As it stands, Feral DPS is Ranked #20 out of 22 DPS classes in cata. This is despite having one of the most complex rotations in the game, requiring precise timing and skill to maximize damage output. The complexity of the Feral rotation should be rewarded with competitive DPS, but currently, it falls short.
Bear Weaving: A Problematic Mechanic
One of the most contentious issues is the need for Bear Weaving. Blizzard has previously stated that they did not want Bear Weaving to be a necessary part of the Feral DPS rotation, yet it remains a significant part of maximizing Feral DPS. This mechanic is not only cumbersome but also goes against the intended design philosophy for the class.
PvP vs. PvE Balance
While it’s true that Feral Druids are considered S-tier in PvP, this does not justify their underperformance in PvE. Unholy Death Knights are also S-tier in PvP and yet they perform exceptionally well in PvE. The disparity between PvP and PvE performance for Feral Druids needs to be addressed to ensure that they are viable in all aspects of the game.
Conclusion
Given the complexity of the Feral DPS rotation and the issues surrounding Bear Weaving, it’s clear that Feral DPS needs a buff to be competitive in Cataclysm. Balancing the class to perform well in both PvP and PvE, similar to Unholy Death Knights, would make Feral Druids a more attractive and rewarding choice for players
These glyphs where part of a larger toolkit that allowed for a diverse playstyle and added more strategies, which is essential for keeping the game engaging and dynamic.
Blizzard has made clear in their patch notes and developer updates that they aim to balance classes and specializations to ensure fair gameplay. Any specific mention of “bearweaving” being discouraged would be a direct indication of their stance.
“bearweaving” is seen as a way to undermine this philosophy by blending roles in a way that wasn’t intended.
I understand your frustration about seeing multiple threads on the same topic. However, it’s important to consider that not everyone sees or engages with every thread. By creating a new thread, I’m hoping to reach a different audience who might have missed the previous one.
Additionally, discussions can evolve, and new threads can bring fresh perspectives and updated information that might not fit into the original thread. Instead of viewing it as spam, think of it as an opportunity for more people to join the conversation and contribute their insights.
Let’s focus on fostering a positive and inclusive community where everyone feels encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas.
How? I glanced at some logs and they’re jumping into Bear form like 3-4 times for 3-5 seconds at a time on a 3 minute fight. Doesn’t seem significant at all.
Although it might seem insignificant, those seconds accumulate during a fight, leading to a slight DPS increase.
The feral DPS priority list is already intricate, involving abilities like Mangle, Rake, Rip, and Savage Roar. Introducing Bearweaving requires players to also consider Maul and Lacerate, which can disrupt their rotation flow and make maintaining optimal DPS more challenging. Bearweaving adds another layer of complexity to the feral DPS rotation. Players must manage their energy, combo points, and cooldowns while also timing their shifts into Bear form.
This can be overwhelming, especially in high-pressure situations where mechanics need to be handled simultaneously.
All this effort results in subpar damage compared to other classes and specs.
While the basic rotation you mentioned covers the fundamental abilities, Feral DPS in Cataclysm is more complex due to additional techniques like bearweaving, maintaining Faerie Fire, and strategic use of cooldowns. For example, bearweaving involves shifting into Bear Form to use Mangle (Bear) and Maul, which adds extra damage and Rage. Also, keeping Faerie Fire up reduces the target’s armor, increasing your overall damage.
Using Tiger’s Fury and Berserk at the right times, pooling Energy before big cooldowns, and snapshotting buffs to enhance your bleeds are all crucial for maximizing DPS. During the execute phase, using Ferocious Bite to refresh Rip is key. These elements make Feral DPS more intricate and complex. While rewarding us with F tier damage!!!
Homie it lasts for 5 minutes, that’s 1 single button press at the start of most encounters, I don’t think that’s adding any complexity lmao
Also, using chatGPT for every post is pretty funny.
rofl blizz moderators deleted my posts. What clowns. Let the obviously duplicate thread stay though.
It’s clearly a duplicate thread and should be deleted.
What more is there to discuss? You want them buffed so badly that you go around posting about it in threads that have nothing to do with feral druid. Other people don’t care. Discussion’s over. It was over in your last thread, that’s why people stopped replying to it and you had to start a duplicate.
Three threads on the same exact topic by the same person, right at the top of the forum, and a 4th thread that had nothing to do with feral druid that the same person has hijacked to post his ChatGPT feral druid writeup. Mods? Hello?
Thanks to everyone who reported this post as spam to get the GMs’ attention. They ultimately decided it wasn’t spam and did the right thing by restoring it!
Let’s dive back into the discussion about the unfortunate state of Feral Druids and the essential buffs Blizzard needs to implement.
Is that more complex? you’re just stance dancing and pressing 2-3 buttons in that form and returning back to cat, its a priority system and bearweaving just lets you do more damage and cover your debuff management better at low energy; its not like you’re pressing additional buttons during the main rotation, its entirely other form that is mutually exclusive.
Complexity in Execution: While it may seem like you’re just “stance dancing” and pressing a few buttons, the real complexity lies in the timing and decision-making. Bearweaving requires precise timing to maximize damage output and manage energy efficiently. This isn’t just about pressing buttons but knowing when to switch forms and how to optimize your rotation.
Resource Management: Bearweaving involves managing multiple resources (energy, rage) and cooldowns. This adds a layer of complexity as you need to ensure you’re not wasting resources and are using them optimally.
Situational Awareness: Effective bearweaving requires a good understanding of the encounter mechanics and your current situation in the fight. You need to be aware of when it’s safe to switch forms and when you need to stay in one form to avoid taking unnecessary damage or missing out on critical abilities.
Skill Ceiling: The skill ceiling for bearweaving is higher than it appears. While the basic concept might be simple, mastering it to the point where you can consistently outperform other rotations requires practice and a deep understanding of your class mechanics.
Debuff Management: Managing debuffs effectively while bearweaving is very challenging. You need to ensure that you’re maintaining important debuffs on the target while also maximizing your damage output. This requires careful planning and execution.
In comparison to all other classes , yes its more complex, that’s the way the class was designed from the beggining, most mmos always have a tier of difficulty per class , and for classic it’s mostly ALWAYS been feral.
Bearweaving isn’t even intended and takes it to another level of difficulty.
Feral has always been the most taxing and punishing rotation in the game. In wrath they literally couldn’t switch to targets not once or theyd loose thousand of dps( to the point where if you asked a feral to switch you might as well not invite him ) vs most classes where switching to a different target doesnt take 15 secs worth of investment before ramping up.
I don’t just feel that the class is more complex; it’s a fact supported by evidence. Ultimately, Feral requires a significant buff to stay competitive.
Just because a class ranks as S tier in PvP doesn’t mean it should be relegated to F tier in PvE; there are numerous classes that are S tier in both PvE and PvP.
Increase the rate of energy regeneration or increasing the rate of clearcasting procs wether it requires a glyph or not.
What this would do is prevent feral from either
Mono cat - Stare at energy bar for 4 seconds before being able to press another ability because energy sucks
Bearweave - having to time in the small gap to switch to bearform when you are out of energy and have to evaluate which ability youd like to use with your limited rage, press trash or mangle or maul, switch to feral so you can reapply your buffs or debuffs which both require energy and combo points to use.
To give you a comparison , in private servers for wrath and cataclysm, the glyph was never introduced and faerei fire never triggered clearcasting.
Instead of this, the actual tooltip for clearcasting worked as intended and procs of clearcast occured from all abilitys the feral druid used, wether it was autoattacks, hots, buffs, dots, special abilitys , etc. This naturally created more clear casting procs for ferals in private servers without having to introduce a glyph… now , why is this important? , because then you are not forced to have to stare at a screen waiting for energy to slowly build to play your class when the class in its own is already more difficult than MOST classes because of the energy management , combo point management, debuff and buff planning, behind only requirement and punishing rotation when swapping to any other non single target.
Why is this different than lets say a rogue?, combo points and energy regeneration and cds from rogue give rogues a huge advantage in terms of both damage and in certain scenarios difficulty as well, depending on the spec that is.
It also affected the rate in which you could spam swipe since we are running oom so quick in an aoe scenario
In the current interation, clear casting only works from auto attacks which contradicts the tooltip in itself, which by definition is a bug, blizzard has been clear on the past they intend the showtooltip to work as it’s read, but they also have a good track record of having lots of ability’s or items that don’t match their tooltip, in case your argument is the tooltip is always broken or misinterpreted.