Feral in 7.0

[Blueredwolf]

Druid

General
Thrash in Cat Form now deals 10% more damage.
Feral
Rake now deals 20% more damage. In PvP combat, Rake now deals 20% less damage.
Rip now deals 20% more damage. In PvP combat, Rip now deals 20% less damage.

WE DID IT BOYS

Edit: We still suck at what we suck at, but stronger at what we're "designed" to be good at since recently.

[Joresh]

wow, pretty nice change. Kind of surprised they actually went through with it. Still will put us a bit behind other ST turret specs but not gonna complain about buffs

[Kraineth]

Would have preferred buffs to Shred/FB instead, but okay

[Deleted]

Bring a player not a class is probably going to be pushed back a bit in Legion.

I wouldnt expect miracles, blizz is(will be) still trying to make any class&spec viable in normal/heroic, they dont balance things around 3% of players that raid mythic (and to be honest, if they are smart they will remove mythic anyway, 4 difficulties are just retarded, and replace it with more appealing system but i doubt it).

With all these predictions and the way encounter balancing works i think there will be huge competition for melee spots and frankly i think its a good thing for top end game raiding. Its all about supply and demand of classes&specs&roles, you cant really start playing a tank on a server that has 30% of players playing that role (you cant just think that only tanks will reroll to play tank DH, many players will be coming back just to play that class).

In the end it will all come down to how unique they make the classes again, what will the raid utility be (and for example combat ress situation, if they for example move back to lets say 2-3 CRs available at the same time it will be better), if they make only few specs able to interrupt casting then it will be probably bad for feral, its all very hard to predict what exactly is going to happen (to be honest i dont think they know either), feral will be in tough spot thats my guess, will there be a problem in more casual environment or PvP? Probably not. I am kind of used to going back and forth with class&spec viability thats why i abandoned my rogue in TBC and rerolled druid because i knew i will be able to raid, always (4 specs, every single role covered, tank, healer, melee and ranged...we cant really complain).

Lets just wait and see...only one thing is certain - demand for ranged DPS will rise.

[Deleted]

Blizz knows the messed up WOD and that legion has to deliver.
Blizz knows people arent that patient and that they need to hurry up with the beta/release.
therefore I dont think they will change that much about the mechanics...sadly.
I still hope though we will see the day when we are not fixed through buffing skill dmg and tier 2p/4p

[Gmoney999]

Ok I'm surprised no one mentioned it, but there is one thing about legion that looks very good for feral. The separate balanced my between pvp and pve. Feral has been held back by being very strong in pvp and thus difficult to buff. When they do get buffed, they don't get buffed in their niche area (single target damage) but instead get buffed in their bleeds. I am very excited about the seperation, as it allows for feral to be buffed in single target burst damage. When I play feral that is what I am looking for, not better cleave.

[mkultra55]

I hope with the addition of spec based Artifact weapons we'll see a little less niche gameplay since it's going to be a pain to swap. Feral as the single target, short burst dps spec withh sub par and annoying to execute Cleave and AoE has to go in Legion.

Every time I see Buffs I'm happy but why is Blizzard so resistant to buffing Swipe? There are ways to help Swipe while still making it only useful over a certain number of mobs if that's the fear.

- - - Updated - - -

Ok I'm surprised no one mentioned it, but there is one thing about legion that looks very good for feral. The separate balanced my between pvp and pve. Feral has been held back by being very strong in pvp and thus difficult to buff. When they do get buffed, they don't get buffed in their niche area (single target damage) but instead get buffed in their bleeds. I am very excited about the seperation, as it allows for feral to be buffed in single target burst damage. When I play feral that is what I am looking for, not better cleave.

I agree but the real problem is our single target burst is an illusion IMO. With Incarnation and Berserk no one can touch us but in between we're mediocre in single target which means priority adds that pop when our burst CD's are down are better handled by almost every other spec.

I'd really love to see the rest of the 60 row get some love. Force of Nature could be a great low CD single target bust option but it sux. The row should be about how we DPS. Leave Incarnation as it is if that's what Blizz wants but buff FoN and Soul of the Forest to make them on par.

[Rioo]

Every time I see Buffs I'm happy but why is Blizzard so resistant to buffing Swipe? There are ways to help Swipe while still making it only useful over a certain number of mobs if that's the fear.

I think it's the high energy cost. Omen procs while swipe spamming makes such a big difference, and berserk boosts the swipe damage more than what the CD is probably intended to do. I miss the ability though and hate tab-raking on more than 3 targets. Making swipe 30 energy would probably make it a lot easier to balance.

[mkultra55]

I think it's the high energy cost. Omen procs while swipe spamming makes such a big difference, and berserk boosts the swipe damage more than what the CD is probably intended to do. I miss the ability though and hate tab-raking on more than 3 targets. Making swipe 30 energy would probably make it a lot easier to balance.

I don't think it has anything to do with the mechanics of the ability. I think Blizzard was really trying to push niche gameplay for specs after all the homogenization criticism they've received. So Feral were pushed into the single target role which sounds good on the surface but failed in execution.

1) Our single target DPS is completely reliant on two 3 min CD's. When Berserk/Inc. are on CD our single target DPS is very mediocre. That means unless the encounter has phases with priority adds that fall around 3 min we're a burden.

2) For the niche idea to really work Ferals should be by far the best single target DPS spec and that hasn't been the case since Highmaul. It's also hard to get Buffs when every other PVP post is someone QQ'ing about a Feral.

3) Blizzard seems unable to balance the L60 talents. FoN has the potential to address our issue with on demand burst on a short CD but they seem afraid to Buff it anymore than they have. If the three L60 talents were closer we'd have the potential for some interesting playstyle choices but Inc has been far too good all expansion.

Hopefully the combo of separate PVP skills with a focus on players running single specs due to Artifact weapons will let Ferals get the love they need in Legion.