Hey,
This is just a short post of some of the initial suggestions I have for the tree/talent trees in general.
Here’s an image for visualisation:
General Impressions
Generally, I’m okay with the tree/talents. They definitely need work but I think we’ll be able to craft at least a couple different builds.
My main complaints are the positioning of some abilities and that some spells feel like they’ve been fragmented because the devs ran out of things to add? (e.g. It takes 5 points to get all the available Berserk perks).
Jungle Stalker
JS should be removed and added to Relentlessness, in its place you could add Sickle of the Lion. Potentially also switching FF/BT positioning with the new SotL placement.
Brutal Slash
BrS shouldn’t replace Swipe (Depending on tuning you HAVE to lose Swipe if you want to progress the righthand side of the tree. This doesn’t feel good because then you’re capped to 3 uses of your only AOE ability. However, having Swipe + BrS could enable BT feeling really good to play in m+/AOE situations as you’ll be able to BrS → Thrash (proccing Scent of Blood) → Swipe (proccing BT).
Sudden Ambush
Sudden Ambush is a lackluster addition to our toolkit and would require 3x talent points to progress further in the tree. With how limited talent points are, SA doesn’t feel like a quality ability to invest in. Replacing it with Blood Mist encourages rake use but in conjunction with SotL could be very potent. (Tuning required)
Bottom Right Section
I really like the bottom right section of the tree because of how Apex and Circle interact so well together. Plus the ability to take Savage Roar + Cat Eye Curio + Soul of the Forest would be really powerful for solving our energy issues. Frenzyband is also a nice bonus
Survival Instincts
SI is our strongest defensive and is quite important in most content. It being so far down the right hand side of the tree requires us to more or less always head right to acquire it, limiting our options elsewhere and damaging other interesting builds we could otherwise create.
Suggestion: Replace Ursoc’s Endurance on the Class Tree with SI.
Adaptive Swarm
Assuming the final 2 points of left hand side of the tree is going to be Locust Swarm then we have to invest 3 talent points to get our current state Adaptive Swarm. This is quite an expensive investment for what you’d be getting. I think reducing the total requirement to 2 is a solid start. I played around with getting 1-2 talent points back from this and it enabled me to get 1 additional powerful talent on the righthand side of the tree. (can’t remember off the top of my head it’s been a while since I looked).
Berserk is Bad
As mentioned earlier, maximising Berserk requires 5 talent points and is split ALL across the tree making it a HEAVY investment to take for probably the worst 3 minute CD in the game. This limits other potential builds.
Suggestion: Place our current 2pc tier set bonus into the tree somewhere (allow us to get a reduction on Berserk)
- Provide Sickle of the Lion to make Berserk more powerful (not necessary if our other AOE is tuned well enough).
Final Thoughts
For a while now Druids have had issues with the fluidity of the class.
- I suggest Rebirth being castable in Cat Form (even if it costs energy that’s better than having to shift when bear can res in Bear Form and Balance can cast in Moonkin Form)
- Incap should keep you in Cat Form if used in Cat Form.
- Force of Nature for Feral not just Balance. Creates a sense of “we need a Druid DPS” not “we need a Balance Druid”.
There’s plenty more that could be covered but these are my main issues at least initially.