Blizzard has announced that they will be making a hotfix to Feral Druids in the next 24 hours. The change will cause Omen of Clarity to always trigger when Faerie Fire (Feral) is used on non-player, non-pet targets. At the same time, Omen of Clarity will no longer proc from Gift of the Wild.
This change is aimed to smooth out Feral DPS gameplay for most players and resolve many of the social and gameplay challenges that were created by the so-called “Bearweaving” combat strategy. But what does this change mean for you?
Firstly, the change will not “nerf” or decrease the effectiveness of the Feral DPS spec in PvE at all. The goal of the change was to raise the relative skill “floor” for the class without too greatly increasing the output of Druids’ playing at the very highest levels before this adjustment. With this adjustment, the best Feral DPS players in the world may expect somewhere between a 5% and 10% damage increase depending on the encounter while no longer requiring shifting into bear form to optimize output.
Secondly, this change will provide an even larger percentage increase in the damage output of those players who were not employing the Bearweaving rotation prior to this change. This means that if you were not using the Bearweaving rotation before, you may see a significant increase in your damage output after this hotfix.
Overall, the upcoming hotfix aims to bring the gameplay of Feral Druids much closer to the original intent from the original Wrath of the Lich King and make the spec slightly more intuitive and approachable to the majority of players. While it may take some time to adjust to the change, it is expected to have a positive impact on the gameplay experience for most players.
