TLDR: #SomeChanges
EDIT 6/24: THEY FIXED IT! Energy and mana/health ticks are now separate on the beta. This makes energy behave similar to 2.0 and removes the “powerchugging” meta, which is exactly what we wanted. Cant wait for this go to live. Thank you for listening Blizzard Q_Q
Edit 5/30: There is an mp5 penalty to shapeshift forms. This might be the only reason why shapeshifting resets energy ticks, since there’s no change to energy regen. I have no clue if blizzard considers this “working as intended” or not.
Several hours ago (originally written 5/18) a hotfix was implemented in the PTR that took away partial energy ticks when ferals enter cat form after spending time in caster form. This is a crucial part to the rotation we’ve been practicing for TBC. This is because a cat druid’s main ability is Shred, which requires 42 energy, JUST over the amount of energy we’d naturally receive from the Furor talent or 2 ticks of energy. The removal of partials makes our standard 2 shred rotation (84 energy) take 1.5 seconds longer, drastically reducing our DPS and removing powershifting’s fast-paced element that cat druids enjoy so much.
Please either
A: Revert this hotfix.
B: Restore energy to it’s vanilla version that was present in 2.0 and earlier in the beta, where energy tick timers are independent of when a druid enters cat form. This version was present from vanilla all the way through TBC’s Tier6 release in 2007. It’s actually slower and less dps than partials, but it’s what’s been in classic already for years, and it’s what the players want, because it feels true to classic.
I know many people will say this was how cat energy worked at the end of TBC’s original run, but the patch notes from then clearly show that this was a side effect to a fix to innervate and evocation, like unintended as shapeshifting doesn’t even change regeneration so it shouldn’t reset ticks. Since Blizz never stated this as was an intended change, and since they’ve already shown they’re willing to implement things like paladin seal twisting to keep previous memespecs fun and viable options by letting them continue to use fun gimmicks, leaving energy in it’s current state seems contradictory to Blizzard’s stance on TBC’s changes.
Edit, 5/26: Okay so a feral named Nepeta looked into the 2.2 patch notes and realized that any change in regen resets resource ticks. This means the 2.2 feral meta is to chug 15 trolls blood potions a minute. You CANT tell me this is preferable over 2.0 energy
Edit: So I assume reverting the hotfix would be the easiest option for blizzard since it’s the most recent version of energy from the beta, but 2.0 energy would really be the best if possible. It’s not only what was present when TBC launched and for the majority of raid releases, but it’s the smoothest system with no interruptions, and it’s accurate to how we KNOW energy was supposed to work at the time (the current state of feral energy doesn’t match any patch notes, even 2.2). I know TBC Classic is mostly based off 2.4.3, but feral energy was a mess at the time, so much so that Blizzard completely rebalanced feral cat (and reworked energy AGAIN) in WotLK and removed powershifting all together and gave them other tools to make up for it. Making feral druids spend all off TBC Classic with scuffed energy is NOT ideal, especially for a spec that has been treated as a meme for years and wont be competing with top dps classes even with 2.0 energy. Please, we just want to enjoy TBC.
Update 5/25: Big thanks to Zipzo and their thread [Current Feral Energy Mechanics Not Accurate to TBC (Links)] which lists evidence that could suggest partials DID exist in original TBC. There’s also evidence that could imply 2.0 powershifting was still possible in 2.4.3 thanks to spell batching, making this a very similar issue to seal twisting.
thank you potionseler!!!
this change is pretty devastating to the feral community. I dont understand why this change has been put through with such a lack of communication from the devs.
thank you for posting potion!!
Save the kitties!
Thank you for calling this out. With the philosophy of “some changes” such as ally paladins getting seal of blood, surely this small fix for feral druid is something Blizzard should strongly consider to ensure a fun gameplay experience for feral druids.
Weren’t alot of druids complaining about this energy bug and wanting a fix just a few days ago? I think yall may be in the minority here.
Agree 100%. Make this thread popular. It’s ridiculous if they don’t change this one.
Hi guys. If you could take a second to look at this post as well! thank you.
please revert the changes, this greatly impact the solo cats and also bears that needs to dps.
No feral wants the spec gimped. People were complaining because they had to go caster form and stop hitting the mob for optimal dps. What everyone wanted was a revert to classic energy which existed for every raid until Zul’Aman in original TBC.
This is the second change to feral energy generation in the same number of weeks. It’s really frustrating to see Paladins get “Seal Twisting” remaining as a mechanic, while Feral Druids lose a mechanic that is part of the base game. The feral energy changes didn’t show up until a later patch.
With feral cat DPS already being fairly lackluster already, this change impacts players pushing their characters to the limit in TBC.
I have no intention to play feral outside maybe open world primal farming or questing, but I think this is an important change, and hope blizzard fixes it
Please option B. This is what made feral powershifting so enjoyable
wym ? bear is fine
Blizz please acknowledge the druids with a blue post or some official stance on this matter. Regardless of paladin changes or whatever else is going on atm, Druids feel slighted because this nerf is not directed at druids but is rather a byproduct of a regen change you made for when regen rates change. While I agree you would want to get full value from your evos/innervates it is a bit strange for the tick to reset going from a 0 regen to 20/2s. The feral druid community humbly ask that you give us some indication on where you stand on this issue.
We ideally would like to keep the classic way of powershifting as the system in place before today’s hotfix was hurting our raid group as well since we had 0.4 second intervals of no lotp.
save the kitties! revert this dumb hotfix blizzard
A lot of ferals wanted energy reverted to vanilla mechanics because it feels less clunky to play, not because it was a DPS boost over how it was on the beta.
Some ferals were happy with how it was in the beta as of yesterday or didn’t care either way.
Instead it got changed to a much slower and weaker mechanic that NO ONE asked for, and as far as we can tell, was an unintended side effect of an Innervate/Evocation buff in patch 2.2.
Blizzard, as a druid I hope you do not change it. Great hotfix. Power shifting was never meant to be a thing. Without this hotfix if you don’t power shift then you suck…it made everyone become a power shifter. Druids are never supposed to be on par with other dps…that’s why they have 3 forms
I don’t think raise the point of powershifting is a good idea when making your point because powershifting was removed later on in original TBC since BLZ believe it’s not the intention for how it’s used.
Having this change come so late after the months of beta and PTR testing is really awful feeling.
Powershifting as a feral is one of the funnest and most engaging rotations in classic and into TBC. Resetting the energy tick when shifiting into cat form completely ruins the rotation.
I don’t even care about the lost DPS from the 2.2 changes, I care about the rotation. The new rotation just feels terrible, slow and is unlike what we’ve been playing for all of classic and what was played for most of TBCs retail life too.
Power-shifting wasn’t removed until WotLK, when Furor was reworked to preserve energy instead of adding it. I’m also saying that it WASNT blizzard’s intention to change energy, because the patch notes clearly state the changes to resource generation was meant to prevent casters from losing innervate/evocation ticks.