The 3.3 Cat Gearing Guide, Part 3 (10M ICC)

For Part 3 of the guide, we’ll be looking at a build using the gear available from 10M ICC (normal) and Frost Emblems. You do miss out on a few fun toys from 25M ICC (Deathbringer’s Will, for instance), but your gearing will be much simpler. Much depends on the buffs/debuffs you have available. For the purposes of this post, I’ll assume you have Imp. MOTW/Faerie Fire (duh), Might, Kings, Horn of Winter, Trueshot Aura, Sunder Armor, and an Endless Rage flask. I also won’t take any profession bonuses into account.

Note: Most of these calculations were derived using Rawr, so go download it and follow along if you haven’t already.

TLDR Version:

1. You NEED 4pT10. Rake being able to crit, with our absurdly high crit rates, will be a very powerful addition. You’re looking at a 6-8% DPS increase just from that set bonus. It’ll take a while to get there though, so it’s probably best to keep 4pT9 until you get 2 pieces of T10. You can break it early if you’re upgrading from 232’s, but I’d keep ilvl 245 2pT9 as long as you can.

2. Don’t believe the ArPen hype. Agility remains the best stat. Why? Well, as I mentioned earlier, the 4pT10 bonus feeds off agi/crit. ArPen only helps your direct attacks, mainly your white damage and your Shreds. Now, if you have lots of haste or lots of ArPen (from 25-man buffs, 25m ICC gear, or both) than this might change, but in general, things look like this (10m buffs):
Gearing up (4pT9): Agi > Str > Crit > ArPen
Somewhat geared (2pT10ish): ArPen > Agi > Str
4pT10(251): Agi > ArPen > Str

I’ll cover how the picture changes with 25m gear in a later post. It’s up to you if you want to regem for ArPen then back to Agi…that can get pretty expensive, however, and the DPS difference is fairly minimal (-50ish DPS for going full ArPen vs agi/crit, or a -.5% drop).

Gear List

Head: Lasherweave Headguard, 95 EoF’s.
Alternatives: Discarded Bag of Entrails (My, what a lovely name), Prof. Putricide; Hood of Lethal Intent, 75 EoT’s.
Notes: The Bag is an okay piece, but PP is one of the harder bosses, so you may not get it early (and the T10 is superior anyway). The 245 piece is much better than it was in T9, since you’re less likely to be hitcapped.

Neck: Rimetooth Pendant, Sindragosa.
Alternatives: Precious’s Putrid Collar, Festergut; Wodin’s Lucky Necklace, ICC BoE world drop.
Notes: Whichever one you get…you’re likely to get the Collar first, but the hit on it may go to waste. If you’re lucky enough (or rich enough), you might get Wodin’s, which is a 264 and superior to both. (It can drop in 10 or 25.)

Shoulders: Lasherweave Shoulderpads, 60 EoF’s.
Alternatives: Skinned Whelp Shoulders, Valithria; Duskstalker Shoulderpads, 45 EoT’s.
Notes: All of these are pretty close in stats. The Whelp Shoulders are slightly superior, but not enough to make this the preferred off-set.

Back: Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape, 50 EoF’s.
Alternatives: Shawl of Nerubian Silk, Marrowgar; Saronite Gargoyle Cloak, Gunship
Notes: The EoF cape is a VERY good piece (arguably BiS until heroic), but it still doesn’t take precedence over your 4pT10. It’s about an 80 dps upgrade over the Shawl, which shouldn’t be hard to come by. The Saronite cloak is meant for plate DPS’ers (str instead of agi), but we do okay with strength, so it’s a good third option.

Chest: Lasherweave Raiment, 95 EoF’s.
Alternatives: Chestguard of the Frigid Noose, Deathwhisper; Ikfirus’s Sack of Wonder, Gunship(25M) BoE.
Notes: The Chestguard and the T10 piece are almost identical, except for an extra gem slot in the Chestguard. It’s pretty easy to get, so I’d use that and hold off from upgrading to the T10 until you need to. The Sack BoE isn’t really all that great for DPS…it’s more of a bear tanky piece.

Wrist: Vambraces of the Frost Wyrm Queen, Sindragosa.
Alternatives: Bracers of Swift Death, crafted.
Notes: The crafted bracers are great (it’s only about a 20 dps upgrade to the Vambraces) so this slot is not a high priority. If you don’t have the crafted bracers, get them. :P

Hands: Cat Burglar’s Grips, 60 EoF’s.
Alternatives: Scourge Stranglers, Saurfang; Lasherweave Handgrips, 60 EoF’s.
Notes: The tier piece here is the weakest of the five, so this is where I’d recommend you use your off-set (Grips are +80 dps, Stranglers are +40 dps) However, this will mean your 4pT10 will take slightly longer to get, since you’ll have to use the three expensive pieces (chest/head/legs). I’d hold off unless you manage to snag a 264 in another slot, in which case use that as your off-set and pick up the T10. (Legs are an excellent choice to get a 264, so see below.) These also have a chance to drop off Toravon, so try to hold off if possible.

Waist: Vengeful Noose, 60 EoF’s.
Alternatives: Soulthief’s Braided Belt, Deathwhisper.
Notes: The Braided belt is fairly easy to get, so stick with that until you have the EoF’s to burn to upgrade to the Noose (70 dps upgrade, probably your second purchase after the cloak).

Legs: Lasherweave Legguards, 95 EoF’s.
Alternatives: Bladeborn Leggings, crafted; Plague-Soaked Leather Leggings, Festergut.
Notes: The Bladeborn Leggings are VERY good if you only run 10’s…however, you’re missing out on the expertise from the tier piece, which will become a big problem later for 25’s gear. If you don’t mind shelling out the cash and you don’t mind replacing it later, this is the best off-set. Also, as with the hands, this has a chance to drop off Toravon.

Feet: Footpads of Impending Death, crafted.
Alternatives: Taldaram’s Soft Slippers, Princes.
Notes: The crafted Footpads are good, but they’re only mildly better then the drop from Taldaram, so they’re probably not worth the investment. (I have them because I picked a non-optimal way to get under the server-transfer gold cap.) :)

Rings: Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance, repring; Saurfang’s Cold-Forged Band, Saurfang (naturally).
Alternatives: Seal of the Twilight Queen, BQL; Runed Band of the Kirin Tor, ~12000g.
Notes: The rep ring is great, so just grab it and go. If you can’t get any of the others, the Dexterous ring is still very good.

Trinkets:Whispering Fanged Skull, Deathwhisper; Herkuml War Token, 60 EoF’s.
Alternatives: Needle-Encrusted Scorpion, H FoS.
Notes:The Skull is just like the good old Mirror of Truth, except BETTER. Can’t go wrong with that. The 2nd slot is debatable, as the value of the Scorpion fluctuates greatly with the amount of ArPen you have. It’s meh with less than 400 ArPen, becomes good in the 400-722 range (ArPen softcap), then starts getting worse. If you managed to snag a Death’s Verdict (Choice) from TOC25, that beats out both; use that instead. Try to get into an ICC25 pug to land Deathbringer’s Will from Saurfang…it’s almost perfectly itemized for ferals.

Weapon: Hersir’s Greatspear, Princes.
Alternatives: Shaft of Glacial Ice, Rotface; Lightborn Spire, quest reward from Battered Hilt questline.
Notes: Not much to say on weapons, as generally you want the item with the highest ilvl. I haven’t listed the weapon from LK…if you’re one of the lucky few who even have a chance at killing him now, then snap that up. Otherwise, Hersir’s is better itemized, but take either of the two if you still have a non-251 weapon. If you raid with a hunter, discuss this with them; you get more of an upgrade from it then they will, as the DPS on the weapon factors into your stats, whereas the hunter simply uses them as stat sticks.

Idol: Idol of the Crying Moon, 30 EoF’s.
Alternatives: Idol of Mutilation, 25 EoT’s.
Notes: This is probably the last place you want to spend EoF’s, as the Moon idol grants about a 30 dps upgrade.

Stats:

Again, I’ll be analyzing this gear set from three different buff perspectives.

First, we’ll look at the numbers when selfbuffed, with only Imp. MOTW. Next, we’ll look at the set from a 10-man buff perspective, with my arbitrary list of buffs including Horn of Winter, Blessing of Might/Kings, Trueshot Aura, Sunder Armor, Agility food, and an Endless Rage flask. Finally, we’ll look at a 25-man buff perspective, adding in Imp. BOM, Ret buffs (Sanc. Ret, Swift. Ret, HotC), Savage Combat, Imp. Windfury, Enhancing Totems, Heroism, Trauma from an arms war, and a speed pot. These numbers are assuming full enchants (see part 1 for enchant list), and are optimized with Rawr for the best gems. See below for the relative stat values. (Note: I decided to not go with ungemmed gear this time…it’s really kind of a hassle to do. Also, remember that Rawr’s stats are slightly higher than paperdoll since they add in averaged-out procs over the fight length. I’ve used the default 5min duration.)

Character:	Self-Buff	10M-Buff	25M-Buff
Race:	NightElf	NightElf	NightElf
DPS Points:	6918	9003	10984
Attack Power:	10455	13429	13322
Agility:	2129	2562	2251
Strength:	169	371	398
Crit Rating:	958	923	898
Hit Rating:	225	225	225
Expertise Rating:	144	144	80
Haste Rating:	294	286	311
Armor Penetration Rating:	544	597	928
Avoided Attacks:	1.14%	1.14%	2.69%
Crit Chance:	67.41%	72.17%	70.96%
Attack Speed:	0.890s	0.893s	0.715s

10M bumps up DPS considerably by boosting AP, Agi, and Str.  25M goes back to ArP. These numbers will mean more in context: let’s look at the calculated relative stat values.

Relative Stat Values:

Optimized Gemming (9 red/7 yellow/3 blue/1 colorless):

Self/10m buffs: +20 agi in red/colorless slots, +10 agi/+10 crit in yellow slots, one +10 stats then +20 agi in blue slots.
25m buffs: +20 ArP in red/colorless slots, +10 agi/+10 crit or +20 ArP in yellow slots, depending on socket bonus, one +10 stats then +20 ArP in blue slots.

Character:	Self-Buff	10M-Buff	25M-Buff
Agi:	1.14	1.55	2.00
Str:	1.05	1.39	1.8
ArPen:	1.01	1.43	2.11
Crit:	1.08	1.36	1.68
Haste:	0.79	1.12	1.58
Exp:	0.51	0.00(cap)	1.35
Hit:	0.71	0.95	1.35
AP:	0.49	0.60	0.76

As you can see, agi remains your top stat for 10M content, but the added buffs in 25M push ArPen over the top. Why? See below.

Damage Table:

Character:	Self-Buff	10M-Buff	25M-Buff
Melee:	337x (23.7%)	336x (26.1%)	419x (30.8%)
Mangle:	145 DPE (6.1%)	197 DPE (6.4%)	228 DPE (0.0%)
Shred:	174 DPE (17.3%)	236 DPE (17.9%)	273 DPE (25.6%)
Rake:	390 DPE (21.3%)	473 DPE (19.8%)	499 DPE (17.3%)
Rip:	1980 DPE (25.4%)	2342 DPE (23.1%)	2469 DPE (20.0%)
Bite (5cp):	331 DPE (6.2%)	449 DPE (6.7%)	521.4 DPE (6.4%)

Once again, I’ve included a DPE table. What I want to point out specifically here is the increase in % of damage done by direct attacks as you receive more buffs. The extra haste means a lot more melee attacks are landing, which drastically increases the effectiveness of ArPen. This may lead to rotation priority adjustments, especially as you approach the ArPen cap (1400). It remains to be seen if the 4pT10 set bonus will continue to be strong enough for Rake. Looking at the 25m buff example, if the effect of the 4pT10 set bonus is removed, Rake’s DPE drops to 280, which is almost equal to Shred…and that’s only at 928 ArPen.

That’s it for this section; in part 4, I’ll be analyzing the same numbers using a 25M ICC BiS gearset. The wait shouldn’t be as long this time, though. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments.