Alright, my $0.02.
I’m glad that Ferocious Bite and Ironfur are making a comeback for all specs. It always felt weird to have a builder, but no spender in off-spec cat and bear forms. Cyclone is also welcome, as are Barkskin and Stampeding Roar for the specs that are missing them.
Parceling our utility spells out into the Affinities isn’t particularly offensive to me. It’ll be a boon for Boomkins who will now get Typhoon plus something else, but kind of a bummer for Guardians who like using the Ursol’s Vortex plus Typhoon trick for grouping mobs. While I’m on the topic of Affinities though, Blizzard please, please, PLEASE add Swipe to the Guardian Affinity list. Since non-Guardian Druids can no longer cast Moonfire in Bear form, Guardian Affinity Druids literally have nothing to push while Mangle and Thrash are on cool down.
For Balance, Eclipse is conceptually more interesting than what we have now, and more thematically aligned with the spec. That said, I don’t think it’s ever really lived up to that potential in the past, so I hope they have more in mind than simply rolling back to an older version of the spec. I was happy to hear that Starfall is going to be a relevant ability again. I think extending our DoTs is kind an exciting new mechanic too. Removing our ability to target it, I’m less crazy about. Historically Starfall has been infamous for pulling unwanted mobs, so taking control out of our hands seems… not great.
I was disappointed to see so little said about Feral. Despite several early hot fixes, it was really only 4 or 5 patches worth of scaling that has seen Feral in the decent state we’re in now. I’d hate to see that cycle repeated in Shadowlands. I’m in the camp of people that like Blood Talons for what it’s trying (though only partially succeeding) to be, an ability that promotes hybrid play, so I have mixed feeling about seeing it changed.
I was also disappointed at the lack of Guardian changes. Guardian isn’t horrible or anything, but it lacks depth. Still, I’m glad to see Berserk make a return.
In my opinion, Resto is just about perfect the way that it is now, so I was actually hoping to see less changes here. Swiftmend removing a HoT again seems like an odd choice. I don’t necessarily hate the idea of incurring some cost for our big, direct heal, but given our mastery, removing a HoT is a much bigger penalty than it was when that mechanic existed. I’m also a little concerned that big changes to Swiftmend signal an end to the Spirit of the Forest talent, which is a play style I’ve really enjoyed since they introduced it in Legion. Historically, I’ve always liked Nature’s Swiftness, but the three abilities they mentioned it affecting are all GCD length cast times already, so I can’t see its return impacting much outside PvP where it will be welcome. The idea of being able to talent into a direct heal isn’t necessarily bad. We’ll see what Nourish is up against in the talent tree. If SotF does end up going away, it may be more attractive to me.