Battleground Kitty Mark Beta 1 Bleeder Roger, WoW 3.2.2
It’s been my desire to get my Critty Kitty into proper PvP order before I hit 80. I know it’s really not worth considering until then, but I’m impatient. I think what I have now is an upright and proper bleed build. I know bleeds are mostly a PvE sustained damage thing and PvP is all about the crit spikes, but Ferocious Bite just keeps giving me reasons to hate it. I want to like it, but it refuses to obey.
This here Kitty doesn’t have a lot of survival built in. A few points were taken in for concession, but our main goal here is stealth, stun, bleed, Shred. We don’t start fair fights. We find fair fights and make them unfair.
Feral Talent Overview
Ferocity – Required for Feral. We don’t ask, we just do. Even if we’re considering Feral Aggression, we still take Ferocity too. We aren’t. Like I said, me and Ferocious Bite are having a tiff.
Feral Instinct – Necessary for proper Prowling.
Savage Fury – +20% damage to your primary attacks? Yes please.
Feral Swiftness – +30% movement speed. As a melee attacker, your mobility is vital to your existence.
Sharpened Claws – +6% Crit. The crit game begins!
Shredding Attacks – Shred is really not useful without this talent. The cost is way too high. This lops off about a third of that, raising the damage a lot.
Predatory Strikes – We’re mostly taking this to meet prereqs, but it does offer a lump of attack power, so we won’t sneeze at it. It also offers up the chance at instant cast healing. Since our mana bar isn’t getting used for much else, it’s a readily available source of health. Pop off a Maim on your opponent, heal yourself, then jam back into kitty shape before they can shake it off.
Primal Fury – While unpredictable, we’re loading the dice on this one with as much crit as possible. There are few things as deadly or as satisfying as those moments where you rack up 5 combo points in just three attacks.
Brutal Impact – This only adds 1 second to the stun of your Pounce. One second may not seem like much, but if they don’t trinket out, that’s one more Shred which is one more chance to get a combo point or two, which may open up that 5 point Maim or Rip that spells their doom.
Feral Charge – It’s not just for Bears anymore. A lot of people give FC the shrug, but it’s an amazing gap-closer. As a kitty, it will not break stealth, so you can open up with a Pounce or to just tease your opposition. While it doesn’t technically interrupt casting in Cat Form, you can make a player’s spell fizzle by quickly leaping behind them before they get the cast off.
Heart of the Wild – I actually let this slide in a lot of my builds, as 5 points is a lot of investment for what I consider to be less of an attack power improvement than people give it credit for. Still, we’re going all-out on the damage here, so we’ll listen to the masses and take it.
Survival of the Fittest – Yes yes, this is a tanking talent. While I said we’d be mostly ignoring defense, this talent is the origin of the word “mostly”. There’s a lot to love. The crit resistance mimics the effects of PvP Resilience to a degree. The +6% to all attributes will result in a small damage and survivability increase. And in a pinch, you’re better equipped to tank an AV boss than most.
Leader of the Pack – This talent is not only amazing for you, but makes several other classes your best of friends. +5% crit for one point is amazing. Getting to share it is icing on the cake.
Primal Tenacity – With only one point in it, this one got a point as pure filler, and didn’t get Rank 3 due to a lack of spare points to finish it off. Fear is a bothersome fact of life in PvP, though we’ve got Berserk to bust out of it once every three minutes. This point could’ve gone just about anywhere above it and still provided similar benefit.
Predatory Instincts – I filled this 2 out of 3 points primarily as filler, but it’s filler with nice effects. The AoE damage isn’t as lethal as it would be in a raid, but in a packed map like AV, they are a reality. The bonus damage to crits shows itself more and more as we buff our crit chance to the sky, and will help negate the Resilience our opponents will be stacking.
Infected Wounds – Because Mangle and Shred will be your main attacks, the Infected Wounds disease will almost always be on anyone you face, ensuring they’re always moving around at a crawl. While anything that can remove a disease can clear it off, that means it works equally well as a cover-effect to help keep other class diseases from being stripped so easily. Make friends with a Death Knight using Pestilence, and watch as he turns a field of enemies into snails for the slaughtering.
King of the Jungle – This ability will serve you two fold. You can now use your Tiger’s Fury to instantly generate 60 energy, essential for turning it up to 11 on a stunlocked victim. Second, it reduces the cost of your Cat/Bear shapechanging by a massive amount. While you’ll usually be a Cat, dropping in and out of form is your primary means of breaking CC effects like ice and roots, which can get very expensive very fast. Shapechanging will cost next to nothing for our build.
Mangle – Just take it. And take Improved Mangle to make it cheaper. This is not optional.
Rend and Tear – This sort of dictates your tactics now. You’ll often find someone already engaged in a fight, Pounce or Fairy Fire depending on situation, Rake and Mangle to prime the bleeding, then Shred wildly.
Primal Gore – Rip is probably your least favorite attack in PvP, but it has the luxury of doing the largest total damage of any of your finishing moves plus it ignores armor. With your massive crit chance, this is a huge damage buff to an already intimidating attack. Drop one on any opponent with a lot of health or armor where you know your other attacks aren’t going to finish the job anytime soon.
Berserk – You mostly want this as a fear break, but the 50% cheaper attacks come along as a nice bonus.
Resto Talent Overview
Improved Mark of the Wild – BG Ferals don’t typically take this one, because chances are there’ll be a tree around to offer up an improved pink paw for you. I think the +2% attribute bonus makes it worth it, however small it may be. Along side Survival of the Fittest, it’s nearly as good as running around with a permanent Blessing of Kings. Rarely do people pass out buffs in BGs after getting out of the gate anyways. Don’t rely on them for your buffs.
Furor – Skip, you only took 4 points in Furor! WTF?!
Chills, man. Let’s do the math right quick. Furor lets me keep up to 20 points of energy per rank, assuming it would’ve generated that much in the time I spent away from Kitty. Furor is important in PvP because we often have to break out of Cat Form to escape CC effects, and we want the energy waiting for us when we get back. Energy generates at a speed of 10 energy per second. When I return to Cat Form, there’s a 1.5 second global cooldown before I can actually act. In that 1.5 seconds, I’ll generate 15 energy. With 4 ranks in Furor, I’ll make it back to kitty form with 80 energy, then make 15 more before I can act. I’m only losing out on 5 energy. That’s a fair exchange for a talent point, I feel.
Naturalist – +10% extra raw damage. Not bad for a tree talent. Not bad for any talent.
Natural Shapeshifter – Prereq. Many call this talent next to useless, and if we were considering PvP, maybe it would be. But, since we’re using our shapechange as a method of freedom, it carries its weight some.
Omen of Clarity – Happiness is! Almost anything you do has a chance of procing OoC, giving you a free attack. Generally considered vital to the Feral offensive, you’ll find yourself getting off many more attacks this way.
Master Shapeshifter – Many consider this talent to not be worth the investment it takes to get here. If Natural Shapeshifter isn’t worth beans to you, it’s like paying 5 points for +4% crit. Still, you already paid 3 for +6% and 1 for +5%, right? It’s called diminishing returns. If you want more, you gotta pay. Me, I want it.
Feral Talents That Didn’t Make the Cut
Survival Instincts – It didn’t get dropped for lack of awesome, but it’s really only a necessity when tanking. I said up-front we were sacrificing some survivability, though I may consider swapping it for that lone Primal Tenacity point.
Primal Precision – It was hard to give this talent up. It was really handy while leveling, and I’d still recommend it in a PvE build. Accuracy is less of an issue in PvP, as attacking from behind removes a lot of the player’s avoidance right off.
Nurturing Instincts – I really like this talent. Agility is your main stat, so while the benefit won’t make you a raid healer, it’s a minor investment for a huge return. It’s pretty common to toss a HoT or two up, then go into Cat Form and engage the enemy, gaining both benefits of the talent at the same time for the start of the encounter. It didn’t make it on the list due to sheer point starvation, but is a candidate for that stray point floating around.
Natural Reaction – Strictly a Bear Tank talent. It also has to compete with some beefy talents at its tier.
Improved Leader of the Pack – This was another hard one to let go. You’re pretty loopy if you don’t bring this one along on a raid, but it’s just not that useful in PvP. The heal is great for taking pressure off of the healers in a group, but since most PvP exchanges only last a few flurries, you’re just not going live to see any worthwhile benefit. The mana replenishment ensures that you are never dry, but we have very little need for it to begin with.
And now your fortune cookie:
If one in the hand is worth two in the bush, someone has a very high opinion of their hand.
