Post by Kciroj
About the actual guide...
Rip--If you have 4-5 combo points to spend and Savage Roar has at least 4 seconds left and Rip isnt currently on the target, use this.
Rip is great. 5 Combo points. No Less.
Ferocious Bite-- Yes, this can be used to increase DPS, but that is a bit beyond the scope of this write up and using it wrong is very, very bad. If there are some combo points left on a mob thats nearly dead, you are better off just refreshing SR until you are much more comfotable with you cat.
Like Sententia said, there'll be times when you have combo points and SR/Rip do not need refreshing. If you have 5 CP and Rip and SR will both have more than ~5 seconds left, and will not both expire within ~10 seconds, use FB. You won't use it a lot, but when you can use it, it's worth using. However, I do understand you do not want to confuse a beginner cat with adding another finishing move to list of abilities.
***Other Cat abilities***
Maybe add something about
Predator's Swiftness, and how it's mostly useful for instant Rebirths, and occasionally useful for Cyclones in encounters such as ToC's Faction Champions or ICC25's Lady Deathwhisper.
Armor Penetration--Arguably a Cats best DPS stat. Only arguable as you need a specfic amount and certain gear to make it work.
14 ArPen will drop the targets armor by 1% Once you pass 400 passive ArPen (no procs, no gems, just ArPen on gear) it starts to overtake Agility as the best stat.
This might deserve a bit more attention, especially you could mention trinkets such as
NES.
Shifting Dreadstone--If you were hell bent on getting a socket bonus, already using your Nightmare tear, and had a blue socket to fill, this is the one youd grab. Honestly though, our pieces tend to be a bit Stam heavy already as they double as bear tank pieces so using this gem isnt usually a very good scenario.
Perhaps you just should not mention this gem at all, as there's no reason to justify gemming it... at least not if you plan on using the piece purely for cat dps.
Hands--Expertise if needed/wanted or Crusher
Enchant Gloves - Major AgilityWeapon--Berserking which is around 50 or 60 more AP than Massacre over a length of time. Since they are so close, check your AH and use whats cheaper...on my server its actually Berserking by about 100g, oddly enough.
Mongoose can outperform those two at higher gear levels, although it's falling behind again now that we get near the crit cap in ICC.
This is the starter spec from EJ. I personally dont take Survival Instincts; you could toss that point anywhere...5/5 Furor, 1/3 Primal Tenacity for shorter Fears, even 1/2 Nuturing Instinct to boost any heals you get from group/raid wide damage.
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0ZxGMsfrz0eR0huAkbyczbReally, there isnt too much variation on this. Any talents not taken in the Feral tree are probably Bear oriented, or if they have a Cat benefit its for PvP. There arent any worthwhile talents in the Balance tree for cats (or Bears for that matter) and the only real "damage" talents in Resto are Naturalist, Omen of Clarity, and Master Shapeshifter.
What about Feral Aggresion? I'd imagine you find this a wasted talent point as you do not use FB, but I'd like to disagree there. I personally do take Survival Instincts (There have been times I'm glad I did), take 1/3 Imp Mangle (Why reduce the energy cost of something you use once a minute?), 3/5 Furor (It's enough, really) and dump 3 points into Feral Aggression. It's all personal preference though. Some take points out of Feral Instinct because they don't care about AE damage (mostly useless on boss encounters) or out of Imp Lead of the Pact (because they have a bear in their raids to provide the healing effect).