Team Waffle Podcast: Feral Round Table #3

[Tinderhoof]

Hey everyone!

The Team Waffle Podcast is going to be doing our 3rd Feral Round Table next Saturday (June 8th) at 11am (PST).

The cast for this discussion is a nice mix of awesome PVE (10 and 25) and PVP Ferals:
•Arielle (He is a Bear but we won't hold that against him) – Host/Moderator
•Myself – 25m Heroic raider and Fluid Druid Moderator.
•Dysheki – 10m Feral Raider with <stalk and kill> - World #75 10m.
•Pawkets – 25m Raider and contributor for the Feral and Guardian modules of SimC and Ovale.
•Yipz – Multi-Season Feral Gladiator.
•Datah – Datah.

We will be streaming live on the Team Waffle twitch page: http://twitch.tv/teamwafflepodcast

Do you have any questions you would like our panelists to discuss? Post them below.

Hope to see everyone there!

[Tinderhoof]

Updated time as we had to reschedule. More time to ask questions.

[Elamari]

I was going to write a blog post about this topic, however I'll mention it here for you guys to discuss.

It seems likely to me that most Ferals know that SotF is the best T4 talent. It is the recommended choice across a number of sites (Official forums, Icy Veins, Noxxic, Max DPS etc...), however, I have noticed a number of players who still take Incarnation.

If we know that SotF is better, and the information is out the recommending the talent, why are players still choosing Incarnation?

I think part of the problem is that players don't know *why* it is the worse choice compared to SotF. There is little discussion, just statements saying SofT is highest DPS, take it.
Would you guys care to discuss this point? Also, how often, if ever, has everyone switched from SotF to any of the other options.

Cheers.

[scorpio0920]

Personally, I think one of the key points is the visual effects.

Incarnation is much more interesting than SotF.

[Elamari]

That's def a good point and why I originally wanted the talent on the beta. But SotF was higher dps and passive. Gotta love those passive talents.

[Steakbomb]

1) I would like to hear you guys talk about the High End feral community opposed to other spec specific communities and why you think the feral community is so tight-knit and very active vs a lot of other classes just stalk a couple high end players in Method/Blood Legion/Paragon.

2) A discussion about RoR has had such a high impact on ferals and how it correlates to people without a RoR.

3) The lack of Ferals raiding in 10 man heroic guilds(only 43 H Megaera Feral Parses as of a few days ago).

4) The changes made to Mangle so that being behind a target isn't a must and it basically replacing Shred for the most part

5) DoC vs HotW while raiding and why a lot of Ferals(myself included) run HotW on most fights because of the mechanics on fights and the amount of moving required.

6) Waiting a few seconds for a TF buffed Rip vs just applying a Rip without TF so you have better uptime throughout the fight.

7) Why it seems that the Feral players are more mature than a lot of other classes.


This is all I can think of off the top of my head. I will edit and add more if I can think of anything.

Can't wait to hear the podcast!



<3 Tinder. I miss jumping simultaneously for 5 mins before a H Putricide pull with you

[Qualiti]

3) The lack of Ferals raiding in 10 man heroic guilds(only 43 H Megaera Feral Parses as of a few days ago).

This is a question I would ask myself. My guildies often give me a hard time just because there are so few druids on WoL ranking on any heroic fight is basically as simple as auto attacking.

I consider myself a good player. I've been gladiator 4 times, been a part of several world and US first kills, but starting back in MoP I found Feral much more difficult to get into the swing of things. Do you feel the class has a higher skill cap than others? It took me a while to make everything reflex rather than reaction.

I feel most of the time Feral Druids give up before they reach the finish line. Being skilled / competitive players, how do you guys feel about the learning curve, and at the end of the day is that why we're so under represented?

[Adramelk]

more:

1) What do you think they'd have to do to Treants & Incarnation to entice PVE ferals away from SotF?

2) Considering some classes very rarely receive a feral's symbiosis, what abilities would you like to see on you/your targets to make it more viable to symbiosis them? I'm lookin at you, mages & monks, a bit at hunters, and 50/50 at dk's.

3) I know I kind of wish for the days of WotLK back when Feral's convoluted derpy rotation could still produce meter topping results, or at least top-end competitive. Do you guys still agree with Blizz's design intention of keeping Feral at a high skill cap, but essentially incapable of being that one spec that can consistently top the melee meters -- and having such a niche role that having 2 or more ferals in a raid isn't often seen (not even on 25's).

4) Are there any abilities/traits of a melee you think are lacking? ((mostly just a question to see if you guys think our lack of an actual cleave adversely affects us. I trust you know the difference between an AoE and a Cleave))

5) No one likes talking about a nerf to a superior trinket, but what do you think they'll do to Rune to discourage us from hanging on to it through 5.4? Even if this includes introducing something like Rune 2.0 that does something like not reducing the lower 2 of 3 stats.

6) While we're on trinkets, how are you liking the RPPM system as it applies to trinkets? Do you like it/not like it and why?

7) This would be a great expansion for them to add a feral-equippable legendary staff, if they were going to add a monk-equippable legendary staff. Considering the way the questline has gone and Blizz's general attitude of late about class/role specific legendaries, do you think a feral/monk legendary staff is still on the table somewhere?

8) can of worms time; what's your stance on the whole 10 vs 25 argument? Any/all aspects of it included (10 is easier because you have so much room to drop voidzones! 25 is easier because you can carry half the raid! ;; gg gross generalizations)

9) Which fight of progression (T14 or T15) was your favorite and why? Segue into least favorites and why
**screw heroic durumu being a "during beams life drain soak" when you just know someone will clip your clutch dispersion and bitch at you for their fault**

10) While perhaps not entirely accurate, do you agree with the generalization of Bears being the weakest/squishiest tank? Do you think the benefits/strengths of a bear equalize or outweigh the cons/weaknesses?

11) Do you miss bearcat spec, even if their reasons for taking it away were valid, do you think they should have held on to that style of tanking as a full-time thing rather than shove it into a function of HotW?

------

general game;

12) Did you enjoy the push of dailies, VP capping, etc. at the start of the expansion? Or did you wish they'd have toned it down and kept it more in-line with what they'd done in previous expansions?

13) Similarly with rare mobs/drops, do you like the majority of vanity items coming from heavily camped rare mobs and lootable object spawns?

14) Do you think they should have kept the design of new 5man heroic dungeons dropping raw loot as a catch-up mechanism over the "do more dailies and spend more vp" design they've switched to?

15) Pet battles. yes/no? Waste of time, or fun past time?

16) The 10-25 sliding scale "above LFR, below normals" feature was literally just announced. Will you bother doing it? Do you think it's worth further development to have a grand total of 4 raiding difficulties?

17) The new talent systems... sure there's some variety and choice, but feral is perhaps one of the most "locked in" as far as it goes. IE: a maximizing PVE feral won't take anything but DoC, SotF, and NS, and probably rarely or never use the CC tiers. Do you think it's lived up to the repeated "it's lived up to our expectations" that blues keep posting? If not, what would you have done differently?

---

(#) You're going to jump into a pool of jello; what flavor is it?

Toast) What song would you choose to listen to on perpetual repeat when you're in a coma or otherwise incapacitated?

Pancake) Playstation 4, Xbox One, both, or neither?

English Muffin) what is your silliest but truthful BRB/AFK excuse you've had to use ever?

[Fortybones]

Currently being sat on Heroic Animus 25 attempts due to this so I ask: Do ferals need a better raid CD than tranquility or should it perhaps be reworked?

Warriors, rogues, and paladins have powerful raid CDs that don't require them to stop dps (apart from using a GCD) and channel an ability (like DK's Army, WW's Zen Med, and our Tranquility), and as far as I know, aren't pressured to take a dps loss talent to improve that raid CD (i.e. HOTW tranq).

[Tinderhoof]

Currently being sat on Heroic Animus 25 attempts due to this so I ask: Do ferals need a better raid CD than tranquility or should it perhaps be reworked?

Warriors, rogues, and paladins have powerful raid CDs that don't require them to stop dps (apart from using a GCD) and channel an ability (like DK's Army, WW's Zen Med, and our Tranquility), and as far as I know, aren't pressured to take a dps loss talent to improve that raid CD (i.e. HOTW tranq).

I will cover this quickly because my guild just downed Animus for the first time last night (H25). Our actual kill was one of my worst of the night luck wise. However I did the second highest damage overall, and the second highest on Animus himself. Yes Tranq is mostly useless on this fight because you can't sit still for even a few seconds to channel anything. We however are quite capable of bringing plenty of DPS to be worth the raid spot even if we don't have a cooldown.

[baver]

Just get symbios on a paladin and you can bubble 3-4sec befor one of those aoes and use tranq, realy good in the end when so meny have debuffs.

[Fortybones]

I will cover this quickly because my guild just downed Animus for the first time last night (H25). Our actual kill was one of my worst of the night luck wise. However I did the second highest damage overall, and the second highest on Animus himself. Yes Tranq is mostly useless on this fight because you can't sit still for even a few seconds to channel anything. We however are quite capable of bringing plenty of DPS to be worth the raid spot even if we don't have a cooldown.

Just get symbios on a paladin and you can bubble 3-4sec befor one of those aoes and use tranq, realy good in the end when so meny have debuffs.

Thanks for the tips. I'll bring these to the attention of my RL. This is probably better placed in the Raid Strategies forum, but did you pick up HOTW for this?

[Sibylle]

Listening to the podcast right now, really enjoying it. Great work

[Dysheki]

Oh dear. Adramelk, that's a lot. rofl. Hopefully we covered most of the feral topics.

Side note:

(#) You're going to jump into a pool of jello; what flavor is it?

Strawberry?

Toast) What song would you choose to listen to on perpetual repeat when you're in a coma or otherwise incapacitated?

I think any song, no matter how much I love it, would end up driving me crazy. So silence would be best.

Pancake) Playstation 4, Xbox One, both, or neither?

I'm a huge Nintendo fanboy

English Muffin) what is your silliest but truthful BRB/AFK excuse you've had to use ever?

I had a roommate that was out drinking. I left and went to pick her up/drive her back. When I got back I was doing some BC dungeons with some friends and I heard a boom. I had to brb because she fell off the couch and I had to pick her up and take her to her bed.

[Steakbomb]

Just finished listening to the VoD of the podcast. Good stuff.

Did want to add on to what the PvE'rs said about Ferals in 10 man with that there are only a few of us in the heroic area so it's really hard to look at logs for other ferals without going to 25 man logs.

And yea Tinder I am still in heroic raiding although I no longer have the time to dedicate to a high end guild like I did when I was in Excessive Gaming but I am 8/13 heroic at the moment with Durumu down to about 20%.

Add me back to RealID Tinder Steakbomb#1917

[feralminded]

This is great, thank you all so much!

[teddabear]

Just get symbios on a paladin and you can bubble 3-4sec befor one of those aoes and use tranq, realy good in the end when so meny have debuffs.

I do this on fights where I have to use tranq and it irks me a little bit. Especially when giving up Soul Swap on a fight where it would actually be really useful.


i really enjoyed the podcast. Hope you do another one soon. I'd like to see a more in depth discussion of what Blizzard should do to increase Feral numbers. I'm not aware of any other Feral raiders left on my server these days.

[Kroníc]

I missed the livestream but I went back to watch it. Thanks for doing this. I agree, I would love to see an increase in ferals that raid.