How to fix a feral Druid

[Whoopie]

There are a few issues with Feral (and Druid overall) in vanilla wow that simply weren't thought through.

1. The powershifting issue

There are two problems here: the first one forces you to wear a level 40 helmet that restores 20 energy when shifting, the second one causes you to loose a lot of mana unneceserily.

How to fix it?
Make the last talent (Leader of the Pack) in Feral tree restore 20 energy on shift and cap the maximum energy gain from shifting to 60. Combined with the Furor talent, it would have the same effect as helm + Furor.

In addition, you get 30% mana reduction on shapeshifting in talent Natural Shapeshifter. This could act more like a "scaling buff", meaning that whenever you shift, your next shift could cost you 10% less mana, up to 50% reduction, for 10 seconds. Make the talent naturally start at 20% instead of 30% and work it's way up to 50%.


2. Pummeler Farmer

Even if the Druid farms the item (Manual Crowd Pummeler) and uses it correctly with the powershifting, he still won't reach top DPS. The issue here is that Druid has no good set bonuses and his abilities don't scale off of weapon damage and weapon procs don't work either.

How to fix it?
Rebalance Feral's damage abilities around weapon damage or increase Feral's attack power by the DPS of a weapon. The exact scaling coeficient should be thought through and balanced out. This would reduce the Feral's need to farm Pummelers and let Ferals enjoy weapon upgrades.


3. Barkskin in forms

The fact that you cannot cast Barkskin in a Bear form is very annoying. Bear tanks should be able use their only damage reduction ability while tanking a pack of mobs or a boss. Forcing a bear to leave form to cast it is just a bad game design.

How to fix it?
Let Barkskin be castable while shapeshifted.


4. Rake

Problem with Rake is that it does little to no damage and the bleeding effect is completly useless. It is not worth using in 99% situations.

How to fix it?
Make it that Rake applies a debuff (similar to the Mangle effect that was introduced later on) that increase Rip's damage 20-30%. This would force Ferals to properly calculate their energy usage and fix their low bleeding damage in PvP.


5. Chance on hit effects

Druid's cannot benefit from chance on hit effects and it's rather annoying.

How to fix it?
Let Druids benefit from chance on hit effects and cap it on the same "procs per minute" as other classes have. If there is an item that has 1.4 PPM, let the Druid enjoy it as well.


This should be it.

[Reploidrocsa]

the powershifting issue is being adressed in the next patch via head enchant.

The other stuff sounds good, but will unbalance the game? maybe. maybe not.

[Fixaren1]

Should make 2 Enchant, wolfhead and 100% energy regeneration in catform or 50% if its to op. Dont think its better than wolfhead still, but can be wrong

[Drubarrymooer]

There are a few issues with Feral (and Druid overall) in vanilla wow that simply weren't thought through.

1. The powershifting issue

There are two problems here: the first one forces you to wear a level 40 helmet that restores 20 energy when shifting, the second one causes you to loose a lot of mana unneceserily.

How to fix it?
Make the last talent (Leader of the Pack) in Feral tree restore 20 energy on shift and cap the maximum energy gain from shifting to 60. Combined with the Furor talent, it would have the same effect as helm + Furor.

This has been suggested before. Very good idea though.

2. Pummeler Farmer
Even if the Druid farms the item (Manual Crowd Pummeler) and uses it correctly with the powershifting, he still won't reach top DPS. The issue here is that Druid has no good set bonuses and his abilities don't scale off of weapon damage and weapon procs don't work either.

How to fix it?
Rebalance Feral's damage abilities around weapon damage or increase Feral's attack power by the DPS of a weapon. The exact scaling coeficient should be thought through and balanced out. This would reduce the Feral's need to farm Pummelers and let Ferals enjoy weapon upgrades.

There are 2 problems here. 1. No one class needs to be top DPS. Feral has a large skill curve. I excel at DPS on some fights, others I don't. The 2nd problem is related to your other points. If they change how feral DPS works/weapon DPS scaling, etc, add weapon proc effects, etc, that will change whether MCP is bis for DPS or not. As is rn we have one easily obtainable weapon for bis DPS/threat.
[/quote]

3. Barkskin in forms

The fact that you cannot cast Barkskin in a Bear form is very annoying. Bear tanks should be able use their only damage reduction ability while tanking a pack of mobs or a boss. Forcing a bear to leave form to cast it is just a bad game design.

How to fix it?
Let Barkskin be castable while shapeshifted.

Agreed. The CD would probably need to be nerfed for pvp but yeah, this needs done desperately.

4. Rake

Problem with Rake is that it does little to no damage and the bleeding effect is completly useless. It is not worth using in 99% situations.

How to fix it?
Make it that Rake applies a debuff (similar to the Mangle effect that was introduced later on) that increase Rip's damage 20-30%. This would force Ferals to properly calculate their energy usage and fix their low bleeding damage in PvP.

Eh. I mean I use rake situationally, it's decent as is in pvp. But it would be nice to use more, however there doesn't need to be a need for every move in PvE/pvp exclusively.

5. Chance on hit effects

Druid's cannot benefit from chance on hit effects and it's rather annoying.

How to fix it?
Let Druids benefit from chance on hit effects and cap it on the same "procs per minute" as other classes have. If there is an item that has 1.4 PPM, let the Druid enjoy it as well.


This should be it.

Again, another "eh" here. It would require a lot of rebalancing that just isn't needed for minimal DPS gain and in some cases might be a bit game breaking. Earthshaker while tanking comes to mind.

Overall a decent list. Not trying to be negative. Just some of the fixes would be harder and break more than they'd fix.

[Whoopie]

Another issue is the Combo Point system. As a Druid you build up combo points on your primary target, cast a single ability on any other target than the one you are running down and you loose all your combo points on your primary target. This system makes absolutely no sense at all and actually breaks the fluidness of the class. Rogue has the same issue and CP system needs a rehaul.

[Konked]

Hopefully we get weapon damage and weapon proc of on hit effects, that alone would give us feral druids some options for different weapons

[Whoopie]

Predatory Strikes talent rework might help

What's the problem?
As of right now, Predatory Strikes increases attack power in cat and bear by 150% of level (at 60 that's an extra 90 attack power), which is a very static talent that doesn't scale. Another issue is that SOME (very few) weapons provide +AP when in cat/bear (+280 AP from AQ quest weapon for example), which massively helps Druids once they get the weapon and they suck dongs till then. From there on, there is nothing (except maybe Atiesh +420 AP, which Druids rarely get) to be excited for.

How to fix it?
Make Predatory Strikes scale off of weapon DPS and remove +AP bonus when in cat/bear from the few weapons that have them.

A Feral Druid wielding a Blessed Qiraji War Hammer currently has + 370 AP (+90 talent, +280 wepon).

An average end-game weapon (R14, AQ40) has around 75 DPS.

Calculations around this could be something like: 370/75 = 4.93, which means:

3/3 Predatory Strikes could increase Druids +AP by 500% of weapon DPS. Druid wielding Ice Barbed Spear would get +269 AP (53.89*5 = 269), Druid wielding Draconic Maul would get +335 AP (67*5 = 335), Druid wielding R14 weapon would get +386 AP (77.36*5 = 386).
(A Feral Druid with Atiesh staff has currently +510 AP, to put it in perspective).

This would allow Druids to actually enjoy new weapons whenever they can get their hands on one and not lock them to 2-3 specific weapons that they are forced to use or are unable to get (Atiesh). That's the same as if Warriors wouldn't be able to use epic weapons till Naxx.

[Fixaren1]

Predatory Strikes talent rework might help

What's the problem?
As of right now, Predatory Strikes increases attack power in cat and bear by 150% of level (at 60 that's an extra 90 attack power), which is a very static talent that doesn't scale. Another issue is that SOME (very few) weapons provide +AP when in cat/bear (+280 AP from AQ quest weapon for example), which massively helps Druids once they get the weapon and they suck dongs till then. From there on, there is nothing (except maybe Atiesh +420 AP, which Druids rarely get) to be excited for.

How to fix it?
Make Predatory Strikes scale off of weapon DPS and remove +AP bonus when in cat/bear from the few weapons that have them.

A Feral Druid wielding a Blessed Qiraji War Hammer currently has + 370 AP (+90 talent, +280 wepon).

An average end-game weapon (R14, AQ40) has around 75 DPS.

Calculations around this could be something like: 370/75 = 4.93, which means:

3/3 Predatory Strikes could increase Druids +AP by 500% of weapon DPS. Druid wielding Ice Barbed Spear would get +269 AP (53.89*5 = 269), Druid wielding Draconic Maul would get +335 AP (67*5 = 335), Druid wielding R14 weapon would get +386 AP (77.36*5 = 386).
(A Feral Druid with Atiesh staff has currently +510 AP, to put it in perspective).

This would allow Druids to actually enjoy new weapons whenever they can get their hands on one and not lock them to 2-3 specific weapons that they are forced to use or are unable to get (Atiesh). That's the same as if Warriors wouldn't be able to use epic weapons till Naxx.

Do this.


And

Enchant like crusader(the extra AP druid get will not scale aswell as it does on other classes so will not be op)
Shaman totem works in cat/bear
And last remove pummel, or better give it 5min CD so you can use it once for that extra rage for maintanking.

Don't allow weapon chance on hit(Don't want a new blue bis item)

This would be a good change, sure overall a nerf for druid due to how strong pummel are.


And before someone say this would be op in pvp, you are wrong. Druid using pummel would be alot stronger.