Blizzard feels that bear damage abilities were scaling too fast with higher gear levels compared to other tanks, so they have made the following changes to try to balance out druids with other tanking classes (booo). Keep in mind that these numbers are all for lvl85 feral druids.
- Faerie Fire (Feral) base damage has been raised to 2950, up from 679. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 10.8%, down from 15%.
- Maul base damage has been raised to 35, up from 8. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 19%, down from 26.4%.
- Pulverize weapon damage percent has been decreased to 60%, down from 80%. Damage per Lacerate application has been increased to 1623, up from 361.
- Mangle (Bear) weapon damage percent has been decreased to 190%, down from 260%. Bonus damage has been increased to 3306, down from 754.
- Swipe base damage has been increased to 929, up from 215. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 12.3%, down from 17.1%.
- Thrash initial base damage has been increased to 1042, up from 339. Initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 9.82%, down from 19.2%. Periodic base damage has been increased to 581, up from 189. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 1.67%, down from 3.26%. In addition, a bug was corrected where armor decreased the periodic damage done by this ability.
- Lacerate initial base damage has been increased to 3608, up from 2089. Initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 5.52%, down from 7.66%. Periodic base damage has been increased to 69, up from 16. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 0.369%, down from 0.512%.
- Natural Reaction damage reduction has been increased to 9/18%, up from 6/12%.
So lets take a look at the information they have given us. Overall, they are giving us rather large increases in initial damage done. In the area were we normally see our attacks scale up quickly, we will be seeing it slow down a good deal. Now I know that some people are already freaking out about this. "They are nerfing us again! Why does Blizzard hate feral?". This could not be farther from the truth. First off, they are probably tired of hearing the other tank classes complain that we are becoming insane as a tanking class. Feral has always been looked down on and since the drop of 4.1, we have been coming back with a vengeance. Second, if you look at the stats they are showing us, you will most likely not really notice any significant changes while tanking, in either lower level content or in current raiding content.
The only real change we might notice is from Natural Reaction:
- Reduces damage taken while in Bear Form by 18% (was 12%), increases your dodge while in Bear Form by 6%, and you generate 3 Rage every time you dodge while in Bear Form.
Any time we see an increase in damage reduction in the feral class, this is a big thing. We already have a large about of damage we do not take through our avoidance (agility/dodge rating), so any amount of damage after that will now be reduced by 18% at the top end. Lets put this in hard terms. If you get hit for 47,000, after Natural Reaction kicks in, you will have only taken 38,540 worth of damage. That's a pretty big number. Before the change, you would have taken 41,360 worth of damage. That to me is a significant change for the good.
All in all, I'm interested to see how these changes play out in the long run. Regardless of how the changes affect feral tanking, I know that I for one will not give up and still go out there and show those other tanking classes how it's done!
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