Update: On Wednesday the energy adjustment for all Feral Druids comes in WoW: TBC Classic! Original: Community Manager Kaivax has published a rather extensive post about the Feral Druids of WoW: Burning Crusade Classic Gold in the official WoW forum. Specifically, it's about energy, powershifting and what the plans for the near future look like.
Update from June 29th:
With the regional ID restart on Wednesday (June 30th), Blizzard will bring the changes tested on the PTR for Feral Druids (see original message) live on the live servers of WoW: Burning Crusade Classic. Cats will then get back 20 energy every two seconds, and they should never get partial energy ticks outside of that 2 second loop. Here are the official patch notes for this hotfix:
WoW The Burning Crusade Classic
[With regional restarts] Feral Druids now receive 20 Energy every 2 seconds, and their Energy should never get a partial tick outside of that 2-second loop.
Developers' note: With careful timing, Cat Druids should be able to receive their full 20 Energy regeneration tick immediately after shifting.
Original message from June 25th:
With the pre-patch from WoW (buy now 14.99 €): Burning Crusade Classic, one important little thing has changed for the Feral Druid, which was implemented in the game with patch 2.2:
"Power regeneration: For every effect that changes the rate of power regeneration (mana, anger, energy, focus), an amount corresponding to the old regeneration rate is now immediately credited, and about 2 seconds later the time intervals begin with the new regeneration rate. With this change Improves the functionality of spells such as 'evocation' and 'stimulate', where it could previously happen that time intervals were not used. "
However, this change also ensures that powershifting as in Classic is no longer possible, which many cat fans dislike. In addition, there was fear within the community that there might now be a new meta around Weak Troll Blood Potion to get additional energy out of the rotation.
Related Read: WoW Classic TBC Best Arean Comps
Blizzard has collected the feedback from the players and has now commented in detail on the topic in the official WoW forum. Here are the most important findings:
A conversation with the designer who was responsible for the change at the time revealed that the patch 2.2 adjustment was not intended as a weakening of Feral Druids. In the end, the result did not meet the developers' intended goal. That's why there was already an adjustment for the energy regeneration of druids with patch 3.0.2.
In addition, the adjustments made to spell batching for TBC Classic make the timing problem for druids even worse due to the patch 2.2 change.
The developers have therefore decided to reset the energy regeneration to the 2-second cycle. The energy regeneration rate will no longer be influenced. So cats will receive 20 energy every two seconds. There are no partial ticks outside of this 2 second loop. With good timing in powershifting, you can get the full 20 energy after the change in shape.
How do you rate this Feral Druid customization? Are you satisfied or would you have wished for a different solution? Let us know in the comments!