Feral Druid Review of Wildstalker Hero Talents - Doesn't Capitalize on Over-Time Nature of Druids

Live Posted 2024/03/17 at 4:11 PM by Guiltyas

8 new Hero Talent Trees

Hero Talents are an extension of the Talent system designed to explore class fantasy with a third talent tree, separate from your class and specialization. With the release of Alpha, Blizzard has previewed most Hero Talents Trees coming in the next expansion, The War Within.
The War Within Hero Talents Overview

Our Guide Writers have provided initial first impressions on the Hero Talent Trees revealed so far. Check out all of our released Hero Talent reviews in our new Editorial Section.

Wowhead Editorials

Wildstalker Feral Druid ReviewWildstalkerWhat I Expected?Omen of ClarityExsanguinateRegrowthBloodtalonsWhat Could We Have Gotten?ForestwalkRipRegrowthRegrowthBloodtalonsOmen of ClarityWhat Did We Get?RipRakeTiger's FuryFeral FrenzyRakeBloodtalonsInitial impressionA Thematic FailureRegrowthVerdictTwitterstreamDreamgrove Discord

Comment by JakoHey At least the Hero tree for you guys is no where near horrible compared to Farseer for Resto/Elemental (more so Elemental) but im sure there will be changes for this Hero tree and others come alpha and betaComment by DarlikIf even these people, who always have good words for the game, talk about disappointment; It's worrying.Comment by CorvoRossoI'm ok with not having more active talents, unless it's to replace existing talents, because I don't think my clumsy fingers could take more buttons to press. I get what they're trying to do thematically, with the plant based growths supporting our skills. Maybe something like Wildheart or Wildcreeper might fit better than Wildstalker?Comment by AnaideIf anything, feral needs a hero tree that would allow to drop dots completely and make a rogue-style direct damage focused spec.Comment by GunmetalkittenI don't know if I'm missing something but Feral doesn't have a Feral x Balance Hero tree, does it? We seem to only have one for Feral/Guardian and Feral/Resto, and like the author said, Feral/Resto doesn't even really make sense.

It just seems kind of #$%^ty. I get that Druid has 4 specs and therefore technically get an additional Hero tree over everyone else, but the spirit of the Hero trees are suppose to be crossing over two of the specs each tree has. So if you're Fire Mage you can blend Fire with Arcane or Fire with Frost, right?

So Feral is missing out on Balance and it kind of sucks because there's totally room for Feral / Treant gameplay there and Blizzard doesn't seem to care enough to even try it out.Comment by JerhomieYeah, I first saw these talents and thought that it doesn’t look like it changes anything in the way we play. I also prefer bleed Feral gameplay, since briefly looking at Druid of the Claw looks like it’s focusing on big finishers and being able to shift to bear from time to time. Wildstalker just looks like we’ll passively get more bleeds but normal gameplay will be the same as always.

I can see if they want to give specs a choice of 1 hero talent tree being more passive and the other more active, but at the moment I’m not excited about either. I am interested in Moonfire Bear, though.Comment by AgentkillerleeI don't know if I'm missing something but Feral doesn't have a Feral x Balance Hero tree, does it? We seem to only have one for Feral/Guardian and Feral/Resto, and like the author said, Feral/Resto doesn't even really make sense.

It just seems kind of #$%^ty. I get that Druid has 4 specs and therefore technically get an additional Hero tree over everyone else, but the spirit of the Hero trees are suppose to be crossing over two of the specs each tree has. So if you're Fire Mage you can blend Fire with Arcane or Fire with Frost, right?

So Feral is missing out on Balance and it kind of sucks because there's totally room for Feral / Treant gameplay there and Blizzard doesn't seem to care enough to even try it out.Comment by SharkTribeWildstalker works because it's referring to a Stalker of the Wild(noun)s, or woods, not a wild (adjective) stalker.

But yeah this spec seems to lack some interaction or oomf, like a couple of the other revealed trees, feels a bit like a complex, semi-customizable trinket instead of a hero class specialization.Comment by ApolladI wish Wildstalker had leaned more into intensifying our current bleeds and adding more interactions between them, seeing as almost all our bleeds are on the class tree (Aside from Feral $%^&zy).

Instead, it's almost all non-interactive passives that you're never going to notice. The only thing on there that does actually do things that will be noticeable is Entangling Vortex / Flower Walk.

The hero spec honestly feels like it's more designed for a Resto druid who leans heavily into catweaving, and Druid of the Claw feels like it's more designed to help compensate for Feral Druids survivability issues over being designed with both Ferals and Guardians in mind.Comment by Cimegs5088I know perhaps balancing and being fair was the consideration, but missing out the elune chosen theme between balance and feral really is unwarranted. The theme itself is in the game for like...since RTS day. These hero talents should be focusing on thematic fantasies, just like Demon Hunter will never have third spec as healer, some of these lore and story things, u do not force them to be in line with everyone else because that's the best part of it all.Comment by IamthecowlvlI was hoping they'd take the opportunity to make the spec more interesting/fun, but yeah, it's a big pile of "who cares". thanks blizz, good to know you still hate feral :(Comment by corg1at this point im convinced one of the requirements to hire a druid dev is to lack creativity and not care about the people you are designing a game for. the previous one, who quit mid talent trees development, was already a disaster that left this %^&* legacy behind and this current one is not doing any better.Comment by Hyricanyou nail it on the head. this is focused for resto doing catweaving, it does not lean into cat doing healweaving.

having a dot proc is not even visually stimulating even if you add effects like swarm...

hero talents: oh wow now i lean more into x thing... storm / moon / beast / treant / darkness / shapeshifting ...

Can you add something visually interesting to a spec that helps define a fantasy? or provide some things that were previously excluded for your spec but fulfills the class fantasy?

druid of the claw reads so much more interesting in that regard already even without numbers.

heck you could have done a crossover between beastmaster and feral druid and it would read more interesting as wildstalker resto fantasy for cat... even if i like it for resto.

wildstalker: now you summon feral kittens that attack from stealth ( panthers in STV) that do the same amount of damage as a vine dot...Comment by NaturalnaIf anything, feral needs a hero tree that would allow to drop dots completely and make a rogue-style direct damage focused spec.you nail it on the head. this is focused for resto doing catweaving, it does not lean into cat doing healweaving.

having a dot proc is not even visually stimulating even if you add effects like swarm...

hero talents: oh wow now i lean more into x thing... storm / moon / beast / treant / darkness / shapeshifting ...

Can you add something visually interesting to a spec that helps define a fantasy? or provide some things that were previously excluded for your spec but fulfills the class fantasy?

druid of the claw reads so much more interesting in that regard already even without numbers.

heck you could have done a crossover between beastmaster and feral druid and it would read more interesting as wildstalker resto fantasy for cat... even if i like it for resto.

wildstalker: now you summon feral kittens that attack from stealth ( panthers in STV) that do the same amount of damage as a vine dot...Comment by Runitdown123I mean to be fair Feral Druid generally doesn't "capitalize on the over-time nature of Druids" right now, unless you wanna count Ferocious Bite casts per minute XDComment by HavocR88What I would have liked to see is no more DoT snapshotting like everyone else.Comment by mary1517You say it's uninspired, while for me that's way more interesting and accessible then the overcomplicated Druid of the Claw one. Not every WoW player expects the game to grow in to another weak aura add-on mess to track, another row of buttons to press etc. And I think the Wildstalker as it is right now is cool for that and I actually plan to playing this over Druid of the Claw, for simplicity and fun factor.

I would actually want Blizzard to not touch this one and be it as it is and maybe focus more on fixing Druid of the Claw that is a overcomplicated mess. Can't say the same from Resto perspective obvs because I don't play this spec, I'm speaking only as a Feral player that actually enjoys some meow meow action.Comment by FeralsoulI love the theme - Feral and Restoration at the same time, not specifically the way this got presented (whole thing currently feels more like a Balance-Feral hybrid with the vines and DoT imagery) - and the name as probably one of the most distinctly "RPG-esque names possible" as ideas but absolutely this is lackluster for a Feral druid compared to a Restoration druid. I definitely do not hate the idea of just more free, stacking, passive bleeds and buffing heals. I am 100% not interested in more active gameplay. But I am super invested in being better at what I do already.

But the problem is, compared to Druid of the Claw? Everything about this reads as worse. If you are taking this path, it is effectively just choosing to be worse so far as a Feral main. I have no interest in going Bear Form (ever) and the most I enjoy doing is leaving Cat Form to heal or do something else briefly then back to focusing solely on cat.

There's some amazing ideas on that bingo sheet that are also staples of Cat Form past. Increased healing taken? Yep. Execute effect? Yep. Faerie Fire? Yep. Blood Talons? Yep. All iconic pieces of the specialization which sort of belong in it. But also great things like front-loaded bleeds that tick off (literal inverse Lifebloom) or big final bleed "bloom" effect on last tick. Shame none of that really made it too, because it just fits. Also, amazing there isn't some sort of "get a stack of Lifebloom for each bleed you inflict" type thing in here or faster ticks (Circle of Life and Death, hello?) something similar.

Hopefully this gets a second pass in a lot of ways. It's just purely average right now at best and doesn't do the theme or the history of the specialization all that well.Comment by hippostarWow so after getting every hero talen you'll do like ~10% overall more passive dps which they will simply nerf back down by changing the total Feral damage aura to reduce your damage by 10%. Genious!Comment by QuadramAt least Wildstalker isn't Druid of the Claw -_-'

If DotC isn't completely reworked i desperately hope Wildstalker stays meta, even if it stays the same