More Feral changes

[Warlock]

Many threads on the official forums right now regarding a new beta build, particularly the Druid forum. Highlights include:

Weapon procs in feral forms (including totem buffs).
Use of consumables in forms
Warden Staff replacement
Shred cost reduced (with talent) and buffed by Mangle
Mangle improved slightly

These are not personally confirmed but sound real to me.

I've had a quick look for posts from other classes too. Rogues are getting a stealthed intercept at 41 Sub, replacing Cloak of Shadows which is now trainable. I haven't seen reports of anything else significant.

[oldmandennis]

Weapon procs in feral forms (including totem buffs).

Wow, about time.

[Concillian]

Rogues are getting a stealthed intercept at 41 Sub, replacing Cloak of Shadows which is now trainable. I haven't seen reports of anything else significant.

Holy PvP buff Batman!

[Kevin]

Holy PvP buff Batman!

The cloak of "kill the caster" is now trainable? Yeah, no clothy will ever even get lucky vs a rogue anymore. I used to to at least have some chance of getting them with a seduce, wait for whatever stun to wear off, get some DoTs up, fear, nuke, coil, fear, nuke. Sometimes that would work if the trinket was in CD and I hadn't been numbed/crippled etc. Now with 10 seconds of essentially being invulnerable to anything caster can do I won't have a chance.

[Quark]

The cloak of "kill the caster" is now trainable? Yeah, no clothy will ever even get lucky vs a rogue anymore. I used to to at least have some chance of getting them with a seduce, wait for whatever stun to wear off, get some DoTs up, fear, nuke, coil, fear, nuke. Sometimes that would work if the trinket was in CD and I hadn't been numbed/crippled etc. Now with 10 seconds of essentially being invulnerable to anything caster can do I won't have a chance.

First off, 5 seconds. Second off, this is the exact type of trade off we'd been asking for in PvP. Rogues are half reliant on burst damage and half reliant on cooldowns in PvP. Cooldowns didn't change at all, and burst damage is seeing a significant nerf in that HP is going up dramatically and armor for all items has increased.

What I'm interested in is the remove effects. I know in the last patch it wasn't working at all. I'm wondering if it'll be selectable while not in control of your character (like the Insignia breaking fear/poly). The two differences are pretty dramatic there.

[Watto44]

Many threads on the official forums right now regarding a new beta build, particularly the Druid forum. Highlights include:

Weapon procs in feral forms (including totem buffs).
Use of consumables in forms
Warden Staff replacement
Shred cost reduced (with talent) and buffed by Mangle
Mangle improved slightly

These are not personally confirmed but sound real to me.

I've had a quick look for posts from other classes too. Rogues are getting a stealthed intercept at 41 Sub, replacing Cloak of Shadows which is now trainable. I haven't seen reports of anything else significant.

Some of the best news that feral druids could hear really. The change to mangle is exceptional news for raid kitties, and it will be absolutely brilliant for our furry tank friends to be able to replace their warden staff. Weapons proccing in forms will also be pretty amazing given some of the new (and not so new) enchants that are emerging.

I would still dearly love to see the "feral attack power" stat replaced with a genuine mechanic that altered the druid's damage based on the weapon's DPS. That would absolutely make my day. I'm still over the moon about these changes though. :w00t:

Now perhaps oldmandenis will get his affordable housing somewhere in Zangarmarsh.:)

PS. While I'm at it.... *cough*feline swiftness*cough cough*make it work indoors*cough*please*splutter* :shuriken:

[oldmandennis]

Now perhaps oldmandenis will get his affordable housing somewhere in Zangarmarsh.:)

I'm sorry, I don't catch your reference.

[Watto44]

I'm sorry, I don't catch your reference.

Hehe, understandable. It was a throw away line made some time ago. But here's the reference anyway.:)

I am living in a dream world where weapons will proc in forms, which I expect to be quashed shortly.

Mind you, I am also living in a world where the feral attack power bandaid was removed and weapon DPS and speed had some affect on feral damage.

/dreamy sigh. What a beautiful world it is.

Tell me more about this dream world. Is there development oppertunities, preferably with low money down?

http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/index.p...wtopic=8518&hl=

[oldmandennis]

Ahh, I remember it now.

I sortof see your point about having actual weapon DPS affect ferals, but it's not clear to me that it's better. The question is do you want a smaller number of items to be exclusive to you, or do you want access to a larger number of items, but have to squabble over them with warriors, rogues, hunters, and shaman? There are more options for feral dps in the expansion - I searched and found 19 items, though many were green items with no other stat.

Still WTB feral offhand.

[Watto44]

Still WTB feral offhand.

Still no [Tome of Knowledge II: The Smartening!]? Bummer.:(

I should have clarified my statement about feral attack power. My original quibble with FAP (not voiced here, only in old guild chat/forums) was that it further reduced the number of viable options available to feral druids. (After all, who wants to spend their time/dkp on iPoints that they will never get any benefit from.) At that time why I wanted procs and weapon based DPS was to break open the number of weapons a feral druid could go out and search for. The fact that you found 19 odd weapons makes that point pretty much redundant.:)

As for whether or not it's better... I must admit that I haven't done my research of FAP in the xpac. I had heard that it was going to cost item points. If that's so, then I would say it's better as it will make those items less beneficial to other classes. If it FAP continues to be a free stat, then there is little difference between a DPS based system and a stat based one other than being more restrictive. After all, End of Dreams is a rocking weapon for several classes, not just druids.:)

Either way, I'll finally get to see my TUF proc again! (I's procced for me about twice in the many, many months that I've been farming with it. And on that note, the proc will probably make it worth ditching my timeworn mace for pvp. Until I find a tasty green item that is.:D)

[Warlock]

Druid buffs continue with reports of:

Improved Insect Swarm damage
Improved Starfire eliminates Barkskin casting speed penalty (I'm sure this talent will be renamed)
Dire Bear armour improved from 360% to 450%
Dire Bear health changed from flat bonus to +40%
Feline Swiftness gives dodge in Bear form
Nurturing Instinct permanent
Improved Moonfire now 2 point talent
30 min OoC duration

The big one to me is the Bear changes. More health, more armour and more dodge makes a better tank.

[Warlock]

Finally got onto the PTR today (so a somewhat older build than the current beta - eg. I-LOTP is still 6% but Bear doesn't have the armour or health improvements). I didn't have much time so I just went Stone Guardian farming (since they're reasonably tough and I've fought them plenty before so have a good basis for comparison).

The Warrior is substantially better than in live, ending fights with a comfortable margin of safety without using cooldowns, consumables or a great deal of care (they are soloable on live for me but not so easily). Using rage defensively (shield block & revenge spam) I'd end at around half life, using offensively (shield slam) I'd end with around a quarter but after a shorter fight. Both approaches stacked sunders early then used Devastate as needed to keep the stack.

The Druid improvements are more dramatic - without leaving bear form a single SG would leave me with about 75% health. Mangle(bear) in particular is very impressive and certainly worthy of it's 41 point position. I wasn't (quite) able to take down two SG's at once in bear, but it's close - close enough that another try with a starting HOT and a brief shift to heal did the job.

Swipe is also much better than on live - in my tanking gear my Swipe does 109 to deeprun rats on live and 139 on the PTR; naked I get similar numbers to live. So the scaling is quite fast - around 10 AP per +1 unmitigated damage. Can't wait to try it out with a +Feral AP weapon.