The Threat build for a one-minute single-boss fight reads 4/37/10: deep Feral for
Primal Bite and
Berserk, ten Restoration points for
Naturalist, and the spare points in Balance's
Genesis.
04-51100332020132012551-055The builds were searched separately for every fight and for both factions. The searches disagree only on a few cheap points, and the last section lists them.
Why these talents
Primal Bite carries the most weight in the build: 21.0 % of your score on a one-minute single-boss fight. It bites for your weapon damage plus 77 every 6 seconds, and our engine gives it twice its damage as threat, Blizzard's "roughly doubled". Removing the talent removes the spell, so this number matches the Primal Bite line on the Rotation page.
Blood Frenzy pays 5 Rage on every melee critical strike in Bear Form, white swings included, for 11.1 %. Your crit sits near 35.8 %, so about one swing or ability in three pays it, and it is one reason crit weighs so much for you.
Ferocity takes 5 Rage off Maul, Primal Bite and Swipe. Maul drops to 10 and Primal Bite to 15, so Ferocity buys you more Mauls, worth 9.2 %. On three bosses, where every Swipe saves 5 as well, it rises to 13.5 %.
Sharpened Claws is 6 % crit in form for two points, worth 7.7 %. Classic spent three points on the same 6 %.
Shredding Attacks cuts
Lacerate from 15 Rage to 12, and you cast Lacerate more than anything else on one boss: worth 4.3 %.
Rend and Tear adds 10 % to Maul, Primal Bite and Lacerate's hit while the boss bleeds, and your Lacerate is up 74.9 % of the fight, so it is worth 4.4 %.
Berserk goes out at the pull: for 15 seconds Primal Bite has no cooldown and hits up to three targets. Those 15 seconds are a quarter of a one-minute fight, so it is worth 7.0 % here, more than on any longer single-boss fight.
Naturalist is 5 % more damage of every kind for five Restoration points, worth 4.7 %.
Furor, the five points that open it, does nothing in the sim: its 10 Rage comes from shifting into Bear Form, and you start the fight already in form.
The smaller points:
Leader of the Pack (3.9 %, 3 % crit for you and your party),
Natural Instinct (3.7 %, ability crits deal 2.2 times their damage instead of 2),
Predatory Strikes (3.4 %, 90 attack power) and
Natural Reaction (1.8 %, 5 % dodge and 5 Rage on every dodge).
Flexible points
- The two points after Thick Hide. Feral's third row opens at 10 points, and Ferocity and Thick Hide give 8. Any two of Heart of the Wild, Feral Swiftness,
Brutal Impact and Feral Instinct finish the row, and the searched builds trade them from fight to fight. Brutal Impact does nothing on a boss. Heart of the Wild and Feral Swiftness score just below zero for threat, because more health and more dodge mean less Rage from the hits you take.
Thick Hide itself is worth 0.0 % of threat: armor never changes the Rage a hit pays. Keep it anyway, since it is your armor and three of the points that open the row.
Genesis holds the leftover points: 1 % more Lacerate bleed a point, worth 0.1 % for four.
What each talent is worth
We measured each talent by simulating this build without its points, on the same fights, and the table gives the loss as a share of the score. Because each talent was taken out alone, two worths can include the same effect, so the column doesn't add up to anything. If you are moving one point, its last-point column is the figure you need.
On every fight
The single-boss builds differ only in the two points after Thick Hide. The three-boss builds add Feral Instinct, and some of them move Shredding Attacks and Rend and Tear points into Brutal Impact, Feral Swiftness or Restoration filler. The Alliance build on a one-minute fight against three bosses keeps four points of Rend and Tear that are worth 0.0 % there, because its rotation never casts Lacerate.