Blizzard Response to Shadowlands Balance, Feral and Restoration Druid Class Changes

Shadowlands Posted 2020/04/13 at 5:09 PM by Squishei

Astral spells getting double benefit in CA is currently intended. We’ll have to see if the mastery double-dip is too much.

AP costs and generation are generally slightly reduced to allow for better pooling (a few weren’t, such as New Moon, with the intention of buffing them). Starfall instead got a big damage increase, so you cast it less often but it’s more of a moment when you do. Stellar Drift’s utility may still be too good with the new Starfall.

Bloodtalons: The goals of Bloodtalons were 1) to keep the things we think people saw as cool about it (adding some planning to the rotation, snapshot bleeds are a good payoff for a bit of complexity) while getting rid of the weirdness of using Regrowth as a trigger. Many people dislike the latter, and frankly we think it’s pretty weird too. We don’t have an exact further revision to report yet, but the feedback is making me think it still needs to somehow buff spells other than Rip.

Stampeding Roar can still be used in Cat Form.

The “30 sec ICD” on individual Eclipses sounds like it’s drawing more attention than intended. The goal is to make Eclipses alternate while in continuous combat, but allow restarting with either Eclipse after any break. Since Eclipses often last 16 sec, plus a short gap between them, the idea of an “ICD” that matters while you’re in combat shouldn’t be too relevant or need to be tracked. There might be a clearer way of doing this.

Swiftmend will try to consume Regrowth, then Wild Growth, then Rejuvenation, so that its behavior is predictable.

Systems

Character Customization

Lore/Quests

Armor

Creatures

1 2 345

Comment by gianmaicolGIVE FERAL DRUIDS THE FOLLOWING:

1. Leader of the pack passive (baseline only on feral, not a talent) to bring something to raids. Just like demonhunters, since we have NOTHING that is unique for the spec at all, since the only utility we had (stampeding roar) became baseline and maim kan be specced into by going feral affinity. I feel like this change is mostly needed. Blizzard we NEED this. What else do we bring to raids? not even stampeding roar is unique for us anymore - what do we bring? NOTHING AT ALL.

2. Make savage roar baseline (not a talent), Does not need to be 10% dmg increase, but this is an interesting ability to keep up! Adds to the rotation very nicely. Heck even 5% would be good enough imo.

3. Change bloodtalons completely or add a new talent or something - putting bloodtalons up on a target then let it be there permanently due to that you specced into sabertooth is just plain booring. I would prefer something like empowering the first rip and rake or making 2 ferocious bites hit even harder or something. To be honest I like bloodtalons as it is now in BFA except for having to use regrowth. Not sure on how to tune/change this talent, but something needs to be changed. Please comment and give suggestions on how to change this.

4. Our defensives are so weakened by the removal of 2 x survival instincts, barkskin is never gonna make up for it, and needing to talent into Heart of the Wild just to survive a little bit like other classes do is pure stupidity. So we need some other defensive too or add a charge of barkskin or something. Not talk about the 5min CD on this talent which makes it a really weak talent for survival in general in raids. This talent is more pointed towards offtanking as of how I look of it.

THEN feral might be FUN and able to contribute with something in raids. Otherwise the spec is completely dead.

Oh, not to mention the removal of jungle's fury and Wild Fleshrending (as well as Blood of the Enemy increasing our crit) will feel horrible in overall for the spec. We will lose a %^&* ton of crit basically. And shred will automatically get nerfed due to the damage increase the azerite talent Wild Fleshrending gives us in boost.

And please, feral druid mains - let us be heard, or blizzard will never change us in time before release.

And blizzard for the love of god please make us transmog and keep our weapons while transmogging our druid forms! it's annoying to only be able to transmog into our legion artifact weapons and not keeping the look of our staff/polearm/whatever we use in each spec. It's a slight change but been waiting for this one forever now.Comment by JerhomieAs a Feral main I actually like the current form of Blood Talons. I don't play competitively, but I at least like the gameplay where you have to wait until the right moment to activate the buff. If that gameplay is maintained even if it's not Regrowth I'm fine with that. I don't like the sound of the new Blood Talons; it seems a bit reminiscent of the Monk combo thing which I don't like.

A bit of wishful thinking, I'd like Feral Charge to be baseline. In general, abilities we had that we have to talent into feel bad, at least for non-essential things like Charge. It feels like I get locked into a talent just to maintain what I already had which makes any new and exciting talents feel like a let down because I have to give up something to take it.

I'd also like Leader of the Pack or Mark of the Wild back, and I really liked Thorns in PvE again in BfA. I also think being able to use Moonfire in Cat form should be standard. Just to pull and have something to do with targets that stay far away. Tune it so it doesn't become part of the regular cat rotation but at least give us the option. Or alternatively, expand what abilities that can be used in cat form during Predatory Swiftness. We couldn't cast all spells in form all the time, but within the PS window we could have more options. So maybe we could cast a Rebirth in cat form as long as we used PS, or could weave in a Moonfire for an extra DoT.

One thing I hope they get rid of is Brutal Slash, either in general or having to use it for Single Target.

For Guardian, I haven't tanked much since MoP I think, and even then always only dungeons. My only feedback is that I find the current state of Bear boring to play, and haven't felt the want to go into it more. I like how Pulverise works to add an active gameplay loop to help with mitigation.that kind of thing is good, but might make tanking too complicated.

And I have no expeernce with Balance, but an idle thought I had was if Eclipse and all these new systems they make every expansion are so convoluted, what if they changed Moonkin to play more like a Red Mage from FF14. You would build up Lunar or Solar Energy with the appropriate spells, and if you had enough of both your Astral Spells would be enhanced. It's maybe too builder-spender for a lot of people drawn to Balance now, though. I just thought I'd mention it because I enjoy Red Mage but could never get into Balance for some reason, and I normally like casters.Comment by ZuduHonestly, if there aren't some serious modifiers from soulbinds, legendaries, etc, this new eclipse system is going to suck hard in cutting edge play. Currently it'll be wildly inconsistent, and you'll be forced to waste AP and surges just because you are relying on an RNG proc. I'tll probably perform fine damage wise, but it will feel terrible to play. To make this work, we need a reduced cooldown on CA (since 15% extra crit is ridiculously weak as a cooldown, and it's our only way to reliably proc Eclipses) AND something like Impeccable Fel Essence for extra reduction to the CA cooldown in play.Comment by NatPaggleIsaPOSSeems like good changes overall. I like the reduced ap generation to help with pooling. Also the buff to starfall is awesome! Now just please keep moonkins the way they are. They don't need a playstyle change for the 100th time!Comment by orca2017I'm playing bal.druid..still learning the spec..dont have a lot of exp playing druid all I know it's fun but I agree with the no Aoe..other than starfall which doesn't seem to really hit hard..Comment by SarthoriusPoint A: Keep the current Boomkin resource mechanic in BfA. It's the best we've had in-game in the last 15-16 years.

Point B: Bring back WoD Ferals. I want to hit hard, fast, and ANGRILY.

Point C: Give Guardian druids an anti-magic buff to their mastery. I don't mean Health, Armor, or Attack Power. I would like them to not be a joke once magic damage is introduced.

Point D: Resto is in a pretty good spot, keep them as is and add in some old missed spells. Bring back Mark of the Wild please (not as a dumb PVP-only talent).Comment by Infernoxax2. Make savage roar baseline (not a talent), Does not need to be 10% dmg increase, but this is an interesting ability to keep up! Adds to the rotation very nicely. Heck even 5% would be good enough imo.
Comment by AzraelUltimaAlso, I don't like the way that eclipses proc. In an AoE scenario it may not be that terrible since you dot up and build AP through a few quick Wraths and then you proc Lunar and put down Starfall. It's not ideal but not as terrible as single target where you may end up casting 5 2 second Starfires before you begin your rotation.

I would definitely like more control over eclipses and I think a simple fix could be that in order to proc an Eclipse you simply need to cast 3 same spells in a row. For example, if you want to proc a Solar Eclipse you cast 3 Starfires and there you go.againComment by christabelleThe eclipse mechanic isn't terrible, but could use a cooldown to force an eclipse phase-change; 1 minute cooldown? Minute thirty? If a mage gets a cooldown for fingers of frost, and such...why not something similar for balance druids? It's not a terrible step forward, but it could be refined!Comment by FluffytoothsAlso, I don't like the way that eclipses proc. In an AoE scenario it may not be that terrible since you dot up and build AP through a few quick Wraths and then you proc Lunar and put down Starfall. It's not ideal but not as terrible as single target where you may end up casting 5 2 second Starfires before you begin your rotation.couldComment by HorsdereI just want Mark of the Wild back, that's really all I wantComment by KahrganNo mention of sabertooth
No mention of the terrible utility balancing for feral
No mention of the loss of survival instincs for feal.

what in the f...Comment by GreySagebeen playing balance for several expansions now and it seems like every other expansion balance druids take a backseat to everything mechanics wise. Currently in BFA we have zero AOE.Comment by AeusNo mention of sabertooth
No mention of the terrible utility balancing for feral
No mention of the loss of survival instincs for feal.

what in the f...Comment by OrangewardenPoint A: Keep the current Boomkin resource mechanic in BfA. It's the best we've had in-game in the last 15-16 years.

Point B: Bring back WoD Ferals. I want to hit hard, fast, and ANGRILY.

Point C: Give Guardian druids an anti-magic buff to their mastery. I don't mean Health, Armor, or Attack Power. I would like them to not be a joke once magic damage is introduced.

Point D: Resto is in a pretty good spot, keep them as is and add in some old missed spells. Bring back Mark of the Wild please (not as a dumb PVP-only talent).Comment by mRshykidI was actually planning to play feral in shadowlands fml..Comment by cuyukostasPoint A: Keep the current Boomkin resource mechanic in BfA. It's the best we've had in-game in the last 15-16 years.

Point B: Bring back WoD Ferals. I want to hit hard, fast, and ANGRILY.

Point C: Give Guardian druids an anti-magic buff to their mastery. I don't mean Health, Armor, or Attack Power. I would like them to not be a joke once magic damage is introduced.

Point D: Resto is in a pretty good spot, keep them as is and add in some old missed spells. Bring back Mark of the Wild please (not as a dumb PVP-only talent).Comment by sudol89been playing balance for several expansions now and it seems like every other expansion balance druids take a backseat to everything mechanics wise. Currently in BFA we have zero AOE.Comment by VeltrexPoint A: Keep the current Boomkin resource mechanic in BfA. It's the best we've had in-game in the last 15-16 years.

Point B: Bring back WoD Ferals. I want to hit hard, fast, and ANGRILY.

Point C: Give Guardian druids an anti-magic buff to their mastery. I don't mean Health, Armor, or Attack Power. I would like them to not be a joke once magic damage is introduced.

Point D: Resto is in a pretty good spot, keep them as is and add in some old missed spells. Bring back Mark of the Wild please (not as a dumb PVP-only talent).Comment by justintalon22Druids are Blizzards favorite class by far. It's amazing the amount of special attention they get.

1 2 345