08-04-2005, 04:47 PM
Older news but Caydiem has posted about druid changes in 1.7 and states that 1.8 will change the trees. (no blues after page 2)
I'm very happy about the fix the to the combo point issue. I've lost 14 combo points to a single mob before with misses, dodges and such. Cat DPS relies on the finishers more than a rogues does. Completely losing them drops it a fair bit.
With the agility it appears that this is just a bonus. The affects of strength appear to not have been changed at all. So this doesn't really mean 3 complete gear sets. Your base feral set will still be alright though agi enchants might be the way to go for the dodge, crit, and cat attack power bonus.
I've actually found cat to be quite usable. Though it's fun that my DPS in raids goes up the longer the mob stays alive. Cat's can't burst like a rogue, but more chances at crits and a decent finisher do allow us to put out big damage numbers if we have the time to do it. I've stolen aggro from the tanks with my cat. I actually need to move where cower is my bar to make it easier to use. I've mentioned that a cat does 80-90% of rogue in growing up to L60. The gap is getting wider at 60 though and they haven't fixed this with the changes, they just did a Blizzard Band Aid. This doesn't fix the item scaling issues that druids have just like some of the caster classes. It does pretty much give all L60 cat druids 70 more AP from the base agi alone and 5-10 more damage a swing on a 1.0 speed weapon isn't nothing but when you get more purple people eaters from BWL out and about and as the "casuals" get more purples from Onyxia and Molten Core the druid will slip back more without any major boosts. All the epic druid gear is caster caster caster (just like the pally gear).
I've often wondered why there aren't druid only or just anyone items that have a mod like +50 attack power in feral form, or +2% crit in feral form, or +300 armor in feral form. An epic feral focused set would be nice as well. It seems one of the simpler ways to tackle the problem and a way that Blizzard in their item junky ways would seem to want to adopt. I've seen things like adding 5% of a weapons damage to you "claws" but I'm not sure about that. I've wondered about druid only items you can slap in the ranged weapon slot to help out as well. This would also be something that might be nice for thrown weapons as well. Though that starts to make that ranged slot a hybrid ranged/trinket slot and raises other issues.
Oh well just passing on some info that some had heard over the guild and guilded channels the other night.
Caydiem Wrote:In the upcoming content patch, there are significant changes to Cat Form. Here's the run down:
* Cat Form's base damage (not attack power, but the cat form's "weapon" damage) has been increased.
* Each point of Agility now adds 1 Attack Power.
* Rip's damage per combo point has been increased.
* Ferocious Bite's damage per combo point has been increased. In addition, extra energy now converts to damage at a higher rate.
* The global cooldown on Tiger's Fury has been replaced with a one-second self cooldown. Its duration has been increased to six seconds.
* Rake's damage has been increased.
Also, the combo point problem with Ferocious Bite -- wherein the points would go away on a miss/dodge/parry -- should be resolved.
I have also been informed that talent changes for Druids (which should, among other things, further enhance Feral viability) are still on the way and currently scheduled for the content patch after 1.7.
There is a school of thought that talent changes should be made to increase the Feral form viability, and the developers are of that mind also... but they were also not satisfied with the level of effectiveness for all Druids, regardless of specialization. The changes is 1.7 should boost that significantly.
I'm very happy about the fix the to the combo point issue. I've lost 14 combo points to a single mob before with misses, dodges and such. Cat DPS relies on the finishers more than a rogues does. Completely losing them drops it a fair bit.
With the agility it appears that this is just a bonus. The affects of strength appear to not have been changed at all. So this doesn't really mean 3 complete gear sets. Your base feral set will still be alright though agi enchants might be the way to go for the dodge, crit, and cat attack power bonus.
I've actually found cat to be quite usable. Though it's fun that my DPS in raids goes up the longer the mob stays alive. Cat's can't burst like a rogue, but more chances at crits and a decent finisher do allow us to put out big damage numbers if we have the time to do it. I've stolen aggro from the tanks with my cat. I actually need to move where cower is my bar to make it easier to use. I've mentioned that a cat does 80-90% of rogue in growing up to L60. The gap is getting wider at 60 though and they haven't fixed this with the changes, they just did a Blizzard Band Aid. This doesn't fix the item scaling issues that druids have just like some of the caster classes. It does pretty much give all L60 cat druids 70 more AP from the base agi alone and 5-10 more damage a swing on a 1.0 speed weapon isn't nothing but when you get more purple people eaters from BWL out and about and as the "casuals" get more purples from Onyxia and Molten Core the druid will slip back more without any major boosts. All the epic druid gear is caster caster caster (just like the pally gear).
I've often wondered why there aren't druid only or just anyone items that have a mod like +50 attack power in feral form, or +2% crit in feral form, or +300 armor in feral form. An epic feral focused set would be nice as well. It seems one of the simpler ways to tackle the problem and a way that Blizzard in their item junky ways would seem to want to adopt. I've seen things like adding 5% of a weapons damage to you "claws" but I'm not sure about that. I've wondered about druid only items you can slap in the ranged weapon slot to help out as well. This would also be something that might be nice for thrown weapons as well. Though that starts to make that ranged slot a hybrid ranged/trinket slot and raises other issues.
Oh well just passing on some info that some had heard over the guild and guilded channels the other night.
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.