Feral DPS: What Was Your Favorite WotLK Tier Bonus?Follow

Tier 8, no question. 2p and 4p were both awesome.

While I loved the ones that made our rotation easier, I love the results of 4pcT10. I really can't argue with such a big DPS increase :)

2pT10 makes it easier to squeeze in the Rip during those crucial moments where SR and Rip seem to expire almost at the same time. On the other hand, 2pT9 and the increase in Rake duration made juggling the short duration abilities easier.

I wish they'd implement some more passive buffs, though. The Mangle change was nice, but still only a small step. You still need to apply Mangle up to four times during a boss fight, unless there's a Warrior in the raid with you.

Some suggestions I've come up with:

#1 When talented, every critical strike causes the Mangle debuff. This type of talent exists for Arms Warriors (Trauma).

or

#2 Critical strikes cause a bleed DoT worth %x of damage done by the crit. This type of talent exists for Retribution Paladins (Righteous Vengeance), Arms Warriors (Deep Wounds), Fire Mages (Ignite) and Marksmanship Hunters (Piercing Shots).

or

#3 When talented, Shred/Mangle resets the duration on Rip. This type of talent exists for Affliction Warlocks (Unending Affliction), Shadow Priests (Pain and Suffering) and Marksmanship Hunters (Chimera Shot).

Some issues, though:

#1 This would make Mangle redundant for raiding as Shred would be our go-to ability. Basically we would be juggling Shred, Rake, Rip and Savage Roar and Mangle would be reduced to a PvP/solo attack.

#2 This would probably not end well, considering the nuclear bomb surgery GC and his crew tends to do. It would probably either get buffed too much and our high crit rate would make it overpowered, or it would not get buffed enough and would turn out to be a DPS loss compared to the old Rake.

#3 This is actually the one I could see happen the most. Once a Rip is applied, Shred/Mangle (whether or not they want to keep Mangle as a somewhat used ability) would reset the duration. Each reset would have to copy your current AP settings, to avoid rolling high-AP Rips. It would also give us a reason to hit Mangle once in a while, if they decide that only Mangle would reset the duration.

Finally, the one problem all those suggestions have in common though: It would make Feral DPS easier. I know a lot of Druids out there don't want their class to be reduced to a facerolling class like Ret Paladins. I understand that concern, but at the same time I would very much like to avoid getting arthritis at the tender age of 25 due to excessive John F***ing Madden during raid nights.

I also think it's wrong that I need 2-3 addons monitoring my buffs/debuffs just so I can do DPS somewhat comparable to Arcane Mages who literally just spam two buttons and win.

I'd also like to see the ramp-up time get reduced somehow. I know 5-mans are lol and all, but I've seen Hunters and Mages unleash 8k DPS from the start while my DPS stays in the bottom zone until 15 seconds into the fight - at which point the target is usually dead or dying.

Mangle - Savage Roar - Rake - Shred - Shred - Rip... oh, the boss is almost dead, gotta use Ferocious Bi.. oh, too late.

Edit: Oh (mindless rant incoming), and either remove channeled AOE spells or give us something equivalent (and every other melee out there). Nothing like spamming Swipe while keeping Savage Roar up and Berserk running for maximum profit, only to have a spell caster jump into the fight, hit one 10-second channeled spell and out-DPS you by 10k.

Impossible? Try the trash packs in ICC with a Boomkin in the group. I was doing 17k with SR and Berserk running, spamming Swipe. He popped Hurricane and did 24k. Not that I'm bitter... after all, my gear wasn't far superior to his.

Edited, May 26th 2010 5:26am by Mazra

Agreed. It was fun. OOC procs flying out left and right and lots of room for FB because of the increased SR duration.