Should you wait for Raid Drops? Maybe Not.
Getting ready for raiding is a multi-faceted endeavor. You have to weigh the pieces of your current gear against each other and patch the weaknesses as quickly as possible, while keeping in mind long-term goals. With the incredible rewards from Badges of Justice, some item slots should be filled with Tier or Badge loot, with very little else being an option. But there are some items that can stand up to that level that are obtained outside of raids, and outside of pvp. They may be a bit trickier to find, but some of them are out there.
Feral druids are often brought to Karazhan as off-tanks so on single-tank fights they can go full-dps and help down bosses faster than either a protection specced warrior or paladin would. This is often the case, but not always. Feral druids can Main Tank everything in Karazhan, and can do very competitive DPS if they go only in that role. That versatility is also a weakness, because it means we cannot just focus on one solid set of gear, but need several.
Depending on the loot system you use, it may not be easy for all the items you need to be picked up in raids, or there may be considerable competition (those tricksy rogues!). Using programs like Rawr and Emmerald’s gear lists can help you find pieces obtainable outside of raids that can serve nearly as well, or sometimes better than, comparable raid drops. As an example, I’m going to contrast the Edgewalker Longboots and Bladed Shoulderpads of the Merciless from Karazhan to the Sunrage Treads and Shoulderpads of the Silvermoon Retainer from Magisters’ Terrace.
While +hit remains a good stat for all physical DPS classes until the hit cap is reached, the relative value it has for a feral druid is low. Because Socket Bonuses are for +Hit or +Stamina, all calculations will assume a Delicate Living Ruby (+8 Agility) in all slots. We will also ignore the values for Armor and Stamina. They are important stas, but neither contributes to DPS, so they are immaterial for this discussion. Since no items have strength and the characters other stats will remain the same, only the AP gain from the items is listed.
The Edgewalker Longboots provide 99 AP, +.825% chance to hit, 1.8% chance to crit and drop from Moroes in Karazhan.
The Sunrage Treads provide 86 AP, 1.44% chance to crit, 126 Armor Penetration and drop from Kael’Thas in Magisters’ Terrace on Normal mode.
How these items weigh against each other is dependant upon the remainder of your gear set. If you are at the hit cap without any additional hit rating, the Edgewalker Longboots’ hit rating provides no additional benefit. ArPen has a variable value depending on total amount of armor negation from all effects. On a high armor raid boss, the armor penetration from the Sunrage Treads increase physical damage by .69%. For Feral Druids, that means all damage but the Rip in you rotation is increased by .69%, or about a .5% increase in total damage at the minimum.
What we can say for certain is that the Edgewalker Longboots provide about 1 more dps, and .4% chance to crit, with the +Hit and +ArPen probably roughly equivalent in slightly different sets. The slight edge goes to Edgewalker Longboots. But consider that the Edgewalker Longboots drop in a ten man raid you can only run once a week, and the Sunrage Treads drop in a normal mode dungeon. They are well worth the time if you don’t already have better.
The Bladed Shoulderpads of the Merciless provide 74 AP, +.825% chance to hit, 1.59% chance to crit and drop from the Chess event in Karazhan.
The Shoulderpads of the Silvermoon Retainer provide 97 AP, +1.45% chance to hit, 1.4% chance to crit and drop from Kael’Thas in Magisters’ Terrace in Heroic mode.
Again, the overall gearset must be taken into consideration, but the Shoulderpads of the Silvermoon Retainer add about 1.5 more DPS and have up to .6% more chance to hit, and about a .2% reduction in chance to crit. The edge in this case goes to the dungeon drop, the Shoulderpads of the Silvermoon Retainer. As a bonus, farming for the shoulders in Heroic Magisters’ Terrace, you’ll hopefully have chances to pick up the Shard of Contempt and Commendation of Kael’Thas, which are two amazing trinkets for feral druids.
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