wow Upcoming Feral Druid Changes on the Dragonflight Beta: September 16th

[Staff 1,488]

Blizzard posted a preview of Feral Druid changes coming in the next Dragonflight Beta build.

(Source)

Hello again, Feral Druids.

We have some upcoming changes to the talent tree to share with you. Thank you very much for all your feedback on the current version of the talent tree. There have been lots of thoughtful, informative posts in places like this thread and the Druid forums that really helped us understand your experiences with the tree and what you’re hoping to do with it. It’s very much appreciated.

Left Side and Right Side of the Talent Tree

We heard your feedback that the left and right sides of the tree feel too heavily weighted toward single target and AOE respectively. We like the two sides of the tree having a clear identity, but we want players to have paths to get talents they want from either side in either situation, so we’ve moved talents around to facilitate taking some talents from both sides in both ST and AOE.

Energy and Combo Points

Opening up both sides of the tree to both ST and AOE builds also let us give the two sides of the tree different flavors of resource generation. If you want to empower Tiger’s Fury and generate more combo points, those talents are on the left. If you want more Energy, there’s more of those talents on the right.

We want investing in Energy or combo points to be intentional choices players make, rather than something they pick up automatically on the way to other talents. With that in mind we moved Tiger’s Tenacity (formerly Eye of Fearful Symmetry) and provided alternative pathing options to reach Feral Frenzy and Apex Predator’s Craving.

Berserk

We want Berserk to be a powerful, broadly valuable, rotation-impacting cooldown. It currently suffers in AOE because none of Feral’s AOE builders benefit from Berserk, so we updated it to make Swipe generate a bonus combo point the same way Shred does. Changes to Tiger’s Tenacity (formerly Eye of Fearful Symmetry) and the new Relentless Predator also give consistent options to players who are looking for more resources during Berserk.

Tuning

We’ve made tuning changes to some talents in this revision, and while there will be more tuning to come, we want to speak to some of what we’re trying to accomplish. In general, we don’t want any talent to be so powerful or impactful that all players feel obligated to pick it. That dampens choice and build diversity. This brings us to Convoke the Spirits and Soul of the Forest.

Convoke is an extremely powerful single button to press in Shadowlands, and it remains so in Dragonflight. Its current version with Celestial Spirits is too strong for 2 talent points. Our first attempt at tuning this was to not include the cooldown reduction from Celestial Spirits, but we hear you that a 1 minute Convoke is appealing and fits well in rotations, and that the Convoke bonus in Ashamane’s Guidance is underwhelming, so we re-added it. To bring down the power of the current version, we’ve removed the ability for Convoke to cast Tiger’s Fury. There are several talents that benefit Tiger’s Fury, and removing it from Convoke allows us to keep those strong because Convoke isn’t increasing its uptime dramatically.

Soul of the Forest is a power outlier because of the massive Energy generation it provides, pushing it into “obligatory” range. We’d like investing in Energy to be something players can choose to do at multiple points throughout the tree, so we’re toning down Soul of the Forest.

Miscellaneous

Double-Clawed Rake has been moved to make it easier to pick up. Lunar Inspiration has been moved to a more natural place for a DoT cleave build. Scent of Blood’s benefit was very niche, so we replaced it with Relentless Predator, which reduces the energy cost of Ferocious Bite, to provide an energy generation option with more general value. Infected Wounds has been moved under Sudden Ambush.

New Tree Layout

Here’s the new tree layout and a list of changes in the next build:

Row 2:

• Primal Claws (formerly Piercing Claws) moved to Row 2.
• Primal Claws no longer grants crit. Each point now grants a 10% chance for combo point generators to generate an extra combo point.

Row 3:

• Merciless Strikes (formerly Improved Bleeds) now increases Swipe damage against bleeding targets by 10%, down from 20%. There are other talents to boost Swipe elsewhere in the tree, and we don’t want this to be an autopick in AOE.
• Predator moved to row 3.
• Double-Clawed Rake moved to row 3.

Row 4:

• Protective Growth moved to row 4. Damage reduction increased from 3% to 5%.
• Tireless Energy moved to row 4. No longer grants haste. Points now increase maximum Energy by 30/60 and passive Energy regeneration by 10%/20%.
• Pouncing Strikes moved to row 4.
• Lunar Inspiration moved to row 4.

Row 5:

• Rampant Ferocity (formerly Ferocious Frenzy) moved to row 5.
• Berserk now causes Swipe to generate an additional combo point during Berserk.

Row 6:

• Infected Wounds moved to row 6.
• Dreadful Bleeding moved to row 6.
• Relentless Predator is a new talent in row 6. Relentless Predator reduces Energy costs of Ferocious Bite by 20%. This includes both the base cost and the additional Energy that can be spent for bonus damage.

Row 7:

• Tiger’s Tenacity (was Eye of Fearful Symmetry) changed to a 1 point talent and moved to be part of a choice node with Raging Fury (look at that choice icon!). Now causes Tiger’s Fury to grant 1 combo point after your next 3 finishers (up from 1 for your next 2 for each point).

Row 8:

• Frantic Momentum changed to a 2 point talent and moved to row 8. Now grants a 3%/6% chance per combo point spent to increase your Haste by 10% for 6 sec.
• Cat’s Curiosity now recovers 25% of energy cost for abilities it affects for each point, up from 15%.

Row 9:

• Convoke the Spirits can no longer cast Tiger’s Fury.
• Soul of the Forest now grants 3 Energy per combo point spent, down from 5.
• Rip and Tear: Applying Rip to a target applies a Tear that deals 6% of the new Rip’s damage over 6 seconds. (Was a flat amount.)

Row 10:

• Moved Feral Frenzy & Apex Predator’s Craving to row 10 and added some routing options.
• Unbridled Swarm is now a single point talent and grants a 60% chance for swarms to split.
• Ashamane’s Guidance now also reduces Convoke the Spirit’s cooldown by 50%.

Renamed Talents

• Improved Bleeds is now Merciless Strikes
• Ferocious Frenzy is now Rampant Ferocity
• Eye of Fearful Symmetry is now Tiger’s Tenacity
• Bite Force is now Lion’s Strength

Removed Talents

• Scent of Blood

Thanks again for all of your testing and feedback. It’s especially valuable to read about the builds you create, the thoughts that go into your decisions, and what you experience when trying to build for a certain strategy.

[Prophet001 598]

They still gonna be cryin lol