I’ve finally gotten to DotC hero talents at an endgame level and gotta tell you it’s not what I was hoping when I first heard about it. To start off, I didn’t really pay attention to any classes outside mage, warrior, and monk during the build up to TWW so I came into this a little unaware outside of those classes.
When I hear DotC I think a druid that has mastered both forms of animal to wield in a flawless comination of might and agility that each animal provides. Seems that all we got was… this. Specifically the primary ability is what I want to discuss. Ravage is… fine? but not the fantasy of a master shapeshifter.
My proposed fix can really open that fantasy up and explore options where the druid can benefit from shapeshifting to really step up the game.
Row 1
Ravage - Replace this entirely.
Replace with - Teachings of Ashmane/Ursoc
Feral - Consuming combo points grants 10 rage when you shift into bear form stacks 12 times. When shifting into bear form for 20 seconds Maul hits 2 additional targets for an additional 20% damage and rage reduced to 15. Mangle reduces the cooldown on Tigers Fury by 2 seconds. No additional threat generated in bear form.
Guardian - For every 50 rage spent you are granted 1 combo point when you shift into cat form stacks 5 times. Each combo point spent in the next 20 seconds increases dodge by 12.5%, to maximum of 75% for 10 seconds. You are immidataly granted max stacks of Iron Fur for an additional 5 seconds. Threat generated remains unchanged from bear form.
(these numbers are just my attempt at balance. It’s for getting the idea)
This allows you to be shifting in and out of your forms. Really utalizing Fluid Forms talent. Allowing you to use combo finishers in bear form to auto shift into cat form. You’re doing your thing in bear form and boom you’re getting full damage mitigation from dodging. Performing your Thrashes and Swipes just like in bear form for 20 seconds or so.
Even the hero talent tree doesn’t need to be changed all that much. I won’t go into full detail on what I would do, but a few things like:
Fount of Strength and Wildshape Mastery switch places. This way you get the health and armor transfer right away while leveling.
The middle of the tree to be reworked with the changes to the key stone talent.
Capstone talent reworked to grant full stacks of keystone talent when berserk is used at 25% increased affect. Meaning maul does more damage and you get more dodge. Something to that effect.
I was just hoping it would really lean into the shapeshifting a bit, instead of just a enhanced combo spender and whatnot. Hell, could be a good idea for the next tier sets.