A Feral Druid's Illustrated Primer - bear stats

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One of my favourite books is Neal Stephenson’s “A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer”, and one day as I was browsing forums, wikis and wow-related blogs I got thinking maybe I should do a small compilation of these druid things I have read about and the things I think I know and have learned from my own experinces, written from a feral perspective and - BAM! – the name “A Feral Druid’s Illustrated Primer” was etched in my head.

My druid Joaquime is feral at heart, even though she occasionally ventures into the balance tree to fight like a laser chicken. However, feral does not equal “incapable of doing all the other things a druid can do”, and I have picked up a grain or two of druidic wisdom (mostly from other people) during my WoW-years that I figured I could share.

Note: This will not be a guide on how to tank, nor will it be a guide on how to heal, it will be more of a “so you are 70 and you are a feral druid, here are some things that you might find interesting to know and consider”-sort of thing.

Primer = A book that covers the basic elements of a subject.

Enjoy!

Feral(Bear)

What stats should you aim for and how much?

A feral druid’s first concern should be to make herself uncrittable, and since you are a lvl 70 druid you want to be uncrittable by all the top mobs that may come running to you, intent on smashing your face in, ie raid bosses. The chance for a raid boss to score a critical hit on you is 5,6 % (for some reason raid bosses are considered to be lvl 73, even though they are shown as skulls, which should indicate they are at least 10 lvls above you...)

So, uncrittability is achieved by
1) taking 3/3 of the feral talent Survival of the Fittest, which gives you a 3 % reduction to the chance of an enemy scoring a critical hit on you, AND
2) stacking Defense or Resilience until they add another 2,6 % chance that you will avoid a critical hit. Defense is usually preferred since, unlike Resilience, it increases Dodge chance as well, but any of the two will do the job. You will have reached your coveted goal at 415 Defense or 220 Resilience. If you have a little of both, check the tooltips for each stat and add up the numbers.




Please pay attention to the difference between Defense rating, which is not the same as Defense. For some reason Blizz has a plethora of different ways to confuse us all, and this is just one of them. You stack Defense Rating to get Defense, and you stack Resilience (not rating!) to get Resilience.

In my opinion, hoarding up on Defense after you have reached crit immunity is rather useless. You get a slight increase to Dodge, but you have no use for the Defense-induced Block or Parry. Better to increase other stats then.

The second thing you want to start amassing is Armor. Your thick furry hide is the one thing that protects your fragile innards and warm heart from the cold cruel world out there. Love it! Get a lot of it! Maximize the talent Thick Hide and keep an eye out for items with their armor value in green - that means that they are extra good for that sweet protection.



Armor is also increased by one of the druid's other favourite stat - Agility. It also increases Dodge and Crit, and you want a lot of the two first at least for starters. Dodge to avoid as many of the mob’s hits as possible, Armor to reduce the hurt of the hits you can’t avoid, and Crit is a nice bonus to giving that nasty bucket of smelly old carp that’s trying to take you and your friends down a little extra painful taste of his own medicine. Get as much Agility as you can – there is no such thing as too much Agility.



For some reason the impact of Agility on the Dodge is not shown in the tooltip, but it's there, rest assured of that.

Dodge rating is another stat that the just-turned 70-druid might wanna check out, since you have no other means of avoiding a hit, you have no shield to block with and no weapon to parry with. (Yeye I know you do have weapon equipped, but Blizzard in their mysterious ways have not yet seen fit to tell us all how, exactly, a bear utilises the pretty blunt weapon she somehow carries with her underneath that furry exterior.)

Aim for about 30 % Dodge unbuffed to start with. The talent Feral Swiftness adds 4 % to your Dodge, take it! In my experience, it is usually not necessary to gem or enchant for Dodge, a lot of the gear you will be interested in has Dodge rating on it, and anyways I prefer stacking pure Agility over Dodge rating for the extra benefits of that stat.

A slight note though, on some bosses it seems too much Dodge may interfere with your rage generation, but generally it’s the more Dodge, the merrier.

Same thing here as for Defense btw, you stack up Dodge Rating to increase your Dodge.



Stamina is the last of the really must-have’s, a good feral druid needs a large health pool to soak all those un-dodged hits that gets through your thick bear fur. Once your gear covers the basic uncrittability you can start stacking Solid Star of Elune’s or other gems with stamina in your gear. Don't worry too much if you miss out on the socket bonus, or if it's a real nice one, try to find suitably colored gems with stamina and some other nice stat on them, like the Jagged Talasite or Shifting Nightseye. Also, don't forget to take the talent Heart of the Wild, which will give you a sweet flat 20 % Stamina increase in Bear form.



Other stats that are interesting are Crit and Hit, but for a starter druid they take secondary place to the holy quintuplet(is that even a word?) mentioned above. Hit rating makes you hit your target more, Crit rating makes you more likely to get a critical hit when you do, and as you know, the more you damage that mob, the more threat you generate, the more your dps’ers and healers can unleash on the mob and you respectively without having to worry about taking aggro. Crit is also crucial if you have the talent Primal Fury, which you do have, right? Free rage for every crit? Gief!




So now that you know which stats to aim for, check out this sweet tool from Rawr to see how you can make your own druid dress up in different outfits and how it will affect your overall stats.



Stay tuned for the next part - Feral(Cat)


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