Lets talk druid of the claw for ferals

Classes Druid
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We can all agree that our hero talents are just a let down theme wise coupled with our horrible class tree we barely feel like an actual druid, this is an idea to at least make druid of the claw feel like a real druid of the claw.
First we do need to know that a druid of the claw is actually a bear which theme wise makes it a bit hard for ferals but the lore throws us a bone since some druids of the claw do stay in cat form, the other thing we need to have in mind is what would make us feel like we get to use both forms and have an impact, id say as ferals we aim to be on bear form a maximum of 4s.
Now for my idea of changes:
Ravage: given also the claw rampage hero talent effect (shred,swipe,trash % of proc ravage while berserk)
This would gives us a very strong opener for the hero talent while still keeping a nice effect that compliments the core of the tree and really with the changes this is the only way i feel we can keep the effect.

Wildshape mastery: make the 10% heal from dmg taken to persist in cat form.
We do not want to stay much time in bear form because of lost of dps and that means that if we do a quick change into bear and back to cat in 1-2s this buff atm is just lost, making it persist in cat form atleast have it make an impact in our survivability.

Pack endurance: buffed to 50% and turned into a choice node with a new talent (ursine tenacity: buff cat/bear forms wild charge to 35 max range so a 10 yards buff).
This is a utility node, really stampeding roar for 10 or 12s is kinda the same but if it should be a choice node (trying to keep 3 in the tree) it should have a bigger impact than just a 25% buff, the new talent also gives u a decent choice or wanting to run faster for longer or charge farther.

Empowered shapeshifting: replaces being able to use frenzied regen in cat form with ironfur costs 20 rage less and lasts 3s longer, also being made a solo node not a choice node.
Here is 1 of the big changes really giving us frenzied regen in cat form while good in paper we already get it to persist in cat form from a prior talent so the idea is to give more value while going into bear form, ironfur also persists in cat form so going into bear for 1-3s and using frenzied regen or ironfur or maybe even both and going back to cat would still give us that big survivability buff. It also makes ironfur more attractive.

Claw rampage: replaced with wildpower surge and change the extra rage the mangle gives to instead give 2 combo points.
This is the star of the theme, the reason it should all work and what we work for, the idea is to get the 8 stacks and use mangle (having fluid form) to go into bear and have enough rage to either frenzied regen or ironfur if needed so maxx of 3s in bear form (in pve, in pvp it varies) then use rake/shred to go back into cat form while having all the survivability buffs and starting with a minimum of 3 combo point (2 from mangle and 1 from the skill used to go back into cat) all this probably amounts to a dps lost overall but survivability increases by a lot and most importantly we finally get to feel like a real druid of the claw and not feel bad for going into bear form mid combat.

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I’m not so good at getting into all the nitty gritty of the spells and the benefit it will bring compared to whatever else… but I don’t like the theme or overall feeling of either of the hero talents. The healing one seems more visually beautiful but what is the point of it as a dps.

I see resto and guardian getting a better use of dipping into feral abilities than anything else.

Sorry if that wasn’t the type of response you were looking for. You put a lot of thought into your post. I’m just sharing my simpleton opinion of it. :slightly_smiling_face:

I guess I don’t like the idea of having to shift during a fight. I am already shifted into the shape I want to play as lol.

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As a Guardian I am having a blast shifting into cat for Rakes, Shreds, Ferocious Bites, Maims, and Convokes. It has completely altered my playstyle for the positive. It’s honestly never been more fun.

I boosted a Feral to play around with shifting, and outside of weaving Bear for the defensive benefits in PvP, I don’t see much point to it.

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I never understood why bear doesn’t do much damage.

Like i would think a dam bear going beserk would have huge burst damage but its kinda meh.

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Oh we all have our own opinions about hero talents, some dealing with balance and how they feel or maybe with the lore behind the theme and how it really impacts what it should do. I do agree that atm wildstalker is the one that feels like its made for feral while druid of the claw actually feels a lot better as guardian and thats the price of picking druid of the claw as 1 of the hero talents since well they are actually bear druids mainly. I guess the idea of shifting forms in combat is a little weird for most players since well its not something we are used to but lets pray for whoever created fluid form because its the only way shifting in combat actually feels decent still in pve shouldn’t be more than 2-3s and it really really needs wildpower surge to be in a solo node since its the pay off to want to shapeshift really

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As guardian it feels amazing being able to cat weaver this easy and be decent but holy hell does it feels almost useless as feral lol, we got arguably 2 of the most iconic hero talents (druid of the claw and keeper of the grove) and they failed hard plus add our class tree atm and we might need another war of the ancients to fix this.

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Ive been a guardian like forever, so thematically of the Claw is pure Joy. Cant wait to catweave.
Unfortunately i dont see the point for feral to bearweave. Maybe it’s more for pvp?

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The main problem is that wildpower surge is in a choice node with another talent that’s good, we have no payoff dps wise to shifting to bear outside of wildpower surges procs, that’s why in my idea I say to make wildpower the capstone so u always have it and don’t feel horrible and another thing is to try to condense it all to want to stay in bear form just 1-3s if u need the defensive buffs it provides but it’s all on having wildpower surges and having it be good for our dps hence the change from extra rage since it forces more bear play to combo points so it links up to going back to cat stronger. In pvp really it varies a bit since you might want to stay in bear form longer but even then the version we have atm feels bad

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What they should do is sonething like, after using wildpower surge in bear, once you shift back to cat you get 5 temp combo pts for 3 sec

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That’s the effect it has atm for guardians making it really frenzy for them, but for ferals it’s a 300% bonus dmg on mangle plus extra rage which is useless because we have no spender other than ironfur and even then it forces feral to stay in bear form to use the rage, giving feral full combo points might be too much that’s why I think it should be just 2 so 3 with the rake/shred to go back into cat, like I said in the post it would look something like: wildpower proc mangle (with fluid form it’s instant bear),cast regen or ironfur if needed (with my suggested changes ironfur becomes 20 rage so u can use fast),then shred/rake to go back into cat bringing all the buffs from the various talents plus regen/ironfur if used and also a minimum of 3 combo points and 2 out of 3 skills used for blood talons, all under 3s

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Bearweaving seems like it would have great use in PvP with Druid of the Claw. One of the biggest weaknesses of Feral in PvP is when you have to go Bear to stay alive, it effectively shuts down your damage output.

With Wildshape Mastery and Fluid Form, you couple routinely replace a filler Shred with a Mangle and either Shred or Rake immediately after to be 80% of a Bear and still be able to do cat damage. In just a little testing at 74 on the beta, it was the difference between 21% physical damage reduction vs 46%. If you stay in bear long enough to cast an Ironfur (which you immediately have the rage to do after the Mangle, I went up to about 57% damage reduction while back in cat form. (again, that was just at 74, so obviously the numbers will change based on level and gear).

All of the various things that boost bear form synergize with it as you get 80% of all those bonuses when you shift back to cat. Like the Strength of the Wild pvp talent that increased bear form health by 15% or even Heart of the Wild that increases Bear stamina by 20% more.

I don’t think I’d Bearweave constantly, but in fights with a physical damage dealer or when being focused, you can pop between cat and bear to keep the damage going rather than just sitting Bear knowing you’ll die if you shift out to refresh Rake or Rip.

If you are using that Strength of the Wild PvP talent, you can Mangle and immediately get off the 8% max health damage melee ability that comes with that talent, which hits a lot harder than a Shred. In other words, with that PvP talent, you could Bearweave and possibly even increase damage by a bit (not much overall though).

That’s all theory crafting as I haven’t played enough in beta to get to 80 and try it out in PvP, but it seems like it would be good. It also has the added benefit of being a bit like the old Powershifting to get out of snares/roots without burning a GCD. Basically, it seems possible to replace a filler Shred with a Mangle to keep cat damage going while always having 80% of the Bear’s durability.

Druid of the Claw sounded kind of lackluster to me initially, but now that I’m thinking about how Bearweaving could be a legit thing with Fluid Form (plus all the synergies with things that increase Bear armor or stamina), it at least sounds pretty amazing for PvP against other melees.

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In pvp that’s how it should feel yeah and that would be amazing sadly we lose the heal from wildshape mastery when going back to cat form and having to decide between empowered shapeshifting and wildpower surge is insane (the same thing happens to our other hero talents where the main component of it’s theme is in a choice node), it’s why I think wildpower surge should be the capstone so you get all that you are saying plus still have the dmg we need in a prepared window where we do want to go bear form that’s not just to stay alive but to actually brawl since that should be the goal, wildstalkers hero talent is for dots and heals in cat form while running and Druid of the claw to makes us able to brawl and survive