What happened to feral druids?

Community General Discussion
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Title.

I dont see feral druids in raids and mythic +s anymore since dragonflight.

All i see is balance, guardian and resto druids…

What happened?

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Despite a vocal minority that scream for further complexity and difficulty in the game, most people don’t want to put in 110% effort to do 70% of what a “1-button” spec can do while half AFK.

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They had a short moment in time at the beginning of S3 where they were “good.” Then changes happened.

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I used to like feral, I’m not sure I think they just have too many abilities now; I honestly prefer bear for outdoor melee in dragonflight.

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Feral druid was unironically a top 3 DPS in M+ in S1 of Dragonflight. I can’t speak to your anecdotal experience, but there is no reason why you wouldn’t have seen more then opposed to unpopularity.

Feral druid has been about the same spot it was for nearly the entire expansion for raid as it has been since at least Legion. It HAS to pick ST or AOE, it’s top notch ST, so-so AOE, and it absolutely cannot compete when trying to ST in an AOE build and vice versa. Again, there is no reason why you should have seen much of a difference in representation compared to previous modern expansions.

I mean, this is a fairly disingenuous sentiment, and you even explained why in your response here. Very few people want to put significantly more effort to not even reach the level of players who have a simpler time. The people who ask for more complexity are usually looking to get to at least the same spot as others for that complexity if not have their complexity rewarded with better performance (not saying that’s a healthy way to design a game). It’s rather ridiculous to try to pretend like players who want more complexity should be happy to be significantly behind those whose rotations are simpler.

Feral druid was basically the best raid druid DPS spec the entirety of S3, resto druid was not as good as disc or mistweaver, and guardian druid was in the middle of the pack and thus not really required. There weren’t changes that knocked it down from its S3 position, feral is just a niche spec that most druids aren’t playing. Once groups reached enough of their performance goals that players who were on feral for FOTM purposes could switch, they switched.

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The creation of building a really good taco and the prep for ingredients took precedent over building the spec

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I love Feral…or rather what Feral could be. They’re often mediocre and require more effort to do a fraction of what other classes can. It’s really too bad.

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I’ve wanted to play a druid but I think they seem overwhelming (granted, this is from someone who hasn’t really tried that hard) but what keeps me from them is race options.
I can’t play tall/big races so that leaves me extremely limited.

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Feral druid is in an awkward spot where it is fine, good even, but not worth running in most content over another druid spec, if any one of them is even decent, because they all provide the same utility/buffs.

Balance brings a ranged dps slot, which is usually more valuable than melee.

Resto brings a healer, nuff said.

Guardian brings a tank, nuff said.

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feral is too hard for me.

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No more feral kitties! They have to sneak into raids now.

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I did KSH as Feral on S1. On paper, Feral looks great.

  • Can dispell afflicted
  • Can cc incorporeal
  • Best party buff in the game
  • Battle rez
  • Melee cd kick
  • Multiple AOE stops
  • Vortex for spiteful
  • Soothe for Brackenhide and Raging week
  • Great AOE damage
  • Group speed

And yet…

  • Designers continuously refuse against all logic to give Feral decent BR. They require Feral to shift to an unprotected caster form while the mobs are trying to murder them in melee and hard cast battle rez, making them the worst battle rez in the whole game. It’s instant for Bear, Moonkin can do it in moonkin form safely from range with a ton of armor, Resto are safely at range when casting, it’s instant for all plate wearing DK’s (who will be able to do full health instant res’s in TWW), Warlocks can pre-cast and do it from range (and in TWW will have the cast speed halved), Instant for Prot paladins, Ret and holy do this with Plate armor and can pre-bubble… it’s just so toxic how bad Ferals are positioned when it comes to such an iconic Druid function.
  • It’s hard to have feral in the meta when another druid spec is already.
  • Moonkin synergize well with DH’s chaos brand, and DH’s have been part of the meta this season and previous seasons in DF, so moonkin are often in the meta.
  • Bear was meta in previous seasons.
  • Feral severely lacks in defensives compared to other melee. Yes, Bear form is effectively a 20% DR without CD, but comparatively its a huge damage hit to use it if you need to sit in bear, and even combined with FI it doesn’t compete with Feint/Cheat Death/Cloak, or AMZ/Will/IBF, or SoV/DP/Bubbles, etc.
  • You cannot succeed without weak auras, and there’s just a lot of people who don’t use them. Meaning, there is no in-game way to track empower bleed snapshots, and that’s the entire core mechanic of this spec.

If you want to see Ferals in M+ they need parity at BR with every other spec that can do it, comparable durability to other melee in high keys, and the meta needs to magically align such that one of the 3 other Druid specs aren’t already dominating the MotW/BR slot.

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I still play Feral from time to time, But It’s one of those Off and on again specs. Was my main for a long time.

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The dracthyr are them all. Sorry they’re still figuring out what’s what. Twenty k years is a long time

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I sometimes play them because the out of the ordinary playstyle is fun (snapshotting, form changes, etc.), but after awhile I actually get kind of annoyed at how little customization you get compared to everyone else, and then on top of that, them locking out a good 10-20% of your choices for that because of FOMO

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Can you please explain to me how that is unironic? Like I am so confused whenever people use that word.

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It is being misused.

The correct usage would be that Feral was ironically a top 3 DPS [because the expectation is that Feral is bad and therefore it’s success was contrary to expectation].

But making a big to-do over grammar does a greater disservice to the topic than the person making the grammatical error.

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They are very good at stealth :smiley:

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That they are lux,… but they cant hide from me.

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I love feral however, there isn’t anything a feral does that rogue doesn’t also do better. Same as the buffs that the other druids bring.

I think feral needs a rework like Ret got. They need to have some differences from assasination rogue to set them apart and make them sought after.