Guardian Druid Review of Druid of the Claw Hero Talents - Return of Catweaving

Posted 2024/04/06 at 12:43 AM by Pumps

12 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

Druid of the Claw Guardian Druid ReviewMaulHero Tree Core ConceptsMassive AttackCatweaving and the Bear AuraRakeRipGuardian DruidConvoke the SpiritsNode by Node Analysis

- Simple and fun addition to the Guardian rotation. Big hit, big DoT. Very similar kind of proc to Tooth and Claw which was a huge success of a talent. The inner workings of the talent are a little unclear at this point in time - how much damage will it deal to other targets that aren't the main target, and will the DoT from be applied and extended to all targets?

- This also sounds super fun, making our cooldowns even more interactive with additional procs.

- Guardian did need more big bleeds. The damage reduction aspect is a nice cherry on top. The extending aspect makes for a more enjoyable gameplay loop.

- This is huge W for Catweaving in general. Having that extra safety net from the bonus health and armor is massive. However, there is still the chance to be crit that needs to possibly be addressed. Catweaving has always been very punishing and this is a great step in the right direction.

- Maximum rage increase is absolutely a win in my book. I would love to see an even higher rage cap and potentially much more rage generated upon switching back and forth from Cat Form to Bear Form if this is a playstyle that is upcoming. Shifting in to Cat Form, applying all your bleeds within 6 seconds and then shifting back to Bear Form to dump 130+ rage would feel excellent.

- A lot of attack speed which plays into the whole Massive Attack gameplay loop really well, considering it procs off auto attacks.

- 5% Agility and 20% extra Ironfur armor is quite nice. It's likely this is the better choice on AoE fights, and is the single target fight option as they share a choice node. This also has the first Mangle after entering combat makes your Maul become a Massive Attack which may lead to Night Elf making a return to the top, as Shadowmeld may get bonus value.

- This has really fun potential, essentially giving a buff every 6 Mangles that allows us to transform to Cat with full combo points and an empowered finisher. This massively cuts down the time required in Cat Form for optimal weaving. I'm curious as to how this will work with Convoke the Spirits - whether it will buff multiple finishers or not could be interesting.

- Extending the DoT is a nice way to increase uptime and add to the rotation naturally.

- While the perk of this isn't bad, it's just too simple and boring to be considered a Hero talent in my opinion. It needs additional effects.

- This was a hard choice to place. It definitely isn't an awful talent, being able to Frenzied Regeneration in Cat form could have it's uses. The damage reduction is fine and the Swipe/Mangle damage increase are kinda small but okay. Overall, it just feels a little lacking and niche.

- Swipe does extremely low damage, boosting it slightly means very little. Mangle is only single target, again very low damage increase. Overall, another lackluster talent that does not much and shares a choice node with another talent that does not much, so you can choose between two sad talents.

- 5 seconds off Pulverize is extremely niche and unlikely to see any use. Something like 5 additional seconds of Pulverize would be useful but keep in mind, Pulverize is a single target damage reduction talent so it's use is already quite niche. If we were to get Pulverize back baseline and it was changed back to a self-buff reducing all damage taken, this would have significantly more use.

- This is absolutely the worst talent in the whole tree, only 25% increased duration on Stampeding Roar is completely negligible. Similar talents/conduits have existed in the past and were always useless and never taken. This one isn't even a choice node, it's just a very lazy filler talent that should be changed or have more added to it. One of the most useful Stampeding Roar talents was increased range for example.

Final ThoughtschoiceThe Elunes ChosenMassive AttackFount of StrengthDreadful WoundBestial StrengthWildshape MasteryRuthless AggressionKilling StrikesPack's EnduranceEmpowered ShapeshiftingWildpower SurgeAggravate WoundsStrike of the HeartTear Down the MightyClaw Rampage

Comment by GwildorrHow does catweaving as a tank in M+ make any sense with these talents? Wtf?Comment by AnaideHow does catweaving as a tank in M+ make any sense with these talents? Wtf?Comment by EtamalgrenHow does catweaving as a tank in M+ make any sense with these talents? Wtf?Comment by AylarVery bad design with shapeshifting, this talent tree is suckComment by TheOGNubzCatweaving as a tank was always one of the worst ideas by Blizzard. Why are tanks being required to do so much damage? My job is to gather, position, and put up my defenses so I can eat a ton of damage so the dps can melt it down. I know I make healers lives miserable because I'm one of the highest healing parsing Guardian druids, but many of them are now off the high of being able to dps more while healing less. They play healer to heal in M+ and Raids. I play a tank to eat all the damage and make sure people don't get hit by anything that I can control. Now, if they're planning on giving us the Gladiator Prot Warrior from WoD and let us be dps bears, I'd be down for that being a separate build path. Can Blizzard please get people who know what tanking is rather than DPS playing tanks leading the way?Comment by MealkeyHow does catweaving as a tank in M+ make any sense with these talents? Wtf?Comment by PeacemoonCat weaving could be fun, but it bear Druids suffer greatly from being ‘trapped’ in their form - more than any other Druid spec.

The moment you leave Bear form you can get one shotted, and in dungeons where you’re the only tank, there are few opportunities to do this safely, or where you can make a meaningful impact.

As the guide writer said, with the bear aura, even if you switch to moonkin or cat and pop heart of the wild, you can end up doing less damage than if you’d just stayed in bear - a very sad state.

While bringing back cat weaving and shifting out of bear could be fun, there are a lot of fundamental aspects of guardian Druid that need changing and tweaking to make it both desirable and rewarding to do so.

None of these things should come from a hero talent tree. This needs to be changed at a base level.

Being ‘safe’ for a few seconds out of bear form should be a baseline perk of Guardian - and maybe something this hero tree could then enhance and dip into.

As for the rest of the tree, ‘massive attack’ feels very similar to the ‘tooth and claw’ procs we already have. This is also a buff to maul procced by auto attacks - which means we’re have two procs doing the same thing. Quite lacklustre and and a lack of imagination.

I think I was hoping for more from the Druid of the Claw hero tree.
Also in terms of theme, in Warcraft 3 Druids of the Claw specialised in rejuvenation. I was hoping that this tree would bring more off healing potential to the spec with Guardian Rejuvenations, as well as a focus on feral forms (bear + cat).Comment by johntravolta342I dunno about others but I love trying to do as much dps as I can as both tank and healer, that kind of min maxing is fun and being able to shape shift to other forms while tanking is very thematic for druid so I like the sound of it.Comment by MarkElfCatweaving as a tank in m+ sounds absolutely horrible. Unless you're coming out of incarn with 8+ stacks of iron fur or gave up some spec nodes for extra iron fur protection, it sounds like a death sentence in higher keys or large pulls.
I'm sure it's great in raid when you have periods of no damage intake. Bear is super boring in raid and this spices it up which is nice.

Overall, seems lackluster for bears and I'd rather have seen a resto/bear tree as off-healing is super satisfying and it helps will a niche similar to prot pally given our free wild growth every 20+ seconds feels very unreliable.Comment by SoifonCatweaving as a tank in m+ sounds absolutely horrible. Unless you're coming out of incarn with 8+ stacks of iron fur or gave up some spec nodes for extra iron fur protection, it sounds like a death sentence in higher keys or large pulls.
I'm sure it's great in raid when you have periods of no damage intake. Bear is super boring in raid and this spices it up which is nice.

Overall, seems lackluster for bears and I'd rather have seen a resto/bear tree as off-healing is super satisfying and it helps will a niche similar to prot pally given our free wild growth every 20+ seconds feels very unreliable.Comment by avatarofshadowNobody's asking the REAL question : when can my bear wear a pirate costume ?Comment by dreadmarblesCatweaving as a tank was always one of the worst ideas by Blizzard. Why are tanks being required to do so much damage? My job is to gather, position, and put up my defenses so I can eat a ton of damage so the dps can melt it down. I know I make healers lives miserable because I'm one of the highest healing parsing Guardian druids, but many of them are now off the high of being able to dps more while healing less. They play healer to heal in M+ and Raids. I play a tank to eat all the damage and make sure people don't get hit by anything that I can control. Now, if they're planning on giving us the Gladiator Prot Warrior from WoD and let us be dps bears, I'd be down for that being a separate build path. Can Blizzard please get people who know what tanking is rather than DPS playing tanks leading the way?Comment by NetherialThey could make a phantom/spirit form of the catform lunge out and perform the attacks instead of really swapping back and forth between the forms. or visually swap between them when using catform abilities, but not ACTUALLY changing the form.Comment by AniseCatweaving was traditionally left to resto and feral. Not guardians.Comment by 2391970Catweaving was traditionally left to resto and feral. Not guardians.Comment by PeacemoonCatweaving was traditionally left to resto and feral. Not guardians.Comment by camerashy247I miss cata druid back when catweaving was god mode for a tank in a raid setting but I don't see much use of it in m+Comment by TernelMaybe in a raid when you're the off tank cat weaving can work.

But in M+ it seems a critical risk. medium reward.

Unless you're going to absolutely destroy something as you cat weave, what possible gain is there to spend 2 GCDs (shifting into cat and then shifting back to bear) and risking an instant wipe of the group to push some extra dps?

Don't get me wrong, power shifting is a cool concept, but it needs to be absurdly rewarding to do so the risk is worth it.

Otherwise I don't see this tree as viable since it's so much easier to play the moon bear tree. Sure, it's probably more boring, but it's also far FAR safer than this tree looks to encourage.Comment by akaRavenThe exact reason I stopped using druid, when I was discussing weaving with my GM, use mass roots, swap to owl, convoke, back to bear.

Great if you want to min max your DPS and whatever, but hot damn you make one mistake or miss a GCD to drop back into bear form and poof, dead.

If druid forms were not on the GCD it would 100% make it a much more fun class to play, and if you could be that spec, but don't have to be transformed I would probably still main druid. Because it blows when you are a 'tank' but on a mount so you are not really a tank, you are just some dumb humanoid form player that is useless.Comment by faeofwindI hate cat weaving. Gross.