Saturday, January 19, 2008

Bears Don't Lose Points

No, I'm not talking about Ferocious Bite points...although we don't lose those either. I'm talking about Kitty Combo points!

Last night on our Kara run...so that I can earn yet more badges for Kitty gear upgrades...we were fighting Nightbane. Since we'd had a problem with the Restless Skeleton's poking at our healers with their boney little fingers, I decided to go into Bear form to help round them up.

I discovered that if I switched from Cat to Bear form before hitting any of the skeletons, I would retain my combo points on Nightbane! Now, this may be old news for a lot of you, but it's not to me and I was very excited as the first time this happened, I had 5 combo points on Nightbane that I thought I was going to lose when he flew off.

I had thought that once I attacked another mob, my combo points would 'reset'. However, apparently, that only applies if you attack another mob while still in Cat form. If you switch to Bear form to attack a secondary target(s), you still retain your combo points on the initial target when you go back to Cat. Awesome!

Yes, I know...how could I not know this after playing a Druid for so long...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny, when I read this in the RSS reader it made me think of doing Nightbane last night. Since the other tank in my group is a Warrior, I usually DPS in full tanking gear for the reason you mention (skellies- makes it way easier for me to stay up for all 3 blasts if I'm in tanking gear). I've got the timing on the takeoffs down pretty well- around 54% build 5 combo points, land the Rip at 52%, and spam Mangle to keep the debuff up and generate combo points before he takes off. Then switch to bear to grab the skellies, and by the time Nightbane lands not only do you have 3-5 combo points on him, but you did about 1% damage to him when he's in the air from that last Rip. If you time it right the Rip will expire before Nightbane does the pre-landing aggro wipe.

Sure it's only 3% more damage, but it's 3% more damage while nothing else can damage him, which is going to speed up your kill- and, as you mention, landing the dragon with combo points up means you'll be able to get him bleeding again that much faster.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to be unclear, that applies for each pre-takeoff- so land the full Rips at 77%, 52%, and 27%. This should ensure that you have time to get the combo points up after the Rip, and also ensures that the Rip expires well before the aggro wipe.

Anonymous said...

Hey FB, you said "However, apparently, that only applies if you attack another mob while still in Cat form".

I may be mistaken, but I'm fairly certain that you will not lose combo points on a target unless you try applying a combo point to another target, in which the points on your first target would be reset. If you switch targets, still in cat, and only melee (don't use any combo point giving moves), you should still have your combo points after switching back.

WoWWiki seems to agree, and states that you "will not lose Combo Points upon switching targets until a point has been added to another target."

Galliano said...

Kitty specials determine where your points are and they only stay on one target. You change and do specials on another you lost those points on the first. This was extremely annoying back when players could be taunted and you would land a special on the taunting target before you knew your targetting had changed. I remember losing a few fights to warlocks because of that. 3 points! pet taunt, claw - 2 points! What the...!?