Feral <---> Guardian split

[FAILoZOFF]

I used to LOVE how feral felt and played, not anyome; a true druid. not this "cat" spec and "bear" spec. FERAL... DRUID...
now it feels feels weird, empty; like more half of the class is missing, and don't even start with affinities, its bulls... i get back SOME skills I used to have for non-spec form... woah, so good- except I still don't have any talents, set bonuses, or even mechanics for these skills, nothing just bare skills, and now even lack of artifact traits

Loved being versatile. Maybe not a 100% dps nor 100% tank but it was very fun to switch on bemand role i play, thats why I rolled a druid in the first place and not rogue to top dps or warr to be "THETANK".

Ff only people would accept the role of hybrid class/spec, an off tank that can dps better than other tanks while they don't tank but bit worse than pure dps when tank is not needed, its pretty simple concept, might not be useful everywhere but... none is always, everywhere
but since people want to be #1 dps and #1 tank its not gonna happen; sadly
either way it is most definitely doable if only there was will for it

but i must say it would work kind of badly with current talent system because you'd either have every talent providing double bonuses for both forms (we had such prior to MoP); one talent providing bonus for one form and 3th talent being passive or something
not that i like current talent system, and i don't mean that 3 talents per row etc- I speak more of the philosophy (that came mostly with Legion but also bit in WoD) where we have or should take best talent for given situation; but it could be worked out

I kind of understand people not agreeing with me... but damn... how I would love to play once again Feral I once loved. WotLK and Cata were a blast for ferals, I even used character boost that came with WoD on boosting my tauren druid and hit 100 but could not get myself into mindset of... not being hybrid ;3

[Sylvaeres]

When you say "wolk was fantastic for ferals" I sit back and laugh at the memory of having feral being a top dps spec, which was awesome

[Zoibert the Bear]

When you say "wolk was fantastic for ferals" I sit back and laugh at the memory of having feral being a top dps spec, which was awesome

The stat priority was also kind of awesome lol, although every melee/hunter had to basically stack ArPen like there was no fucking tomorrow. Good times.

[Sylvaeres]

The stat priority was also kind of awesome lol, although every melee/hunter had to basically stack ArPen like there was no fucking tomorrow. Good times.

Lol yeap. Armor Pen was king, I wish they'd bring it back because it worked so well with melee toons. Those were very good times

[Bearshield]

Not often I can come in here and completely agree with a post, but I also miss the good ol' days of Feral. Druid has never been the same for me since they gutted the spec and destroyed our hybridity. I still think if they hadn't brought in the abomination of a talent system we have today, they could have left Feral in tact and just ensured that we were never as effective at both tank and dps as we were in Cata again (since that was the expansion most people had a problem with) but with the current system, it would require too much to make it work and clearly, they continue to struggle to balance our specs as is.

[Heywes]

Wotlk was fun. I too feel empty after the split. I don't feel as Druidy any more.

[Valqt]

Same.. basically when they got rid of the old talent system, we got rid of that awesome hybrid druid feel. Not saying i necessarily want the old talent system back, and i know they tried to patch things up with the Affinity talents, but... I dunno. Just doesn't feel the same, I guess.

I remember hybrid tanking on deathwing heroic, that was awesome.

[Huuanu]

Not a fan of the split, cats came out relatively unscathed but I feel bears got shafted.

[Dreyen]

I remember wotlk when feral was great at everything and not garbage at everything and acceptable as single target.

wotlk tiger fury + berserk + swipe spam ohh mann

[Huuanu]

I know right? Poor bears being the top rated tanks with near unkillable status. Poor, poor wee things.

Yeah, because there's nothing that's happened in the years between the split and the present, just bears being op at all times ever since.

[exochaft]

It'd be possible to have the old Feral model work with the current talent system, you'd just need to adjust some (or even just one) talent row to force you into a role if you don't want things to get really unbalanced. While there is some nostalgia in the olden days, I think the headaches that came from it all are not being remembered. One adjustment, usually a nerf, to one aspect of the game for Feral trickled down into every other aspect under the old model. Also, we were pigeon-holed into always being the "OT" since we weren't the strongest tank but had the most potential for downtime DPS.

That being said, I do feel the whole hybrid aspect of druids and the "high risk, high reward" feel of kitty is very lacking.

After the Thrash buff, I feel Guardian has almost no hybrid feel in a raid situation (going Feral affinity was the closest thing, and that was even minimal at best). While there was some balance issues with HotW + Tranquility, I did like the feel of healing someone with Rejuvs or instant HT casts in bear form from MoP. Never really did find a good moonkin hybrid feel for bears, beyond one fight with HotW + Hurricane, but I was always happy with being able to spot heal raid members while tanking. As it stands, the Affinity talent row is only really used for passives and might as well not even have active use abilities in a raid scenario.

I'll leave someone else to pick apart Feral in comparison to the WotLK days, although it may be a matter of taste right now. I did enjoy the direct damage aspect of the spec, and the complexity of the rotation did elevate the potential of our damage to greater heights.

In the end, the split is probably for the best, because I can only imagine how watered down the old Feral tree would be at this point with how things are currently designed/balanced in Legion.

[Anjuk]

I miss bearcat too. More broadly, I miss how hybrid-y druids used to feel... the sense that a shapeshift really changed what you were capable of. Now a shapeshift is usually a sign of either 1) desperation, or 2) an old player who shifts out of habit

This is completely fixable, though. The Affinity row of talents is where all the action is, but it's a wasted opportunity when the passive is 95% of the value. Rebalance the impacts of taking an affinity! Make that shapeshift worthwhile again. If we start cheesing *progression* encounters with big heals or un-killable bear form (or whatever), we can take a nerf. But failing that I wish they would just let druids be druids again.

[FAILoZOFF]

Also, we were pigeon-holed into always being the "OT" since we weren't the strongest tank but had the most potential for downtime DPS.

Was it such a bad thing? For me this would be a perfect spot for ferals to dwell in tbh, since it fits the class/spec so well.
WoW should get away from such narrow holy trinity model, where a spec is only good as long as it can achieve top or #1 performance spot in damage/healing/tanking.

[Seditian]

I know right? Poor bears being the top rated tanks with near unkillable status. Poor, poor wee things.

[Devilyaki]

I like the little lore book they had about the feral cat god in legion, but the weapons make it very annoying to be a cat and bear Druid combo any more. Just have to pick one and go with it is a bit of a let down.

[Avalos]

I know right? Poor bears being the top rated tanks with near unkillable status. Poor, poor wee things.

Looking through your post history, you seem to be a terrific guy to be around.

[Deleted]

NEWSFLASH: you are YEARS to late for your complain...

[FAILoZOFF]

NEWSFLASH: you are YEARS to late for your complain...

and? the moment metzen (i think it was him) at MoP (geez thats 3rd expansion since Feral was ripped...) announcement said something along the lines that "druids always felt like they have 4 specs... I was like "nooo... waaaa?! NOOOOO!!! FOr FK SAKe NOOOO!!"
I complained A LOt since then, on blizz forums I got flamed by druid players for it saying "w/e as long as they will get to be able to be #1 dps/tank"
For me such hybrid style was the core... the essence... of the druid and specifically FERAL spec, so why did they started out playing this spec to begin with? for fancy feral forms???

[Arlee]

Unpopular opinion... but I love the split. It made sense for them to be separated and it's good they can each get attention needed without them being bound to each other.

[Nero Stormchester]

Not a fan of the split, cats came out relatively unscathed but I feel bears got shafted.

Whilst they may have lost some of their uniqueness, you can hardly say that bears got shafted, since they're pretty much the best tanks in Legion.