I'm looking forwards to levelling in BC and after some humming and hawing I've decided to level as Feral. I was actually fairly tempted by moonkin, the combination of the new mana regen mechanic while meleeing in form, plus Omen of Clarity plus some gear like Beasts trinket for instance seems to offer a nuke nuke thwack tactic very much like the priest's nuke nuke wand tactic
Coming back on track evaluating feral gear is about assumptions, two value judgments and some game mechanics
First the assumptions:
1) Levelling is primarily boosted by killing speed and movement speed not survivability. Sometimes you will do hard quests most times you will do easy quests sometimes you will grind. Damage helps three of those scenarios, survivability only one
2) Caster stats are not really relevant. The basic strategy I have in mind is to kill 3 or 4 mobs in catform then shift to heal. Base mana is ample
3) I haven't really grasped how the new crit rating and resilience rating system changes the game. I'm assuming (and it's a big assumption) that for the purposes of this analysis it won't fundamentally affect things
The value judgement is about how much attack power is equivalant to a point of +crit or +hit. Rogue formulae put this figure at between 20 and 30. There isn't a lot of merit in a crit for a Rogue other than simple double damage (except Seal Fate rogues). However for a cat druid a crit is a bonus combo point (Blood Frenzy) and a small heal (Improved Leader of the Pack). The small heals are very nice for the type of combat involved in levelling, basically beating up weak things. So let's arbitrarily set +1 crit as worth 22 attack power
+1 hit looks at first glance to be equivalent to +1 crit in damage up until the point where you have maxxed your effective hit chance. However this is only true for mobs where you have a 5% miss chance and I believe that mobs that are lower level than you have a smaller miss chance. Then too crit includes extra bonuses from the talents mentioned above and +hit won't affect those (since a crit always hits +hit is not relevant to chance on crit talents). I'm not entirely sure how to rate +hit but I'm inclined to count it for a little less than crit up to a value of +5. Let's say 20 attack power for +1 hit up to +5 then zero. I realise that miss chance is greater than 5 on mobs that are higher level than you but effective levelling isn't usually about taking on such challenges
1 strength is 2.4 attack power for a feral druid
1 agility is 1 attack power and 0.05 crit
OK so this then gives us 1 AP = 1/2.4 strength = 1/2.1 agility = 1/20 hit (where total hit is under +6) = 1/22 crit
Let me give some examples of how this formula will rate items
Qiraji Execution Bracers
Binds when picked up
Wrist Leather
103 Armor
+15 Strength
+16 Agility
+14 Stamina
Durability 40 / 40
Requires Level 60
Equip: Improves your chance to hit by 1%.
Rating 36 + 33.6 + 20 = 89.6
Wristguards of Stability
Binds when picked up
Wrist Leather
86 Armor
+24 Strength
+8 Stamina
Rating 57.6
Forest Stalker's Bracers
Binds when picked up
Wrist Leather
86 Armor
+11 Strength
+19 Agility
+8 Stamina
Rating 26.4 + 39.9 = 66.3
Bracers of Subterfuge
Binds when picked up
Wrist Leather
81 Armor
+10 Strength
+15 Agility
+12 Stamina
Rating 24 + 31.5 = 55.5
OK, that's what I'd like input on, thanks for reading this far. Once people have helped me to hone this into a final form I will produce an optimal gear list for feral cat levellling :)
Coming back on track evaluating feral gear is about assumptions, two value judgments and some game mechanics
First the assumptions:
1) Levelling is primarily boosted by killing speed and movement speed not survivability. Sometimes you will do hard quests most times you will do easy quests sometimes you will grind. Damage helps three of those scenarios, survivability only one
2) Caster stats are not really relevant. The basic strategy I have in mind is to kill 3 or 4 mobs in catform then shift to heal. Base mana is ample
3) I haven't really grasped how the new crit rating and resilience rating system changes the game. I'm assuming (and it's a big assumption) that for the purposes of this analysis it won't fundamentally affect things
The value judgement is about how much attack power is equivalant to a point of +crit or +hit. Rogue formulae put this figure at between 20 and 30. There isn't a lot of merit in a crit for a Rogue other than simple double damage (except Seal Fate rogues). However for a cat druid a crit is a bonus combo point (Blood Frenzy) and a small heal (Improved Leader of the Pack). The small heals are very nice for the type of combat involved in levelling, basically beating up weak things. So let's arbitrarily set +1 crit as worth 22 attack power
+1 hit looks at first glance to be equivalent to +1 crit in damage up until the point where you have maxxed your effective hit chance. However this is only true for mobs where you have a 5% miss chance and I believe that mobs that are lower level than you have a smaller miss chance. Then too crit includes extra bonuses from the talents mentioned above and +hit won't affect those (since a crit always hits +hit is not relevant to chance on crit talents). I'm not entirely sure how to rate +hit but I'm inclined to count it for a little less than crit up to a value of +5. Let's say 20 attack power for +1 hit up to +5 then zero. I realise that miss chance is greater than 5 on mobs that are higher level than you but effective levelling isn't usually about taking on such challenges
1 strength is 2.4 attack power for a feral druid
1 agility is 1 attack power and 0.05 crit
OK so this then gives us 1 AP = 1/2.4 strength = 1/2.1 agility = 1/20 hit (where total hit is under +6) = 1/22 crit
Let me give some examples of how this formula will rate items
Qiraji Execution Bracers
Binds when picked up
Wrist Leather
103 Armor
+15 Strength
+16 Agility
+14 Stamina
Durability 40 / 40
Requires Level 60
Equip: Improves your chance to hit by 1%.
Rating 36 + 33.6 + 20 = 89.6
Wristguards of Stability
Binds when picked up
Wrist Leather
86 Armor
+24 Strength
+8 Stamina
Rating 57.6
Forest Stalker's Bracers
Binds when picked up
Wrist Leather
86 Armor
+11 Strength
+19 Agility
+8 Stamina
Rating 26.4 + 39.9 = 66.3
Bracers of Subterfuge
Binds when picked up
Wrist Leather
81 Armor
+10 Strength
+15 Agility
+12 Stamina
Rating 24 + 31.5 = 55.5
OK, that's what I'd like input on, thanks for reading this far. Once people have helped me to hone this into a final form I will produce an optimal gear list for feral cat levellling :)
