Heart of the Wild patch 2.3 controversy is brewing
Posted by: bigbearbutt in UncategorizedI want to bring this to your attention, give my thoughts, and open a comment section for BSing about it.
As WoWInsider has brought to light, there is discussion in the European WoW forums about Heart of the Wild (5/5) being changed in the 2.3 patch, affecting cat form only, from providing a +20% buff to Strength to providing a +10% buff to Attack Power.
This has been confirmed in that post by Blue-poster Vaneras, who adds that;
“In addition there will be changes to Items that granted bonus attack power in Cat, Bear, Dire Bear, and Moonkin forms. These items have been re-evaluated and in almost all cases, the attack power on the item has been increased. This change corrects an issue where feral weapon damage was not keeping up with other classes in its rate of increase.”
The rest of the post degenerates into what many of us have come to expect from WoW official forums… less so in the European ones, of course, but still there. One faction posts in a panic that feral cat druids are now nerfed, while another asserts that we’ve been buffed, and a third that there will be no perceptable change and that’s unacceptable. {yawn@utterlypredictabledrama}.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not too overly concerned with this proposed change just yet.
For one thing, yes, I did pick my feral cat set with an eye towards maximizing my HotW strength bonus… but I also kept it as balanced as possible with +agi, +crit and +AP. I do have some items that I have not replaced with upgrades yet, notably one Ring that has good +Str on it, but keep in mind you are STILL getting your x2 AP per point of Strength in cat form. It is the 20% bonus to strength, in cat form only, from (5/5) Mark of the Wild, that is changing.
For those folks that have a seperate feral bear tank set, well, that is utterly unaffected, EXCEPT that your item will have it’s AP increased, which will be a buff to rage generation, no matter how large or small the AP increase may turn out to be.
Now, remember, the key thing to keep in mind here… the Blue reply by Vaneras said that in addition to this change, gear that provides an AP bonus in forms was getting it’s AP increased. As far as I know, the only items that specifically state that they increase Attack power in our forms are the staves like Staff of Natural Fury.
I know one thing. At this point, I’m willing to wait and see just what the Attack Power increase is going to be on our gear before I rush to judgement. Because if they pump an additional +100 AP or something like that into our staves, well, that’s just gonna be a bit too tasty for me to whine about.
EDIT: Just as a personal feelings/observation kind of thing, I wanted to say… Phaelia, I honestly don’t think this is going to end up as a nerf… so much as I agree with Lypi’s assessment that this is going to be an overall buff, but will serve to accentuate the things we share with rogues rather than celebrate our differences.
As an earlier post mentioned, there has been some SERIOUS theoroycrafting and number crunching analysis done that is posted at the druid wiki, that as of now puts strength and agility at about dead even for cat druids.
With this change, as slight as it seems, it will push agi into the forefront of what we want.. agi and attack power.
Which, while it ain’t gonna make me bitch and whine, WILL make me a little sad that we are losing a tiny bit of our orignality.
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