Feral Druid nerf on the PTR, revert it.

#0 - Oct. 24, 2009, 7:56 a.m.

the predatory strikes nerf is too severe, please revert the change.

Predatory Strikes: The Predatory Swiftness buff from this talent now has a 5-second duration

the way you implemented the PS change was a very solid buff to ferals performance, allowing us to have vastly easier access to our control spells as feral, the buff is particularly powerful in my opinion because you can choose when to use the proc. you can time your cyclone to interrupt the opposing teams burst attempts, or you can cyclone the healer at just the right time when your own team is going for a kill.

this nerf to its duration will severely impact the use of the proc/cyclone, forcing us to use the proc pretty much right after we get it, severely limiting its usefulness and our ability to time a cyclone when we really need it. a 5 second duration means that wer use a global on a finisher attack, and by the time the global is over so that we can use the cyclone we have 3.5 seconds to decide what to use the cyclone on and launch the spell. this is absolutely unneseccary. i understand the buff was very long, but 5 seconds is much to horribly short, if anything nerf it to ten, but honestly ferals in pvp are so rare that i really dont think this is where your attention should be right now

why is this nerf even being considered or suggested by anyone on the developement team? feral representation is poor in every bracket, and there are barely any gladiator-range feral druids in any bracket this season in comparison to any other class/spec, as far as im aware its the lowest represented spec in the game actually, i've personally run into probably 3 other ferals druids in gladiator ranges in my ENTIRE career of this game

please use your time on something other then nerfing an already under represented and rarely seen spec, there really is no reason for this, and it gets tiring to watch you guys nerf feral every time we get semi-close to viable just because people complain about it being op because they are seeing it for the first time

#104 - Oct. 25, 2009, 9:41 p.m.

We made the change to discourage a very specific form of gameplay. Specifically, this was:

1. Get the proc, but don't use it.
2. Build up 5 more cps on the target.
3. Now Cyclone before you do another finishing move.
4. Let your energy fill to full.
5. As soon as the Cyclone ends, unleash a huge Ferocious Bite with 5 cps and full energy.

Aside from the very high damage of an almost unpreventable Ferocious Bite, this way of using the proc worked counter to what we were trying to encourage. It's often easy for melee classes to get tunnel vision and just unleash every attack on the same target rather than switching targets or otherwise responding to what is going on in the fight. We'd rather see the proc get used to Cyclone say a healer or someone chasing your teammates.

In short, the intent was to give cats more team utility, not to give them a delivery mechanism for guaranteed full Ferocious Bites. With this change it will be risky or impossible to sit on the proc for long.