This was a ridiculous change. I guess it had something to do with the Born of the Wilds conduit reducing the CD of Bash (at high ilvls down all the way towards ~40sec), so it had to be nerfed baseline. Horrible idea, as the 5sec stun allowed for an extra global since we’re so extremely GCD capped (with Cyclone even requiring 3 globals by itself).
The sad part is they most likely will “forget” to undo this nerf once SL is over and the conduit (which doesn’t increase the duration, mind you), is gone.
Well, we couldn’t have undispellable roots, Incapacitating Maim and Cyclone at the same time. Out of those things I’d rather have Cyclone than anything else. It’s by for the best designed ability/mechanic out of those.
Moreover, wasn’t undispellable roots an Artifact Trait, not a PvP talent?
Still exists btw. Should be baselined though.
Yeah, the PvP talents are pretty damn bad. Especially Ferocious Wounds which forces the “big bites” gameplay that Ferals just don’t want.
The main issue with Feral though is that we can’t have the bleed based gameplay in PvP, because whenever bleeds eclipse bites that means Bloodtalons is mandatory - and let me tell you, Bloodtalons has no place in PvP.
They absolutely could make a PvP talent that said “Increases the damage of your bleeds by 100%, but decreases the damage of your Ferocious Bite by 40%. Does not stack with Bloodtalons.” to bring the bleed based gameplay for Feral.
However, you’re completely missing the main part of why Feral is struggling so hard in PvP right now.
A) We have the worst mobility we’ve ever had (relatively speaking). We don’t have powershifting and our snare has been nerfed to 20% and moved to Rake (an ability that is used only once ~15sec). This, in combination with everyone getting unpruned, means that we’re just stuck shapeshifting all the time since we can’t keep up with our targets and since powershifting is gone that means 2.5 sec downtime every single time (we might be on top of you, but we’re not doing anything).
B) Our DPS is just low. We deal like 1.4-1.8K DPS depending on how much we need to CC, shapeshift slows, and off-heal (see C). This in comparison to most other classes dealing 2K+ DPS (some upwards of 3K DPS) just means we don’t have the sustained to matter. Moreover our burst is nowhere near some of the worst offenders (like Fire Mage, WW or Ret), so we’re just really bland. Other than Convoke / Berserk+Symmetry 4cp FB spam every 2/3mins we just do nothing.
C) All our utility and our main defensive forces us to shift form (Incap Roar, off-healing, Cycloning, Frenzied Regen etc). This in combination with Powershifting not being a thing just means we’re just stuck shifting forms and not dealing any damage while doing so (especially since our bleeds only contribute a miniscule amount of damage).
We just need a DPS increase, a removal of Bloodtalons, a refocus on bleeds, Infected Wounds back to 50% and on Shred, and powershifting back and Feral is completely fine “for now”. Long term a lot of change is needed though (see e.g. Feral Druid Damage Distribution And General Design).