window for weaving more Bites into our rotation.
- There are fights out there where an extra long Rip will be wasted. For example, XT-002’s phases might clip your Rip if applied late before a switch to a heart phase or applied too late during the heart phase.
- The bonus really lends itself to a Feral DPS who loves Armor Penetration. If you’re stacking ArP, Rip begins to devalue (even if only slightly), but SR increases in value.
However, there are drawbacks:
- There are fights where Rip uptime is very nice (i.e. Hodir and Razorscale). Applying a Rip and getting a couple of Shreds in to increase its duration (Glyph of Shred) just before a Flash Freeze or before Razorscale lifts off into the air can really help your DPS while you aren’t touching the boss.
- Much like #1, there are fights that might incapacitate you (i.e. Ignis Slag Pot) and an extra four seconds on Rip can help you maintain a close to 100% uptime.
- Of course, the most obvious is it’s free damage and statistically at least one free Rip crit.
Personally, I’ve made the move towards Armor Penetration, but currently maintain my tier 7 bonus (head and shoulders). I have been debating if I should pick up the Conqueror’s Helm and Valorous shoulders for tier 8 (I wear Winter’s Icy Embrace for my chest and we haven’t downed Yogg yet for Conqueror’s shoulders). The conclusion I’ve come to for myself is that I will pick up the T8.
With my ArP I want to get in there and start Shredding as soon as possible. I want that extended Savage Roar to help weave in more Ferocious Bites. I maintain a near 100% Rip and Rake uptime, of course, but Shred crits for 13-14,000 and Bite crits for the same or even more with an extra 25% chance to do so (5/5 Rend and Tear). With a focus on ArP you want to maximize SR, and the T7 bonus becomes less important. With a focus on critical strike (AGI) Rip is probably still the way to go with Primal Gore.
You have to take into account the T8 stats, too. The shoulders will really help reach the Expertise soft cap (especially if you choose Footpads of Silence or Flamestalker Boots over the Runed Ironhide Boots) and the pieces have pretty high AGI for Blessing of Kings and talents to increase. I think for a Druid like me I’ll take the 4-piece bonus from T8, but not until I can replace both my T7 pieces at the same time.
No sense in breaking the bonus too early.
Very nice! And pretty much in line with what I’m thinking too. The 2pT7 bonus is very good and the 4p isn’t as quantifiable, but it’s probably worth going to simply for smoother cycles when you get the chance.
But 3 pieces of T8 aren’t worth breaking 2pT7.
Yep, but I have been experimenting with the 2-piece and I find it’s about equal to the 2-piece T7 bonus for DPS. I’ve been unlucky with Vanq tokens and only have the helm and legs, so I broke T7 to try it.
So far I’ve been pretty impressed. On stationary fights like Vezax I actually find myself trying really hard to dump energy and not hit 100. I get so many Clearcasting procs sometimesthat it really becomes ridiculous.
On fights like Hodir it’s a different story, but in those fights I love getting a Clearcasting proc while away from the boss on a snow pile. Nothing like a free Shred right off the bat.
I’m going to cont. testing, but I should have my shoulders and gloves soon for 4-piece. I hope.
Nice post, I agree and disagree with some of your thoughts.
I really like the analogy of static vs mobile fights (xt vs hodir is a good example), on more mobile fights you might be more inclined to keep your 2pt7 +2pt8 to keep a maximum uptime. However on the other side on static fights you won’t have outside variables that will cause your uptime to decrease which would lean towards 4pt8.
However I disagree with your points on clipping your SR as that’s part of challenging yourself as a kitty kat. It’s extremely easy to be lazy and clip your sr/mangle/rake/rip etc and lose out on dps. Instead you should be working towards monitoring your uptimes carefully to maximize your energy and reducing clipping as much as possible.
In the end I think it depends on personal play style and preference. There is no real right/wrong answer as Ulduar has shown itself to have many diverse and different encounters (wru shreds @ kologarn?!) Personally I’m fortunate enough to have 4pt8 and it suits my play style more.
I agree, for a lot of people out there it might be out of the question to drop the 2-piece T7 because they prefer getting SR and Rip up and maximizing Rip uptime. The common thing I see is applying Rip/SR and Shreding/using Rake until one needs to be reapplied (the cookie cutter resposne to most Feral posts on the WoW Druid forums).
Others, like myself, like weaving in FBs. It does depend on the fight a lot, too. I won’t use FB if I have to run away from a boss and I know it will be better for me to use the combo points for SR or Rip when I get back. Any other time I’ll make the split second decision to Bite or sit tight waiting for a timer and hopefully I make the optimal decision.
When I mentioned clipping SR, I was referring to the general reasoning you see on the Druid forums, Elitist Jerks, etc. Most people feel that the best method is the one I mentioned above (ignore FB, keep Shredding until SR/Rip needs to be reapplied) believe that it is best to clip SR if it’s close to Rip’s timer to allow for maximum Rip uptime.
It might be worth mentioning these are usually the same people who are against ArPen as a Feral, so they bellieve Rip beats FB by leaps and bounds by ignoring armor.
I agree with you that this is kind of lazy and you lose out on DPS. I also believe that “rotation” is rather lazy all together. However, with so many Ferals following that line of thinking I felt it was a valid point to include in the argument against 4-piece T8.
Well, I have been a big fan of stacking agi, and keeping rip up all the time, but I see the value of ArP and FB. However, I dont know when to make the switch. When do i start gemming it? Do I switch out to shred idol? Should I wait until I have the 4pc t8?
You’ll probably want to check out the guest post coming this week that’s all about ArPen and its benefits. Also check out the Feral By Night thread on the Elitist Jerks Druid class forums. Nightcrowler (OP of the FBN thread) has a ton of info on ArPen.
ArPen stacks on itself and is the only stat that increases in effectiveness the more you have. So the best time to switch to gemming ArPen would be when you have a fair bit of ArPen on your gear. I made the switch because I had a Grim Toll and then my Ulduar gear pushed me to around 200 ArPen. That’s when I figured I was in a good position to switch over and have really liked the results.