Unbearably HoT

A “filler arc” is a phrase used to describe a short side story in a serial comic book or TV show that diverges from the main storyline. It’s often used as a device to prolong the life of a series, give the producers/creators more time to work on the plot, and ostensibly to give the viewer time to catch up to the main story. Remember when your elementary school teacher would take a day off and leave the substitute with four thousand worksheets to keep you busy? It takes up time. Patch 3.2 essentially functions as Blizzard’s filler arc: a semi nonsensical diversion that appeases the content-mongerers and passes out catch-up loot to everyone else.

I mean really—let’s set up a tournament on Arthas’ doorstep where we can hang out and practice fighting shit. He’ll obviously ignore everyone (after having interfered in such minor affairs as Utgarde Keep, for example) and wait until we’re ready to charge through the Citadel itself. But despite Blizzard’s new round of sweeping class changes, Feral model update, and lackluster boss encounters, it really is an excellent time to round out your gear sets and snag some muchly needed updates.

Just in time for Patch 3.2, I’ve updated the Cat DPS Gear Spreadsheet to include all the new Feral DPS items—except for trinkets, idols (which I’ll cover in another post), and PVP gear. This list will exist in a constant state of flux as numbers change, items are added, and I decide to integrate other useful features, such as gear weights based on the FBN model (which I generally follow). I am, however, trying to stay away from designated “best-in-slot” items. Why? Although I’ve suggested super jawesome high-end items to aim for, it’s exceptionally pertinent to note that you need to build your gear around your stats and playstyle. Blindly following any suggestions and/or lists are a sure fire way to look like a retard at some point down the road.

Here are a few things to remember:

• Armor Penetration hard cap is 1231.6. Generally, we Druids talk about reaching an ArP “soft cap;” that is, the ArP hard cap minus the ArP proc from a trinket. For example, 1231.6 – 612 (proc on Grim Toll) = 619.6. That 619.6 is your soft cap. Until you hit 619.6 ArP, that’s the best stat to stack for both gems and gear (but don’t take a lame piece of loot JUST for the ArP).
• Expertise and Hit still exist for a reason. You don’t necessarily need to be at the cap these days, but you’ll want to be close.
• Keep slots open for tier gear! The two-piece T9 bonus extends the duration of Rake by three seconds. This is pretty cool, especially when you consider that’s three more seconds for you to dick around with other things. Like Shred. The two-piece T8 bonus, if you recall, harkens back to the days of T4 and free energy gains. This time, however, the periodic damage dealt by your Rake, Rip, and Lacerate abilities has a chance to cause you to enter a Clearcasting state. Right now, it looks as though wearing two-piece T8 and two-piece T9 will be optimal. If you’re currently wearing four-piece T8 or two-piece T8 with two-piece T7, I don’t recommend breaking your set bonuses until you have two pieces of T9.

If you were actively raiding Ulduar (especially hard modes), you may not find considerable gear upgrades until you’ve been through the Heroic versions of the Coliseum. If you’re looking for quick and dirty upgrades, however, you’ll likely get the biggest bang for your badge buck by going with items such as:

• Hood of Lethal Intent (75 Emblems of Triumph). Arguably BiS until Heroic T9.25.
• Leggings of Wavering Shadow (39 Emblems of Conquest). Definitely not BiS, but very easy to obtain right now.
• Broach of the Wailing Night (19 Emblems of Conquest). Again, not BiS, but with the changes to Conquest Emblems, you’ll have no trouble picking this up after a night of Heroics. It’s a very well rounded and well-itemized accessory with both ample ArP, AP, and AGI.
• Dexterous Brightstone Ring (35 Emblems of Triumph). Basically the best ring you can get your paws on until you get one to drop out of the Coliseum.
• Duskstalker Shoulderpads (45 Emblems of Triumph). Although a shoulder slot generally gives it up for a piece of tier gear, these are essentially better than everything until the Heroic T9.25 spaulders.
• Death-warmed Belt. Sure, you’ll have to shell out some cashmoneys, but you’ll get an incredibly shiny belt with the capability to sport three sockets. This will tide you over until you can pick up the Belt of the Merciless Killer/Belt of the Pitiless Killer from the Twin Valkyrs.

Still going to run hard modes in Ulduar? Even if you just try and pick up some easy 10-man achievements, you can still score totally sweet gear. Here are a few pieces you shouldn’t overlook:

• Drape of the Faceless General (Vezax Hard, 10 man). This is only marginally “worse” than the two shiniest cloaks from the Coliseum (that we know of): Drape of the Untamed Predator/Cloak of the Untamed Predator. Why? This cloak sports ArP and two sockets. Awesome. I still haven’t seen this drop.
• Embrace of the Gladiator (Thorim Hard, 25 man). While you’ll go far with the newest chestguards from the Coliseum, three sockets are nothing to sneeze at.
• Seed of Budding Carnage (Freya Hard, 10 man). Although this isn’t BiS anymore, it’s still a fantastic necklace with ArP, AGI, Hit Rating, and a socket.
• Loop of the Agile (Iron Council Hard, 10 man). The socket on this ring really makes it great.
• Soul-Devouring Cinch (Yogg Hard, 10 man). With the capability to slot another socket here, this belt still remains one of the best. Good thing Yogg is pretty cake right now.

This spreadsheet isn’t the end-all-be-all on what you want or need: think about it as a resource for quickly skimming through gear to aim for. If you notice any mistakes and/or items that are not included, please feel free to drop me a line, either via comments or the Contact page.

Looking for info and gear suggestions for Bomb Owls and Bears? Go see Graylo and Kalon, respectively.

I write a lot about gear—what looks totally sweet, stuff that will probably improve your DPS, how to kill the boss to get the gear, and the next-best-thing if you can’t pick up what’s best-in-slot. What I don’t normally cover is the politicking about who gets what—normally I don’t care. If you show up all the time and play like a champion, chances are pretty decent you’ll pick up what you need. But let’s set the record straight: there is no perfect or fair loot distribution system. Finding a DKP setup that pleases your entire raid group is like stuffing high school kids into uniforms—a few people look good in chinos and pleats and the rest are content to bitch until they graduate.

But what if there was a different option that didn’t rely on the supposed know-all of a loot council, RNG, endless grinding for consumables, an absurd amount of seniority or DKP hoarding? What if there was a system that rewarded your raiders for time spent in raid and content downed? What if that system also helped to level the playing field between older and newer players—and still gave partial preference to folks who’ve been around for awhile? What if it also allowed raiders to really differentiate between the most highly coveted items and those that might only be a slight upgrade? That system exists, and it’s called “Shroud.”

I’ll save you some potentially boring history, but the loot system is (predictably) named after the guild that created it, and it’s what we currently use to distribute loot in ECR. It goes a little like this:

Are there drawbacks? Sure. The Shroud system rewards people for simply showing up and sticking it out—not necessarily their performance. You also occasionally risk ill-will when an individual unexpectedly Shrouds on an item that is generally bid “standard” (ex. tier gear)—sometimes folks just prefer (and anticipate) a roll-off on more common items. This is called “Shroud Bombing.”

As Mortality says,

“LIKE AN ATOMIC BOMB TO THE FACE, THE SHROUD BOMB IS GREAT FOR CRUSHING THE HOPES AND DREAMS OF YOUR FELLOW RAIDERS.”

Overall, however, the key to making this system succeed is to drive home the importance of Shrouding whenever you desperately want a piece of gear. Hunter pissed because he bid standard and a Druid shrouded? Tough fucking luck. By bidding standard, that Hunter acknowledged he wouldn’t be heartbroken if he lost the loot. While I would always encourage you to discuss potential upgrades with your fellow DPS (or healers, or tanks, or losers—whatever) so that you’re ensuring your raid gears up appropriately, the “Shroud” exists to discourage collusion. Maybe that’s mercenary. On the other hand, if you’re content to let RNG decide the win every time, there’s no point in having a DKP system anyway.

Although I haven’t participated in a guild that used Suicide Kings or full-fledged EPGP, the Shroud system is about as close to “perfect” as it can get—in my opinion, of course. You encourage your raiders to show up, stick around until the end, and do their gear research so that they don’t waste their points Shrouding on worthless items. It’s like you’re back in high school sitting next to that super hot chick in algebra class. You can gaze longingly at her and hope that maybe she’ll notice you, you can pass her a note and hope she’ll read it before crumpling it into the garbage bin, or you can go balls out and ask her to the prom. If you want her—I mean, it, you go for it.

WIN BIG OR LOSE BIG—THERE IS NO TRY.

If you recall, I posted a preliminary Ulduar Gear List for Feral DPS a few weeks ago. Since then, I’ve done a lot more raiding, have made substantial changes to my spreadsheet (thank you, Gingershnaps, for the extensive and awesome layout work), and have a different methodology for how you can select Cat gear. I’ve also noticed a disturbing trend in the way some of the new Druid gear looks.

The new spreadsheet can be downloaded here.

How does this shit work? First of all, it’s important to know how and why I selected the items that I did. In my spreadsheet, I calculated and then sorted all the stat data based on the following criteria: number of sockets, Total Crit%, Total AP, and Armor Penetration (in that order). Remember, after Armor Penetration (which is a little ridiculous to gear for at the expense of other stats), AGI is the best stack to stat as a Cat. In the spreadsheet, I’ve translated AGI into both AP and Crit, and have attempted to pick out the item in each category with the most Crit Percentage and Attack Power. But why, you say, is sorting by socket number important?

An item with more sockets is not necessarily better than an item without sockets; however, the number of sockets can make or break a gear determination. Take the Flamestalker Boots and the Footpads of Silence. If you look purely at the Total AP and Total %Crit columns, you’ll notice that the Flamestalker Boots come out ahead (and have Haste). When you consider, however, that the Footpads of Silence are only 17 AP and 0.3% crit off and have two sockets, it’s easy to see why they’re better. As always, remember to carefully evaluate your gear. Crit, AP, and ArP (and even Haste) are totally awesome, but if you’re completely overlooking Hit and Expertise Rating, you’ll find yourself in trouble.

While you can find your best-in-slot items listed on the spreadsheet in red, I’ve put together two gear lists for you: one for the folks focused on Hard Mode Achievements, and one for the folks still trying to push through the first few bosses.

Best-in-Slot:

Back: Drape of the Faceless General. Normal General Vezax, Hard Mode.

Chest: Conqueror’s Nightsong Raiments. Heroic Hodir.

Feet: Footpads of Silence. LW recipe that drops from Heroic Ulduar.

Hands: Conqueror’s Nightsong Handgrips. Heroic Mimiron.

Head: Guise of the Midgard Serpent. Normal Thorim.

Legs: Legguards of Cunning Deception. Heroic Yogg-Saron, Hard Mode.

Neck: Seed of Budding Carnage. Normal Freya, Hard Mode.

Rings: Metallic Loop of the Sufferer (Heroic General Vezax), Godbane Signet (Normal Yogg-Saron).

Shoulders: Conqueror’s Nightsong Shoulderpads. Heroic Yogg-Saron.

Waist: Soul-Devouring Cinch. Normal Yogg-Saron, Hard Mode.

Weapon: Dark Edge of Depravity. Heroic Yogg-Saron, Hard Mode.

Wrists: Mechanist’s Bindings. Heroic Flame Leviathan.

This “set” will put you at 197 Hit Rating/5.91% (coupled with Grim Toll, you’re at 281, already over-budget) and 203 Expertise Rating/6.09% reduction in Dodge & Parry chance (assuming Primal Precision).

Slightly-Less-Ridiculous:

Back: Drape of Icy Intent. Heroic Hodir.

Chest: Conqueror’s Nightsong Raiments. Heroic Hodir.

Feet: Flamestalker Boots. Heroic Ignis.

Hands: Valorous Nightsong Handgrips. Normal Freya.

Head: Guise of the Midgard Serpent. Normal Thorim.

Legs: Proto-hide Leggings. Heroic Razorscale. These are also BoE.

Neck: Broach of the Wailing Night. 19 Emblems of Conquest. This is a super nice necklace.

Rings: Strength of the Automaton (Heroic Flame Leviathan) and Cindershard Ring (Heroic Ignis).

Shoulders: Treacherous Shoulderpads. Normal XT-002.

Waist: Belt of the Twilight Assassin. 28 Emblems of Conquest.

Weapon: Twisted Visage. Heroic XT-002. Lotrafen is technically better, but Twisted Visage is a lot easier to get.

Wrists: Mechanist’s Bindings. Heroic Flame Leviathan.

This “set,” which is a lot easier to assemble and will give you the two-piece T8 bonus, gives you 307 Hit Rating/9.21% Hit (super over-budget; if you can pick up Lotrafen, you’d be in better shape) and 177 Expertise Rating/5.31% reduction in Dodge & Parry chance (assuming Primal Precision).

I highly recommend using the spreadsheet to mix and match the gear you know you can attain and balance it with the stats you already have. Terrible with math? You can use the spreadsheet in conjunction with a tool like Rawr to get a leg up. Rawr also has the advantage of caching a number of other data elements and gear for your perusal. As always, the spreadsheet will continue to be updated as gear changes and discoveries occur. Looking for Bear information? Check out ThinkTank for super awesome tanking discussion and gearing suggestions.

Noblegarden is spectacular—a true vision of Azeroth at its finest. I only had to snag my first egg from the cotton-tailed clutches of a Hunter-turned-rabbit to receive a stream of grammatically incorrect vitriol. I love this. First of all, I’m terribly sorry that you can’t click as quickly as I can. Second, I’m disappointed that your retorts are neither clever nor funny. Third, you have only inspired me to poach as many eggs from you as I possibly can while simultaneously reporting and throwing you on ignore.

That’s beside the point. This newly-revamped in-game holiday is awesome for ERPers and fans of collecting scandalous and/or useless costumes. For all of you over-achievers who have no compunctions about sitting and doing completely mundane and occasionally frustrating things for hours on end, this is the shit for you. Fortunately, even if you’re completely unlucky, you can complete all the achievements for the meta (i.e. the mini-achievements that will get you the Noble title) using the Noblegarden Chocolates you find in the Brightly Colored Eggs. Unfortunately, that can take some time. Here’s a quick look of what you need if you want only the meta:

• Spring Rabbit’s Foot: 100 chocolates
• Spring Flowers: 50 chocolates
• Noblegarden Egg: 5 chocolates
• White Tuxedo Shirt: 25 chocolates
• Black Tuxedo Pants: 25 chocolates
• Spring Robes: 50 chocolates
• 110 extra chocolates: this fulfills your initial quest to get your Easter Basket and also nets you a stomachache and the Chocoholic achievement.

That’s a total of 365 eggs. What about the Spring Circlet and Elegant Robes? Technically, you don’t need those. The ears are totally just for fun (and for the record, you can use your Spring Flowers to put the ears on yourself) and you only need to find another person wearing the dress to get your Blushing Bride achievement done. So how the fuck do you get all those eggs? The best thing you can do is find a decent spot to camp out and stand around like a champ until they do. Here’s my suggestion: Dolanaar. I pick this not because I’m a Night Elf, but mostly because it has potential to be “less crowded,” and also because I found really awesome spawn points there. 

When you get to the Inn, go around to the left side near the Stable Master. 

One egg spawns on top of the wooden doodad, one egg spawns behind the wooden doodad, and another spawns in the bushes. You can position yourself in such a fashion (all up ons the Stable Master) that you can grab each of these eggs in rapid succession when they spawn. It’s not fun. You do this because you want the stupid title and potentially a proto in your future, and you must understand that it’s more boring than fishing. The rest of the achievements end up being very self-explanatory.

While I’m at it, let it be known that I updated the Ulduar DPS Loot List, and let me direct you all to a new Priest blog called “Maintaining Discipline.” Laney is a Holy/Disc Priest, one of ECR’s raid leaders, and just so happened to find some inspiration lately to start a blog. Go offer some words of encouragement! 

And sadly, just as we welcome another blogger to the ever-expanding sphere, another leaves. Megan, from Out of Mana, is stepping down and pursuing other worthwhile life experiences. I recommend pole-dancing and makeouts. Drop her a line, wish her good-luck, and parse through her old entries full of advice, biting wit, and “slick” graphics. Take care, yo.

This post is now outdated. For up-to-date information and better gear recommendations, please go HERE.

As promised, I have compiled an Ulduar loot list for all the hot cats out there. Note that this list only includes loot that’s new in 3.1 and that it’s entirely possible that more loot is yet to be discovered. If there are leather items you know have dropped and they haven’t been included, do me a favor and drop me a line so that I can add them to the spreadsheet. When considering what gear I chose as a top choice, remember:

 

• Agility and Armor Penetration are the “best” stats to stack as a Cat right now. This doesn’t mean that you won’t benefit from Critical Strike, STR, or Haste. 
• You will want your two-piece T7/7.5 and two-piece T8/8.5 bonuses.
• Best-in-slot means nothing if you’re not Hit or Expertise capped (or at least fucking close); choose the proper gear accordingly.
• In most cases, 25-man Ulduar gear will be better than 10. Sorry, kids.
• I’m not including pre 3.1 gear. There’s a good chance you’re already wearing some sweet stuff. Make sure you do your research before assuming something in Ulduar is 100 percent better.
• Where my idols at? For DPS, you’re still going to be alternating between the Idol of the Ravenous Beast (especially if you stack ArP) and Idol of Worship.
• Trinkets? Do yourself a favor and go get that Darkmoon Card: Greatness. Pair that up with something like Grim Toll or Bandit’s Insignia or the Mirror of Truth, and you’re good to go.

And without any other further ado, here’s my DPS gear shortlist! For a full rundown of gear and stats, please download my 3.1 Gear List Spreadsheet here.