EDIT (2010-10-06):

I don't have the Cataclysm video done yet; there wasn't enough good stuff to include in there yet... but there IS good stuff... just hold strong for another couple days and I will have some good coverage. I will also have a write-up on Guntir's initial findings on PvP healing in Cataclysm as both Holy and Disc (btw: if you are the reader who recognized 'Guntirblues' and said hey, let me know; that was baller!)



I KNOW... I KNOW I KNOW... I didn't post a video last week, and today I say no video!?!?!? Sorry, I had some technical stuff to deal with; most notably was the fact that I was straight up OUT of disc space for recording, so I haven't had anything new. However, yesterday I bought a 2TB disk and external enclosure, so I should have plenty of space set up to record again, and as I wanted to test it out yesterday, I ended up recording a bunch of stuff in WSG on the Cataclysm Beta. Yes, I am working on a little Cataclysm Feral PvP video which I should have edited and what-not by Wednesday (no promise... but that's what I'm hoping).

Here are my initial reactions in PvP on Cataclysm thus far:

1) Destro Locks are STILL dropping trucks on people (got hit with a 14k Chaos Bolt and a 23k Conflag in WSG yesterday)
2) Elementals aren't hitting nearly as hard as Live.
3) Frost Mages have TONS of tools to kite and deal damage, and Icelance does a LOT of damage (4k even when you aren't frozen, 8k when you are).
4) Healers are still powerful, but they have issues with Mana longevity. There were a couple instances where it was a dps+healer combo versus me and a healer in their flag room trying to drop our flag and their healer would oom 30% faster than ours allowing me to kill either one.

----- bit of a separation, let's talk about what I see from Ferals! ------

5) Skull Bash is RIDICULOUSLY responsive. I have read a number of posts on the Cataclysm Beta Boards of people complaining about Skull Bash having lag like Mind Freeze, but when I was in WSG with my 120ms latency, I would hit Skull Bash and it would interrupt the target before I left my spot... and Skull Bash is 400% better as a gap-closer than Feral Charge (Cat) EXCEPT that the distance is rough. Ultimately, if you can snare someone, you can always interrupt a cast of theirs... even if the target is a Resto Shammy who is using his cooldowns to heal on the run. For some reason, they all think that this will make them un-interruptable... but of course Skull Bash is the interrupt SLASH gap-closer... I hope beyond hope that Skull Bash makes it to Live in its current form. It is so crisp and the reaction speed is LIGHTNING fast. My biggest problem so far has been finding a proper button to put it on, but I think I came up with a decent binding this morning in the shower, which I will try out today.

6) Our bleeds scale rather well with Mastery, though I worry that our other damage-dealing abilities will fall behind as a result. I would really like to see Shred's damage increased by ALL abilities which increase Bleed damage - Mastery (Cat Form), for instance.

7) Our burst damage is rather poor, at the moment. We cannot kill anyone in a Cyclone duration with any of our abilities in Cat Form. On the other hand...

8) Our pressure (if played correctly) against Healers is absolutely astounding. I play Feral+Disc and I have played Rogue+Disc when it was overpowered, and let me tell you that I have NEVER felt so powerful when targeting a healer. I do not know if this is due to healers not yet having figured out how their new rotations work or if they have not yet figured out that spamming FoL will OOM them even without a Feral on them, but they cannot handle a good Feral on them. I can chain some serious control on healers, and there have been a few instances where I have forced a healer OOM 1v1 and ended up getting the kill... which is new to me because I am a Feral. I can really see Feral+DK+HolyPriest working really well because of the strong, unmitigatable, damage Unholy DKs and Ferals can put out, coupled with two interrupts, a silence, and Maim for control elements, the anti-healer utility abilities in Skull Bash's debuff and Necrotic Strike, and the fact that we have a ranged 60% snare to peel for Guntir as well as instant-cast Cyclones and Entangling Roots.

I will try and post later in the week with my Cataclysm PvP video!

--------------------- EDIT 1 -----------------------

MMO-Champion has been falling behind on these sorts of things, so I thought I'd bring it up... new Feral glyphs:

Glyph of Feral Charge - Reduces the cooldown of your Feral Charge (Cat) ability by 2 sec and the cooldown of your Feral Charge (Bear) ability by 1 sec.
Glyph of Faerie Fire - Increases the range of your Faerie Fire and Feral Faerie Fire abilities by 10 yds.
Glyph of Tiger's Fury - http://cata.wowhead.com/item=67487