As someone who only played Feral here and there and never commited fully to the class, I’ve always been very attracted to the spec/class. There’s just such a power aspect about being a big cat and stalking and shredding that I love so I’ve always tried and find reasons to play it.
Everything I tried, I found it weird and not at all along the Big Cat feel I imagine. I get the same feeling I had with old Demo lock and the new: The old one felt just like a demon hunter caster to me while the new one capture the fantasy of being a master of summoning a bunch of demons much better. I just never felt Feral had that feeling of big powerful cat.
Now mechanically, the bloodtalons thing for me was always weird because, and I admit it, I was terrible at it. I sometime cast it while not having PS so I just unshift and look like a fool. I sometime lose it because I cannot build up the combopoints fast enough to get to cast it on Rip. I sometime just cast is randomnly and waste it on shreds. All in all, I never commited enough to master it, but the initial clunkiness I faced and the fact I just do not feel like I am close to what I imagine a big cat would be made me play other classes.
I am most likely a casual to Feral, have no existing stakes on its design. I am unsure to be honest if that make me less entitled to an opinion on the spec than others (I feel like we are all paying customers thus entitlement is just to prove one’s point) but I know that I acquired the forms in legion without even playing the spec because one day I hoped they could get the feeling’s right. The change to blood talon, for me, is a good one just because of the clunkiness I had with it.