Herding Cat

So, despite having had every intention of focusing on bearform, I have begun my druid's instancing career as a cat. It makes sense. The guild has an excellent tank and an excellent healer. We're running 5's for now, so the offtank slot I'm penciled-in to isn't needed yet, and most of the gear is more or less the same anyway, so right now, kitty dps is more useful to both me and my group than bearery. I still need to go learn to tank, but for now, I'm learning to scratch first.

It is very weird.

Keep in mind that I have been huntering for a really long time and raiding as one since the Burning Crusade, and other than a brief foray into whack-a-mole healing, it's the only thing I've ever done. There's been a lot of changes to huntering in that time, but in the end, you're still standing far away shooting things and just trying to stay out of the fire. Your abilities are nearly all cooldown-based and you have a lot of situational awareness thanks to your setback.

Catform is pretty much the opposite altogether. I have bleeds to track, CPs to track, different strikes to use in front of an enemy and behind an enemy and I'm right up in the melee mess with no clue what is going on outside of all those spell effect fireworks going off all over me. I have to move, I have to keep moving, I have to move again. It's crazy.

My first instance I facerolled my abilities and pulled down a gaudy 1.6k dps doing it. For wearing mostly blues and having no idea what I was doing, I should probably have been thankful for that. A lot of reading and a few flowcharts scribbled out later, and in almost the same gear, I hit 2.5k. Nothing being equal, it is still a big difference, but I still have a long way to go. I know how to manage my timers, but I need to get a feel for refreshing them efficiently, I need to get used to saving up cp's to renew rip at the right time and I need to be doing roar with more than 1 or 2 cp's more often. I need to find my rake key more often too and I need to stop trying to shred from the front of an opponent and I need to stop being in front of an opponent.

Getting to 80 doesn't teach you how to play at 80. pounce/manglespam/bite is not a raiding rotation. All of the confidence and skill I piled up getting here are gone, heck, with all of my keybind changes I might not even be able to solo all that well at the moment. Some people say the game starts at 80, more correct is that there is another game at 80.

But, there's hope for anyone willing to learn. The decision tree for feral sounds imposing the first time you look at it, but in play, it's quite manageable and requires no more spell timers than a marksman hunter uses. The buttontimers addon is a huge help, get it. I looked at FeralByNight, but I always hated priority queue managers on my hunter - once you learn your stack you soon learn when to ignore your stack and addons are only going to be a nuisance at that point.

Don't let me forget to cast fairy fire.

Remind me to Berserk on boss fights.

Get me some fat lewtz.

It'll be all right.