S9 Gild's Builds: Snake/Serpent/Cat (DPS)

Table of Contents
Section 1: Notes
Section 2: The Build
Subsection 2.1: Level 1
Subsection 2.2: Abilities you WANT
Subsection 2.3: Talents you WANT
Section 3: How it Plays
Section 4: TL;DRSECTION 1: NOTESI've always enjoyed energy based builds in Wow, the fast paced style with the quick regeneration makes it a very "spammy" build. You always have an ability to press and your resource will be full before you know it. In addition there's a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to meshing Cat and Serpent Form abilities. Since they mesh well, just with scaling differences, a lot of abilities have nice overlap and don't require a huge amount of different talents to support them allowing you to have a robust kit and talents that work no matter what you're doing.

If you need information on where to find specific cards for abilities, feel free to check out S9 Card Drops for locations, or ideas on new cards you might want to collect.

This is a long form guide, meant to give proper explanation and information on the build. If you can't be bothered to read, check out the TL;DR at the bottom.

Things to remember:
- Cat/Serpent form has faster APM than a lot of builds
- Solid manastorm/prestige build (even without lots of proc focus this is a solid manastorm build)
- It takes a few cooldowns to get everything up and active on your target but once you do, it stays rolling
- If you dont get what you want, there's always next time!SECTION 2: THE BUILDThe level 1 start is important, yet often seems to get skipped over in guides. What cards do you slot in if you dont have every perfect combination you need? Is there any abilities good for leveling, but not so great to keep the whole time? WHY do they suggest the abilities they do? We're going to cover these things, and more!

Primary Stat: Agility

Gear: Agility > Spell Power > Attack Power > Stamina
Spell Power now gives flat weapon damage, making it an incredible secondary stat, especially when paired with Mental Quickness
Variety of sets including: Nightslayer, Bloodmail, Cenarion or Earthfury in a pinch.

Weapons: Dual wield Daggers/Swords/Fist Weapon, optional on hit effects. Apply deadly poison to main hand, instant to offhand. On hit will only apply from main hand.
Cat/Bear/Serpent form have normalized attack speeds (1 second for Cat/Serpent), this means regardless of how fast or slow your weapon is, they attack at the same speed (this IS affected by haste, etc) and they only auto attack with the main hand.

Subsection 2.1: Starting Abilities (Level 1)

• Cat Form

You will keep this until level 10, when you roll out of it for Rip instead, since you will card Serpent Form given at level 10. If you dont have Serpent Form card, buy it ASAP or hope you get lucky!

• Claw

You will keep this until you roll Serpent Strike

• Swipe (Cat)

BIS AoE Ability, You will keep this until you the day the server goes down.

• Charge

Can be substituted for Feral Charge, but I prefer the option to cast it twice in quick succession.Subsection 2.2: Ability Cards and other Abilities you WANT

• Serpent Form

An obvious choice, you can reroll your starter Cat Form at level 10 to ensure you roll 4 abilities, plus Serpent Form on your level 10 reveal new spell.

• Poisons

Another obvious choice. Poisons now function like temp wep enchants like Windfury, etc, so no items needed to poison your weapons as you level.MAKE NOTE: Now there's some choices to be made here. Not everyone has every card, whether it be a gold version, or a normal version. Only the above two are hard required for a Serpent build. Some cards are mighty difficulty to obtain, some people don't have the greatest luck either. Therefor I will list a variety of cards that can be substituted in the last two slots for USEFUL abilities. A variety of abilities are helpful and can flesh out the build, so it's often better to get these guaranteed as opposed to leaving it to luck (where possible). Each one will have a brief explanation of why it might have a place in the build and the general usage of it.

Keep in mind, you can use cat form abilities until you get rerolls or start rolling Serpent Form stuff, they are not REQUIRED to start rolling the build.
These are all useful abilities to end up rolling, whether you card them or not.

• Dash

Self explanatory. Moving quickly is never bad.

• Poison Nova

Combo point spender with a nice AOE. Scales well with levels and poison damage, personally I prefer this over Venomous Fury.

• Venomous Fury

Combo point spender with a nice AOE. Scales well with levels, could be substituted for Poison Nova

• Tiger's Fury

30 second damage buff cooldown, has the ability to get the cooldown reduced via talents.

• Ferocious Bite

Combo point spender, can absolutely crank some damage at the top end.

• Serpent Venom

Combo point spender, Serpent Form version of Rip. Ideally you want both Rip and Serpent Venom.

• Puncture

Combo point generator, Serpent form version of Rake. Ideally you want both Rake and Puncture.

• Serpent Strike

Combo point generator, Serpent form version of Claw. Reroll Claw once you have this.

• Adrenaline Rush

Energy regeneration buff, amazing when paired with 6/6 Vitality (3 from tree, 3 from RE) and 3/3 Vigor (2 from tree, 1 from RE)

• Slice and Dice

Combo point spender, attack speed.

• Hunger for Blood

Damage and movement speed based on how many bleeds the target has.

• Fel Infused Weapon

Could be used instead of Poisons if you decide to lean into procs more than poison style.(Sub in anything that can be used while shapeshifted that buffs you, or can be slotted into a free spot in the rotation, luck is luck!)Subsection 2.3: Talent Cards and other Talents you WANT

MAKE NOTE: Always aim for the full version of talents if you can. Substitute in what you have, when you can.

• Traumatic Wounds

One of THE most important talents you can get on Cat/Serpent. Absolutely hard carries your build, and enables you to keep Rip, Serpent Venom, Rake and Puncture going with near 100% uptime via Serpent Strike.

• Vitality

Energy regeneration, absolutely crucial. Make sure to get the 3/3 RE version in your Mystic Enchant slots as well for a proper 6/6.

• Vigor

More energy, makes Vitality even more strong.

• Honor Among Thieves

Crit strike chance, and combo point capstone makes this incredibly strong.

• Primal Frenzy

25% energy cost reduction and 5% damage buff up nearly 100% of the time.

• Improved Poisons

More damage via poisons.

• Double-Clawed

Buffs Rip, Rake, as well the Serpent Form versions, Serpent Venom and Puncture.

• Mental Quickness

Flat weapon damage from Spell Power, this increases that by a hefty bit.

• Bloody Claws

Buffs Claw and Serpent Strike.

• Venomous Wound

Increases combo point spender damage when using Deadly Poison.

• Primal Precision

Energy regeneration as well as Tiger's Fury cooldown reduction capstone.

• Feral Instinct

Swipe, Tiger's Fury and Enrage buff, Tiger's Fury cooldown reduction Capstone.

• Feral Aggression

Massive damage increase.

• King of the Jungle

Damage increase, buffs Tiger's Fury, solid capstone if you happen to change forms as well.

Sub these in if you need to fill a Talent Card slot, or happen to roll it:
Unbounded Deathhealer
Unbounded Deathbringer
Amal'thazad's Malediction
Amal'thazad's Curse
Seething Flames
Goldrinn's Fury
Wrathful Strikes requires Wrath, useless without
Predator's Wrath works after casting Wrath, useless without
Deranged Druid can sometimes cast Prowl in combat, be careful
Master Shapeshifter
Savage Combat
Tainted Swipe
Overheated Strikes
Stormbringer
Purification By Light
Righteous Zealot
Harbinger of Flame(so on and so forth, anything that improves Cat/Serpent abilities or form, or procs that work regardless of what you're doing)SECTION 3: HOW IT PLAYS
How does it feel? Whats the rotation? Manastorm? Macros? HELP!

Some useful macros:

• #showtooltip
  /cast [noform:1] Serpent Form; Charge

Shapeshift into Serpent Form if not in it and Charge after

• #showtooltip
  /castsequence reset=2 Puncture, Rake

Attack with Puncture then Rake, setting up your Traumatic Wounds spam loop

• #showtooltip
  /castsequence reset=10 Serpent Venom, Rip

Combo point spender to set up your Traumatic Wounds spam loop, adjust the second reset if it's too slow/fast for you.

Rotation:
1. Tiger's Fury
2. Puncture
3. Rake
4. Serpent Strike if not at 5 combo points
5. Serpent Venom
6. Serpent Strike (this refreshes Puncture, Rake, Serpent Venom and Rip and stacks poison damage 10x) back to 5 combo points
7. Rip
8. Serpent Strike (Maintains Puncture, Rake, Serpent Venom and Rip now)
9. Ferocious Bite at 5 combo points for Single Target (Or Poison Nova/Venomous Fury if in AOE)
10. Rinse and repeat

Manastorm:
1. Tiger's Fury
2. Spam Swipe (Cat) until you get carpal tunnel
3. Press Poison Nova/Venomous Fury if you feel like it
4. Profit

SECTION 4: TL;DR
Serpent/Cat form go brrrrr