There have been a lot of complaints for the feral druids lately (probably because 2.4 is still getting changed almost bi-weekly) concerning the fact that they are the only melee class in the game without a snare, cooldown or otherwise. It seems that the main opponent of feral druids getting a snare is ignorance on the behalf of everyone who has never played a feral druid. This comes as no big surprise to yours truly, since I had been feral before switching over to resto to arena with my brother's warrior, who had just hit 70.

In essence, there are two main reasons why others do not want feral druids to have a snare. The first is obvious: if it is a base ability, or an ability that is shallow in the feral tree, then restoration druids can get it, which would make them overpowered...er. The second reason is because there is a common misconception that because druids can shift out of almost all snares and crowd control abilities, and the ferals have an ability that makes them move faster (coupled with a set bonus that makes them move faster), they do not need a snare.

The second argument could not be further from the truth. I am not saying that feral druids do not get to move faster in cat/bear form that everyone else because it is true -- they do move faster than everyone else (15% from talents, 15% from 4-pieces of gear +8% from the minor run speed enchant makes for 143% movement). However, without a snare, a druid still is susceptible to other class' snares making them too slow.

For instance, if a rogue shivs crippling poison onto a feral druid, then switches off to a different target, the druid will be moving at 43% speed (still better than every other class moving at 30% speed, but enough so that the rogue can get away). Even hamstring will knock the movement speed down to 70%. If a warlock used CoEx on the druid, he'd be moving at 100% speed (normal).

The argument, then, is "so what? just shift out of it and you're back at 143% speed again."

While this might be true, it is a large cause for concern as a melee class. Shifting resets a druid's swing timer to the weapon he is wielding in caster form (usually 3.6 or more), and that isn't fixed until the first swing is landed. That is to say that if a feral druid were to shift out of cat form and back into cat form immediately, he would be subject to 3.6 seconds of not attacking with white damage, and he would have to wait for the server response before energy gains.

Additionally, other melee classes with snares also have mobility devices that aid them in getting to their enemies. Warriors have intercept, rogues (the good ones, anyway) have shadowstep or improved sprint, paladins have blessing of freedom, shamangs have... okay, shamangs don't have any love in this department either... at least they have earthbind totem... ferals don't have anything. Ferals don't have a readily available means of getting from their snared position to their opponent other than using their limited mana supply (usually about 8 shifts per match before innervate) to shift out and back just to get back to the opponent, who will (if they're smart) snare the druid again.

This is, really, the slippery slope for melee classes. When you finally get into range of the thing you're trying to attack, it snares you and walks away. Ferals don't have any problem with dying, they have a problem with not being able to attack anything because of snares, then their partners die off. This is fine in battlegrounds, I used to roll around by myself, and when things attacked me, I would kill them. However, when someone would ignore me to continue healing their friends, or continue killing somebody else, I would have trouble staying with someone.

Warriors and rogues will tell me that I just need to learn to play my class, but they would be less than enthusiastic if they could only apply crippling poison or hamstring 8 times in an arena match... because that's what moving at 143% speed and getting out of snares at 1/8 your mana bar is.