Sep 2

I’m pretty excited for my feral druid. I realize it’s still beta, but as of right now, Wrath of the Lich King is bringing several buffs to the druid class, both direct and indirect. Let’s take a look at 15 reasons every feral druid should be looking forward to the content patch and the expansion.

Before we get into new abilities and talents, let’s talk about the changes to energy and mana regeneration. Before, energy and mana was awarded every two ticks, meaning if you were two energy away from a Shred (and oh, how often did that happen!), you had to wait a full two seconds before being able to Shred again. No more! Now enery regenerates in a constant, smooth fashion, ticking once for every point of energy! This is a huge buff to anyone except Death Knights and Warriors (and druid Bears), because their special ability resource (rage or runic power) works differently.

[Late Edit] I almost forgot! Furor is being modified to allow you regenerate energy out of Cat Form, and allows you to keep X of it when reentering Cat Form–fully talented, it’s 100%! Fly around for a while, find a mob, shift into Cat and have 100 energy. Sweet!

Now let’s get on to the new/changed stuff!

Druids are finally getting a "normal" rez via Revive! While this is technically a restoration spell, feral druids will still, of course, have access to it, allowing tanks and DPS to assist with rezzing fallen party members after combat.

Next we have Savage Roar, the new druid Cat Form finisher. I haven’t been able to play with this spell, but it seems the idea is to use spell rotations similar to a rogue: get Savage Roar up for the bonus damage to Rip, and keep Savage Roar and Rip running throughout the fight (Similar to rogues using Slice and Dice and Rupture).

Tiger’s Fury got a significant revamp. The energy cost and low returns in DPS made it so useless, some druids didnt’ even have it on their hotbar. Now, however, it has no energy cost, does not invoke the global cooldown, and talented (see below), returns 60 energy to the druid. Even untalented, it’s worth hitting every time it’s up.

Primal Precision is a new talent in the feral tree, offering expertise to both Bear and Cat Form. Expertise reduces a mob’s chance to dodge and parry, and is always a welcome addition to a feral druid’s arsenal. Furthermore, Cat Form finisher’s that are dodged or miss return 80% of the energy to the druid, making a second attempt quicker.

One of my favorite changes to an old-time druid ability is Feral Charge: now with Kitty power! In cat form, Feral Charge does not require a path to the target, only line of sight. It works basically like a rogue’s Shadowstep, in that you end up behind the target, although currently you don’t face the target’s back. Doesn’t break stealth, so a great way to get behind a mob quickly for a nice Pounce. Furthermore, Cat Form Feral Charge dazes the target for three seconds.

Survival of the Fittest has been modified to provide 6% crit reduction. With the removal of crushing blows from mobs three levels above you, and assuming the mechanics behind critical strikes from bosses hasn’t changed, feral tanks can now receive crit-immunity solely from this talent. No defense needed!

King of the Jungle is a new talent in the feral tree, giving a boost to damage in Bear Form while enraging by 5%, which may or may not counter the loss of base armor. However, the addition of Tiger’s Fury returning 60 energy in Cat Form is amazing.

Infected Wounds is yet another new talent in the feral tree. While at first it seems that this is a PvP oriented talent (and that is certainly part of it), it is also a decent tanking buff. After a few seconds of tanking with your face, your mob will move up to 50% slower (making it easier to catch if it strays), and their attack speed will be reduced by up to 20%, a great addition to the feral tanking arsenal.

A reduced cooldown/rage cost of our staple ability is never a bad thing.

Rend and Tear gives a bonus to Maul when using Lacerate, and the increased critical strike chance to Ferocious Bite is incredible while soloing (with my mediocre gear, this would put Ferocious Bite at a 90% crit chance on a bleeding target).

Berserk, the new top-tier feral talent, is amazing. I don’t care if you’re tanking and need some extra AoE threat right now, DPSing and need a sudden boost, or PvPing and need to become immune to CC, this ability does it all. Its cooldown is longish, but not horrible for such a great ability.

Omen of Clarity has been changed a bit. First of all, it’s a passive ability instead of a buff. Great change, one less buff to cast every 30 minutes. Secondly, it no longer procs from yellow (special) abilities–only auto-attacks. However, the proc rate has been almost doubled. This is theoretically a buff, but that is yet to be seen.

Master Shapeshifter is a new talent in the restoration tree that gives good bonuses to every druid form there is. However, picking up this talent is difficult without giving up some feral talents.

The only problem with all these new amazing talents is that it’s very difficult (if not impossible) to hit them all. Blizzard has stated that they want players to have to choose a little between Cat and Bear form abilities, so my guess is they’re not done playing with the feral tree quiet yet. At any rate, I’m excited, and you should be too!

Related posts:

1. 2 More Reasons Feral Druids should be Excited about Wrath
2. Why I Love Druids
3. IS NOT MAN ANGLE
4. Follow the Crowd: Feral Price of Dire Bear
5. BA Shared Topic: Preparing for Wrath of the Lich King