Feral druid spent the tail of beta in an awkward spot: the rotation felt complete, the damage did not. The November 3 development notes (same batch as the hunter shot buffs) re-ran the whole feral ledger — part of the same across-the-board damage raise with higher-level creature health compensating.
Cat form: the ability shares get rewritten
Weapon-damage-share abilities (these drive white-hit synergies):
| Ability | Old | New |
|---|---|---|
| Shred | 155% weapon damage | 200% |
| Claw | 110% | 140% |
| Ravage | 350% | 435% |
Base points and AP-scaling abilities (Blizzard's wording: "about 25%"):
- Rip, Rake, Ferocious Bite and Pounce — all four core DoTs and finishers raised by about 25%. The notes give one figure for the group rather than per-rank tables; the simulator data line reads the per-tick coefficient change (Rip AP per tick 0.01->0.0125) consistent with that wording.
Talents:
- Rend and Tear: 2/4/6/8/10% -> 3/6/9/12/15% — with Shred and Rake buffed on top, the bleed-multiplier zone got bigger;
- Genesis (Balance): periodic damage and healing bonus 1/2/3/4/5% -> 2/4/6/8/10%, doubled per rank — cat druids who dip into it benefit twice over;
- Starfire: base damage up ~40%, the biggest single Balance change.
The tree structure is unchanged — the math is not
This batch did not touch feral tree structure (the Primal Bite-for-Berserk swap, Predatory Discipline replacing Shifting Power and the like came in earlier notes; our druid preparation piece already covers those). The direct consequence of the value changes above: old payoff tables for talent builds are obsolete — build comparisons that ranked points by Rip/Bite returns may reorder after a blanket +25%.
A note for bears
The same notes raise Bear Form and Dire Bear Form threat from 50% to 115%, explicitly as compensation for removing Blessing of Salvation. That is the second bear-threat raise, and tanking druids should feel noticeably steadier at launch than in early beta.
Leveling and dungeons
Leveling: at 200% weapon damage, a good weapon matters more for cats than ever — keep your weapon current while leveling; Poised (the new level-32 passive, -10 Energy on your next spender when you enter combat at full Energy) makes the opening burst smoother on top of the damage raise.
Before dungeons: nothing here touched threat or survivability mechanics for the tank role — run the preparation checklist as before. Cat druids re-checking talent payoffs should note our talent planner is synced with the game client and includes this tuning pass: planner scores remain structural references only, and the announced values govern in game.