Feral Druid in 9.2

[Aedruid]

Hey Everyone!

I've been checking out a lot of the changes with 9.2 and how they would effect the legendary Feral Druid, mainly the tier set bonuses and the double legendries. The tier bonuses seem pretty awesome:

• Heart of the Lion (2-piece bonus) - Each combo point spent reduces the cooldown of Berserk by 0.5 sec.
• Sickle of the Lion (4-piece bonus) - When Berserk ends you lacerate all nearby enemies, dealing [ 700% of Attack Power ] Bleed damage over 10 sec.

Double legendries sounds amazing too; however, I am skeptical of one legendary piece being a covenant legendary. Mainly because I like to main Necro Feral, and the covenant leggo for Necro is not competitive compared to the other covenants! On the flip side, how the heck do balance any leggo combination?! Definitely a tough task. Hopefully Blizzard reworks the Necro covenant leggo to be more competitive..

Anyways, I was wondering what combos people were thinking on using for 9.2 as a Feral Druid? That tier bonus makes me wonder if Venthyr Feral will be BiS. There's quite a bit of synergy with the Tier + covenant ability / leggo

[Daan]

I would say that the Night Fae legendary and Apex will be the best setup for the 2p bonus - provided that the free bites will count for the spent combo points.

Venthyr skill has a 3 min cooldown, so it won't fit with the reduced cooldown of Berserk.

[Aedruid]

I would say that the Night Fae legendary and Apex will be the best setup for the 2p bonus - provided that the free bites will count for the spent combo points.

Venthyr skill has a 3 min cooldown, so it won't fit with the reduced cooldown of Berserk.

That's a very good point, Berserk's CD would dramatically get dropped with all the bites from convoke + the legendary. I wonder how they are going to balance this across the covenants, after hearing your point, it sounds like NF will be the clear winner.

[Daan]

Night Fae has always been the best choice for Feral in PvE, but in general, I think the Covenant imbalance will get worse with the 9.2 legendary system.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

For raiding, Convoke legendary + Drought of Deep Focus (or Cat-Eye Curio if boss encounter has more than 2 targets in the Sepulcher raid, or maybe I'll just wait for PTR sims/feedback first)... and for M+, Convoke legenary + Apex Predator. Pretty straight forward I think for Night Fae.

[Athonel]

That's a very good point, Berserk's CD would dramatically get dropped with all the bites from convoke + the legendary. I wonder how they are going to balance this across the covenants, after hearing your point, it sounds like NF will be the clear winner.

I don't believe that convoke actually uses the combo points. It does provide combo points though.

[Aedruid]

I don't believe that convoke actually uses the combo points. It does provide combo points though.

It would be pretty sick if it did

[Whitepaw]

Convoke is so awesome, they should just straight up add it as a baseline Feral ability.

[Aedruid]

Convoke is so awesome, they should just straight up add it as a baseline Feral ability.

Dude that would be so sick. I can't imagine Feral without convoke now, our damage is so bad without it.

[Appelgren]

Unless they rework necros leggy for ferals I’m guessing most people will go for Kyrian and Night Fae again in pvp. Necro will probably still be really good ST but with the other covenants legendaries opening up so many combinations I’m afraid necro will die away…

Here’s to hoping necro leggy will get some nice buffs!

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Convoke is so awesome, they should just straight up add it as a baseline Feral ability.

They should re-work Feral Frenzy to add the multiple-Druid-spells-used-in-quick-succession component while maintaining the instant 5 combo points generation (or at least having a chance to generate 5 combo points when used). Bam, problem fixed.

[Lodravel]

They should re-work Feral Frenzy to add the multiple-Druid-spells-used-in-quick-succession component while maintaining the instant 5 combo points generation (or at least having a chance to generate 5 combo points when used). Bam, problem fixed.

Then it would be even harder to spec into BT because that new spell would be too awesome. Aside from occasionally dropping someone within two seconds (not really healthy for PvP, IMO), I really enjoy the versatility of Convoke. Being a roided out healer or tank if need be really plays into the druid fantasy.

As far as duo legendaries go, the future's bright! 1 min Convoke means a big mastery buff up for half the time (via the Nya soulbind) which means strong dots. Combined with a bleed-centric Leggo, we'll have a bleed-heavy playstyle at our hands that doesn't come with going Necro.

Something I'm happy about although I can see how Necro ferals would feel left out with their current covenant legendary. Perhaps they'll give those legendaries another pass since everybody will be running them in 9.2.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Then it would be even harder to spec into BT because that new spell would be too awesome. Aside from occasionally dropping someone within two seconds (not really healthy for PvP, IMO), I really enjoy the versatility of Convoke. Being a roided out healer or tank if need be really plays into the druid fantasy.

As far as duo legendaries go, the future's bright! 1 min Convoke means a big mastery buff up for half the time (via the Nya soulbind) which means strong dots. Combined with a bleed-centric Leggo, we'll have a bleed-heavy playstyle at our hands that doesn't come with going Necro.

Something I'm happy about although I can see how Necro ferals would feel left out with their current covenant legendary. Perhaps they'll give those legendaries another pass since everybody will be running them in 9.2.

Personally, I wouldn't mind as I don't really like the current Bloodtalons iteration, but I understand it's strength and what a conundrum a reworked Feral Frenzy into a quasi-Convoke would present.


I just want to have both after Shadowlands.

[Aedruid]

Night Fae has always been the best choice for Feral in PvE, but in general, I think the Covenant imbalance will get worse with the 9.2 legendary system.

Believe it or not, I was getting better sims as Necorlord, but I do agree, the necro covenant leggo needs a boost (100% chance to split and further enhances DoT damage), I've been pestering the forums to get the buffs in place for 9.2

They should re-work Feral Frenzy to add the multiple-Druid-spells-used-in-quick-succession component while maintaining the instant 5 combo points generation (or at least having a chance to generate 5 combo points when used). Bam, problem fixed.

Man, that would be great, or buff it's damage by 300% and make it a 1 minute CD that lines up with Tiger's Fury

Personally, I wouldn't mind as I don't really like the current Bloodtalons iteration, but I understand it's strength and what a conundrum a reworked Feral Frenzy into a quasi-Convoke would present.


I just want to have both after Shadowlands.

I think if they would buff a lot of the other talents (Incarn, Feral Frenzy, Savage Roar, and Lunar Inspiration) + buff berserk to include swipe similar to shred's bonus, Feral would be great, even without convoke

[Aedruid]

If any Feral Druids want to post some feedback for 9.2, I made this link for Heart of the Wild:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...or-pve/1175339

and this one is for class sets:

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...-druid/1143955

[Djuntas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sykH7nRbATc Psy did it well in this video as he tends to do Seems like we have a return of savage roar (I hope not) and then lego choices can differ a bit. Anyway I hope the tier sets will be easy to get for even non-raiders.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

So I see the 4-piece bonus for Feral's 9.2 tier set got nerfed. This comment from Wowhead sums it up perfectly for me:

props for having the bravery to nerf feral, god knows what they'd do with passable AOE when they're already not desirable in raids due to lacking utility and being outclassed by literally all 3 rogue specs and a few others. Smart move to execute the worst m+ spec while 2 of the others in the same class have been meta for 3 tiers. guess we're paying for being above average but not amazing in raid damage by being one of if not the worst AOE spec in the game.

[huth]

So I see the 4-piece bonus for Feral's 9.2 tier set got nerfed. This comment from Wowhead sums it up perfectly for me:

Having good DPS relying on an utterly broken set bonus is not a good strategy in my opinion.

[Makabreska]

Having good DPS relying on an utterly broken set bonus is not a good strategy in my opinion.

Well, Survival is surely next to be nerfed. Sure, everyone would prefer specs core to work well, but better a tier set band aid than nothing at all. Also, it's a final patch, let's go bonkers like they went in 8.3.

But ye, 4-set was kinda stronk, and it was actually bugged:


Also, they improved the 4-set to now scale with mastery.

[Aedruid]

They pulled the whole dungeon, popped lust, gave psybear PI, the pally buff, he potted, fully buffed, and also got other buff on top of that...

Im 100% positive other classes could burst more at that ilvl. Definitely didn't warrant a nerf.