08-04-2005, 12:50 PM
Grats Nobbie! I find leveling proffessions incredibly boring, so anyone who can level 4 of them is a grinding machine in my books. (I'm currently in the process of leveling enchanting at the moment...Ragefire Chasm huzzah!)
I missed this post first time around, and I just thought I'd chip in my thoughts on cat form.
Like everyone else (except Gnollguy) I assumed that cat form was bad while I was leveling, and left it at that. Cat form collected dust. I have recently begun to doubt that.
As Brista noted, the "trick" with a druid seems to be to think of your forms, not as a seperate "mini-class", but as a tool, and this game is all about choosing the right tool for the job. There is no point soloing as a "bear druid" or a "caster druid" or a "cat druid", you solo as a druid, with each form being used as the situation dictates. So the question becomes "when do you use cat form while you are soloing?"
The answer? Squishies! :P Cat form is great against caster mobs. Against a lightly armored mob ravage (stealthy backstabby opener thingy) hits for a little over 500 and crits for around 1000 points of damage. Add to that quick damage and a Feral Bite (finishing move) and you can use cat form to churn through the squishy mobs. (I was using this to kill the Dread Weavers in EPL the other day and found it to be increadibly effective relative to the more standard starfire moonfire bear form strategy.) Do you use cat form against heavily armored mobs? No. It just doesn't work and spells coupled with the high damage mitigation of bear form are far more effective.
So, long post short: cat form good when fighting squishies, bad when fighting tanky mobs. (Even bear form isn't that hot then. Sure, you won't die, but it's going to take a while to kill the mob. I'd rather burn some mana and root kite the thing.)
Incidently, huge thanks to Gnollguy. His post about druid builds got me thinking about cat form and started the experiments.
And congratulations to Nobbie again!
Cheers,
Watto - I'm currently having a ball experimenting with cat form in group PvP - 44. :D
I missed this post first time around, and I just thought I'd chip in my thoughts on cat form.
Like everyone else (except Gnollguy) I assumed that cat form was bad while I was leveling, and left it at that. Cat form collected dust. I have recently begun to doubt that.
As Brista noted, the "trick" with a druid seems to be to think of your forms, not as a seperate "mini-class", but as a tool, and this game is all about choosing the right tool for the job. There is no point soloing as a "bear druid" or a "caster druid" or a "cat druid", you solo as a druid, with each form being used as the situation dictates. So the question becomes "when do you use cat form while you are soloing?"
The answer? Squishies! :P Cat form is great against caster mobs. Against a lightly armored mob ravage (stealthy backstabby opener thingy) hits for a little over 500 and crits for around 1000 points of damage. Add to that quick damage and a Feral Bite (finishing move) and you can use cat form to churn through the squishy mobs. (I was using this to kill the Dread Weavers in EPL the other day and found it to be increadibly effective relative to the more standard starfire moonfire bear form strategy.) Do you use cat form against heavily armored mobs? No. It just doesn't work and spells coupled with the high damage mitigation of bear form are far more effective.
So, long post short: cat form good when fighting squishies, bad when fighting tanky mobs. (Even bear form isn't that hot then. Sure, you won't die, but it's going to take a while to kill the mob. I'd rather burn some mana and root kite the thing.)
Incidently, huge thanks to Gnollguy. His post about druid builds got me thinking about cat form and started the experiments.
And congratulations to Nobbie again!
Cheers,
Watto - I'm currently having a ball experimenting with cat form in group PvP - 44. :D
I hate flags
"Then Honor System came out and I had b*$@& tattoo'd on my forehead and a "kick me" sign taped to my back." - Tiku
Stormscale: Treglies, UD Mage; Treggles, 49 Orc Shaman; Tregor, semi-un-retired Druid.
Terenas (all retired): 60 Druid; 60 Shaman. (Not very creative with my character selection, am I?!
"Then Honor System came out and I had b*$@& tattoo'd on my forehead and a "kick me" sign taped to my back." - Tiku
Stormscale: Treglies, UD Mage; Treggles, 49 Orc Shaman; Tregor, semi-un-retired Druid.
Terenas (all retired): 60 Druid; 60 Shaman. (Not very creative with my character selection, am I?!