Are the lvl 100 feral talents good for our dps role?

[Oltang]

This post is my opinion on the current state of ferals in beta.

Why are the talents for moonkin, guardian, and restoration, more fitting for their roles then the feral 100 talents. Doesn't it seem odd blizzard chose these to be our choices.

First talent is Lunar Inspiration: A nice alternative to swipe but at a cost of 30 energy makes the viability to costly and trying to keep the dot going on multi-targets along with keeping up SR, and swipe seems a bit of a hassle. For mobs that run its nice to dot but i am not a master of energy control so thats my bad playstyle.

Second Talent is Blood talons: I see where blizzard was going with this though i don't like the fact they took a 90 talent (DoC) renamed it and moved it to 100. I know feral druids get a free HT proc and that is appreciated but even on live i hardly want to hit the HT unless i need the heal. To me as a dps role healing is nice but to weave it into a rotation is a bit annoying seeing as your waiting on a proc or using a global CD for it. Though it procs a lot i still hardly use it, in a raid situation its great for helping the healers out when low on mana.

Third talent is Claws of Shirvallah: Why blizzard did you gave us a new form like we need anymore? Why take the Savagery talent away CoS could of been a glyph or the new moonkin form seeing as you don't like the idea of updating the moonkin. At least the other two talents have a dps role in some way this talent is lack luster all around. Why not give us a different talent like insect swarm, killing spree, or a single target attack that has a stacking bleed on a single target with a 2 or 3 min cd.

I don't understand some ideas behind the choices you make blizzard and for me a class should be built around the idea of you play a role then the talents should effect that role you picked. The first two talents do but the last does not its nice to heal in cat form but to me we lost a chance at a new dps ability or a new play style.

Like i said its just my opinion mostly my view on the 100 talents their is good in them but they need to be looked at in the context of game play and whats really enjoyable about playing on your toon.

[Kojo]

Lunar inspiration is not a replacement for swipe, it's just a dot...that you keep up with your single target priority, however craptastic and unfitting it is.

I'm not even sure why you're complaining about healing touch, if you don't want to help your raid with heals just treat it as a "give me 30% increased damage" button and self cast it, it costs you nothing.

Shirvallah is a flat +5% versatility, that's the benefit, the form is just extra.

[Kraineth]

Yes all of the talents are for DPS, Lunar inspiration adds another DoT to maintain, which is pretty nice. It is obviously missing some tuning changes, but feral as a whole needs a good amount of work before we are ready.

Bloodtalons is most certainly a dps boost, you shouldn't think of HT as a heal if you use the talent, only as a spell that you can cast to gain the Bloodtalons buffs.

Claws of Shirvallah is pretty good as well, mainly a PvP oriented talent, but good all the same. Savagery had to be removed, it was just bad, it had no place being a talent.

[Deleted]

I think the Talents are the greatest

[Shyzhi]

I aint played beta alot, While blood talons is abit.. "naww reused talent..." i found it kinda nice to use. some reason on life i always found DOC abit overwhelming to use :/ but on beta found blood talons easy as hell xD but meh im just stupid. I do like the talents as feral is alot slower now its nice and relaxed to through that increased RIP dot in there.

[Kaeth]

It does seem a bit "lazy" at first glance that Blood Talons is just a renamed DoC moved up a tier, but that's actually fitting, because it was a straight dps-boosting talent in a utility row, and the level-100 tier is actually damage-focused.

Lunar Inspiration: I could take it or leave it, but it adds a ranged option for some fights in which that might be useful. Blood Talons looks like the clear min-max dps talent with the highest skill cap for optimal use, while Claws of Shirvallah is the "PvP talent" that almost feels like it belongs in the level-90 tier if not for the 5% raw damage increase provided by the Versatility. Keep in mind it also allows hard-casting Healing Touch as well as crowd controls and cleanses/battle-rezzes without wasting a global to leave form.

Compared to some of the other classes' choices, I like these. A lot happier with the feral options than I am with the non-choices my paladin is looking at.

[teddabear]

All the tiers are pretty bad except the first one and even then 2 of those use to be baseline. Tier 100 is especially bad for Feral. A PvP talent, a talent that doesn't work and doesn't appear to scale well and a re-used niche talent. If I were to hazard a guess I'd say 75% of the players find none of those choices appealing.

[Will]

i think too many people seem to think these forums are owned by blizzard cause you keep addressing blizzard directly. this is mmoc, not the wow forums.

and what gives you the idea LI is only for aoe dotting? It's a DPS gain to use it as you would use rake; as another single-target timer. If it were only beneficial in ranged situations as a filler it'd be a seriously weak choice.

bloodtalons is fine; it emphasises the classes' hybrid style. you call it a niche which is stupid. it's - when used correctly - a dps boost and worth casting the healing touches to do. hardly niche at all since you can get PS procs with every finisher.

claws isn't just for pvp, it's useful in soloing and questing, and indeed it's raid-viable as it gives 5% versa. bloodtalons is still probably the stronger choice for a competent player but CoS is not to be mocked; indeed certain fights it may end up excelling on such as fights where the druid needs to use more of their 'non feral' spells, or fights where any additional damage reduction helps immensely.

[gestapo]

I was sold on LI until they introduced Claws. As a PvP-centric and solo player I'm really looking forward to it. I'm probably going to mess around a bit, but I reckon I'll enjoy the slightly more 'complex' role of the Bloodtalons/DoC talents for some occasional PvE.

[Whitepaw]

Claws of Shirvallah could end up being awesome in PvE - depending on how Blizzard designs and tunes the content.

Right now, Feral heals are non-trivial. You could say "They'll nerf that", but the fact is that most dps specs with class healing abilities (Moonkin, Enhancement, Ret pally, I don't know about monks) actually heal pretty well. That makes it probable that it's a design choice by Blizzard. Healing hybrid classes should be able to function as off-healers.

If that is the case, Claws might be not only viable, but preferred. Our healing, as Feral, could be important and actually needed.

[sayne9]

Lunar is just another dot to maintain, nothing special. If it is ever worthwhile, and it probably will be at some point, then alright as dot maintenance is something I greatly enjoy.

I hate DoC on live and I will hate bloody talons in WoD. I hate that it turns some of my best raid utility, the ability to throw out a decent heal, and forces me to sit on it for personal gain. From what I understand and repeated in this thread the healing touch we heal with will be noticeable, probably more so if you take the revamped DoC, and to lose that bothers me. With healer mana being tight in the first tier I'll take the dps loss of not using this optimally if needed to be able to snipe out some heals. Unless the other two talents are absolute garbage compared to this one I wont be taking it.

Claws of Shirvallah seems alright. 5% increased damage/healing and 2.5% reduced damage taken isn't anything to ignore. The form is meh and while some will love it I wish I could glyph out of it if I take this talent or better yet see my gear on it. Don't think either of those are happening though. I don't think you will get too much use out of the casting in cat form perk in pve.

[gestapo]

Lunar is just another dot to maintain, nothing special. If it is ever worthwhile, and it probably will be at some point, then alright as dot maintenance is something I greatly enjoy.

I hate DoC on live and I will hate bloody talons in WoD. I hate that it turns some of my best raid utility, the ability to throw out a decent heal, and forces me to sit on it for personal gain. From what I understand and repeated in this thread the healing touch we heal with will be noticeable, probably more so if you take the revamped DoC, and to lose that bothers me. With healer mana being tight in the first tier I'll take the dps loss of not using this optimally if needed to be able to snipe out some heals. Unless the other two talents are absolute garbage compared to this one I wont be taking it.

Claws of Shirvallah seems alright. 5% increased damage/healing and 2.5% reduced damage taken isn't anything to ignore. The form is meh and while some will love it I wish I could glyph out of it if I take this talent or better yet see my gear on it. Don't think either of those are happening though. I don't think you will get too much use out of the casting in cat form perk in pve.

Didn't they say versatility would have less effect in pve? Correct me if I'm wrong, though.

[sayne9]

Didn't they say versatility would have less effect in pve? Correct me if I'm wrong, though.

They have said it wont compete with the other secondary stats when it comes to pure damage/healing because it also doubles as a damage reduction which forces them to tune it a little lower. Or that is what they said in a tweet back in early July and it does make sense. If versatility increased your damage as much as crit/haste/mastery and it reduced your damage taken it would become the default stat. Need that tradeoff of a little damage for increased survivability.

I don't think they have said the damge/healing increase or the damage reduction will differ between pve and pvp. If they did I missed it.

[gestapo]

I find it funny that they too out resilience and pvp power only to keep something of a combination of it in as one stat. Unfortunately I'm not following enough people or seeing enough beta pvp feedback to see the real impact of this stat - and particularly for Feral pvp, which seems to have the least amount of people beta testing

[Derivative83]

The catman form kinda came out of left field for me, but the rest of the talents seem workable.

[MatadorMedia]

I'm really excited for the Claws of Shirvallah, if only because of the model. I wish it gave a permanent Savage Roar though.

[Kaeth]

I'm really excited for the Claws of Shirvallah, if only because of the model. I wish it gave a permanent Savage Roar though.

There's a glyph for that, which is probably the ideal implementation. Passive Savage Roar as a talent would either be mandatory or borderline useless depending on the damage bonus/penalty. Though the glyph is at worst a 3.6% damage loss, there are probably at least a few players who'd like to try CoS but don't want to make that kind of sacrifice.

I'm a casual noob. I'll be going CoS and glyphed passive SR.

[MatadorMedia]

I'm a casual noob. I'll be going CoS and glyphed passive SR.

Oh, sweet! It kind of balances out then. Lose 5% damage from passive savage roar, gain 5% from passive claws talent. Problem solved! I don't care if it's a "dps loss" overall, because me trying to remember to keep up savage roar would result in a higher dps loss from human error.

[exochaft]

Right now, Feral heals are non-trivial. You could say "They'll nerf that", but the fact is that most dps specs with class healing abilities (Moonkin, Enhancement, Ret pally, I don't know about monks) actually heal pretty well. That makes it probable that it's a design choice by Blizzard. Healing hybrid classes should be able to function as off-healers.

If that is the case, Claws might be not only viable, but preferred. Our healing, as Feral, could be important and actually needed.

From the raid testing I've done, the off-healing potential is crazy good compared to other DPS hybrids. Without even sacrificing DPS, going DoC + CoS will currently yield healing equivalent to a tank at a minimum (while the amount of healing done varies across encounter/spec, I could easily be 50-75% of a healer as Feral). I've found using Rejuv on the raid while waiting for energy very addictive, let alone targeted HT raid heals using PS procs. For those that don't know yet, casting Rejuv while in kitty form is baseline, and even though Rejuv costs mana, our baseline mana regen is so high that you could blanket an entire raid at least once before going OOM. For what it's worth, you can actually hard-cast spam HT and never go OOM. Also, multistrike does work on those Rejuvs.

[Mooninites]

I'm extremely disappointed in the talents. Moonfire in cat form isn't particularly exciting, nor will it scale well so it seems. As far as I know, it will not scale off mastery because it is not considered a bleed, which doesn't bode well for it down the line, but maybe it has changed or is subject to change. Recycled DoC, I don't really know how anyone can get excited about that; Blizzard just being incredibly lazy. Claws seems okay, but the again, ferals have been asking for something like this baked into the class for a while, the fact that it is going to take up an end tier talent seems rather lame. All in all I think the new talents are lame and they could have done a lot more, it just feels like we're getting a pile of shit and have to choose which shit is better.