Given the lack of Blue response for Druids, and specifically Feral, I wanted to give my thoughts as someone who has played this class and spec as their main for 17 years. This is coming from someone who clears a few bosses on mythic every tier, gets KSM every season, and dips their toe into PvP from time to time (generally around 1800 rating). I’ll also be giving thoughts from a more casual or Feral-noob perspective as well to provide a comprehensive reflection on the spec so far as it stands in this early Dragonflight alpha.
Pathing and Placement
On the spec tree, most AoE abilities are on the left side of the tree, with single target being on the right side. Despite this, there are the following problems:
- Predator/Circle/Apex/Savage Roar are all used on AOE or cleave yet are on the single target side of the tree.
- Brutal slash, while on the ST-side where it belongs, must be taken to continue picking up AoE talents that are placed on this side for some reason (as discussed above). But taking this replaces swipe, which is your main AoE filler and works with several talents, while Slash doesn’t.
- Bloodtalons is one of the hallmarks of the spec, but it’s deep on the left-side instead of being centered (both vertically and horizontally).
- Prowl/Shred/Frenzy talents are used on ST but placed on the AoE side.
- Why are SI and Infected wounds (ineffective ST slow on our rake) so far down in the spec tree which, should focus on throughput? The only change to Feral tree this week was literally swapping their places on the tree (outside of renaming Cat-Eye)
Bad Node Investments
Feral has a staggering number of 3-point nodes, or 4 points if you include the ability that unlocks it and work with the 3-pointers. (Five total). Many of these talents could easily be a 1- or 2-point node and not lock us in so hard compared to other spec trees. So, when you combine this problem with the pathing/placement issues as previously discussed, it really limits what talents and builds you can try due to abilities being placed haphazardly AND having to invest numerous points to barely move down the tree.
The Build-a-Berserk concept was interesting at first. However, in practice, it only hinders the spec. The problem is they took one of the worst 3-minute cooldowns in the game and split it into 4 different berserks (2 are baseline effects, one is the SL legendary, and the other is Incarnation, a talent no one has taken for years for Feral). Instead of one talent giving us our baseline (and very weak) 3-minute CD and using other nodes to give it unique or strong effects (current 4 piece is nowhere to be seen), it dilutes what is arguably the worst major offensive CD in the game. And Incarnation is one of our nodes where you can pick that or convoke, and it doesn’t even have a damage component to it?
Lack of Creativity
This is a big one for me. Every single Feral talent is something that is either baseline or from SL, including terrible abilities and effects. The only new thing is our capstone on the Feral side of the class tree, and it is so horribly useless you would never take it. I understand not everything can be brand new, but at least a FEW new options would have been cool.
Utility and QoL
Why can’t we battle-rez from cat form anymore with predatory swiftness procs? I have no idea why they removed this, and kept it removed even after giving us the ability to soothe/de-curse/hibernate from cat form. It’s ridiculous that Boomkins and Bears can rez from their forms, but we must shift out AND hard cast-it. Similarly, why do we swap into bear form when using Incap roar when we are already in an animal form. It forces us to shift back into cat and waste a GCD for no reason. We also don’t get Treants still.
Right now, with the class tree, we must invest 9-12 points into the right-hand side just to get Innervate, the only utility we are getting access to as Feral with this tree. Whereas Boomkin/Resto only need to invest 7 points to get kick and/or maim as their new utility. This means that we must give up to half of the current utility we have had for years, just to get one ability.
Mark of the Wild coming back is great, but multiple specs are getting new/old party buff back (warrior, rogues, evokers, etc.). Boomkin have their aura for the group. Why can’t we get Leader of the Pack back as our unique party buff? We’ve had it all SL as a PvP talent, and it used to be a baseline party buff for our spec. These issues combined further the community issue of wanting to take a Boomkin over a Feral. They are ranged and have more utility, so nothing really changes here.
Revert the sound changes from last expansion. I sound like an alien spaceship going nuts rather than a cat.
Bleeds vs. Bite
Feral has suffered the last several expansions from Blizzard not knowing what they want the spec to be. Feral always had a few traits that made it a unique spec, which is why many Feral’s are un-happy with the current direction. We used to be the complex, ST specialist who used melee dots. The last few expansions, we have become Shred/Bit dependent, and our bleeds have mattered less and less every expansion and every patch since mid-way through Legion. This also means that the complexity has been greatly diminished.
Feral is honestly the easiest it has ever been to play right now. I don’t mind having the bite/shred option for people who prefer that playstyle, but it’s not like the option exists to play a dot heavy spec. Necrolord, with its adaptive swarm, doesn’t equal Convoke and bite’s power. Plus, we don’t even have top ST damage anymore. Both playstyles should be available, but the more complex bleed-focused one should do more damage at the cost of being harder to play. Maintaining and snapshotting bleeds has been a hallmark of the spec. Now we just feel like a scuffed Assassination Rogue.
The one thing I won’t budge on is Saberooth. It is one of the primary reasons the spec has strayed so far from what makes it unique. Either completely re-work it or just remove it from the game. My top single target damage filler shouldn’t be shred, and my top single target damage finisher shouldn’t bite. Bite having the Sabertooth effect baked in during execute was good in the past.
Conclusion
Overall, blizzard needs to give people a reason to play/bring this spec to raid and dungeons. We are just average at everything, with no unique or stand-out utility compared to other melee or our ranged DPS spec. Many long-time Feral’s don’t like how the spec has played out the last few expansions. We went from being the complex, dot-based ST specialist that topped meters if played well (at the expense of AoE) to a spec that is just kind of puttering around, chasing its own tail. Meanwhile several specs can spec and do great ST, Cleave, and AoE damage. With Mythic+ becoming one of the three main pillars of end-game content, it’s unacceptable that some specs just outright can’t do AoE damage for keys (or ST for raids) compared to others that can do both (plus good cleave).
We had the first tree released and have yet to have any Dev communication. Meanwhile hunters have had several posts and iterations. Even shadow priests got a “We know it’s bad, we’re working on it” post. Just getting the equivalent of “we hear you” from a Blue post would at least be SOMETHING.
As it stands, unless major overhauls are made to Feral and our upcoming talent trees, I’ll be giving up on this spec I’ve mained for over 15 years for greener pastures.
TLDR: Feral bad and it makes me sad, please fix.
Reddit link for those interested in the discussion going on there: https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/whfxqa/dragonflight_alpha_feral_talent_tree_feedback/?sort=confidence
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