Ferals: I'm happy, yet disappointed...

[Ghash]

I was going to make this a PvP thread, but I changed my mind. Instead, I'm going to cry about Blizzard's laziness. This is my rant:

Blizzard, you're lazy. Why is it that you can't make Feral-itemized gear? I want strength and intellect on my gear. The ferals who bitched about intellect on our gear before probably caused this, and that makes me unhappy. This is the extent of my rant, because I feel I have a reasonable solution. However, it involves you not being lazy anymore.

Firstly, I'm not even sure why you felt that you couldn't give us a PvP set that was just like our old gear. We scale even worse with agility now requiring a massive 83 agility for a crit %, so you can't say that we wouldn't scale well with our old type of gear anymore (haha, like we scale anyway). There are no miniscule drop rates, off-specs of other classes taking feral PvP gear, so why not? This really shouldn't even have to be bitched about. There's 0 reason for there not to be a feral PvP set with strength and intellect on it.

Secondly, I propose a fix to all of the, "Well, we don't want off-specs/specs with weird gear to get left out in raids, so we are trying to make everyone use the same gear." Well, I'm going to propose a solution, and I'll post it on the suggestion forums too, because I think it's that good of an idea. It will take some work on your part, as I've already said.

The Fix:

When I learned about the way that Sunwell loot worked, I was ecstatic. Hey look, I can get this piece of gear and not worry about the drop rate, because since it's for a regular spec (lol, what's regular?), it won't have a .00005% drop rate! All I have to do is get it and turn it in with a Sunmote and I get my feral gear. This is how all loot should be (at least the gear that they're trying to condense, like feral gear). If you really want us to be rolling on rogue gear, that's fine. But give us a vendor somewhere where we can turn in that rogue gear that really is an idiotic idea for ferals anyway (what the hell is the point in us gaining attack power from strength now? None of the gear we're supposed to use has any on it...as shown here), into gear that will actually be more beneficial to us. I honestly can't see why you didn't do this anyway...as soon as I saw the way that it worked in Sunwell, I figured that's how you would keep doing it. But no, instead you chose to make us use gear that is inferior to our gear in every way.

Alternate Fix:

I'm honestly not sure what you can do about the strength issue. It seems to me that we have a stat that isn't worth using though. We gain 2 AP per strength, yet none of our gear has strength on it. I propose that either we gain a percentage of our attack power as mana, or that intellect is put onto rogue gear. Those are really the only options I can see. We can't do well in an arena that is still forcing us to shift when we can't shift more than 7 times without going out of mana (yes, that's 7 in a row, but honestly I've been in enough situations in arena where I've shifted almost constantly for several seconds and I can see where it will be a problem in the future).

Unfortunately I don't have the time to spend on the computer to make this as long as I wanted it to be, but this is what I see in the future for us so far.

[Devildrive]

I don't feel that's our only problem. Maybe not even our biggest. They give us "burst damage" but with armor and hp numbers like they are, the only physical burst damage class is the paladin and shaman, and they both use magic as part of their arsenal. We get to sit in 2 highly mitigated forms, with a single stun, while casters rain hell on us as we shift in and out trying to get back on target.

[Gryzorz]

Gears are limited because it's the most effective way to fairly balance classes sinces they completely eliminate the unknown itemization part.

[Ghash]

Gears are limited because it's the most effective way to fairly balance classes sinces they completely eliminate the unknown itemization part.

Granted, but I meant to convey the mana problem as being the more important issue. The gear changing was a means to an end more than anything else. I'm sorry if you got the wrong idea.

I would be perfectly happy to keep right on wearing rogue gear, as long as I get more mana.

[Blightstar]

I would be perfectly happy to keep right on wearing rogue gear, as long as I get more mana.

Have you missed changes to Improved Leader of the Pack?

[jur]

Have you missed changes to Improved Leader of the Pack?

YOu mean were it is crit based and how when we need mana most is in a pvp enviroment where crits are minimilized?

[essodabesso]

It's like losing your virginity to the over weight red head covered in freckles and cellulite.

[Ghash]

YOu mean were it is crit based and how when we need mana most is in a pvp enviroment where crits are minimilized?

This. Plus, even with NS, a shift is still 26% of your base mana. This means that you'd have to get 4 LotP procs which would mean at LEAST 24 seconds. That's way too long. What about when you're fighting a frost mage who is chaining novas and such on you? You have to spam shift or you die from shatter. 7 shifts later you're out of mana and they just popped cold snap and you're screwed.

I understand it's hard for Blizzard to balance a class that is crit-based in a place where crits are less likely, but honestly they hurt us even more by normalizing our crit chance with every other physical damage class. If they halved the time between LotP procs or something, that might work, but honestly, the easier solution would be to reduce the mana cost on shifting even without NS. There's no way we should have less mana to work with but shifting costs more than it used to.

Live:
8800 mana as feral
580 shift cost

Beta:
6700 mana as feral
860 shift cost

These numbers should be different.

[Koumaru]

Plus, even with NS, a shift is still 26% of your base mana. This means that you'd have to get 4 LotP procs which would mean at LEAST 24 seconds.

Base Mana != Total Mana

Even completely naked and with no buffs (not even your own MotW), you regain enough mana to shapeshift in two LotP heals.

With your own MotW buff (granted, it is dispellable), and Natural Shifter, you can shift twice for every three LotP heals. This isn't counting your spirit regen, which is still passively chugging along in the background the whole time (you won't trigger the FSR while in cat/bear form), which is giving you about 130 mp5.

The big flaw in the LotP mana regen mechanic in PvP is its reliance on crit, so it seldom procs in the environment in which it's most needed.

It does not, however, take anywhere near four LotP heals to gain enough mana to shapeshift one time.

[Ghash]

Base Mana != Total Mana

Even completely naked and with no buffs (not even your own MotW), you regain enough mana to shapeshift in two LotP heals.

With your own MotW buff (granted, it is dispellable), and Natural Shifter, you can shift twice for every three LotP heals. This isn't counting your spirit regen, which is still passively chugging along in the background the whole time (you won't trigger the FSR while in cat/bear form), which is giving you about 130 mp5.

The big flaw in the LotP mana regen mechanic in PvP is its reliance on crit, so it seldom procs in the environment in which it's most needed.

It does not, however, take anywhere near four LotP heals to gain enough mana to shapeshift one time.

That's my mistake then. I didn't realize that LotP was maximum mana, nor that my 250 intellect made that much difference (that is, if it's still 250*15 for mana per int).