My plan in the end is to go hybrid so I can tank or heal 5-mans. So I’m going to follow the general feral leveling guides out there, at least till 40 or so. But they all put points into the cat dmg talents, as opposed to the bear tank talents.
How much faster is cat than bear while leveling? Clearly I’d still need Feline Swiftness, just for the run speed (at least until 30); but would I be ok to level as bear? Might be less dmg, but perhaps more sustain? Or maybe able to pull larger groups and try to swipe them down?
So I played feral back in vanilla, pure cat. This time around I’m tanking so I’m going a bear build. However, as I just dinged 24, I’m going the balance part to get OoC and the 10% dmg talents first. So I haven’t really gotten into the cat or bear specific talents yet.
With that said, bear doesn’t have more burst or sustain. I basically do 35ish dps as a bear while cat after the initial burst, (full energy bar dump) sits around 50-60 if memory serves. It may even be higher, I’m not sure. It’s well over 100 while I’m just starting the fight. As more talents get put into the feral portion of the tree, cat will pull further and further ahead. As the enemies get tougher, it’ll pull ahead even more once rip and rake can be utilized. Bear only gets swipe and maul for damage. Cat gets ravage, claw, rake, shred, rip, and ferocious bite.
Now bear can definitely make use of AoE. Swipe and being able to tank hits from multiple mobs can be beneficial; especially when you factor in thorns does more work the more people are hitting you. Bears are my favorite animal and I have my class fantasy of having a pvp bear or dps bear. Trust me, I wish I could tell you bear form will level faster but they just won’t. That being said, it’s not like choosing bear talents means you can’t use cat form. Going full tank you’ll lose out on 15% FB dmg, double combo points from crits, 30% movement speed/4% dodge and lower shred cost…but other than that you’re basically the same only you get higher armor and threat and stuff. (Like 5 rage on every crit).
You’ll want to use all forms for leveling, situation will dictate.
For many classes you should assume that once you hit end gamish you’ll respec, if you’re planning on doing raids.
Cat spec is that much faster. Also anything up to about UBRS can be tanked or healed without the proper spec and without too much trouble once you know what you’re doing. So worry about leveling at this point and not endgame optimization
I agree with everyone else here. I leveled a feral druid as cat back in the day, and I’m leveling a cat/bear hybrid now. You’re going to want to respec at some point, anyway, so just have fun with it. Cheers!
If you plan on running a dungeon 2-3 times I’d go more bear heavy.
My druid hit 32 the other day. My current build is at 32 is
5/5 Ferocity
5/5 Feral Instinct
2/2 Feline Swiftness (fast travel is a must for questing)
1/1 Feral Charge
3/3 Sharpened Claws
3/3 Predatory Strikes
2/2 Blood Frenzy
1/1 Feral Faerie Fire
1/2 Savage Fury
My end build will probably be 14/30/7 for Improved Rage/NS/OoC. Still enough to tank and hold threat while getting BiS. Flipping to 0/30/21 when OT/Heals in raids.
I spec bear, but most questing/solo im in cat… the cat talents dont really help you out much when your soloing (extra combo points, less shred energy cost, ect), and the bear talents really help in tanking 5 mans, so yeah, my recommendation is spec bear, even though most soloing/questing/grinding, youll be in cat.
Good point. Though Feline Swiftness is petty clutch for travel speed early on, so maybe I’ll just keep cat until 30 when I get Travel and switch to the more Bear focused spec then.
The thing is you don’t really need any of the bear form talents in order to tank. Maul and Swipe aren’t really affected by many of the talents anyway. The only one you’d really want to consider is Furor, but that’s also good for cat.
It’s a tough choice whether to go for Faerie Fire or Furor first IMO. But if you plan on tanking I’d go Furor, since you can pull with moonfire and power shift.
Having that rage available for the snap threat is extremely important in dungeons when DPS are 100% of the time going to open up as soon as you get in combat.
I am going full cat spec for levelling, and liking it. When I do dungeons, 3 out of every 4 times I’m tanking, and have never had a complaint, and when I am DPS, I’m generally #1 by a comfortable margin, even after spot tanking and healing.
I didn’t take furor yet, and yeah, that rage would be helpful on the pull, but you know what? No one gets one shotted if they pull agro at the start.
In the end I respecced to a more bear focused build at 30 (since I didn’t need the run speed in cat form). I’m LOVING having furor for that instant rage (and energy actually). Can’t wait to get Leader of the Pack at 45. I find it very easy to get a group as tank, and still no problems at all soloing quests in cat (though don’t really notice much help stealthing with 5/5 Feral Instinct…).
It’s also easy only having to worry about one set of gear. Once I hit 60 and have my tank gear going, I’ll start collecting some healing gear as well, and eventually switch to 30/21. That’s when I’ll be the true hybrid I remember from Vanilla!
