The best approach would be to let us cast Frenzied Regen in any form. So it is not tied to Bear Form at all. Feral druids can do that. Also we have our talent which casts Frenzied Regen when we fall low hp without shifting us into Bear Form. So it is doable.
I mean Bear Form provides defensives on its own. We don’t need that super low impactful ability to cost us 3 GCD. Even if Frenzied Regen autoshifts us into Bear Form, we’ll still need to cast 1 GCD(Boomkin Form) to get back to DPSing.
They could change how it works for Balance and Resto, like when you Press Frenzied Regeneration you go Bear Form for 4 seconds but still able to cast any of your spells then turn as back instantly after. Turning it into a proper defensive, 1 GCD but doesn’t effect our momentum in dps or healing.
I mention it lasts 4 seconds due to the Talent Ursines Vigor.
I’ll give an example,
I’m Resto and Healing, I press Frenzied Regeneration, and for 4 seconds it’ll shift me to Bear Form, It’ll apply the heal but during these 4 seconds I’ll still be able to continue to cast my healing/dps spells and after 4 seconds it just pops me back into player form. I’ll just look like a Bear while doing so for 4 seconds.
For Balance same thing, for 4 seconds you’ll be as a bear, still all the benefits as Moonkin Form, just you’ll look like a bear for 4 seconds, can still continue to dps and all, no dps is lost. After 4 seconds it puts you back in Moonkin Form.
Could be applied to Feral aswell really.
It plays on the Shapeshift theme strongly, works like every other defensive 1 GCD only, the difference, we look like an awesome bear for 4 seconds while we continue to do our thing. No extra GCDs needed or to stop how we play to heal or dps.
I think it be awesome, visually too, mid combat continuing to shift like how it is with incap roar, but with no unnecessary downtime like how it is currently.
TLDR: Frenzied Regeneration on press activates Bear Form, Heals us, but during this time we are still able to freely cast our spells after 4 seconds it auto reverts us into our original form casted from.
Technicallt Prot Paladin’s SoTR takes up to 3. The ability itself is off the gcd but getting holy power isnt
All shapeshifting should be off the global cooldown…period.
Absolutely correct! They made this change due to a function called bear healing that players would just spam shapeshift into bear form for a heal. When done repeatedly, you could heal to full. That’s been gone for ages now. Taking shapeshift off GCD would help a good amount for a lot of reasons.
While they’re at it, could they make it so that Regen heals for more than a measly 6% of max health for guardians in PvP? Kthx.
…it’s basically a waste of a global pressing that button in PvP. 
Even as a tank I regularly get hit for 600k melee swings. 200k is laughably low
It would need to have its own GCD or something. No GCD would be OP for PvP (instant, zero-cost, zero-cooldown snare removal)
In today’s pacing, I really don’t think it would be that outlandish. But if I had the reigns, I’d revert the game as a whole, rather than change more old mechanics. There’s a reason we depend on precog so much… and it’s not a good one.
I think shapeshifting off gcd would work if it had an internal cooldown in pvp combat for snare removal. “Removes snare effects every 5-8 seconds” or something.
yes please!
I have never cared for moonkin for. So much so that when I returned to the class, I never put a point into it, lol
Frenzy regeneration NEEDS buffed. Especially for balance Druid. 20% with mortal wounds applied does nothing having to sit near for 3 globals of healing.
No… absolutely not. Shifting was put on the GCD due to mechanics that allowed us to heal for a ridiculous amount referred to as “bear healing” (shifting into bear form would heal the player). Spamming this allowed balance Druid players to pillar while spamming bear form, thus, shifting was put on the GCD. We no longer have that. We do have talents that increase our HP and armor, but those are not nearly as powerful.
Shifting needs to be taken of the GCD or have an internal GCD that is half of the base Global Cooldown.
I don’t pvp much anymore, so I’m out of my depth on balancing for that. I’m tired of bear form frenzied regen as a pve boomkin defensive. More tired of my druid after messing around on alts. It’s disheartening how druid is being handled by design.
Boomy durability is SO BAD. I have two dots on me and I’m literally watching my health go down during frenzied regen in PVP. Just gut cyclone if this is what’s keeping druid from having any semblance of survivability and needing to have their hand held by healers. In the 5 globals it takes to heal <20% of your health all your dots are falling off and you’re doing zero damage on top of it. Please fix something.
I’d kind of prefer to drop the idea of shifting for Defensives and want Regrowth buffed and Rejuvenation usable in a shifted form, tbh.
Make Boomkins for off-heals/emergency heals instead.