http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-druid&t=66659&p=1&tmp=1#post66659

Good to see some communication.

nice timing, you beat me by 6 minutes (the time it took to read the thread and make the news post :) )

Can you cut and paste the updates or some inputs from KDM for the Fire Wall Impaired? thanks

I wanted to fill you folks in on what I've been doing since I asked for feedback and why you haven't seen anything of substance yet.

I compiled your feedback into what were the most often and most dire concerns of the class. I touched on, for example, cat form DPS, root and its utility outdoors and in, the viability of rebirth, and the issues surrounding Hurricane. (That is not a full list, those are just a few off the top of my head to give you an idea.) I sat down with the developers and we discussed the various points I had, and through that discussion I drew up a fairly large description of what was to come and the philosophy behind various aspects of the Druid.

However, today, after some testing of changes planned and further discussion, the designers weren't happy with some of the decisions, so they're going back to rework the Druid improvements. This naturally affects what I was going to give you since such things were mentioned, so it's going to be a while longer as they retool those aspects until they're satisfied with the result.

Sorry I don't have anything meaty for you yet, but believe me, I'm working hard at giving you as much information on the whats and the whys as I can. :) - Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager

that's the first post :)

Then someone stated that she didn't say anything about itemization and the Druid's need to carry multiple sets around

Hmmm, itemization. Well, I'm not certain what you mean by that in relation to Druids, but I'll cover both possible aspects:

1) Druids carry around multiple outfits for situational use and it's an inventory hog. Yes, I spoke about this with them.

2) There isn't enough Druid-centric gear out there. To my knowledge the developers are making a huge pass on equipment for casters, so hopefully this will change.

And let me stress in case you didn't see it in the first post, this is NOT the full list of what I spoke with them about so please don't assume that I didn't address your issue. I probably didn't catch every single concern but I hopefully did grab all the big ones regardless of Druid build or realm ruleset.

I'm not going to post my compiled feedback, as issues you might desperately want to see addressed may not be in the final post and I don't want to disappoint you. Normally we bring far more questions to the developers than are actually answered; some things simply can't be answered at the moment. - Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager

2) There isn't enough Druid-centric gear out there. To my knowledge the developers are making a huge pass on equipment for casters, so hopefully this will change.

I sure hope this means fixing the spirit focus on caster gear one way or another. Since it's a pass on equipment, I imagine making spirit no longer the focus, rather than making spirit worthwhile.

Here I thought they were actually going to tell us something got fixed, or wouldn't be fixed... or something.

More like the post warrior's got where they went through point by point explaining what they felt about each complaint wrt how the class is built.

This doesnt say anything at all :( Classic blizz "we're looking into it")

It tells us that they're actually working on it. I prefer this sort of response to silence, at least you know they're trying to get things done.

I guess, but at the end of the day all she said was "we're looking into it". Without making a single change to the warrior class, they got a post responding to the complaints about their class.

Without even changing combat rez or cat dps or anything they could have responded like that and said "on combat rez having a timer, it was never meant for druids to be able to do everything a priest can. To add flavour to the class druids received a very different kind of rez which is very powerful for raiding but less powerful for questing and doing lower level instances. We also wanted to ensure druids do more than just heal, and this ensures that for most encounters another healer will be present making it more likely for druids to use forms."

You don't have to change a single thing to say that.

Or on cat DPS. How hard is it to just say "we agree that the DPS of the cat is somewhat under what it should be. With respect to a DD finisher however, we do not plan to implement such a skill. For reasons x, y, z. We are looking at options to fractionally raise cat dps"

Again, don't have to change anything. Just tell us if we have a legitimate complaint or if what we see as a problem is part of the class design.

That's what the warriors got in their response. We got "it's being looked into" which I agree is better than nothing, but not by much.

What she stated was that she sat down with them they worked out changes that she was going to discuss, but after testing the developers weren't happy with the changes they had worked and are going back to rework them. I'd rather have a statement than silence, particularily since they have moved on to getting responses from the next class on thier list.

I guess, but at the end of the day all she said was "we're looking into it". Without making a single change to the warrior class, they got a post responding to the complaints about their class.

Without even changing combat rez or cat dps or anything they could have responded like that and said "on combat rez having a timer, it was never meant for druids to be able to do everything a priest can. To add flavour to the class druids received a very different kind of rez which is very powerful for raiding but less powerful for questing and doing lower level instances. We also wanted to ensure druids do more than just heal, and this ensures that for most encounters another healer will be present making it more likely for druids to use forms."

You don't have to change a single thing to say that.

Or on cat DPS. How hard is it to just say "we agree that the DPS of the cat is somewhat under what it should be. With respect to a DD finisher however, we do not plan to implement such a skill. For reasons x, y, z. We are looking at options to fractionally raise cat dps"

Again, don't have to change anything. Just tell us if we have a legitimate complaint or if what we see as a problem is part of the class design.

That's what the warriors got in their response. We got "it's being looked into" which I agree is better than nothing, but not by much.

See, THESE are the type of responses we'd get if they were done testing changes to our class. It looks to me like they don't KNOW yet how much they're gonna raise Cat DPS, or if they're gonna adjust our rez, or if they're gonna give us a DD finisher. They're still trying to figure it out.

I'm perfectly happy with the current level of communication, and I hope to hear more in a week or two.

no but they must know already whether its a problem or not. I can't imagine every concern people raised was legitimate. They could dispel some of the myths and explain to people why druid gets combat rez and not ooc rez for example. Since I strongly doubt they are about to give us a new non-combat rez and probably see the current setup as part of the classes playstyle/balance.

We got an update on the update... which was to say that there will be an update.

go caydiem!

Lol rock on!

edit:
the main boards have been down most of the day, so no idea if we were gonna get our update today or not.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-druid&t=77293&p=1&tmp=1#post77293

Some good stuff, Some bad stuff.

Still no indoor root, and it looks like I'm gonna hafta bite the buller and start carrying around 2 sets of gear -_-;

But it does look like feral forms are gonna get some much needed love!

Well, it certainly wasn't everything I wanted to hear (nor anywhere near as indepth as the warrior post), but it's good to see some thought being put into bettering our beloved class. I'm still interested to see how they plan to make a feral build more viable.

Kind of a let down if you ask me - why'd we get the gimp mod playing our class? heh

I'm dissapointed as well.

Heh.. I don't get it...

They're upping cat form DPS and adding a DD finisher.

They're adding a Rage -> Health ability to bear, something we didn't even ask for.

They're making shifting break frost so shamans are suddenly not very scary at all, out ranging them should be trivial.

They've already changed the spider belt to 30 minute cool down.

They're removing the resurrection timer from our res, finally allowing it to actually be a combat res.

So, what're you guys disappointed about?

Is it the indoor root? Look at the other forms of crowd control and the limitations on them. Every single one has some sort of limiter, ours happens to be outdoors. Our class is already very good, the changes they're making will bring us into line with everyone else, having them over balance us would just lead to nerfs in the future.

*shrug* I are like what I see, can't wait for it to go live.

/shrug. I wasn't unhappy before the update. It's just there were was so much buzz about THE update. One post asked for our ideas, then a couple posts by Caydiem announcing the update, and then the update itself was finally posted. It could have been summed up with "We're fixxing bugs we should have before retail and giving you a DD finisher for catform" - why did they string us along for so long? Would it have been so hard to announce a month ago "Shapeshifting is not breaking all snare effects like it should and we're looking into catform dps"?. It was just so hyped that I expected more and most of it was basically just saying "We're aware of the negative feedback from the community about this aspect of the druid class but we're going to leave it the way it is anyways".

Actually, yes it would have been hard to announce that. The community team has a lot of red tape to go through, and they don't know that after gathering feedback that only X, Y, and Z are going to fit with the dev teams vision of what gets to happen. Between that and the red tape, things take time. A lot of it.

I find these changes very exciting. I'm shelving my Priestess for the time being and going back to being a treehugger :) Doing 1-60 again for a healer may be a little annoying but Caydiem's post pretty much completely dealt with all my issues. He also pretty clearly stated that they are going to deal with some of the more fuzzy issues in time, and as long as I know that they are aware and motivated, then I'm happy.

Chloee

now Zhoe again!

I for one am happy with the changes. Sure, they could have given us more, but I think the changes will help maintain balance while making us more desirable.

The big disappointment for me was the equipment dodge. Whenever the company line is "maybe you guys should try some other combinations," it's never a good thing. Saying "spirit" is our best stat is sad, spirit is near useless IMO, which still leaves us with INT, STA and AGI or (supposedly) STR. And I don't know about you guys, but when I have a "scroll of" Str or Agi, in catform, it's still AGI that ups my DPS, not STR.

Maybe for our Tauren brethren who start out with a higher base STR, it makes sense to go +STR instead of +AGI... But either way, you're stuck with three primary stats and most equipment that only adds bonuses to two at a time.

wildheart set ftw.

Seems like we got some attention. :)

Personally, after playing 4 classes, the druid has by far been the most fun for me... And it's nice that the druid class isn't over-populated. I just hope these changes don't have a ton of people flocking to the class...

Whats not to like? They're fixing everyone's main gripe with cat form dps. We get a DD finisher. They fixed the rez timer and breaking of frost with shapeshift. This is awsome. We were never that far out of balance, so little changes go a huge way. It's funny how much someone is willing to pay for a slight increase in an equipment bonus, but yet don't realize that a slight improvement in our class can have a huge effect also.

I'm happy that we got attention. I'm upset that the end line on balance that costs 31 points to get is considered working as intended. I'm upset that as primary healers we have no ablity to control agro indoors (all instances but 1) unless we change forms and while doing so we are unable to continue healing.

We are primary healers at the moment, we are great healers and are on par healing wise with priests, our lack of agro control and cc while in instances makes us sub par to priests. At this time this is not an issue other than well we die to agro more than we should. The reason why this is currently not an issue is the overall lack of high level priests once there are more high level priests (and since almost everyone in my guild has a priest alt there will be) druids will no longer be seen as viable primary healers.

I'm not upset about res, I don't need to res to heal on raids and I always group with paladins for 5 man runs. I don't even really care about roots except that it would be an easy way for them to give us the agro control that we need. The cat DD finisher was a no brainer but it won't up the general DPS of Cat form. Weapons are what up dps for rogues and cat form is not based on weapons. Rage -> health in bear form should be a warrior skill. All this does is help the soling druid.

i'll be happy with those updates. i'm only level 36 atm, so have not had any huge issues to this point, other than some aggro issues. my wife plays a warrior and i just don't know if she does not have the whole aggro thing down yet, or druid heals are just insane aggro.

frankly, it's a helluva lot more than sony has given my EQ druid.

only real disappointment for me as well was the equipment/primary stat dodge, the rest sounds peachy, i've gotten used to the fact that i'm a healer who can tank while not healing and stealth around a bit, I would like some more feral talent work, as that is my tree of choice, but who knows what's in the works.

A tip for your wife Aelfin, spam Sunder Armor =-p It's an incrediable amount of agro, and it makes the mob easier to kill, always a plus!

stat/eq is fine. We are no different from every other class that could benefit from having stats lined up perfectly for every scenario. Who wouldnt want their int raised to 300 right before they cast moonfire, then converted to 300 agi when they strike, and 300 sta when they get hit? Or on equipment, everybody carries extra gear because everybody faces different scenarios. If you plan on doing molten core you need your fire resist gear on hand, but you don't see people asking blizz to make AC convert to fire resist when you enter the instance.

Druid just has to choose a specialization with stats. I have very litle str/agi but my forms are still greatly useful. I don't know that a str/agi druid with low int could say the same about their casting, but who knows. It's justlike picking a talent tree. Just bc you go restore doesn't mean you never use your bear or your moonfire. Just bc you crank sta/int doesnt mean you never use forms or melee. You choose how to build your dru, but you can't have everything at the same time.

I understand their logic on hurricane, but it is sooooo not a 31 point talent.

Looking forward to the cat buffs and the feral tree buffs, and especially to shifting to break frostshock cheeze.

At first when I read it I was kind of pissed that they blew off the indoor root idea. Like Ndainye said, we don't have any options for crowd control indoors and indoor root would have been a very easy way to fix that. As a druid, my survivability is based on pretty much 5 things: Root, Nature's Grasp, Travelform, Nature's Swiftness, and Warstomp. 3 of those things can't be used indoors, one of them can only be used once every 3 minutes, and the last one is a racial ability and doesnt really buy enough time to do anything to save us. Therefore our survivability indoors is almost nonexistent and we are left relying on other people to save us if we get aggro.

However after reading on, I found a post where Cay mentioned he believed there was some kind of aggro managment being discussed for the Druid. If this is true then I have no complaints. I am also eager to see some love to our feral tree as promised.

-Glyss 60 Tauren Druid
Black Blood Battalion - Medivh

stat/eq is fine. We are no different from every other class that could benefit from having stats lined up perfectly for every scenario. Who wouldnt want their int raised to 300 right before they cast moonfire, then converted to 300 agi when they strike, and 300 sta when they get hit? Or on equipment, everybody carries extra gear because everybody faces different scenarios. If you plan on doing molten core you need your fire resist gear on hand, but you don't see people asking blizz to make AC convert to fire resist when you enter the instance.

I think you are confused. The druid is a hybrid. Obviously all hybrid classes (shaman, paladin) need a broad range of stats. However, the druid is a special kind of hybrid - we can only fill one role at a time. When I am in bearform/catform intellect does nothing for me; spirit only helps me build my mana for when I switch back to caster form. When I am in casterform STR and AGI do relatively little for me. Compare to this to a paladin. STR will always help a paladin because they are always swinging a weapon; and they have the exact same pool of mana the entire fight so +INT helps them from start to finish, etc etc.

See this is such a fallacy.

I really think people have the wrong idea about the druid, obviously that's just my opinion but I'm quite happy with it and see nothing wrong with stats or gear.

A priest may indeed focus on intellect. What happens when a priest runs out of mana? GG.

A druid may also focus on intellect. What happens when a druid runs out of mana? Bear form.

In forms we can go toe-to-toe with other classes, WITHOUT using mana, and in fact regening our mana pool for when we shift back out. Maybe you want to reverse this style and say "I go toe-to-toe in my forms, and when I'm low on hp I shift out to heal and then right back. A warrior once low on HP is doomed, I just shift-heal and im right back at it."

I mean hey, the paladin benefits from ALL stats ALL the time. Does that mean he can max ALL of them ALL the time? no. He has to choose which stats to focus on. Even though he might like the crits from agi, he puts them aside and goes for other stuff. Even tho mana regen from SPI may win him a battle in a lonnng fight, he will probably put that aside too. Despite benefitting from all 5 stats, he can choose 2 to put aside and focus on the other 3.

Why is it so hard for a druid to do this? I say screw str/agi and focus sta/int/spi. Sure you melee with your bear and cat, but these are 1/2 of your character. A warrior needs high str because thats his only dps output. You? You just use your forms for FREE damage until you're low on hp. Then you shift. heal. Root. Moonfire. Starfire. whatever. The fact is ALL of the damage you get out of your forms is free if you look at your char compared to spellcasters. If you look at it compared to melees, then all of your casting dmg is free (if you see it this way, you should ditch your int for str, and possibly your spi for agi).

No int doesn't do anything directly for your cat. Nor does str do anything directly for your caster (you might melee once in a while in pvp, but lets be realistic). The thing is the druid is not just a cat or just a caster, you're both. It's not like that extra int is being wasted while your in a form. Your form is FREE damage, then when you shift back bam your int is right there where you left it.

I still believe the comparison I've made is accurate. A druid who wants 300str in bear to change to 300 agi in cat to change to 300 int in caster, is like a shaman or paladin who wants 300 int right before casting a spell, 300 agi or sta right before taking a hit, and 300 str right before striking an enemy. Druids shift throughout the battle.

I also can make this case from practical experience. With just 135str and 85agi my forms are still greatly useful in pvp and pve (albeit not so much in raid instancing, but thats got nothing to do with the stats).

We don't get a primary stat because we have the ability to shift. Classes with primary stats can't morph when they've exhausted the usefulness of their primary stat. A mage out of mana can't turn into a tank. If he could, I doubt he'd complain that his tank form only had 5kac or 60str. He'd be thankful he could keep ploughing along, all the time regening mana for when he shifted back to his caster form.

In pvp we're expected to take advantage of both our shapeshifting and casting abilities, and we do. Moonfire, Fairy Fire, whatever then go bearform or catform only switching out to heal. How is this not taking advantage of all our stats? In groups we either don't shift as much or don't go full caster as much (depending on how you play) but if the situation called for it we could do many things at once, and when we do we are taking advantage of all our stats.

The way I see it is just wait for the endgame. If WoW evolves anything like EQ, sooner or later you will be seeing gear with +10 to all stats and resists. Thats when hybrids really begin to shine because where all our stats effect us greatly, its not so much true for non-hybrids who only depend on a few stats.

-Glyss 60 Tauren Druid
Black Blood Battalion - Medivh

Yep. There are items like this.... altho not many.

At lvl 60 you can get songbird blouse, star of mysteria, and tome of knowledge. The wildheart kilt buffs every attrib, the cowl gets 4 of them (no agi).

There are probably some other items/gear too that buff all 5 attribs or at least 4 of them.

If you want that total-balance style then those are some options to look for. Personally I went for full wildheart because ultimately with the +17sta +17str for all 8 pieces, it compensates for the lameness of the gloves+bracers. And while the other buffs dont really show up anywhere, I'm sure the extra dmg on my spells and 40 extra to my heals isn't hurting me either.

But as far as I'm concerned we just choose our stat spec. You can't have all 5 as high as you would if you just picked 2. And you can't think realistically that we're going to get stuff converted when we shift.

The only thing I could really see that would be possible is for druid to beef up spirit somehow to make it more viable as a druids "primary" stat (since a lot of people seem totally hung up on there being ONE main stat). That could be druid-specific such as higher spi increasing dmg in our forms. Or universal such as letting hp regen in combat based on SPI... or radically increasing the out of combat regen rate.

The general consensus on this issue is that it’s a natural consideration of a hybrid class. Examine your style of play, look at what would most benefit you, and outfit your character along those lines.


This sounds ass backwards to tell a hybrid. Basically, if my style of play leans more toward healing then according to this logic I might as well simply of made a Priest and been done with it. Same for catform or bearform. The point of a hybrid is that we choose not to limit our style of play along one line. And never before in my gaming career have I needed to focus on my style as a hybrid and simply give up choices otherwise available to me (i.e., basically dump other forms for lack of efficiency and usefulness with my current wardrobe). I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding here about what a hybrid is. Our style of play is not that of a healer, or a tank, or a rogue. It is all three. If our style of play were simply one of those things - which is what the wardrobe practically dictates - we would not choose to be a hybrid but instead be the parent class.

In the end, I don't have much of a problem with my limitations. It means I am not a feral druid. I use my forms in extremely limited circumstances. Cat when I want to sneak/scout; bear when I get aggro from healing. But I strongly disagree with Blizzard's take on hybrids.

I get a tonne of milage out of my forms without being str/agi specced.

That's a big part of why I don't see the problem. I hate to resort to telling people "learn how to play your char", but sometimes I really think this is the issue.

Once cat gets its boost I think its going to be very powerful versus casters. I can already dish out some mean burst damage with ravage, claw, rake, rip before shifting to heal moonfire and go bear. I haven't tested yet but I intend to, but I believe that that uber-fast attack speed of cat is HAVOC on casters. Trying to get a spell off when you're getting hit once per second can't be easy.

Whether you have 300 agi or 84 agi, that interrupting ability... like stealth and track... is pretty damn awesome. Likewise with bear. The mad AC with bash and feral charge makes it a great form, whether its 300str or 135str.

Druids are acknowledged as having low dps. I would suspect this is the intrinsic weakness of our class and is intentional. Don't expect your bear to dish out 150dps... i.e. don't expect to wear gear for 300+ str. If you do, don't complain about your 2k mana pool.

That's a big part of why I don't see the problem. I hate to resort to telling people "learn how to play your char", but sometimes I really think this is the issue.


I've played hard core in EQ and other MMOs for over five years. I'll thank you not to be an ******* so this thread doesn't get bogged down with personal attacks.

I have no illusions about how I play. I'm invited as the primary healer on tough dungeons and leave groups with people complimenting me as the best druid they've played with. The problem is that what I do is mostly heal, CC when possible, and tank when necessary. I rarely use any forms.

You think you have an awesome class, and that's great. I love the class too. It's just that some people are a bit more thoughtful about balance and dip into their experiences in other MMO realms and don't happen to believe hybrids are about picking one of three choices.

end-game instances you will heal. This is well-known. If you do not accept this you won't do end-game instances. Every other class can do dps. Only you and the priest can competently heal. Priests and druids are hard to find because few people play them and they are in high demand. You will be healing.

In PvP and solo PVE you will use all of your forms regardless of your stats. If you don't, you need to play a different class or take lessons on how to play druid.

And frankly I don't care if you played MUD's for 50 years. This is WoW. These are WoW druids. They're not D&D or EQ or L2 or whatever else. Your experience from other games is 100% irrelevant in looking at the issues faced by WoW druids.

lets start keeping this post civil

/shrug

It's simpler to say we disagree. You think knowledge and experience from other sources isn't relevant as it relates generally to the role of the "hybrid" in MMO's; I think that's shortsighted and ignorant. To me, if we can't even agree on the simple fundamentals then it doesn't make much since to argue over the larger picture peices. So consider the conversation between us, Aitus, closed on this matter. :lmao:

In my experience in this game, other hybrids, namely paladins, gain the advantages of being a hybrid with one set of gear. I think the problem lies in Blizzard not understanding the druid's role. The paladin's role is well-defined in this game and in MMOs generally. Because it is not as varied as are the druid "forms" it is effected less by a wide range of stats. Hell, maybe the problem lies in calling a druid a hybrid. We aren't a true hybrid in the sense of having multiple abilities taken from parent classes and merged into a single player. Instead, we ARE a (slightly weaker version of a) parent class in any given one of our forms. And to the extent certain stats are necessary to function efficiently for the parent they are equally necessary to function efficiently as a weaker version of the parent. This is not the issue facing strict hybrid classes.

alright, we'll agree to disagree.

But if druid forms are unviable without maxed str/agi, then I do the impossible every day I play.

Actually what would make a lot of sense, at least to me, is to have the druid's damage in bearform and crits in catform all based off of INT. That way INT is your primary stat in everything, at which point you can choose a secondary (such as STA for me, or SPI for others).

With int it would be too powerful. What they could do is link forms somehow with spirit, since a LOT of druid gear has high spirit on it (look at all the runic stuff, the earthborn kilt, the ironfeather gear, even wildheart gives a big chunk of SPI) and most would say spirit is inferior to the other stats right now. It used to be overpowered, but now I think they kinda overnerfed it.

We get the benefit from SPI because mana regens in our forms, which is nice and I am content with it. However I wouldn't see it as a problem if they buffed spirit up a bit by having it somehow effect our forms. Such as forms getting natural hp regen in combat based on SPI, or damage increase based on SPI.

If you link it off spirit, then you're into the problem of having three "primary" stats again. You've got to have INT, that's a no-brainier, then if you say your "damage" is based off of spirit in animal forms, then you're left with STA hanging out there, and STA in beaform is a lot more important than damage.

Not only that, but how is INT too powerful? You're supposed to be comparable to the other "parent" classes, the warrior and rogue - both classes which should have the same amount of STR or AGI as you do INT at the same level grades. Since the druid dps is artificially hard capped already, you're already guaranteed not to generate the same type of damage as a rogue, or since we don't have a defensive stance, you won't soak as much damage as the warrior. Point being that there are already systematic locks in place to make sure we don't surpass the parent classes.

because int is strong enough already, it doesn't need a buff. Spirit is widely recognized as weaker, and recognized by some as being the intended druid "primary stat"... one only need look at leather gear to realize this. As a leatherworker the stuff I make is either clearly for rogues (devilsaur, wicked leather) or it is for druids (as we are the only other class sporting leather past 40). With the exception of warbear gear, which is there to pander to "feral" druids, most of this other leather is highly focused on SPI.

As for your concern about "three primary stats". Every caster class needs int and stamina, and most COULD use spi if it wasn't underpowered. Hell I'm sure most casters dont mind spi as it beefs up their regen, but they can't focus on it because the regen rate is not high enough to make much of a difference, and unlike druids they can't shift while their mana regens.

I doubt blizzard will do anything to link spi to forms, but I know they are looking at ways to improve it overall. One thing I remember seeing was Caydiem say they were testing to see what happens if they change it so your regen starts 2 seconds after casting a spell, instead of 5 seconds. They may also tweak the regen rate per tick.

Nobody in their right mind is saying "int sucks, druids need int to be more powerful for it to be worth getting". Spi is the weak stat, and it is coincidentally a major stat on druid gear. Thus a buff to SPI is a buff for the druid, and it looks like Blizz is at least toying with some changes.

If making INT our primary stat for damage/crits in bear/cat form is overpower, so is making AGI the primary stat for damage for rogues, I think.

Well, maybe not EXACTLY, since Rogues are made chiefly for damage, but I think it's comparable. I wouldn't say Feral Druids are "Impossible to play." I have a level 40 Feral Druid that I love, and unless it becomes nearly impossible for me to play and/or group, or my guild really really really needs healers, I do not plan on respeccing. But it is VERY annoying having to lug a full Runecloth Bag of Intellect Gear around for those times when it's more prudent of me to play healer, or at least have the mana to get off a decent amount of heals.

I think Ravija and Stormhaven make some valid points.