Unbearably HoT

There’s one thing in beta that I haven’t heard any Bear Druids complaining about: damage dealt. We’ve been handed a cornucopia of talents and multipliers that dramatically increase how hard we can hit it and for how long (i.e. Rage generation for dodging)—and who doesn’t like an animal who knows how to get it on strong? Maybe that’s another story. But Druids, by and large, have been concerned about surviving. This latest beta build pulls a few more tricks out of the developers’ hats, but doesn’t quite provide the security we wanted. I’ve divided the updates into three categories—damage dealing, survivability, and PVP—for ease of reading.

Hit It Like You Mean It (Damage)

• Shred: effects which increase Bleed damage also increase Shred damage.
• Maul: effects which increase Bleed damage also increase Maul damage.
• Faerie Fire (Feral): now deals damage and causes extra threat while in Bear form.
• Glyph of Swipe has been removed and has been replaced with Glyph of Maul, enabling Maul to hit two targets.

Briefly: none of these are negative changes. Anything that increase damage dealt increases our ability to aggressively hold aggro and therefore raises the threat cap your DPS have to manage. It’s pertinent to note that the language for Shred and Maul can be a little confusing—Shred and Maul are not becoming bleed effects (bleeding, remember, means damage over time) but rather have their damage boosted by effects that normally increase bleed damage (i.e. Mangle and potentially the Warrior Arm’s talent Trauma).

Faerie Fire is already a staple ability that generates a minute amount of threat, and converting it to a damage ability, however small, is a welcome addition to the TPS arsenal (and will certainly encourage some forgetful ferals to apply it).

I also don’t see the removal of the Swipe glyph as any sort of nerf. Swipe already hits 4 targets. Removing one and allowing us to utilize one of our largest threat/damage attacks on two targets is pretty stellar, in my opinion, even if Maul is a “next attack” spell (think: Heroic Strike).

Keep It Stronger Longer (Survivability)

• Barkskin: now usable in all forms.
• Predatory Instincts: reduces the damage taken by area of effect attacks by 3/6/9/12/15%.
• Improved Leader of the Pack: in addition, you gain 4% of your maximum mana when you benefit from an Improved Leader of the Pack heal.

The Barkskin change was already anticipated. No complaints here. I’m actually more excited about the change to Predatory Instincts, which I had finally decided to max out over Shredding Attacks. The previous Predatory Instincts offered a “chance” to avoid AOE; here, we’ve been given a 15% flat damage reduction from AOE. Marry that to the critical strike bonus, and I think we have a winner.

The Improved Leader of the Pack change is most definitely a survivability change—now, the entire raid group will receive a small mana refund every time they’re healed by LotP, reinforcing the reason you might want to take a Druid over another, similar raid buffer. Aren’t we the clever little fur-batteries?

4 Fite (PVP)

• Bash: now interrupts spell casts for 3 sec. and stuns for 4.
• Brutal Impact: now reduces the cooldown of Bash by 15/30 seconds in addition to its previous effect.
• Feral Charge (Cat): causes you to leap behind an enemy, dazing them for 3 seconds. 30 second cooldown.

Most of the changes affect Bash. I slotted these changes into a PVP section, because I fail to see how useful the spell interrupt function is in a PVE environment. Why? If you’re using Bash to stun a mob in PVE, you’re stunning it. If the mob is stunned for 4 seconds while simultaneously being silenced for 3, you’re already accomplishing the same purpose, right? In a PVP scenario, your target can immediately trinket out of Bash and find him or herself unable to counter immediately with a defensive or offensive spell. The cooldown reduction is obviously complimentary to this function.

What’s the difference between Cat and Bear Feral Charge? The cooldown and on-charge effect. In Bear Form, Feral Charge sits on a convenient 15 second cooldown and immobilizes and interrupts your target. In Cat Form, we now have a longer cooldown and a daze effect. A carefully timed Feral Charge in a PVP environment can considerably slow your target, and in some cases, increase the damage your comrades can deal to said target (i.e. a Warrior’s Heroic Strike, however useless in PVP, or a Hunter’s Steady Shot).

Blizzard is seemingly taking a few steps in the right directions in regards to Feral Combat, but will the survivability changes assuage the wary community?

For a brief analysis of the Restoration changes, check out the latest posts at Resto4Life and The Nyxes.

According to a recent blue Feral Q&A featured at MMO-Champion, Barkskin may now function as a “Shield Block” ability for Bears:

Please pass us some further details as to what other tanking talents/abilities we will be given to help cover the differences between feral tanking and humanoid tanking.
We have to be careful here. Our goal is to make sure all the tanks can do the job, so we want to make sure we don’t give druids an ability that will push them over the edge. Druids were really good tanks in BC, especially near the end of the content. I don’t feel that we are having to make up a huge deficit. I understand you want to have more buttons to push, but compared to BC you now have new cooldowns like Berserk and Barkskin, and some old groaners like Tiger’s Fury and Frenzied Regeneration actually do something cool now.

What! As of the latest beta build, Barkskin is a 12 second spell that reduces all damage taken by 20%. That includes Spell Damage, folks. Couple that with Protector of the Pack, and you can have a ~35% overall damage reduction for 12 seconds to get you through a few rough spots. A total solution to the Druid tanking shitstorm? Maybe not, but it’d be a nice addition if we don’t have to leave Dire Bear to cast it.

Compare to the new Shield Block (with a 1 minute cooldown).

I haven’t always raided on a druid. I mostly have. There was, however, a brief span of time soon after Burning Crusade’s release in which Awen’s guild leader decided we didn’t need a Feral Druid—we needed more Warriors. You know, those losers who stand around with cool weapons and shields. This, of course, necessitated that I bring my Fury specced Level 52 alt up to raiding standards in about a week and a half’s time and somehow become a tanking champion in less than that (that process, of course, was how I met Lycentia, and that is another story altogether). Obviously, I’ve since picked my Druid back up with a certain sort of zeal and never looked back. Until now.

I think raiders like Kalon, who have played every tanking class in the game, would agree that part of the fun in tanking on different characters is that they’re each inherently different. We all know that Warriors have primarily occupied the Main Tank role, that Paladins are the Kings and Queens of AOE tanking, and that Druids are pretty much the sexiest beasts to hit the scene. We all have our niches. Despite the obvious differences—Rage v. Mana, Giant Bear v. Corpsesled—each class has abilities that function with similar purposes. “Similar” is really the key word there: close enough to get the job done, but different enough that each has a class specific perk. Want examples? Sure!

How do tanks address issues where aggro has been transferred to a ranged player (whether by pulling or inadvertent proximity)? While certain stupidities warrant standing by and letting a retard or two die, there are reasonably quick ways in which tanks can get their shiny asses over to the errant mob in question:

Warrior
Intervene
Has an 8-25 yard range and enables the Warrior to “run at high speed towards a party member, intercepting the next melee or ranged attack made against them” and has a 30 second cooldown. 10 Rage.

Paladin
Righteous Defense
Has a 40 yard range and enables the Paladin to “come to the defense of a friendly target, commanding up to 3 enemies attacking the target to attack the Paladin instead” and has a 15 second cooldown. 4% of base mana.

Druid
Feral Charge
Has an 8-25 yard range and “causes you to charge an enemy, immobilizing and interrupting any spell being cast for 4 seconds” and has a 15 second cooldown. 5 Rage.

While Paladins clearly have the easiest job here—LOL I PUSH THIS BUTTON AND MONSTERS RUN OVER—each ability allows the tank to gain control over enemies at range to varying degrees of effectiveness. The Paladin and Warrior variations immediately remove a friendly player from harm, and Feral Charge gets you over there, potentially interrupts, and then requires a little finagling. Tanks might grumble a little about who has what, but ultimately, I think that most are fairly happy with what they’ve got. They chose their class, afterall.

Fast forward to Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard seeks to homogenize the tanking classes, level the playing field, and make sure that no one chooses a tank based on their class rather than their ability (which begs the question of why you’d roll one over another, but that’s another story). Druids clamored for a Last Stand ability because they essentially had no oh-shit buttons to push save trinkets and the woefully poor Frenzied Regeneration ability. They got it in the form of Berserk, and Blizzard tossed in the ability to use potions and items in animal forms. Great, right? At first glance, that starts putting us on even footing with the other tanks. But what did Warriors get?

Warbringer
A 41 point talent in the Protection tree that allows Charge to be used in combat, and in any stance. It’s basically Feral Charge—except it doesn’t cost Rage, it generates Rage. Warriors have thus gained an ability to increase their mobility outside the 30 second Intervene cooldown.

Enraged Regeneration
A level 75 Fury spell, Enraged Regeneration costs 15 Rage, operates on a 3 minute cooldown, and regenerates 30% of your total health over 10 seconds. The ability requires an Enrage effect, consumes all Enrage effects, and prevents any from affecting you for the full duration. Activate Bloodrage and win. Sound a little familiar? I thought so.

Improved Thunder Clap
This base Warrior ability “blasts nearby enemies increasing the time between their attacks by 10% for 30 seconds and doing 300 damage to them. Damage increased by attack power. This abilities causes additional threat and will affect up to four targets,” and can be augmented with 3/3 Improved Thunder Clap, which “reduces the cost of your Thunder Clap ability by 4 Rage points and increase the damage by 100% and the slowing effect by an additional 10%.”

I firmly believe that TC will become a staple damage ability for Warriors in much the same way that Swipe and Consecration work for Druids and Paladins respectively. We Druids were tickled by the idea of Infected Wounds, and here comes an improvement to the original that makes ours look pretty pitiful. Compare to the level 77 Swipe and Level 80 Consecration.

While there are precious few new Paladin abilities that even remotely resemble current Druid abilities, Paladins have picked up a familiar spell:

Shield of Righteousness
A Holy spell, Shield of Righteousness is learned at level 75 and “slams the target with your shield, causing Holy damage equal to 240% of your block value. This spell causes a high amount of threat.” Not only can Paladins chuck their shield ala Captain America, they can now punch people in the face with it. Warriors might recognize this as a spell damage based Shield Slam.

I haven’t even taken Death Knights into consideration here, and the above abilities are just a sampling. What’s your point, Runy? While on the surface many of these spells seem like welcome additions to any tank’s arsenal, I’m left wondering what modicum of uniqueness we’ll be left with. I stare at my outdated Warrior and wonder why I’m trying to play my Druid in the expansion when my Warrior will be given my Druid’s tools—and then some. I carefully examine the Paladin Protection tree and marvel at the solid base of talents to choose from, and find myself mentally transforming my Holy Paladin into a tank. I’m not excited about any of the Druid changes anymore, and I think it’s because some of them feel so familiar.

In a move that will likely bore raiders to tears and appease the raving masses, Blizzard seeks to make tanking more accessible by increasing damage dealt and handing each class a similar skillset (with Druids currently holding the short end of the branch…er…stick). How difficult will it be when we can all push the EZ buttons and win? Will tanking really require any sort of acumen anymore? Are Druids going to be the biggest challenge? I wonder. Think about applying Blizzard’s approach to sex: everyone gets the same moves and you’ve got to choose the best one when they’re all doing the same thing. Do you really want the Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’am-One-Trick-Pony every day? It sure gets the job done, right? Does that make it good?

Streamlining doesn’t always make things better; sometimes it’s just “efficient.”

With the impending Feral changes, Blizzard’s desire to homogenize the tanking crew, and unsolved itemization fears lurking sixty days out, I took comfort knowing that the armor I worked so hard for would provide a safety net. A week ago, however, MMO-Champion announced that Blizzard changed already existing Paladin and Warrior armor in beta to account for game mechanic changes. Soon after, I wrote up an article detailing why I thought similar changes would be devastating for the seemingly unrealized Feral Druid class. I perused the diatribe multiple times, decided it sounded too negative, even for me, and slid it to the side.

There’s no need to tell me the obvious: T6 won’t last forever. I don’t cling to any illusions that T6 will be viable for extended lengths of time, but even pre-BC endgame gear provided a substantial leg up into Burning Crusade content—well into Karazhan, in fact. Maybe not for Feral Druids. 

I hate to point out the obvious, but we used to function as primary tanks at Burning Crusade’s release. Once Blizzard discovered that Druids were occupying the coveted “main tank” position with enormous health pools as fresh 70s,  that Mangle was only slightly overpowered, and that they’d conveniently forgotten to scale Warrior’s threat generating abilities for Level 70, Druids were swiftly kicked back to #2. Our particular niche has always been a little indecisive, the subject of many tweaks, tunings, and nerfs, and once again, Blizzard has decided we need to move back to #1 (conveniently forgetting that Druids do MT much of Burning Crusade’s endgame content). Does that necessitate that we change our currently implemented gear as well?

Blizzard thinks so. I admittedly haven’t been on the PTR yet, but according to the WoW Forums, all bonus armor from Druid items has been removed. For comparison’s sake, let’s take a look at the Heavy Clefthoof Vest we know and love for entry level tanking as it stands now:

Burning Crusade

Heavy Clefthoof Vest
Binds when equipped
Chest
500 Armor
+45 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Yellow Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +4 Dodge Rating
Equip: Increases defense rating by 24. 

On the PTR:

Heavy Clefthoof Vest
Binds when equipped
Chest
290 Armor
+45 Stamina
Yellow Socket
Yellow Socket
Blue Socket
Socket Bonus: +4 Dodge Rating
Additional +15 Dodge Rating (not AGI, Dodge)

Defense rating becomes irrelevant. The change to Dodge Rating over Agility is less than obvious, but may be explained as the need to scale back a Druid’s ability to stack AGI like a champ and gain an extraordinary amount of defensive and offensive stats all at once. So why does WotLK gear stack AGI in spades then? Consider this:

At Level 70, Druids need approximately 19.5 AGI to equal 1% Dodge.
At Level 80, Druids need approximately 40.5 AGI to equal 1% Dodge. 

Potentially, straight up Dodge Rating might earn you more initial benefits (for avoidance) than a similar amount of AGI. Thus, our armor and AGI scaling will be much, much similar to a Warrior’s and a Paladin’s—but we’ll remain unable to Block and Parry. What does this have to do with the nerf to our Burning Crusade armor? I have a feeling that the developers will be forced to address the Block and Parry “issue” at some point in the near future, especially if they want to streamline tank classes. 

While I admit that a flat 12%-15% damage reduction (from Protector of the Pack) coupled with our current armor and avoidance would feel a tad overpowered (nevermind adding Natural Reaction into the equation), I’m still not convinced that 12%-15% equals the combined defensive stats of Block and Parry. Essentially, while Blizzard dicks around trying to balance tanks, we’re potentially sitting in gimped armor that we had hoped would get us through the rough spots. 

What does this mean for the upcoming content patch? Maybe nothing. Blizzard might not implement any itemization changes until Wrath actually goes live, and there will be absolutely zero to worry about (other than going down like a paper sack). What if the itemization changes and boss abilities remain the same? Say goodbye to tanking until WotLK. Worrisome? Perhaps, but how much tanking are you be planning on doing between mid October and early November? To be fair to Blizzard (for once) I can’t imagine that they’d implement those kinds of itemization changes pre WotLK and rob Bears of their raid slots. I think there’ll be enough chaos. 

Regardless, even changing our current armor stats day one in Wrath of the Lich King forces all Druids to start from scratch; there’s no familiarity territory to fall back on. I can only speculate what will replace the bonus armor and Defense rating on all my rings, necklaces, and trinkets—especially because Warriors and Paladins still use some similar items. Dodge rating? Agility? Expertise? The magical ability to Block and Parry attacks? I’d start reevaluating rings and trinkets especially, and consider replacing (NOT vendoring) standbys such as:

Rings (listed in order of easiest to obtain to most difficult):

A’dal’s Signet of Defense

Violet Signet of the Great Protector

Band of the Eternal Defender (great, if you want STA, an on-equip bonus, and a multitude of other stats that will be useless to you)

Ring of Hardened Resolve (the Expertise and STA is great, but the other stats are a waste)

Trinkets (listed in order of easiest to obtain to most difficult):

Badge of Tenacity

Shadowmoon Insignia (Defense rating, yes, but also Dodge rating and an on-use effect, which still make it useful)

with items bearing stats with a little more longevity (i.e. not just Defense rating and Bonus Armor):

Rings (listed in order of easiest to obtain to most difficult):

Ring of the Stalwart Protector (has Bonus Armor, but also Dodge and STA)

Band of the Eternal Champion (STA, AGI, AP—might want to go exchange your old one)

Band of the Abyssal Lord (has Defense Rating, but also STA and Hit Rating)

Stormrage Signet Ring (STA, Hit rating, AP, Armor Ignore)

Trinkets (listed in order of easiest to obtain to most difficult):

Shard of Contempt 

Commendation of Kael’thas

Moroes’ Lucky Pocket Watch

Steely Naaru Sliver

Many of you probably use some of the above items already, but for those folks who don’t make a point in stockpiling extra gear, you might want to start. Here’s to hoping that Blizzard has the foresight to slide some useful stats in there to fill in the gaps. 

Note: Supposedly the bonus armor is only being removed from leather items. If that’s the case, great! I still recommend getting ahold of any extra set pieces you can put your paws on, and remember that DEF rating will still be a (mostly) useless stat. 

As it seems that nearly everyone I know has now received a beta key after the last wave of invitations, it only seems appropriate that I readdress Feral Combat talents in WotLK. After teleporting back and forth from Valiance Keep to Moonglade, I’ve finally settled on a build that I feel provides the most security and the best opportunity for bear threat generation—at least, for now.

I’m still a little confused as to where the real differentiation between bears and cats lies; while there are talents geared specifically for tanks (Natural Reaction, Protector of the Pack, etc.), there still aren’t any new talents for cats. King of the Jungle? Maybe, because I’d argue that the bonus use effect of Tiger’s Fury is much more useful than bonus use effect of Enrage. Rend and Tear superficially looks like a talent geared more toward cats, but since when has Ferocious Bite been useful for anything beyond leveling?

As such, I feel that you can currently utilize one build for tanking and moderate DPSing. The pictured talent build is essentially what I’d like to be using at 80. All PH NYI (place holder, not yet implemented) talents are now “live” on beta, and it’s pertinent to note that the talent “Mother Bear” has been renamed to the slightly less Disney “Protector of the Pack”. Talent choices that I felt warranted a discussion or at least mentions have been highlighted in red squares. Moving from top to bottom, left to right:

Naturalist
I’m still amazed that this talent is lurking in the Restoration tree. While many talent choices in the Feral Combat tree augment specific feral abilities under certain circumstances, Naturalist simply boosts damage by 10% in all forms—no strings attached. More damage landing means threat generated by your bear, and you have the added (albeit largely unnecessary) bonus of a talented-down Healing Touch. Jawesome.

Shredding Attacks
Note that I left this staple talent out in the final round. This is a key talent that I’d make a point in taking if I was planning solely on DPSing, and even though it also reduces the Rage cost of Lacerate, I have thus far never found myself in a Rage-starved-situation where I ended up wishing I’d taken it. I would much rather drop two points into Savage Fury and guarantee myself an additional 20% damage caused by our two largest threat multipliers, Maul and Mangle (in Bear).

Protector of the Pack
I’d like to reiterate that the old placeholder talent “Mother Bear” has been renamed to “Protector of the Pack”. While I’m still not thrilled at the damage reduction based on party members, you can’t dispute that a 12-15% overall damage reduction is a huge boon to Bear’s who normally have no way to mitigate spell damage, and who will, in the expansion, have far less armor than we’re used to. Couple the 12-15% damage reduction with a 60% Dire Bear damage increase, and you has absolutely no excuse to not take this talent.

Predatory Instincts & Rend and Tear
I originally wasn’t sure if the 10% base Maul damage bonus from Rend and Tear would win out over a 10% base damage bonus from all critical strikes. I realize at first glance that it seems like common sense: yes, having a critical strike damage multiplier for all attacks is fabulous and much better than augmenting one ability (as with Rend and Tear). The idea, however, was that the bonus from Predatory Instincts relied on a Critical Strike occurring, and that Rend and Tear’s additional 10% damage added to Maul (on bleeding targets) was a constant. In Beta, Maul really is where we start seeing some huge numbers and it plays a far more integral role in a normal tanking rotation than it used to. For now, however, I’m sticking to Predatory Instincts and also finding comfort in the 15% chance to avoid area effects.

Infected Wounds
I wasn’t initially sold on this talent. There was a lot of speculation regarding whether or not it would actually affect boss level mobs, but in lower level instances at the very least, it certainly applies. This talent is great. Your mainstays of Maul and Mangle can apply this debuff in stacks of two, reducing the target’s movement speed by 25% and attack speed by 10%. Sure, it only lasts for 12 seconds, but if you’re constantly reapplying Mangle and Maul, it never drops off. Compare this to a Warrior’s Thunder Clap at Level 80:

“Blasts nearby enemies increasing the time between their attacks by 10% for 30 sec. and doing 300 damage to them. Damage increased by attack power. This ability causes additional threat and will affect multiple targets.”

Although taking 3/3 Improved Thunder Clap blows IW out of the metaphorical water, Bears have essentially been provided with a single target Thunder Clap coupled with a Hamstring ability, something we never had before.

Everything else is a no-brainer. Berserk is especially awesome (when you remember that you have it), Feral Aggression is still mostly unnecessary, and we’ve also been granted the ability to use any item, potion, or stone while in any shapeshifted form. Things are almost looking up, but with Paladin and Warrior Protection trees growing increasingly more solid, it’s tempting to make the switch.

If you have any questions or just want to discuss what’s up, feel free to contact me.