Class:
Druid (WotLK)
Author:
ionas (View all Talent Tree's from this user)
Title:
WotLK - 8770 - Modified Feral Talents
Author's comment (hide):
[i][u][b](Suggestion) Making Feral Combat a viable PvE and PvP Tree[/b][/u][/i]
[u][b]Table of Contents[/b][/u]
[ul]
[li]Introduction[/li]
[li]Summary and Intentions[/li]
[li]Example Builds[/li]
[li]Suggested Changes - by Trees and Tiers[/li]
[li]Conclusions[/li]
[/ul]
[b][u]Introduction[/u][/b]
I did some work on Feral (and relating Restoration and Balance) talents. Every change has some intention behind it.
Wryxian, Vaneras, Ghostcrawler, Koraa and other employees, if you are reading this - make sure you take a look at the [i]Example Builds[/i] and then skip to [i]Suggested Changes - by Trees and Tiers[/i] Even if not nearly anything off all of these suggestions make it to Beta, maybe you get creative insights from one or another.
This was literally [i][u]HOURS[/u][/i] (I mean like a half of a day) of work. [i]Please consider just to read it, will you?[/i].
Generally: you should really look at the talent trees to get an idea - much faster than reading this wall of text. Basically the text goes in detail with each suggested change.
I am sorry if my English is not the best, not my native language.
[u][b]Summary and Intentions[/b][/u]
Basically I aimed for these goals:
[ul]
[li]Add more fun to Feral![/li]
[li]Allow to do tanking and DPS and PvP with all specs, but with bad efficiency[/li]
[li]Streamline Feral PvP related talents[/li]
[li]Enable different specs for different jobs[/li]
[li]Add choice but not too much[/li]
[/ul]
There are a few new talents but most talents have their original intention and have changed only slightly. New talents are:
[ul]
[li][b]Moon Claws[/b]: A talent to fix long drain game Feral mana issues.[/li]
[li][b]Strong Paws[/b]: The PvE Bear features of Feral Instinct and Shredding Attacks[/li]
[li][b]Feral Fenzy[/b]: A new Feral Combat ability that allows to mitigate 10% magical damage but lets you take 5% more physical damage[/li]
[li][b]Nature's Call[/b]: This is a non Feral-centric ability, which should allow Moonkins to do emergency/off-spec Healing. In 25 people raids this should allow you to bring one healer less (or 1 Balance and 1 Restoration Druid instead of 2 Restoration Druids)[/li]
[/ul]
[u][b]Example Builds[/b][/u]
[ul]
[li]PvE 5 Man Tank A:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n52123503303212125302113021305105202h#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvE 5 Man Tank B:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n520234033032101253c113011305135202301e#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvE Raid Main-Tank:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n523203033032121253021130113051152023g#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvE Raid Off-Tank A:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n52020503323212125302113121315105202h#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvE Raid Off-Tank B:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n520205c323212115300113021315135202301e#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvE Cat/DPS:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n520205c323222025310113321305135202h#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvP Build A (Survivial):
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=601l5c23510323222125312113021305105202h#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvP Build B (Burst):
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=601l5c20513323222125310113311305105202h#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvP Build C (Control):
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6014303h5c232103232101253121133213001052j#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]Allround Build:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=601l5c23510303212125312113221315105202h#treeheader1[/u] [/ul]
Now, Ghostcrawler/Koraa, show me these many USEFUL variations based on the current talent trees - now! ;-).
[u][b]Suggested changes[/b][/u]
[i]General[/i]
1. [b]Redesign the upper tiers[/b] of Balance, Feral Combat and Restoration: All those should have more synergies.
2. [b]Streamline the Feral Combat Tree[/b]. There should be choice and there should be specs for this and specs for that - but it should not be too much pain, especially not in regards to PvP.
[i]Feral Tier 1[/i]
1. [b]Feral Aggression[/b] is too expensive for its effects, even if it got buffed. Reduce it from 5pt to 2pt while essentially keeping how it is.
2. [b]Thick Hide[/b] should be easier to reach for non Feral Druids after Feral Charge is no longer accessible. Why not move it from Tier 2 to Tier 1.
[i]Feral Tier 2[/i]
1. [b]Feral Swiftness[/b] should give more speed because there are getting more and more speed reduction effects into the game. Further this is what is the fun part of Feral, its Cat Speed. Buff it from 15/30 to 20/40%. Further it should be swapped with Feral Instinct. Druids should be speedy, and not only in Travel Form, but also in Cat Form. This change is in regards to many talents that slow things down since TBC and many that entirely remove bonus speed like Judgement of Justice and the new DK slow.
2. [b]Brutal Impact[/b] should get you more control if you want to have it.
Lets increase it from a 2 to 3pt talent allowing up to 1.5 sec increase to Bash and Pounce (up from 1 sec) - furthermore it reduces chance your Bash will be resisted by 30/60/90%. This is a long annoyance for Ferals that can be fixed with this talent.
3. [b]Furor[/b] should really be in the Feral Combat tree. Since Feral Charge is inaccessible to non-Ferals it fits there better anyway. Furthermore the current ability only allows you to take 0 or 5pts of this talent. Why not add more choice and increase the regeneration not the chance part of it per point.
In addition let us buff power-shifting a bit and give cats up to 50 instead of up to 40 Energy. This should improve power shifting effectiveness (sustained DPS) and PvP viability.
[i]Feral Tier 3[/i]
1. [b]Feral Instinct[/b] should only include stealth bonus, nothing more. You said you want us to chose between DPS or Tank or PvP and there are just too many talents that randomly mix Tanking, Offtanking, AoETanking, PvP and Cat DPS.
Furthermore Feral Instinct should be swapped with Feral Swiftness. Stealthness is more a kind of Feral thing, if Balance and Restoration Druids want to be sneaky they should invest more (and they can: http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=9o232301zk#treeheader1 ).
Reduce Feral Instinct to a 1pt talent (instead of 3) but the effect to that matching 5pt Master of Deception. Basically Druids should be very stealthy - more than an average Rogue, but less than a Subtly Rogue (that got Vanish and Shadow Dance).
2. [b]Strong Paws[/b] gets the tanking bits of Feral Instinct as well as the those of [b]Shredding Attacks[/b]. I suggest a 3pts talent - lets name it "[b]Strong Paws[/b]" which reduces Lacerate costs by 1/2/3 Rage and increases Swipe damage by 10/20/30%. The intention is to allow more choice - you do one job, you take this talent, you do another job, you might consider to skip it.
3. [b]Feral Feary Fire[/b] should be moved into the base class abilities. There is no or only tiny benefit for non Ferals to have this and on the other side it is mandatory for Ferals, just for pulling for instance, to get.
4. [b]Sharpened Claws[/b] has been modified to lower Bear spike damage (moved from 6% crit to 3% damage) but to increase Cat Form Damage (additional 3% damage). Please do not go for spiky Bear damage. Sustained Bear damage should be strong, that is fine, but it should not be big numbers - that annoys other players. You will see this principle again at "[b]Feral Fenzy[/b]" and in regards to [b]Predatory Instincts[/b].
[i]Feral Tier 4[/i]
1. [b]Shredding Attacks[/b] should lose its Bear bonus. Instead why not buff Rake, its used very rarely only, It would be great if it would be worth it to keep up Rake (but not more than that, just for the DOT) in PvE. Further Shred costs should be reduced to allow more sustained DPS, we do not want more spikey DPS on Cat Form as well, we just want more sustained DPS, spikey DPS will annoy other players too much and Shred is already spikey enough. If You want to balance that out, reduce the costs of Shred - lets say Shredding attacks gives 10/20 Energy reduction to Shred instead of 9/18 and as well reduces costs of Rake by 5/10 Energy.
2. [b]Predatory Strikes[/b] should not scale your AP with your level, but just your weapon damage. Why not remove the level scaling and increase weapon damage scaling from 7/14/20 to 10/20/30%
3. [b]Primal Precision[/b] should be redesigned to allow one to take only 1 pt or to take it entirely. I suggest adding 10 Expertise to it be it 1 or 2pt but the first point only reduces Energy costs of failed finishers by 30% while the second point increases that to 90%. The second point is basically only worth it in PvP or for min/maxing Cat DPS - while the first point does a great job for Bears and Cats alike. This allows more choice (as you can see in the above builds).
[i]Feral Tier 5[/i]
1. [b]Nurturing Instincts[/b] could be buffed to have Feral Druids healing increased by STR in addition to AGI - Warrior/Shaman items will do it as well as Rogue items - more sharing of loot = good.
Though of more importance is that Bear Form should as well be affected by additional Healing received. 20% though would just be too much. Even if Bear Form got not passive magical damage reduction like all other tanks, no parry and probably lesser armor because of equipped Rogue items 5/10% should do fine. This will offset the bad mitigation/avoidance Bear Form has after lower armor, less dodge (Agi->Dodge) get into the game.
[i]Feral Tier 6[/i]
1. [b]Heart of the Wild[/b] should scale Feral Druids INT relative to their STA. This will allow us to equip more Death Knight, Warrior, Rogue items and skip INT on our Tier and PvP sets. It is less work for Blizzard and less annoyance for us. INT will still do fine for us if its on Hunter/Melee Shaman items we might share.
2. [b]Survival of the Fittest[/b] should as well reduce chance to be dazed in regards to PvE. To make it simple why not reduce chance to be dazed by hits of enemies that are ABOVE YOUR LEVEL by 15/30/45%. This will essentially cancel out Arena.
3. [b]Moon Claws[/b] add to the Feral Druid what he needs to be effective in long draining Arena games. Over the seasons the Arena games in higher regions got longer and longer. Furthermore it introduces a constrained to anti Feral tactics: do not let druids re-stealth - always keep DOTs on them/keep them in combat. Moon Claws adds relative mana drain to the non used Claw ability. If the enemy has 10000 mana you will receive 100 mana per claw, if the enemy has 1000 mana it will only be 10 mana that you receive (and that they lose) and gives passive mana regeneration based on your maximum mana while stealthing. You can then chose to leave combat (if they let you) to regain some strength.
[i]Feral Tier 7[/i]
1. [b]Primal Tenacity[/b] should really reduce chance to be feared at all to make it useful in PvE. The damage reduction on getting stunned is fine though. Lets move it from fear duration reduction and stunned damage taken reduction to reduced chance to be feared and stunned damage taken reduction.
You should not be able to fear a Feral Druid like that. Warriors can stance dance and counter fears, Melee Shamans got their Tremor Totem, Rogues got their no-GCD kick and stuns and we should just very resist often. It should as well be reduces from 3pt to 2pt because it is more of an "additional" talent not having any effect on your most of the time.
2. [b]Leader of the Pack[/b] and [b]Improved Leader of the Pack[/b] should just be merged. I suggest that it should be improved to 8% Crit aura and give 5% max Health max all 5sec.
3. [b]Feral Fenzy[/b] is a new talent based ability allowing to reduce magical damage taken for a short period of time. 15 out of 60 seconds a Feral Druid should be able to take less magical but more physical damage. It is still not as good as the passive magical damage reduction of the other 3 tanks but in combination with the [i]Nurturing Instincts[/i] buff above it will do well enough.
The additional 5% increased damage yet again shows that we want to spikey Bear Form damage, but just more sustained one, and not all the time. [i]Feral Fenzy[i] should, with [/i]Tiger's Fury[/i] get into min/maxed Cat DPS cycles as well. Cost should be around 10-15 Energy or 5-10 Rage.
[i]Feral Tier 8[/i]
1. [b]King of the Jungle[/b] should buff Savage Roar up like [i]Improved Slice and Dice does[/i]. If you look at sustained DPS calculations (Toskk) even after the buff from 25% to 35% Savage Roar does not scale so well. Lets increase its duration to let it better fit into DPS cycles.
2. [b]Predatory Instincts[/b] should really allow more Cat sustained Cat DPS, but it should not be more spiky than it is already. Bear Form damage should not be touched by every talent, so why not make this more of a Cat talent then? To make it viable for Bears at all (and for PvP) I suggest that a.) it should increase Cat damage by 4/7/10% instead of critical damage by 2/4/6/8/10% and it should reduce chance to be hit by AoE by 10/20/30% (instead of 3/6/9/12/15). Moving it from 5 to 3pts removes some bloat.
Further why not make Rake really a useful PvP ability and buff its duration up by 3/6/9 seconds - this will also make it easier to fit it into DPS rotations.
[i]Feral Tier 9[/i]
1. [b]Infected Wounds[/b] should just last longer (20 instead of 12sec) and the talent should be 2pt instead of 3pt too reduce bloat. Improved Thunderclap is at 30sec, I think this is just fair.
3. [b]Mangle[/b] - Cat Mangle should have reduced static damage. If sustained DPS of Cat Form is to low, there is need to add more scaling, not more static damage. You will find scaling improvements in Predatory Strikes, Shredding Attacks, Predatory Instincts and Feral Fenzy.
3. [b]Play Dead[/b] adds two things. First of all it adds a PvE-centric way of role switching while in encounters. It is not instant but rather a 10 seconds cast that can be easily interrupted (by other players or within the encounter). It has 2min CD and a build in partial (20%) threat reduction (like Warlock's Soulshatter that is on 50%). This would really be great ;). If you want 20% threat reduction you will have to spend 5secs doing absolutely nothing (This is not meant to enable you to swap equip in Arenas).
[i]Feral Tier 10[/i]
1. [b]Rend and Tear[/b] should really be buffed up a bit. It should a.) scale Ravage - this is in line with "do not let a Druid re-stealth" and adds PvP viability. Lets add 25% more critical chance on bleeding targets by Ravage in addition to its 50% chance for Ferocious Bite.
In addition Rend and Tier should scale STR stat for Bears a bit. I suggest to let 10 STR reduce damage taken by 5 (and 2 STR would reduce it by 1). This is something like a passive Shield Block - essentially. On 1000 Str damage taken would be reduced by 500. After the huge nerf to Agi->Dodge this would at least scale us with all the Warrior/DeathKnight/Paladin items that got Strength on them.
Notice: Defense Rating should be changed to give Druids only Miss and Dodge but twice as much (and no reduced crits, parry or block)
[i]Feral Tier 11[/i]
1. [b]Berserk[/b] should be on 3 instead of 5min CD to allow counteracting to Fear.
[i]Restoration Tier 1[/i]
1. [b]Improved Mark of the Wild[/b] should be a 3pt instead of 2pt talent and should be buffed slightly. Why? Because after Furor had been moved to Feral there is much space in the upper tiers of Restoration.
2. [b]Naturalist[/b] should swap from Tier 2 to Tier 1 to allow easier access for Feral and Balance Druids.
3. [b]Natural Shapeshifter[/b] should be Tier 1 instead of 2 and should reduce shifting costs by 25/50% instead of 10/20/30%. Shifting is an integral part of any Druid.
[i]Restoration Tier 2[/i]
1. [b]Nature's Focus[/b] could be increased so that there are more talent points to spend after the move of Furor. Lets go from 70% by 3pts to 80% by 4pts.
2. [b]Master Shapeshifter[/b], like Natural Shapeshifter, has been moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2. It should buff up Cat Form damage more (3/6%) but reduce Bear Form physical damage taken (1/2%) to offset missing Defensive Stance and parry instead of buffing Bear Form's damage up.
[i]Restoration Tier 3[/i]
1. [b]Intensity[/b] should really be more attractive to Bear Form. Why not let Enrage give you instant 30 Rage instead of instant 10 Rage. This will make it more desirable but at high costs (Restoration Tier 3).
[i]Restoration Tier 4[/i]
1. [b]Nature's Swiftness[/b] should be moved here. This allows access by Balance and Feral if they really want to invest. Mostly a PvP option or as emergency button (Feral T5 Set 2-part bonus anyone ;) in PvE.
2. [b]Rejuvernation[/b] talent has been increased by 1 point to allow more points to be distributed (because of the removal of Furor)
[i]Restoration Tier 5[/i]
1. [b]Tranquility[/b] has been increased from a 2pt to 4pt talent but allows cooldown reduction up to 80% (from 10min to 2min - was 4min).
[i]Balance Tier 1[/i]
1. [b]Nature's Grasp[/b] changed so that it very well works with 1pt but still gets buffs if you like to spend more points. 1pt will get you 75% chance, 1 charge and a duration of 15sec to proc, 5pts will get you 75% chance, 3 charges and 35sec duration to proc.
[i]Balance Tier 2[/i]
1. [b]Balance of Nature[/b] as well affects Sooth Animal and reduces cast time for 1 sec after leaving Cat Form by 20/40/60%. 3pts invested get you 0.6sec cast. This should make upper balance tiers more intresting for Feral Druids. Restoration would not switch into Cat Form just to get off a Cyclone (switching into Cat Form costs 1.5sec GCD as well).
2. [b]Brambles[/b] have been moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 to allow it to be accessed by Ferals and Restoration more easily. The daze effect is a defensive slow.
[i]Balance Tier 3[/i]
1. [b]Improved Moonfire[/b] has been swapped with Brambles
[i]Balance Tier 6[/i]
1. [b]Nature's Call[/b] has nothing to do with all my other suggestions :). The basic idea is to have a Moonkin be an offspec healer if it wants to be. It should not be as efficient as primary healer specs but it should be enough to add some value. This should reduce the need for 8 healers to 7 (if for example Elemental Shamans and get comparable options)
[u][b]Conclusion[/b][/u]
With all these changes the only thing that I can think of that could be overpowered is Sustained Cat DPS and the only thing that I can think of that could be underpowered is Bear Avoidance/Mitigation.
If the first turns out to be true, there are a few simple knobs to absolute damage (like %crit talents) or to nerf scaling talents.
If the latter turns out to be true, Primal Tenacity cries for a proportional damage reduction (like Reduces all damage taken by 5/10% or improves your Armor by additional 15/30%)
Have Fun - and I looking for Feedback - don't say you did not read it :(.
Druid (WotLK)Author:
ionas (View all Talent Tree's from this user)
Title:
WotLK - 8770 - Modified Feral Talents
Author's comment (hide):
[i][u][b](Suggestion) Making Feral Combat a viable PvE and PvP Tree[/b][/u][/i]
[u][b]Table of Contents[/b][/u]
[ul]
[li]Introduction[/li]
[li]Summary and Intentions[/li]
[li]Example Builds[/li]
[li]Suggested Changes - by Trees and Tiers[/li]
[li]Conclusions[/li]
[/ul]
[b][u]Introduction[/u][/b]
I did some work on Feral (and relating Restoration and Balance) talents. Every change has some intention behind it.
Wryxian, Vaneras, Ghostcrawler, Koraa and other employees, if you are reading this - make sure you take a look at the [i]Example Builds[/i] and then skip to [i]Suggested Changes - by Trees and Tiers[/i] Even if not nearly anything off all of these suggestions make it to Beta, maybe you get creative insights from one or another.
This was literally [i][u]HOURS[/u][/i] (I mean like a half of a day) of work. [i]Please consider just to read it, will you?[/i].
Generally: you should really look at the talent trees to get an idea - much faster than reading this wall of text. Basically the text goes in detail with each suggested change.
I am sorry if my English is not the best, not my native language.
[u][b]Summary and Intentions[/b][/u]
Basically I aimed for these goals:
[ul]
[li]Add more fun to Feral![/li]
[li]Allow to do tanking and DPS and PvP with all specs, but with bad efficiency[/li]
[li]Streamline Feral PvP related talents[/li]
[li]Enable different specs for different jobs[/li]
[li]Add choice but not too much[/li]
[/ul]
There are a few new talents but most talents have their original intention and have changed only slightly. New talents are:
[ul]
[li][b]Moon Claws[/b]: A talent to fix long drain game Feral mana issues.[/li]
[li][b]Strong Paws[/b]: The PvE Bear features of Feral Instinct and Shredding Attacks[/li]
[li][b]Feral Fenzy[/b]: A new Feral Combat ability that allows to mitigate 10% magical damage but lets you take 5% more physical damage[/li]
[li][b]Nature's Call[/b]: This is a non Feral-centric ability, which should allow Moonkins to do emergency/off-spec Healing. In 25 people raids this should allow you to bring one healer less (or 1 Balance and 1 Restoration Druid instead of 2 Restoration Druids)[/li]
[/ul]
[u][b]Example Builds[/b][/u]
[ul]
[li]PvE 5 Man Tank A:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n52123503303212125302113021305105202h#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvE 5 Man Tank B:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n520234033032101253c113011305135202301e#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvE Raid Main-Tank:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n523203033032121253021130113051152023g#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvE Raid Off-Tank A:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n52020503323212125302113121315105202h#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvE Raid Off-Tank B:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n520205c323212115300113021315135202301e#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvE Cat/DPS:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6n520205c323222025310113321305135202h#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvP Build A (Survivial):
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=601l5c23510323222125312113021305105202h#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvP Build B (Burst):
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=601l5c20513323222125310113311305105202h#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]PvP Build C (Control):
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=6014303h5c232103232101253121133213001052j#treeheader1[/u] [/li]
[li]Allround Build:
[u]http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=601l5c23510303212125312113221315105202h#treeheader1[/u] [/ul]
Now, Ghostcrawler/Koraa, show me these many USEFUL variations based on the current talent trees - now! ;-).
[u][b]Suggested changes[/b][/u]
[i]General[/i]
1. [b]Redesign the upper tiers[/b] of Balance, Feral Combat and Restoration: All those should have more synergies.
2. [b]Streamline the Feral Combat Tree[/b]. There should be choice and there should be specs for this and specs for that - but it should not be too much pain, especially not in regards to PvP.
[i]Feral Tier 1[/i]
1. [b]Feral Aggression[/b] is too expensive for its effects, even if it got buffed. Reduce it from 5pt to 2pt while essentially keeping how it is.
2. [b]Thick Hide[/b] should be easier to reach for non Feral Druids after Feral Charge is no longer accessible. Why not move it from Tier 2 to Tier 1.
[i]Feral Tier 2[/i]
1. [b]Feral Swiftness[/b] should give more speed because there are getting more and more speed reduction effects into the game. Further this is what is the fun part of Feral, its Cat Speed. Buff it from 15/30 to 20/40%. Further it should be swapped with Feral Instinct. Druids should be speedy, and not only in Travel Form, but also in Cat Form. This change is in regards to many talents that slow things down since TBC and many that entirely remove bonus speed like Judgement of Justice and the new DK slow.
2. [b]Brutal Impact[/b] should get you more control if you want to have it.
Lets increase it from a 2 to 3pt talent allowing up to 1.5 sec increase to Bash and Pounce (up from 1 sec) - furthermore it reduces chance your Bash will be resisted by 30/60/90%. This is a long annoyance for Ferals that can be fixed with this talent.
3. [b]Furor[/b] should really be in the Feral Combat tree. Since Feral Charge is inaccessible to non-Ferals it fits there better anyway. Furthermore the current ability only allows you to take 0 or 5pts of this talent. Why not add more choice and increase the regeneration not the chance part of it per point.
In addition let us buff power-shifting a bit and give cats up to 50 instead of up to 40 Energy. This should improve power shifting effectiveness (sustained DPS) and PvP viability.
[i]Feral Tier 3[/i]
1. [b]Feral Instinct[/b] should only include stealth bonus, nothing more. You said you want us to chose between DPS or Tank or PvP and there are just too many talents that randomly mix Tanking, Offtanking, AoETanking, PvP and Cat DPS.
Furthermore Feral Instinct should be swapped with Feral Swiftness. Stealthness is more a kind of Feral thing, if Balance and Restoration Druids want to be sneaky they should invest more (and they can: http://www.war-tools.com/t57231.html?b=9o232301zk#treeheader1 ).
Reduce Feral Instinct to a 1pt talent (instead of 3) but the effect to that matching 5pt Master of Deception. Basically Druids should be very stealthy - more than an average Rogue, but less than a Subtly Rogue (that got Vanish and Shadow Dance).
2. [b]Strong Paws[/b] gets the tanking bits of Feral Instinct as well as the those of [b]Shredding Attacks[/b]. I suggest a 3pts talent - lets name it "[b]Strong Paws[/b]" which reduces Lacerate costs by 1/2/3 Rage and increases Swipe damage by 10/20/30%. The intention is to allow more choice - you do one job, you take this talent, you do another job, you might consider to skip it.
3. [b]Feral Feary Fire[/b] should be moved into the base class abilities. There is no or only tiny benefit for non Ferals to have this and on the other side it is mandatory for Ferals, just for pulling for instance, to get.
4. [b]Sharpened Claws[/b] has been modified to lower Bear spike damage (moved from 6% crit to 3% damage) but to increase Cat Form Damage (additional 3% damage). Please do not go for spiky Bear damage. Sustained Bear damage should be strong, that is fine, but it should not be big numbers - that annoys other players. You will see this principle again at "[b]Feral Fenzy[/b]" and in regards to [b]Predatory Instincts[/b].
[i]Feral Tier 4[/i]
1. [b]Shredding Attacks[/b] should lose its Bear bonus. Instead why not buff Rake, its used very rarely only, It would be great if it would be worth it to keep up Rake (but not more than that, just for the DOT) in PvE. Further Shred costs should be reduced to allow more sustained DPS, we do not want more spikey DPS on Cat Form as well, we just want more sustained DPS, spikey DPS will annoy other players too much and Shred is already spikey enough. If You want to balance that out, reduce the costs of Shred - lets say Shredding attacks gives 10/20 Energy reduction to Shred instead of 9/18 and as well reduces costs of Rake by 5/10 Energy.
2. [b]Predatory Strikes[/b] should not scale your AP with your level, but just your weapon damage. Why not remove the level scaling and increase weapon damage scaling from 7/14/20 to 10/20/30%
3. [b]Primal Precision[/b] should be redesigned to allow one to take only 1 pt or to take it entirely. I suggest adding 10 Expertise to it be it 1 or 2pt but the first point only reduces Energy costs of failed finishers by 30% while the second point increases that to 90%. The second point is basically only worth it in PvP or for min/maxing Cat DPS - while the first point does a great job for Bears and Cats alike. This allows more choice (as you can see in the above builds).
[i]Feral Tier 5[/i]
1. [b]Nurturing Instincts[/b] could be buffed to have Feral Druids healing increased by STR in addition to AGI - Warrior/Shaman items will do it as well as Rogue items - more sharing of loot = good.
Though of more importance is that Bear Form should as well be affected by additional Healing received. 20% though would just be too much. Even if Bear Form got not passive magical damage reduction like all other tanks, no parry and probably lesser armor because of equipped Rogue items 5/10% should do fine. This will offset the bad mitigation/avoidance Bear Form has after lower armor, less dodge (Agi->Dodge) get into the game.
[i]Feral Tier 6[/i]
1. [b]Heart of the Wild[/b] should scale Feral Druids INT relative to their STA. This will allow us to equip more Death Knight, Warrior, Rogue items and skip INT on our Tier and PvP sets. It is less work for Blizzard and less annoyance for us. INT will still do fine for us if its on Hunter/Melee Shaman items we might share.
2. [b]Survival of the Fittest[/b] should as well reduce chance to be dazed in regards to PvE. To make it simple why not reduce chance to be dazed by hits of enemies that are ABOVE YOUR LEVEL by 15/30/45%. This will essentially cancel out Arena.
3. [b]Moon Claws[/b] add to the Feral Druid what he needs to be effective in long draining Arena games. Over the seasons the Arena games in higher regions got longer and longer. Furthermore it introduces a constrained to anti Feral tactics: do not let druids re-stealth - always keep DOTs on them/keep them in combat. Moon Claws adds relative mana drain to the non used Claw ability. If the enemy has 10000 mana you will receive 100 mana per claw, if the enemy has 1000 mana it will only be 10 mana that you receive (and that they lose) and gives passive mana regeneration based on your maximum mana while stealthing. You can then chose to leave combat (if they let you) to regain some strength.
[i]Feral Tier 7[/i]
1. [b]Primal Tenacity[/b] should really reduce chance to be feared at all to make it useful in PvE. The damage reduction on getting stunned is fine though. Lets move it from fear duration reduction and stunned damage taken reduction to reduced chance to be feared and stunned damage taken reduction.
You should not be able to fear a Feral Druid like that. Warriors can stance dance and counter fears, Melee Shamans got their Tremor Totem, Rogues got their no-GCD kick and stuns and we should just very resist often. It should as well be reduces from 3pt to 2pt because it is more of an "additional" talent not having any effect on your most of the time.
2. [b]Leader of the Pack[/b] and [b]Improved Leader of the Pack[/b] should just be merged. I suggest that it should be improved to 8% Crit aura and give 5% max Health max all 5sec.
3. [b]Feral Fenzy[/b] is a new talent based ability allowing to reduce magical damage taken for a short period of time. 15 out of 60 seconds a Feral Druid should be able to take less magical but more physical damage. It is still not as good as the passive magical damage reduction of the other 3 tanks but in combination with the [i]Nurturing Instincts[/i] buff above it will do well enough.
The additional 5% increased damage yet again shows that we want to spikey Bear Form damage, but just more sustained one, and not all the time. [i]Feral Fenzy[i] should, with [/i]Tiger's Fury[/i] get into min/maxed Cat DPS cycles as well. Cost should be around 10-15 Energy or 5-10 Rage.
[i]Feral Tier 8[/i]
1. [b]King of the Jungle[/b] should buff Savage Roar up like [i]Improved Slice and Dice does[/i]. If you look at sustained DPS calculations (Toskk) even after the buff from 25% to 35% Savage Roar does not scale so well. Lets increase its duration to let it better fit into DPS cycles.
2. [b]Predatory Instincts[/b] should really allow more Cat sustained Cat DPS, but it should not be more spiky than it is already. Bear Form damage should not be touched by every talent, so why not make this more of a Cat talent then? To make it viable for Bears at all (and for PvP) I suggest that a.) it should increase Cat damage by 4/7/10% instead of critical damage by 2/4/6/8/10% and it should reduce chance to be hit by AoE by 10/20/30% (instead of 3/6/9/12/15). Moving it from 5 to 3pts removes some bloat.
Further why not make Rake really a useful PvP ability and buff its duration up by 3/6/9 seconds - this will also make it easier to fit it into DPS rotations.
[i]Feral Tier 9[/i]
1. [b]Infected Wounds[/b] should just last longer (20 instead of 12sec) and the talent should be 2pt instead of 3pt too reduce bloat. Improved Thunderclap is at 30sec, I think this is just fair.
3. [b]Mangle[/b] - Cat Mangle should have reduced static damage. If sustained DPS of Cat Form is to low, there is need to add more scaling, not more static damage. You will find scaling improvements in Predatory Strikes, Shredding Attacks, Predatory Instincts and Feral Fenzy.
3. [b]Play Dead[/b] adds two things. First of all it adds a PvE-centric way of role switching while in encounters. It is not instant but rather a 10 seconds cast that can be easily interrupted (by other players or within the encounter). It has 2min CD and a build in partial (20%) threat reduction (like Warlock's Soulshatter that is on 50%). This would really be great ;). If you want 20% threat reduction you will have to spend 5secs doing absolutely nothing (This is not meant to enable you to swap equip in Arenas).
[i]Feral Tier 10[/i]
1. [b]Rend and Tear[/b] should really be buffed up a bit. It should a.) scale Ravage - this is in line with "do not let a Druid re-stealth" and adds PvP viability. Lets add 25% more critical chance on bleeding targets by Ravage in addition to its 50% chance for Ferocious Bite.
In addition Rend and Tier should scale STR stat for Bears a bit. I suggest to let 10 STR reduce damage taken by 5 (and 2 STR would reduce it by 1). This is something like a passive Shield Block - essentially. On 1000 Str damage taken would be reduced by 500. After the huge nerf to Agi->Dodge this would at least scale us with all the Warrior/DeathKnight/Paladin items that got Strength on them.
Notice: Defense Rating should be changed to give Druids only Miss and Dodge but twice as much (and no reduced crits, parry or block)
[i]Feral Tier 11[/i]
1. [b]Berserk[/b] should be on 3 instead of 5min CD to allow counteracting to Fear.
[i]Restoration Tier 1[/i]
1. [b]Improved Mark of the Wild[/b] should be a 3pt instead of 2pt talent and should be buffed slightly. Why? Because after Furor had been moved to Feral there is much space in the upper tiers of Restoration.
2. [b]Naturalist[/b] should swap from Tier 2 to Tier 1 to allow easier access for Feral and Balance Druids.
3. [b]Natural Shapeshifter[/b] should be Tier 1 instead of 2 and should reduce shifting costs by 25/50% instead of 10/20/30%. Shifting is an integral part of any Druid.
[i]Restoration Tier 2[/i]
1. [b]Nature's Focus[/b] could be increased so that there are more talent points to spend after the move of Furor. Lets go from 70% by 3pts to 80% by 4pts.
2. [b]Master Shapeshifter[/b], like Natural Shapeshifter, has been moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2. It should buff up Cat Form damage more (3/6%) but reduce Bear Form physical damage taken (1/2%) to offset missing Defensive Stance and parry instead of buffing Bear Form's damage up.
[i]Restoration Tier 3[/i]
1. [b]Intensity[/b] should really be more attractive to Bear Form. Why not let Enrage give you instant 30 Rage instead of instant 10 Rage. This will make it more desirable but at high costs (Restoration Tier 3).
[i]Restoration Tier 4[/i]
1. [b]Nature's Swiftness[/b] should be moved here. This allows access by Balance and Feral if they really want to invest. Mostly a PvP option or as emergency button (Feral T5 Set 2-part bonus anyone ;) in PvE.
2. [b]Rejuvernation[/b] talent has been increased by 1 point to allow more points to be distributed (because of the removal of Furor)
[i]Restoration Tier 5[/i]
1. [b]Tranquility[/b] has been increased from a 2pt to 4pt talent but allows cooldown reduction up to 80% (from 10min to 2min - was 4min).
[i]Balance Tier 1[/i]
1. [b]Nature's Grasp[/b] changed so that it very well works with 1pt but still gets buffs if you like to spend more points. 1pt will get you 75% chance, 1 charge and a duration of 15sec to proc, 5pts will get you 75% chance, 3 charges and 35sec duration to proc.
[i]Balance Tier 2[/i]
1. [b]Balance of Nature[/b] as well affects Sooth Animal and reduces cast time for 1 sec after leaving Cat Form by 20/40/60%. 3pts invested get you 0.6sec cast. This should make upper balance tiers more intresting for Feral Druids. Restoration would not switch into Cat Form just to get off a Cyclone (switching into Cat Form costs 1.5sec GCD as well).
2. [b]Brambles[/b] have been moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 to allow it to be accessed by Ferals and Restoration more easily. The daze effect is a defensive slow.
[i]Balance Tier 3[/i]
1. [b]Improved Moonfire[/b] has been swapped with Brambles
[i]Balance Tier 6[/i]
1. [b]Nature's Call[/b] has nothing to do with all my other suggestions :). The basic idea is to have a Moonkin be an offspec healer if it wants to be. It should not be as efficient as primary healer specs but it should be enough to add some value. This should reduce the need for 8 healers to 7 (if for example Elemental Shamans and get comparable options)
[u][b]Conclusion[/b][/u]
With all these changes the only thing that I can think of that could be overpowered is Sustained Cat DPS and the only thing that I can think of that could be underpowered is Bear Avoidance/Mitigation.
If the first turns out to be true, there are a few simple knobs to absolute damage (like %crit talents) or to nerf scaling talents.
If the latter turns out to be true, Primal Tenacity cries for a proportional damage reduction (like Reduces all damage taken by 5/10% or improves your Armor by additional 15/30%)
Have Fun - and I looking for Feedback - don't say you did not read it :(.
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