Feral Druid: Midnight Expansion Preview

Feral in Midnight sees some drastic changes to some key mechanics, while also trimming some abilities that played more of a secondary role. The result is something that still maintains the core idea of Feral, but some of the optimization possibilities were lost in the process. New additions that add extra rotational goals are interesting, but to cover for the removals they need more meat on the bones.

Snapshotting has been the beating heart of Feral gameplay for as long as the modern iteration of the spec has existed, and while some complex mechanics have been cut in Midnight, it still remains in the spec. It's definitely had the decision tree and precise optimization trimmed, but the core principle will still guide Bleed management gameplay: maintain stronger versions of your DoT effects when applied under specific conditions, while avoiding refreshes when possible.

• Bloodtalons removed
  This is somewhat contentious due to the depth it added, but having dual layered Snapshotting rules in a world without add-ons would likely result in a very difficult to manage gameplay loop.
• Tiger's Fury and Prowl remain
  Most of the weight around snapshotting has been placed firmly on Tiger's Fury, which retains its previous live snapshotting benefits. Prowl on the other hand keeps the bonus effect for Rake via Pouncing Strikes, but it's been removed from Sudden Ambush.
• UI Updates
  To make it easier to track when you have snapshotting buffs present, icons dynamically change on your action bar to an empowered state. Bleeds applied while under a snapshot effect will also inherit that icon, shown below:

Interestingly though, despite being included in these icon updates Thrash was removed entirely from Feral. While it was never a massive part of the loop, it feels like a case of one step too far, and there's an empty gap left in the rotation because of it. With things being entirely centered around Tiger's Fury as your primary means of empowering your DoTs, with so little mix-up in the rotation it's at risk of falling into a predictable cycle every 30 seconds.

To replace some of the less popular effects and inject some new tools into Feral's toolkit, there's a handful of new talent options that broaden its options. While some power has been lost specifically via the removal of Berserk: Frenzy that impacts the strength of Feral's 2-minute burst, some standouts help to soften that blow:

• Hunger for Battle
  Evokes a similar effect to the old Predator resets for Tiger's Fury, providing a damage increase and Energy refund when a target dies with Rip active. This is a very dynamic node for encounters with adds or Mythic+, and adds some good tension at the bottom of the tree.
• Blood Spattered
  Adds a clear funnel benefit to Ferocious Bite to your primary target, increasing for each active Rip you have. This again adds some extra texture to Feral's damage profile options (and a very useful one at that), linking up well with the above talent.
• Ashamane's Guidance
  Reworked specifically for Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane, instead providing a 30 second cooldown reduction. This gives Feral the option to switch over to a 1m30s cooldown profile (which has become increasingly popular in The War Within), and adds needed flexibility to its burst tools.

These add some much needed flexibility to Feral's arsenal, allowing it to shift power around for specific encounter types if needed, but still having the option to hybridize when required. The tree's structure has also been updated to accommodate this better, with less locked off branches and enforced pathing.

The largest changes to Feral in Midnight come in the form of ability restructuring. Some older tools have been cut - namely Adaptive Swarm and Brutal Slash - which previously had awkward placement within the rotation with some bad signposting as to their real purpose during gameplay. In exchange, they've been replaced by some new tools:

• Chomp
  A newly added direct damage ability. This costs no Energy, nor does it generate Combo Points, but it can only be used when below 30 Energy. This retains the spirit of Bloodtalons by encouraging you to dump your resources at least once every 20 seconds, and slots in well.
• Feral Frenzy follow-ups
  This now comes with a choice node to empower it, depending on the situation. Focused Frenzy aligns it perfectly with Tiger's Fury, while Frantic Frenzy converts it to an AoE burst tool.

While this initially resulted in Feral mostly retaining a similar button count to live, as things have progressed that's no longer the case. There's still that clear intent to split between Wildstalker and Druid of the Claw at the bottom of the tree, but they're both left feeling a little empty. There's definitely been thought put into the choice node between Chomp and Lunar Inspiration based on each tree's Energy economy, but I'm not sold on the results just yet.

The entire loop is at risk of falling into a classic "Shred Shred Bite" pitfall, since the cuts and resource changes have significantly outpaced any additions. Chomp is a great idea, and with some work it could easily become a core component of Midnight Feral. The flaw it has, especially compared to The War Within, echoes a similar feeling from the spec as a whole - it's now too rigid and predictable. All it takes is shifting that just a little bit, since the moment to moment loop is extremely similar - it just needs a stand-in for the removed mix-up mechanics, so things stay rewarding rather than repetitive.

The new extra feature for Midnight are Apex Talents, with Feral's focusing on Ferocious Bite. Up to 4 points can be spent here, and map onto the resource management gameplay built into Feral at its core without much friction. Currently, these are arranged in a 1 ➜ 2 ➜ 1 point investment:

1. Unseen Predator (1 pt)
   Adds an up to 70% chance to trigger Unseen Strike on each Ferocious Bite, incentivizing spending at 5 Combo Points. When triggered, it will either apply a Bleed to your target, or swipe nearby enemies if 3+ targets are in your melee range.
2. Unseen Predator (2 pts)
   This 2-point node grants a damage bonus each time you trigger the effect for 5 seconds, which is extended each time Unseen Strike is triggered. This is additional rather than a pandemic effect, and has no cap currently.
3. Unseen Predator (1 pt)
   Adds Tiger's Fury as a way to force procs, triggering the first point's effect once on your next two Combo Point builder casts. This also comes with a hefty 30% increase to Rip damage, likely to even out the imbalance between it and Ferocious Bite when fully invested in the line.

This is, effectively, a reward for cycling Energy and Combo Points efficiently. With it being a rolling buff that also extends, it compounds power into your Ferocious Bite casts, while needing you to balance out that uptime by fitting in Rip applications. It's a universally strong effect accentuating both Hero Tree playstyles without getting in the way. The only downside is, with Feral losing so many gameplay switch-ups and some of its decision making, this doesn't really do anything to fill in those gaps. The final point does make an effort to do this and it's good, but it's still wide open for more broad integration with active buttons (like say, Feral Frenzy) to cement that "Apex" feel.

In Midnight, Feral sees far less drastic changes when it comes to Hero Talents compared to the main Spec Tree. There's been little done to any of the nodes to switch up how they operate, though the changes to the Spec Tree does strong signposting between the DoT vs. Direct damage playstyles that map onto each of them.

Of the two trees, Wildstalker was definitely the one that leaned into Snapshotting and Bleeds the most. The most notable change is the movement of Lunar Inspiration, a mainstay of the tree due to Hunt Beneath the Open Skies, to the capstone area placed against Chomp. This has recently had UI support added for Moonfire that puts it in line with other DoTs, and codes the tree strongly as the "DoT" oriented option. New talents added are relatively simple, and entirely passive:

• Green Thumb
  Simply increases the rate Bloodseeker Vines trigger, similar to the current Season 3 Tier Set. A solid addition sine the whole tree is heavily built around Vine frequency, if a little forgettable.
• Patient Custodian
  Purely passive increase to Bleed and DoT damage. Leans heavily into the general theme of the tree.
• Rampancy
  Gives Bloodseeker Vines a chance to trigger Bursting Growth every 2 seconds while active. This evokes a similar idea to the Season 3 Tier Set (though less active).

Even with these additions, the gameplay is very similar to live. Especially in single-target (where live builds are cutting Brutal Slash anyway) its only loss is Thrash. The Bloodtalons removal is more felt here though - Wildstalker risks falling into having a checklist of DoTs to go through after using Tiger's Fury, then treading water until it repeats. It's not quite there yet though, and ideally as we progress deeper into Midnight testing we'll see improvements in this space.

Of the two, Druid of the Claw stood to lose more from the loss of Brutal Slash and the impact of Bloodtalons being removed from its bite finishers. While it benefits from additional gameplay through both Chomp and Feral Frenzy follow-up nodes, with Tear Down the Mighty placing them as core tools. It still feels like it needs a little more variation, and the new talents don't really help that situation, with them leaning toward being passive:

• Twin Claw
  Adds a flat chance whenever you use a single-target Cat Form ability to strike for extra Physical damage, and generate 3 Energy. Druid of the Claw is definitely more Energy starved of the two so this helps even things out.
• Limb from Limb
  Provides a flat 30% increase to the Ravage proc rate from auto-attacks, and may even introduce a reason to take Ruthless Aggression again .
• Exacerbating Wounds
  Increases damage dealt by your Bleed effects on targets with Dreadful Wound applied. This does go some way toward keeping the link to Bleeds as an integral part of Druid of the Claw.

While the new talents are on the less interesting side, I doubt bringing the Manaforge set bonuses forward would have changed that assessment really either. The gameplay itself is similar in spirit, but there feels like there's just one or two things missing to really keep the flow that worked so well in The War Within. Chomp is a great addition, it just needs a little more time and work for it to reach the potential and it would work as a pillar for the spec. Likewise, providing a way to synchronize Feral Frenzy and Tiger's Fury is great, and the flexibility to reduce Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane to a 1m30s cooldown with Ashamane's Guidance is much appreciated too.

As Beta has progressed, this tree feels both similar and different all at once. It doesn't feel like it's lost anything so fundamental that it can't be saved - on the contrary, the core is all still there. It feels instead like the secondary gameplay mechanics Druid of the Claw leaned into to keep you engaged between cooldowns have gone missing, and it wouldn't take much to replace them.