*But Were Afraid to Ask
Today’s sojourn into the wide, wide world of Feral Druid Talents takes us down to Resto-City, where the leaves are green and the talents are pretty. Well…some of them are pretty. Unfortunately, with how they’re currently implemented, I believe some of them fail to earn the Blizz-O-Vision® seal of approval. Let’s take a closer look:
Tier 1: Blessing of the Grove (2), Natural Shapeshifter (3), Furor (3)
Blessing of the Grove (2) is a talent crafted using the new talent tree vision.
Increases the healing done by your Rejuvenation by 4% (2% per point), the direct damage of your Moonfire by 6% (3% per point) and the damage done by your Claw and Shred by 4% (2% per point).
It isn’t too deep in the tree so can be picked up by all four specs (boom, tree, kitty, bear) and is helpful to 3 of the 4. It’s passive, easy to understand and gives a fairly nice bang for the talent point. Rejuvenation, Moonfire and Shred are all used extensively by each of the three specs the talent is geared toward. Claw… notsomuch for ferals. When it’s on your action bar, other ferals look askance at you and pick you last for dodge ball. Ferals won’t be able to pick it up until a minimum of level 70 so should know what they’re doing by then. In terms of the new design philosophy, it’s spot on and earns a review of two claws up!
Natural Shapeshifter (3) is a talent that has some serious issues. If you like math or want to see a detailed breakdown of why I believe it is a poor talent, continue reading. If not, here’s the summary: It should be taken behind Farmer Saldean’s house for the Old Yeller treatment.
Reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifting by 30% (10% per point).
It’s a tier one talent that’s helpful to all 4 specs since it makes shifting cheaper. It too is passive and easy to understand…but how useful is it? Is it really worth 1, 2, or 3 talent points? To help the evaluation process and ease of understanding, I’ve made some handy dandy charts. These use the base mana data numbers from www.wowwiki.com and average spellcasting stats by spec information from armorydatamining.appspot.com (armorydatamine.wordpress.com has the actual written blog). The data mined Druid information has a sample size of 60,129 Druids from EU & US servers. This data is from Live rather than Cataclysm but is still quite useful for illustrative purposes. I apologize if numbers aren’t your thing. They’re far from my favorite thing in the universe but unfortunately are necessary. You can click here to skip to the conclusion but then you miss all the pretty charts and such. PS: [Thank you Lissanna of Restokin for helping me with data collection!]
A quick overview of mana, spellcasting, and shapeshifting:
- Base Mana: How much mana a character has based on their class [per level] before enchants, stats, items or talents.
- Spellcasting: All spell costs are a percentage of base mana.
- Moonkin, Travel, Tree, Flight Form: 13% base
- Bear & Cat Form: 35% base on Live, 5% base on Cataclysm
- The cool thing: The act of shapeshifting frees the caster of Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects. This is also why we can’t have shifting off of the global cooldown like stances for a warrior.
As you can see, the difference in average total mana diverges quite a bit at high level (59+). The difference at 80 is exacerbated by Ferals having zero Intellect on their gear (aside from +10 Stats to Chest & Nightmare Tear) while Balance and Resto Druids have lots on their epic goodies. Given that the stats on gear in Cataclysm are going to increase significantly at 81+ to give an “epic” feel to the 81-85 game, this divergence is going to accelerate.
This next chart uses the level 80 base mana, average mana by class and talent points spent in Natural Shapeshifter to show how much mana shapeshifting uses as a % of total average mana (yeesh, that’s a lot of manah manahs).
It’s very nice that Cataclysm reduces the cost to shift to Feral form to 5% of base mana. This brings it in line with the % of total mana that Moonkin and Trees use when shifting. Right now in Live, Ferals can’t shift much before their mana goes bye bye. It appears that problem is going to mostly go away in Cataclysm with the 30% reduction in base cost for Feral forms.
The number of times is based on the average mana table above. The Moonkin & Tree numbers are based on Live. In Cataclysm, they’ll be able to shift into kitty/bear form roughly 100 times before they’d ever run out of mana… and that’s not even counting their mana regen. Speaking of mana regen… let’s see what the future holds for ferals in Cataclysm:
In Live, ferals have no mana regen during the 5 second rule. Cata ferals will have zero mana regen in combat. Yes, I know what some of you are thinking. Mana? Mana? We don’t need no stinking mana! Unfortunately, yes we do. Non-druids generally think we don’t cast spells since we’re in feral forms. There are exceptions for things like Innervating a healer or the occasional Rebirth for those who think Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” has gameplay tips on where to stand.
Ferals, particularly those who are PvP inclined, know all about casting while in feral forms. Melee DPS doesn’t happen when you can’t reach your target and the “frees the caster of Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects” is our savior. With our miniscule amount of mana in Live, it’s easy to run out as we only have enough mana to shift 5-9 times before the meter hits empty. This can be particularly frustrating when shifting into bear form repeatedly to get 10 rage courtesy of a non-100% Furor. Predatory Strikes is a talent that actually encourages spellcasting by giving cats more team utility. Using Predatory Strikes can be dangerous though if you cast higher mana cost spells like Healing Touch which use roughly 15% of a level 80 feral’s total mana per cast. Being stuck in caster form without enough mana to shift into bear or kitty is quite the social faux pas.
Improved Leader of the Pack on Live and Leader of the Pack on Cata help mitigate this via the gaining 8% of max mana on crits, up to a maximum of once every 6 seconds (only at level 39 when you can first get it in Cata). That’s great for when you’re already in feral form. In a situation where you’re out of mana and stuck in caster form…notsomuch.
All of this has been to answer the question, is it a useful talent? Is it worth spending 3 (of the 41 you get) talent points into it? The spec type that can most use it is Feral since our mana pool and regen is so tiny. We can’t even put 1 point into it until level 70. That’s not very helpful for leveling. Below is a chart showing how much mana is saved per shift per talent point.
It’s not much. Spending 3 of 41 talent points to be able to save 53 mana on a shift is… not very fun, not very helpful and I believe not in line with Blizzard’s vision for Cataclysm talents. It seriously has a lack of “Concentrated Coolness”. Natural Shapeshifter is a relic from a bygone age that now only serves as filler to raise the cost of Master Shapeshifter to 4 talent points.
Here’s my proposed solution that ties in with specializations: Remove the cost of shifting when shifting into the forms of your specialization. This would promote shifting in and out of your primary forms (A stated goal of Blizzard for Cataclysm) without worry of loss of mana. One goal of Cataclysm is to make mana meaningful so it’s much harder to come by. Free shifts would primarily benefit ferals as we wouldn’t find ourselves in situations where we are stuck in caster form (and completely useless). Shifting at no cost would also make Predatory Strikes more attractive. The proc in Cataclysm, coming right after a finishing move, lasts 5 seconds which gives cats 3.5 seconds after the global cooldown to decide to use it or not. If you do cast your instant spell, you’ll expend the cost of your spell + the cost of shifting back to cat. With our zero/low mana regen, this gets expensive quickly. Moonkin could cast heals when it’s needed since they could shift back into Moonkin form without feeling they’d wasted mana.
Since Natural Shapeshifter is no longer necessary, remove it and replace it in tier one of the tree with Master Shapeshifter (would become a 2 point talent, 1% each ).
PS: Please feel free to chime in if there is any place my math is off. Here is the excel file I created to help me figure out all the math.
Furor (3) is a talent that I think should be removed from the game…at least, in its current form.
Gives you 60% (20% per point) chance to gain 10 Rage when you shapeshift into Bear Form, and you keep up to 60 (20 per point) of your Energy when you shapeshift into Cat Form, and increases your total Intellect while in Moonkin form by 6% (2% per).
In Live, Furor(5) can get to 100% /100 energy /10% for the low, low cost of 2 more talent points. I’m hoping that, at a minimum, Furor (Cataclysm) gets changed to a 33/66/100 format.
Brief Aside: Patch 3.1.0 nerfed the stamina gain from Heart of the Wild by 10% while buffing Improved Mark of the Wild to have the 2% stat gain. A large number of ferals took 2 points from Furor and put it into Improved Mark of the Wild (see spots 2-4 of the most popular builds). That left a lot of bears having to shift repeatedly into bear form to get the 10 rage. This is not fun, especially when you run out of mana after the 5th time and have to sit and drink or innervate yourself to shift back into bear.
Furor is an odd talent when examined with Cataclysm Blizz-O-Vision. It’s passive; that’s good for top tier talents to be easy to understand. It helps 3 of the 4 specs, also a plus. Bears go to 10 rage when they shift which allows us to charge in. Cats can shift to other forms without losing every bit of energy they have. What spec does it not help? Resto. What tree is it in? Resto. Hmm…
Having said that, I do not believe the correct answer is moving it to the Feral talent tree. I believe it should come “baked in” to the appropriate specializations. The primary reason for this is leveling feral druids. Cataclysm has the goal of making the early game friendlier to players by giving each class the tools they need for leveling and reducing downtime (e.g.: Recuperate for rogues).
Feral druids leveling in Cataclysm will have access to Leader of the Pack for healing but not until level 39. Until then, they have to bandage or shift out of feral form. This will cause their energy and rage to go to zero. They have gear with no intellect and have little to no spellpower so must use up a lot of mana in healing themselves. When the feral shifts back to bear or cat, the druid will still have zero rage/energy. This is not giving leveling ferals the tools they need to succeed or reduce downtime. This situation does not change until level 71, when they could put their first point into Furor. That’s a long time to go before getting to keep energy between forms.
The coming Cataclysm is the perfect opportunity to incorporate furor into the specializations for druids. Restoration druids get Meditation for specializing which lets them regenerate mana while in combat. Druids specializing in Balance get Dreamstate which gives them a resource regeneration ability that’s always on. Let Feral druids get 100% Furor that’s always on. This will make Feral leveling so much more enjoyable and it fits right in with the other specialization’s resource regeneration abilities. We can actually be shape shifters who use our forms as needed.
Tier 2: Perseverance (5), Master Shapeshifter (1), Improved Rejuvenation (3)
Perseverance(5) is a talent that’s great for all specs that want to reduce their spell damage.
Reduces all spell damage taken by 10%. (2% per point).
This is nice for PvPers, Bears, and kitties that want to stay alive. Nice bang for the buck and fairly easy for all specs to reach. I approve.
Master Shapeshifter(1) is a talent that’s great for all specs that want to increase damage or healing.
Grants an effect which lasts while the Druid is within the respective shapeshift form.
Bear Form – Increases physical damage by 2%.
Cat Form – Increases critical strike chance by 2%.
Moonkin Form – Increases spell damage by 2%.
Tree of Life/Caster Form – Increases healing by 2%.
Another great talent that’s easy to get to for all the specs… except for that whole 3 talent points into Natural Shapeshifter thing. Replace Natural Shapeshifter with this talent and make it cost 2 points and I think it’s golden. For a 4 point talent… not too sure if it’s worth it for 4/41 talent points.
Improved Rejuvenation(3) is a talent that isn’t feral and I’m not qualified to speak on. Please visit these great Druid blogs for informed opinions on actual Resto-spec talents, abilities & etc.:
Thanks for reading and sorry for criting you with a [Wall of Text]!
