In this post, I will go through some of my thoughts on how to improve feral druid as a spec. By improve I do not mean buff or nerf necessarily, but rather place the spec in a good spot that makes it fun to play.
- Damage:
Feral received a substantial damage buff in the PTR, which leaves little to no room for complaint. I love that bleeds do actually hit hard, and with the 4set bonus, this is going to get better. My only concern is that giving bleeds the ability to crit through a 4set bonus rather than a rune or a spell book ability, can potentially make the bonus too powerful to replace in the future, and can make balancing and tweaking more difficult than it should be. As stated previously, I would rather have it as a rune or spell book, but this is a very minor complaint. - Runes and Spells:
• Pounce:
This spell in its current iteration simply does not belong in SOD. Positional requirement, 2 seconds stun untalented, 3 talented; super clunky and unfun to use. There is a reason the positional requirement was gone come TBC, and the stun was buffed to 3 seconds base, and 4 seconds talented. I suggest following suit. Sometimes something is so obvious and straightforward that nothing more can be said.
• Ferocious Bite:
I honestly was hesitant to even talk about this spell. It does bad damage and leaves you with 0 energy. However, with the upcoming changes, it seems to be headed into a “last thing to press when everything else is up” direction, and I am, personally, fine with that to a certain extent. It consuming all energy feels bad, but I do not have any strong opinions about it at the moment. I leave this to my fellow ferals, what do you guys think?
• Skull Bash:
This is a poor man’s Feral Charge if you are quick enough with the latter. I imagine with a 2 seconds lockout, it was meant to be a more convenient and easier to use interrupt, and it could have worked if it was not competing with beastly runes such as Savage Roar previously, and now, Mangle. Suggestion: Make it a baseline skill or move it to cloak slot.
3. Further Suggestions:
One problem with Feral design in SOD is that Shred is a large portion of our damage, and that makes the spec feel so bad when we cannot Shred. This impacts mostly our farming, questing, and PVP. Granted, the buffs to Rake and Rip do help with this issue but I have a few thoughts on the matter:
• Give Ferals Infected Wounds or at least make Enchant Weapon - Icy Chill proc off Cat/Bear attacks just like you did with Crusader, or even introduce Faerie Swarm from MOP as a rune. (This is mostly PVP focused)
• If a slow is not an option, I suggest to make Shred lose its positional requirement when Tiger’s Fury is up.
This is all I have at the moment. I’d like to hear what you guys think, and I hope this reaches the Devs.
let that mofo go boom.