Patch 7.3 - Feral Druid Changes

[chaud]

ToS Progress, Patch 7.3 PTR - NPC Conversation Lines, Knights of the Frozen Throne

Patch 7.3 - Feral Druid Changes

Hi Cats,

We have a number of changes to Feral Druids coming soon. The general goals of these changes are:

• 1. Reduce (but not necessarily displace entirely) the dominance of the big three complexifying and powerful talents: Savage Roar, Jagged Wounds, and Bloodtalons. Each of those talents is (on live) winning by a large margin in terms of throughput against other talents on their rows.
• 2. Balance out the power level of the last 3 talent rows, allowing more talents builds to be viable.
• 3. Increase the skill floor and reduce how punishing it can be to error when playing the rotation.
• 4. Compensate for power-level-reductions of talents with baseline damage increase to the spec so that at the highest level, performance isn’t really affected, but the bottom of the spec is brought up.

The most major changes:

• All damage done increased by 33%.
• Jagged Wounds reduced to 20%. (down from 33%)
• Savage Roar duration increased by 50% at all combo points. Damage bonus reduced to 15%. (down from 25%)
• Bloodtalons damage bonus reduced to 25%. (down from 50%)

Looking back at the development of Feral Druid in Legion: when Savage Roar was moved from a baseline ability to the talent tree, in order to bring the power level of the ability closer to most talents (+25% damage to everything for a long duration is far stronger than most talents are), rather than reducing its damage bonus, its duration was significantly shortened instead. This contributed greatly to the overconstrained and overly punishing Feral rotation that you see on live today. Additionally, Jagged Wounds was added as a new talent, reducing the amount of free combo points Ferals had available to finishers such as Ferocious Bite (which was basically pushed out of the rotation entirely). Both talents probably would have been fine on their own, but taken together (because they were the strongest) at the live tuning values led to a more pressured Feral rotation than we felt was right.

Additionally, a few talents are being rearranged in the talent tree:

• Jagged Wounds moved to lvl 75 row. (from lvl 90 row)
• Savage Roar moved to lvl 90 row. (from lvl 75 row)
• Brutal Slash moved to lvl 90 row. (from lvl 100 row)
• Elune’s Guidance moved to lvl 100 row. (from lvl 90 row)

The primary gain here is moving Brutal Slash to a sort of multitarget/AOE lvl 90 talent row along with Sabertooth (which can be well-utilized in a sustained low-target situation), giving the lvl 90 row a solid talent for dungeons. For now, we want to go with an arrangement that keeps Jagged Wounds, Savage Roar, and Bloodtalons on separate rows so the current most common live build is still possible.

Other less major changes include quality of life and tuning adjustments to some talents to balance out the rows:

• Prowl cooldown reduced to 6 sec (down from 10 sec) for all Druid specs.
• Rebirth is castable in all forms, and consequently, is no longer affected by or consumes Predatory Swiftness.
• Sabertooth damage bonus to Ferocious Bite increased to 20%.
• Incarnation: King of the Jungle energy cost reduction reduced to 50% (down from 60%) and only allows the use of Prowl once. This it to balance out that talent row with the new Jagged Wounds and to reduce the frequency of Rake stuns in PvP while still allowing Incarnation to function as an effective Vanish.
• Moment of Clarity now causes Omen of Clarity to trigger twice as often and increases the damage of the affected abilities by 25%. This is to better space out what is essentially a large energy proc and reduce slightly the impact that a single talent has on the resource income and pacing of the rotation.
• Elune’s Guidance cooldown reduced to 30 sec (down from 45 sec) and combo points granted reduced to 5 + 5 over 5 seconds (down from 5 + 8 over 8 seconds).

Overall, with these changes, balance for the last 3 talent rows and consequently overall should be better in general. We expect the current most common build/playstyle of Jagged Wounds + Savage Roar + Bloodtalons to still remain one of the strongest builds, but it should no longer win by a huge margin over other competing talent builds and also should be a little less strenuous to play.

These changes should be available in an upcoming PTR build. As usual, we may make further adjustments – especially tuning – as PTR progresses. (Official Forums)

Feral Druid T21 Set Bonus
The current intention of the Feral 4 piece bonus is that you get a 100% free in every way (except a GCD) Ferocious Bite.

This may change as set bonuses go through some more iteration throughout the 7.3.0 development cycle.

Thank you for the feedback. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

[WowIsDead64]

I pick Savage Roar not because it's so strong, but because I want my rotation to be more like pre-Legion one. I do the same on Rogue - pick Slice and Dice for example.

[GreenJesus]

"All damage done increased by 33%" well okay then.

How could they have been so bad they needed to be buffed by 33%?? What is Blizzard smoking? Bout time feral got a buff and I don't even play them.

[guerron]

Remains to be seen if it is a buff, when all standard Talents lose power

[deadman1]

"All damage done increased by 33%" well okay then.

How could they have been so bad they needed to be buffed by 33%?? What is Blizzard smoking? Bout time feral got a buff and I don't even play them.

I assume it's to go along with the changes like the 50% nerf to blood talons and other upcoming changes.

[guerron]

It seems to be more of a "make spec more forgiving" instead of a buff, so ferals will still be läßt. Maybe

[Deleted]

good stuff. really like the prowl cd reduction to 6 sec!

[Leyre]

Just what i wanted, fucking savage roar duration buffed, thanks blizzard <3 <3 <3 <3

[Tharkkun]

"All damage done increased by 33%" well okay then.

How could they have been so bad they needed to be buffed by 33%?? What is Blizzard smoking? Bout time feral got a buff and I don't even play them.

They aren't being buffed. Their rotation is being made easier because in order to play feral perfectly you need to pop an adderal and a couple of red bulls. In order to compensate for reducing the room for error the talents have been nerfed so a mistake isn't so punishing to your DPS. So their overall damage is buffed to bring them back up to normal.

[Nevcairiel]

"All damage done increased by 33%" well okay then.

How could they have been so bad they needed to be buffed by 33%?? What is Blizzard smoking? Bout time feral got a buff and I don't even play them.

That change alone in a vacuum would perhaps mean that. But you should really read the entire post in its entirety. The overall buff is to compensate for the damage reductions on the top talents - their goal is to keep high-end players on a similar damage level.

It seems to be more of a "make spec more forgiving" instead of a buff, so ferals will still be läßt. Maybe

The average damage will still increase. If you're the best feral player in the world, perhaps it'll remain similar, but for everyone else it would increase - which would definitely be reflected in charts.

[Stormykitten]

Love that they're making some bigger changes to something before a new exo again. It really is needed, I would love to see it for Demonology as well. It produces nubers, but it's clearly not a complete & smooth spec ever since the surgical procedures done to it.

[Tradu]

They aren't being buffed. Their rotation is being made easier because in order to play feral perfectly you need to pop an adderal and a couple of red bulls. In order to compensate for reducing the room for error the talents have been nerfed so a mistake isn't so punishing to your DPS. So their overall damage is buffed to bring them back up to normal.

People massively overexaggerate how hard Feral is to play. It requires understanding of a few basic concepts, which are very different to most other classes(or at least more pronounced), after you get those basic concepts it's not hard to execute.

[Nasuuna]

People massively overexaggerate how hard Feral is to play. It requires understanding of a few basic concepts, which are very different to most other classes(or at least more pronounced), after you get those basic concepts it's not hard to execute.

It is tedious and meticulous to play though.

So much more micro managing then any other class I've played

(Main is a spreist, have a mage, feral druid, prot war, ass rogue, demo lock, hpaly, resto sham, mistweaver all raid ready)

[Tradu]

It is tedious and meticulous to play though.

So much more micro managing then any other class I've played

(Main is a spreist, have a mage, feral druid, prot war, ass rogue, demo lock, hpaly, resto sham, mistweaver all raid ready)

Yeah, so it's not for everybody, which is fine.

[drockrock]

People massively overexaggerate how hard Feral is to play. It requires understanding of a few basic concepts, which are very different to most other classes(or at least more pronounced), after you get those basic concepts it's not hard to execute.

It's not difficult to hit buttons in the proper order to optimize DPS. It is however, extremely unforgiving for any mistakes that are made and the attention to detail required is unlike any other spec I've played.

[Deleted]

Yayay, the 2nd or 3rd feral rework in the last 3 expansions compared to 0 Elemental reworks.

[Tradu]

Yayay, the 2nd or 3rd feral rework in the last 3 expansions compared to 0 Elemental reworks.

You have to be joking. Like, you literally have to be. There's no way you can be serious. Feral is still almost the same spec it has been since at least Wrath of the Lich King(which imo is a good thing). Elemental got a full rework this expansion.

[Deleted]

You have to be joking. Like, you literally have to be. There's no way you can be serious. Feral is still almost the same spec it has been since at least Wrath of the Lich King(which imo is a good thing). Elemental got a full rework this expansion.

Adding an artifact ability and making some baseline spells into talents isnt exactly a rework.

[Tradu]

Adding an artifact ability and making some baseline spells into talents isnt exactly a rework.

You're forgetting about the new resource(or rather taking an existing mechanic and turning it into a more versatile resource). That alone is more "rework" than Feral has ever received. Totems got reworked as well.

[Deleted]

You're forgetting about the new resource(or rather taking an existing mechanic and turning it into a more versatile resource). That alone is more "rework" than Feral has ever received. Totems got reworked as well.

Versatile resource, lol - Maelstrom for Elemental is an Enhancement afterthought. It's not eben comparable how "versatile" it is for them. Totems got removed and not reworked, FYI. With the last change to Earthquake we don't cast it anymore - so it's basically back to pre Legion state.