Originally Posted by
Whitepaw
I'll quote Ishayu <Frostmane - EU> from the official forums:
"Pretty great changes and well needed. Bekrynn nicely sums up why. It unlocks many new builds and substantially reduces the punishment for a little it of failure, which was very, very needed.
I basically had to give up on my Feral because the rotation was just too punishing to perform while raid leading as well (which I was doing). That rotation was just beyond punishing, beyond ridiculously hard to maintain.
The only reason I was able to even play it at all is I ended up writing a model predictive controller algorithm for simultating ahead and suggest abilities. This is actually the same algorithm that powers the recently released automatic Insulin Pump. Without methods like these, it was unplayable while raid leading. That's just ridiculous.
Any attempt to deviate from the super punishing spec was met with completely ruined DPS potential. It wasn't just a little bit of punishment, it was really large. The spec basically had no flexibility.
However, this comes far too late. I've already rerolled, and I don't expect to return to this character, because even though you're fixing the retarded rotation, and good on you for that, this still doesn't feel like a Druid anymore. There's no shapeshifting and no real utility in it, and the survivability is beyond frustrating, especially in PvP.
However, I'm glad on behalf of my formerly fellow kitties that this finally got looked into. Good move, Blizzard."
I think a lot of players has the same opinion regarding the lack of utility as he does. How come the most versatile class in the game ends up with one of the most locked specs? We're still the only class that can fill every spot in any team, most hybrid of hybrids. But Feral is now punished dps-wise for using the (nerfed) healing, if done at the wrong time.
I know all the reasons for pruning abilities, making sure we're not OP when bearcat/catbear, watching our healing output etc - I just don't care. I don't see Blizzard removing immunities from rogues fx. Or utility. Even though immunities have been borderline gamebreaking for over a decade now.
So Blizzard: Fix our utility! In patch 7.3. Buffing our affinities would be the logical start. Make it so going moonkin mid fight could be a good choice. Or start healing mid fight, as a Feral. Oh, and let us cast Rejuvenation in cat form. That's the least you can do, honestly.