Introduction and the new direction of Feral as a spec
First of all I’d like to applaud the designer of the new Feral tree, for it’s a huge improvement. There are some issues I will explore more below, but all in all, the new tree is looking great. The blue post was wonderfully written and it looks like Feral spec is finally understood and brought back to it’s core.
I’m a Ferocious Bite enjoyer, but it’s true it’s not good. The new direction taken with bleeds being more important is a great decision and has me very excited for the upcoming expansion. It feels so good to read a blue post that correctly identifies most of the Feral gameplay issues.
I especially like this bit:
“Many of the new talents are about giving Feral players tools to customize their gameplay in the direction they prefer. There are, of course, talents that strengthen AOE or single target damage (though you should always feel capable in both scenarios). But other options allow you to customize how much energy regeneration you have, how powerful your combo point builders are, how often you need to refresh your bleeds, or how powerful your Berserk & Tiger’s Fury cooldowns are.”
It’s great! We have a choice now and can customize our gameplay just the way we want. Especially shorter cooldowns vs. stronger cooldowns.
Breakdown of the tree
In this section I will go through the entire tree, node by node and point out the good and the worse aspects of each talent.Tiger’s Fury – the removal of Improved Tiger’s Fury and making the base ability grant 50 energy is a great decision. We don’t need to spend points to get back the previous base ability anymore.
Omen of Clarity – nothing to say, still a well placed talent.
[NEW] Protective Growth – I have mixed feelings about this. The 3% damage reduction is not a lot and I don’t see much use for this talent. We already have Barkskin, Survival Instincts and a free Regrowth pretty much every finisher. We can also take damage reduction from the Druid class tree. I appreciate that it’s a non-obligatory pick, though.
Primal Wrath – giving us this ability so early is interesting. I definitely agree with the reasoning to give us an early AOE finisher. We can kill mobs between raid bosses more effectively, yay.
Improved Bleeds – nothing much to say, a well placed talent that buffs both ST and AOE and will always be picked. Reducing it to one point only is a good choice.
[NEW] Pouncing Strikes – a really good talent that combines Improved Shred and Improved Prowl. It’s great.
Scent of Blood – this one has issues. What I liked in the previous design of the talent tree was that Scent of Blood was an optional talent that did not lead to any other. Now it blocks access to Double-Clawed Rake, a must-have talent for 2 targets. Scent of Blood is a strict AOE talent that has little use with fewer targets. Those talents work well together in AOE, but not in 2-target combat.
[NEW?] Tireless Energy – I’m glad it got reduced to 2 points only. The small Haste buff is a nice addition as well. It’s a well placed, non-obligatory talent that allows flexibility and helps with energy starvation.
Sabertooth – I’m honestly surprised how well this talent was handled. It’s a great compromise between players enjoying the Bite playstyle and players enjoying the Bleed playstyle. I absolutely love this.
[NEW] Piercing Claws – I have mixed feelings about this talent. It’s a small, flat 2/4% Critical Strike increase that’s mostly outperformed by Tireless Energy.
Predator – nothing much to say, a well placed talent that pretty much gives us infinite Tiger’s Fury in AOE. It’s interesting to see it separated from Sabertooth and I look forward to playing with both of these talents.
[NEW] Double-Clawed Rake – a great new talent that makes Rake a 2-target ability. I hate having to swap targets in order to maintain Rake on both of them, so I love this!
Sudden Ambush – went from a useless, forced 3-point pick to a more or less optional, strong 2-point talent that’s going to do some really sweet damage in ST. Giving us an up to 50% chance for a buffed Shred/Rake with each finisher is awesome and will definitely make Rake’s bleed more meaningful. Great change!
[NEW] Dreadful Bleeding – a flat 15% damage increase to Rip. It’s alright, and makes Rip (thus also Primal Wrath) more deadly.
[NEW?] Berserk – returning Berserk’s core power to the first talent is a great decision. There were way too many spread nodes to get the base ability back.
[NEW] Tear Open Wounds – now that’s an awesome talent. It lets us ‘pop’ all the Rips in AOE and definitely will make spamming Primal Wrath more interesting than simply overwriting previous Rips. It also helps with the issue of enemies not living long enough for the bleed to actually do it’s damage. I love this!
Taste for Blood – I like that it’s been reduced to 2-point only, but this talent’s placement is rather bad, for we have to take 2 AOE talents in order to reach it. While I agree with the need for an AOE finisher as a core Feral ability, there are fights that are pure ST (for example Skolex, Shriekwing and Tarragrue have 0 adds) and we would definitely like Taste for Blood there, but Primal Wrath and especially Predator is definitely not needed. The alternative is to take Primal Wrath > Scent of Blood > Double-Clawed Rake which is even worse. I’d like to see another way to be able to reach this talent without being forced into AOE.
Lunar Inspiration – can’t say much as I never use this talent, but it seems like a good placement – non-obligatory and with other ST nodes.
Predatory Swiftness – the placement isn’t bad, but it’s spot could be given to another, more meaningful talent. I have no issue with it being obligatory for having a free Regrowth every finisher is a core part of Feral player’s mindset. However, this talent has to include Rebirth. We are the only Druid spec that has to leave their form to resurrect a dead party member. Balance Druids can cast while in Moonkin form and Guardian Druids have instantly cast Rebirth at the cost of some rage. We are willing to spend energy on this ability, just let us instantly cast it in Cat Form.
Moment of Clarity – nothing much to say, still a nice, optional talent. The only issue is that you can take it without taking Omen of Clarity, so these 2 talents definitely should be closer to each other.
[NEW] Ferocious Frenzy – as ridiculous as this talent sounds (and AOE bite, lol), I absolutely love this! This will make Ferocious Bite a much more valuable ability in AOE, while not overshadowing Rip. I’m excited to see how it performs with Apex Predator.
[NEW] Infected Wounds – as much as I dislike this passive being a talent, it’s been handled very well. Not only is it an optional talent, but it also buffs Rake now, so will definitely be taken into consideration in both ST and AOE (with Double-Clawed Rake). Overall great change.
[NEW] Raging Fury or Frantic Momentum – these are 2 new interesting talents. I honestly cannot tell if they are good or not. I feel like Raging Fury’s 0.2s per CP is a bit low. Frantic Momentum on the other hand relies too much on RNG. Still this node doesn’t block any other talents, so that’s good.
[NEW] Berserk: Heart of the Lion – I’m glad it’s been raised from 0.3s to 0.5s per CP, for one of Berserk’s biggest issues is that it’s cooldown is way too long.
Survival Instincts – nothing much to say, a well-placed talent, though it is a bit weird to see a defensive cooldown in the center of the tree. We are more or less forced to take it, which isn’t bad, but I feel like it’s spot could be taken by an offensive talent.
Berserk: Frenzy – just a good, well-placed node, although I’d like to see a way to reach it without being forced to take AOE talents (same issue as with Taste for Blood).
[NEW] Brutal Slash or Wild Slashes – an interesting node. I have to appreciate not making Brutal Slash obligatory as it was one of the main issues with the previous tree’s design. I like that the choice is between an ability primarily used in ST and a pure AOE passive.
Carnivorous Instinct – not a big fan of this talent, for it’s a flat increase for Tiger’s Fury damage. But the placement of the node is good. It’s easy to reach for both ST and AOE.
Eye of Fearful Symmetry – I was really hoping not to see this talent. The problem is that it has bad synergy with Berserk. Let me explain with an example:
- We have 5 Combo Points, we use Berserk and Tiger’s Fury to buff our damage.
- We use a finisher, Berserk refunds 2 CP, Eye of Fearful Symmetry refunds another 2, so we have 4 CP.
- We use Shred in order to reach 5 CP and here’s the problem: during Berserk Shred generates not 1, but 2 CP, so we end up with 6 CP and one gets wasted. Even worse if the Shred crits and generates 3 CP (because of Primal Fury passive), and we waste 2 CP. That is a huge loss. The same issue is with Rake and Swipe if it crits. Given that critical strike is very valuable to Ferals, the chance is quite high.
I’m not sure how the second point affects this talent, but if it caused it to refund not 2, but 3 Combo Points, that should solve the issue, because we wouldn’t need to use a builder in order to reach 5 CP. Still, I don’t like that it’s an obligatory talent if we want to reach Convoke or Incarnation. We already have so many talents that help with resource generation.
Cat’s Curiosity – it’s meh, nothing much to say. I don’t really like how it blocks the way to Apex Predator and Veinripper/Rip and Tear. We already have so much talents to improve our energy management (Omen of Clarity, Scent of Blood, Moment of Clarity, Tireless Energy, Predator and many, many more). There is, however an issue with it placement – you can take it without taking Omen of Clarity (same issue as with Moment of Clarity) and should be placed closer to that talent.
[NEW] Bite Force or Bloodtalons – I like this node. You can either play it safely with Bite Force and get 10% buff or play it risky with Bloodtalons and get sweet 30% buff.
Feral Frenzy – nothing much to say, a well-placed talent. I really like that it’s been split from Bloodtalons (I wonder if Feral Frenzy will count towards Bloodtalons) as I love this powerful bleed. Great change.
Adaptive Swarm – can’t say much as I never use this ability.
Convoke the Spirits or Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane – this node has issues, the main one being Incarnation is a really weak ability that will always be outperformed by Convoke (especially if the channeled Ferocious Bites work with Ferocious Frenzy). I also do not like that there’s only one way to reach this node, that being through Eye of Fearful Symmetry.
Soul of the Forest – nothing to say, it’s alright.
Apex Predator – it’s alright, but I’d like another way to reach it other than through an energy management talent.
Veinripper/Rip and Tear – an interesting node that lets players choose between longer DoT, or a stronger DoT.
Unbridled Swarm – same as with Adaptive Swarm, nothing to say.
[NEW] Ashamane’s Guidance – I like the idea of being able to trigger Incarnation randomly throughout the fight (if it wasn’t so weak). However, I have issues with the Convoke ‘improvement’. Reducing the channel from 4s to 3s isn’t that good, I feel like it should reduce the cooldown instead (like the Night Fae/Unity legendary does now). The increased chance for special ability is great.
Circle of Life and Death – I think locking this talent behind Soul of the Forest is not a good choice. There should be an alternative way to reach this talent.
Main issues with the talent tree’s structure and possible solutions
- Protective Growth is a rather useless talent.
Possible solution: Merge it with Predatory Swiftness or remove it entirely and replace it with a different talent.
- Scent of Blood (AOE) has to be taken in order to reach Double-Clawed Rake (2 target).
Possible solution: Move Double-Clawed Rake closer to the middle of the tree and make Scent of Blood not block access to any talents.
- Piercing Claws is a rather weak talent.
Possible solution: I don’t think increasing the critical strike % would make it interesting. I believe it should be removed entirely and replaced with a more interesting talent.
- Being forced to take Primal Wrath and Predator (or Primal Wrath, Scent of Blood and Double-Clawed Rake) in order to reach Taste for Blood (and thus Infected Wounds, Berserk: Frenzy and all the talents below).
Possible solution: Add more connections, perhaps between Berserk and Taste for Blood. Or move Taste for Blood closer to the middle of the tree.
- Rebirth is not a part of Predatory Swiftness.
Possible solution: Add it, please. As a Feral usually responsible for resurrecting people in raid, I suffer. If not for free, please let us instantly cast Rebirth at the cost of some energy (like Guardian Druids can do with Rage).
- Eye of Fearful Symmetry has bad synergy with Berserk and causes us to generate too many combo points. It also blocks the way to Convoke.
Possible solution: Make Eye of Fearful Symmetry refund 3 CP (this way we won’t need to use a builder to reach 5 CP and will not generate too many CP). Also add an alternative way to reach Convoke/Incarnation.
- You can take Berserk: Heart of the Lion and Berserk: Frenzy without taking Berserk or Incarnation.
Possible solution: Move it so it can only be reached from Berserk. Move it below the 20 talent point bar if needed.
- You can take Moment of Clarity and Cat’s Curiosity without taking Omen of Clarity.
Possible solution: Put those talents closer to each other and have Omen of Clarity block the way to both of them.
- Incarnation is a very weak talent that cannot compete with Convoke.
Possible solution: There is really only one ability that can compete with Convoke and that’s Sickle of the Lion (Feral 4-set bonus as of 9.2). It’s really sad it didn’t make it into the tree, for it makes Berserk a meaningful AOE cooldown. 20% reduced ability cost is not enough to justify Incarnation’s existence, adding this powerful bleed would certainly make players consider picking this talent over Convoke.
- Please add Leader of the Pack back, please please please.
While definitely an improvement to the previous talent tree, the new design still suffers from lack of options – it’s too linear. People love Shaman and Warrior trees because there are so many ways to reach talents. I wish that could be applied to the Feral talent tree as well. The removal of 3-point talents is definitely an improvement.
Slightly edited talent tree - my concept to fix some of the issues
I played around with the talent tree in TTM and tried to address some of the issues I mentioned above. Here’s what I came up with:
https://imgur.com/a/EbqFFrz
I did not add or remove any talents, just moved the nodes around.
Double-Clawed Rake is now in the middle of the tree, swapped with Piercing Claws (I had no clue what to do with that talent so I just left it there on the right). I also replaced Scent of Blood with Dreadful Bleeding – a talent that would be taken by both ST and AOE players. I did not change Primal Wrath, after all I agree that we should have an AOE finisher as a base ability.
The biggest changes are in the part below the 8-point mark. First of all, I moved Cat’s Curiosity and Moment of Clarity closer to Omen of Clarity to ensure the latter has to be taken first. Secondly I made sure that you cannot progress without taking Berserk and that you cannot take Frenzy and Heart of the Lion without taking the base ability. From there the tree divulges into two paths that still have some nodes in common (that are put between) - I moved Infected Wounds and Taste for Blood towards the middle of the tree for it has uses in both ST and AOE. Scent of Blood is now far on the right side where it doesn’t block any further talents. I made sure that in order to reach Berserk upgrades the player has to take some defensive ability (Predatory Swiftness or Survival Instincts, or both).
From there we reach the 20-point mark, where I had to move Frenzy and Heart of the Lion. That was the only way to ensure the player takes Berserk while also having plenty of talents in between. Carnivorous Instincts and Eye of Fearful Symmetry do not block access to any talents now (Frenzy and Heart of the Lion do instead) and are 2 optional upgrades to Tiger’s Fury, offering players as much customization as they want. Feral Frenzy and Apex Predator are still located on the other far sides of the tree for obvious reasons. Finally, Circle of Life and Death is not blocked by Soul of the Forest anymore – it can be reached through Convoke/Incarnation or Adaptive Swarm.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading this very long post! I hope some of my proposed solutions will prove helpful. I am very excited for the direction that Feral is going. (: