Just giving on some feedback on what i’m excited for and what I feel might be clunky or what I believe could feel more impactful.
GCD Changes:
— I don’t mind the GCD changes even though I feel they are a bandaid fix for adding counter-play to scripted goes. I think the bigger issue is the homogenization of 1 Minute Defensive Cooldowns and overly simplistic rotations than just delaying damage after a CD.
— Having wild charge on GCD while going for a bash on healers or any type of control makes the ability clunky to use and gives the enemy 2 seconds and then some with the leap to connect, which leaves so much opportunity avoid it as the enemy.
— Tigers fury being on GCD makes applying bleeds very clunky and unpleasant to play especially in openers where the goal is to establish full bleeds as quick as possible. Combined with the GCD of beserking/incarnation makes bursting as a feral invest 2 globals before even getting an attack off feeling extremely gawky. Could maybe just take 1 of both off GCD.
Utility vs class fantasy:
— The whole not having instant Cyclone, or barkskin ability really makes feral feel incomplete and not well rounded. As the other specializations of druid are deeply immersed their class fantasies with Cyclone and barkskin. There should be a fine line between strengths and weaknesses, but most other classes don’t have this missing backbone ultimatum.
*Imagine how bad it would feel if:
-only affliction had curses/dots
-only demo had a pet
-destro was revamped around a RNG “Burn the offering” roulette wheel of blessings to rip off roll the bones.
or
-only Survival had traps/flare
-only BM pet abilities like roar of sacrifice.
-only Marksman had other situational CC’s like binding shot/wyvern.
It would just feel clunky or wrong and that is how it feels as a feral looking back to wrath/cata/mop/even wod then playing legion/bfa.
If you are set in stone with this class fantasy then at least bring back the CC for feral spec as moonkin and resto druids have; at the cost of damage/mobility.
Utility:
— Decision making with cyclone, roots, hibernate, maims, bashes, ferocious wound damage buff on enemies was the backbone of the class.
— Bear form being one of ferals main defensive abilities as a feral it feels useless and weak to be forced into bear form. Generating no combo points and doing useless damage until you feel safe enough to come out, with feral druids frenzied regen being significantly lower then resto druids or boomkins regen sometimes you never recover.
— Hibernate is great to see given back to ferals, brings back the old feral wars and potential cc’s on different classes like druids and shamans. One problem is you cannot use predatory swiftness procs to use it like you used to be able to which i understand might be to strong in the current BFA patch. Casting it out of form makes it feel very clunky, making it castable in cat form would be something that would make it feel a lot more smooth. Removing the global cooldown of shifting like in past expansions would be a work around for making hibernate worth casting in human form without the risk of losing many globals.
IE: Coming out of form to cast hibernate on a druid getting interrupted and using another global to get back into cat form to even start doing damage again.
IE: Casting hibernate on a druid getting interrupted and able to continue to do damage because you’re still in cat form. Would feel so much smoother.
— Predatory swiftness cyclone is an ability greatly missed by many feral druids, seeing how resto druids and balance druids have continued to have it unchanged. From the class fantasy point of view it seems a little goblin came into my spell book and robbed me and left my brothers untouched :’(. Having cyclone with a 30 second cooldown would feel very usefull.
— Infected wound which is the feral slow feels extremely ineffective being 20%. Most classes with any speed increase basically cancel it out, would be nice to see it increased to maybe a 50% slow like some other classes.
— Rip applies “open wound” to the target which causes your attacks to ignore 15% of the target’s armor while rip is active. On the current BFA patch rip does not apply any sort of debuff. Having a mortal strike effect being applied with rip could bring a lot of desire for groups to activity seek ferals and expand the comps and playstyles of ferals.
— Ferals are notoriously known for dying in stuns, Bear form being one of the only saviors for stun classes like rogues. Not pre bear forming stuns will result in almost instant death or force major cooldowns every stun. Having barkskin back for ferals as other druids have I feel is a necessity for druid survival and the fluidity of ferals. While in bear we do absolutely no damage and get no benefit as mentioned above. In many pvp situations its a impossibility to pre bear form everything which can leave you sitting in bear form awaiting your inevitable death to a rogue just saving his stun until you come out.
— Nature’s Vigil was a spell back in mop for ferals which let ferals heal by doing damage. It felt right as a feral druid to be able to heal his team while also doing damage at the same time. I would like to see something like that back in the game instead of coming out of form and spamming regrowth. Fulfilled the class fantasy for healing.
