I understand that probably this is answered many times but please help me out on this case without hate. I am a new player in WoW classic and not so experienced in WoW in general.
So I’ve decided to play a druid but I don’t understand how it works with the gear at all. I tried to look up at youtube and google but couldn’t find the answers to my questions.
So, I understand that most valuable stats for me is STR, AGI and STA. But here comes the bummer… For now I am using a staff with 6 STR and AGI each, when ever we loot something in dungeon that has better stats for my needs and I want to need it people say that I shouldn’t use it (dagger for example) and should stick with Staff. Then I think that staffs usually have intelect stats and not so much about the ones I need. Then, some people say that weapon DPS doesnt matter to me some say it does. And now I sit with some good bunch of gold (since I have few other chars of level 30) and still doing very low DPS. I am playing Cat form by the way.
So maybe anyone that really knows could clarify this to me. If anyone could even give me an example of item +/- for my level that I should buy/do quest for that would be GOLD
Generally speaking, feral druids want an agility-based two-handed weapon (mace or staff). This is because you can’t dual wield, and agility offhands aren’t really a thing. Strength is also acceptable, depending on what you already have available, but you might annoy warriors or rets rolling on strength weapons.
The listed damage on the weapon does not affect damage in a feral form, only the bonus stats. This is why Manual Crowd Pummeler from Gnomeregan is actually insane even for a level 60 feral.
Agility > Strength > anything else on gear (and always gotta love stamina)
Agility and strength both boost your damage.
Weapon damage does not matter. Because while shapeshifted you do not attack using weapon. I’m not sure if its the case on retail but certainly on classic the weapon youre holding is not used while attacking in cat/bear form. THis also goes for “chance on hit” procs do not work for shapeshifted druids.
Doesn’t matter if you have staff, mace, 1h+oh, whatever. Just get whatever has good stats. Ignore anyone who tells you what weapon you are allowed to roll on.
As a cat, weapon dps itself doesn’t matter to you, only the stats themselves, and yes your main stat is Agi followed by Stam & strength.
You can use staves, daggers, 1h/2h maces, of people tells you otherwise it’s probably because they either don’t know better or are trying to keep the loot for themselves…
This.
As long as the stats match (Strength/Agi/Stam) then use whatever weapon type you prefer, you don’t have to stick with a staff. Whatever weapon you choose, as others have said, it’s only the stats you want from it, not the DPS.
The downside is, you’re sharing the same gear with hunters and rogues, but as long as you all roll fairly, then it’s fair game.
I’d just like to re-iterate my point about the lack of dual wielding. Unless you actually manage to find something decent to hold in the offhand, you generally won’t be competing with rogues.
Something to also note is that although strength gives more attack power than agility, agility has the added bonus of increasing your chance to dodge and also your armour. I tend to lean more on agi when tanking for this reason
Hello brother, for more accurate information about druids. Please search for the classic druid discord. There are many people who are willing to help and some theory crafters are available over there.
I tried to look it up, because when i hover my mouse over Agi on my feral druid it doesn’t say i get AP at all.
But everywhere on the interwebz it says it does:
"Feral Druids get 1 AP and 0.05% crit chance from each point of Agility. " (Icy vains) where does this 1AP / agi come from? Baseline, talent, ability?
It also rather confusing says:
“After you are at your crit soft cap, Strength becomes more valuable due to the crit not being as valuable. Agility and Strength are very close however, so do be afraid to take more of either.” without saying what that softcap really is? What is the softcap?
1 agi = 0.05 crit
1 str = 2.4 AP
That’s pretty much everything you need to know about feral itemization. “Stack str until 1200 AP, then go for crit” is the common strategy. The 1h weapons that give you AP in cat form will hit the game only in p5 (tome of knowledge with +8 all stats is the best OH with those), until then you may go with bonecrusher for dmw quest and after that with bwl trash mace.
You probably tried to roll on one handed weapons, thats why people tell you to roll on staff.
And its not a bad point, however you can also use two handed maces.
Reason people tell you that, is because 2 handed weapons can have much more stats on them than 1 handed ones, so its preferable to use two handed maces, cause these stats are more present on maces than staffs
If you are feral you will tend to find that 2H maces have the best stats. This doesn’t mean you can’t use other things it’s just the maces are mostly the things that are correct stats.
The dps and speed of the weapon don’t matter at all, also any ‘chance on hit’ effect also does nothing. Also your feral attacks are always at max level so you don’t even need to level up weapon skill.
However if you are tanking then your bear form increases armour from items and this includes weapons, this is why the BIS for bear druids is a staff with armour stat on it.
Rolling on let’s say the 2handed mace from Deadmines is fair game since it has str and agi on it. Anyone telling you otherwise are just trying to scam you.
As a general rule, using a 1H as feral isn’t really relevant until high levels due to the lack of good offhand items with relevant stats. Lacking such an offhand you are always better off using a 2H statstick (mace/staff) as they’ll have higher stats than a 1H at the same item level, and you should always be on the lookout for a better 2H statstick than your current while leveling.
That being said, at high levels having a good stat-onehander and the Tome of Knowledge from Stratholme can be a very reasonable alternative to a 2-hander for catform - and for bearform until you get either the Warden Staff (epic BOE world drop) or the Unyielding Maul (Dire Maul North Tribute).
…In a much later phase a few, a very few, weapons that have the special +Feral AP will appear. These immediately become the best cat weapons and are also quite useful for bears willing to trade the loss of armour from Warden Staff or Unyielding Maul for significantly increased damage and threat.
Complete nonsense. Anybody using that as strategy is badly misleading themselves.
Feral specced bear doesn’t stack STR. It stacks AGI for the dodge and the crit that grants extra rage. Over the duration of encounters an AGI bear deals more damage and threat than a STR bear and takes less damage. STR is a nice extra, it is not something to focus on stacking. Insofar as beartanks are balancing their primary stats, the tradeoff they are looking at is AGI vs STA, not AGI vs STR.
Feral specced Cat stack AGI too for the AP and the crit that grants extra combo points. STR is definitely a nice extra, and cats do love it, and you aren’t doing wrong by using high STR gear if no high AGI gear is available, but all else being equal gaining +X AGI is always more valuable than +X STR so long your crit% is less than your soft crit cap (54.4%-to-hit%).
Cats get insanely more ap from str, your lame crits will bring you nowhere. Once again, play the class and test strategies before advising them to others.
