I’m not certain when this issue began, but I first noticed it this afternoon, and others on Discord and Reddit have also encountered this bug today.
The CVar “autoUnshift” no longer works, at least not in combat. This console setting has been used by many druids for years to prevent accidentally shifting out of bear/cat form when hitting Regrowth without a Dream of Cenarius/Predatory Swiftness proc. For cats, an accidental un-shift is a dps loss, but for bears, it can spell instant death.
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Example of behavior:
#showtooltip
/console autounshift 0
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead,exists] [@player] Regrowth
/console autounshift 1
Just the other day, if I was in cat form with a Predatory Swiftness proc, this macro would cast Regrowth on me or my mouseover target. If I was in bear form with a Dream of Cenarius proc, it would also cast Regrowth on me or my mouseover target. In either form, without a proc, it would display an error and do nothing.
Today, without a proc, it shifts out of either form and begins to hardcast Regrowth. (In the case of bear form, this is often followed by the death message.)
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I have seen no announcement from Blizzard that this CVar was being locked/protected, and I am aware of no reports of exploits tied to this function, so I am tentatively assuming the change is a bug with the most recent hotfix, or was accidentally included along with another intended change.
6 Likes
I can confirm that my similar macro also seems to be broken after working fine two days ago.
#showtooltip
/console autoUnshift 0
/cast [noform:1] Bear Form(Shapeshift); Regrowth
/console autoUnshift 1
I also shift out of Bear to cast Regrowth unless I have a proc.
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Same problem, such a vital part of playing feral and guardian. Feral’s in a pretty rough spot in pvp already, glad it’s not just me. Time to put on the boomkin gear I guess.
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You probably wouldn’t be unless you were in the inner circles of botter rings. It could be a bug, but I’d lean more like 70% toward it being an intentional change. Either for countering bots or for countering the automation for regular players.
Druids are the most used class for bot farming and that command also basically automates decision making. Both for bots and for actual players. You’re not having to actually pay attention to when you can insta-cast the heal and by trying to use the spell when it’s not instant, you’re not being punished for it. For bots, they can just spam the button from time to time to keep their bots alive when there’s an insta-cast proc, again, not being punished for using it at the wrong time.
Best suggestion for now is to only set your autounshift out of combat and avoid touching the command while in combat. Oh and remember which way you have it.
2 Likes
Same thing is happening to me, and it’s causing problems mainly for me in M+. It’s deadly if I shift out of form while tanking, and I need to be able to heal my group/myself up with those procs!
Using the C_CVar.GetCVarInfo api function, the return for value of isSecure for autoUnshift is now true. This means that the only way to change this value is now via C_CVar.SetCVar or SetCVar, and will no longer work during combat lockdown.
isSecure
boolean - If the CVar cannot be set with [SetCVar] while in combat, which would fire [ADDON_ACTION_BLOCKED]. It's also not possible to set these via /console. Most nameplate cvars are secure.
2 Likes
I don’t see them undoing this change, especially in light of the proof that it was made secure. Blizzard expects you to track the proc durations to know how long you have left and whether it’s safe to cast or wait on a refresh.
I don’t play my druid all that much but the number of times I have accidentally shifted myself out of bear or cat with Regrowth is zero, tracking the buff with a WeakAura. I do agree that a WA should not be the solution so perhaps Blizzard needs to look in to a UI update to show duration of important procs like this in an easier-to-see way (because the stock UI buffs bar ain’t it).
Nice digging! Yeah, if they moved it to isSecure, it was definitely an intentional change and aligns with what I brought up in my post above. It just made it too easy to automate the healing, with zero risk of punishment for casting it at the wrong time; for both regular players and for botters. It’s possible they did it for server optimization as well though, since cvar commands like that might have some overhead for the servers, but that seems like such a drop in the bucket of load for them, so I highly doubt it.
I’m pretty sure they do the whole burst and swirl thing on your action bar for procs like this. My brain is foggy right now, but I know there are other classes/specs that have “useless” procs that just let you know something came off cd early, want to say ret and enhancement but I’m drawing blanks right now lol…
They could at least make it a toggle on Regrowth itself where unless you have Predatory Swiftness or Dream of Cenarius active, it refuses to cast at all when not in humanoid form. Hopefully a future patch will address this, it’s too much of a pivotal point in our talent trees to simply change our builds away from it.
1 Like
The toggle is called autoUnshift 0. You just can’t automate this in combat anymore.
The heal itself is pretty weak, however the procs that go with it are many and synergized.
- ForestWalk (increases your movement speed by 5/10%)
- Protective Growth (Reduces all damage you take by 5% while your regrowth is on you)
3 King of the Jungle (pvp) healing received increased for each rip you have active (this will frequently be JUST your healing playing feral in pvp away from the healers/team fight)
The punishment for accidently shifting is far too harsh possible death as tank, and maybe 3 gcds lost as feral. I’m not a fan of this change, especially if it’s intentional.
Should be replaced with a “feral regrowth” similar to the “feral moonfire”.
Anwyay…lots of other specs we can play if it sucks too much 
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The first is a talent that nobody takes, the second is talent unavailable to bear that cats never take, and the third is again unavailable to bear and a niche pvp pick. So to say there are many synergistic talents is completely wrong.
Yes, and there is still a means of avoiding that punishment as bear. Feral loses 1 gcd.
YES, there is still means of avoiding that punishment as bear AND cat as you have kindly pointed out, weak auras (I suggest an audio prompt). To say cats never take it is , well wrong. I take them all when I think I might find myself in a dueling situation with any pet heavy class(bm/demo/unholy dk)
rips on all the targets from primal wrath , big regrowths as part of a macro in this aoe secquence. Then use bite (apex predator) procs on the enemy (oh yea a weak aura). I know you don’t have to give it much thought to out-heal everyone that has a mana bar playing on your warrior.
It is a lot more delicate situation that makes an already lower performing spec more difficult to play. It’s not one gcd unless you intend to stand there in nelf form for the remainder of the encounter for some reason.
(Accidental shift (1) hard cast regrowth/cancel (2/2.5) Shift back to cat/bear (3).
I don’t mind a reasonable discussion but you’re just combative.
Oh there’s a workaround for this,so I guess the discussion is moot! Goodday sir and I’ll (probably not) see you on the battlefield.
…I’m Surprised you’re hating on this so much, some feral light you up?
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It does, but the action bar only glows the button and doesn’t actually tell you how long it has left.
I talked with a druid friend in our guild about this change since she has stumbled upon it. Her biggest issue is that she had her Regrowth button bound to mousewheel and was accidentally still trying to cast it after the instant cast’s GCD had worn off, indicating it was ultimately user error. So, I’m trying to understand why so many other druids are extremely reliant on this macro if they are otherwise tracking the buff and paying attention to their GCDs.
A castsequence macro? You’re just asking for the problem to manifest with this “strategy” given the randomness of the proc. Put it on a separate button and use it when you have the buff.
If you played a druid you would understand. Find another proc that is a death sentence to use if you wait to long to push the button. You can’t.
Make the proc another spell so it can be setup as a separate button at the least.
If the light up action bar disappearing isn’t enough of a tell, weakauras isn’t going to help you.
Again, forestwalk is complete trash and neither it nor protective growth are in the talent budget. King of the jungle is still a niche pick.
Unshifting does not incur a gcd and neither does cancelling a cast. The form you are shifting out of is locked for the duration of a gcd to prevent power shifting, and shifting back in will incur a gcd. At most you’re looking at 2 gcds worth of time as cat which really isn’t that big of a deal, but you can bypass both of them. The unshift lockout can be bypassed with an ability that force swaps you like dash/stampeding roar, and the gcd upon swapping back can be bypassed entirely with tiger’s fury.
If you did even the b(e)arest level of research, you would know I haven’t been playing my warrior in dragonflight.
Still broken, would at least like to know what necessitated the change in the first place.
The devs don’t usually explain much. And they justify things even less.
Speculation is it’s an anti-botting tweak, and if it is a security change, you’ll get zero acknowledgement it even happened, let alone an explanation.
Yea I know. I’m still just a little PO’d. 