Originally Posted by Boevis
The end problem of druids not scaling their DPS at the same rate as rogues comes from Dual Wield vs a 2h scaling like a 1h and overall itemization.
One thing to remember about the whole "druids use a 2h that scales like a 1h" is that we used to have 1h that scaled like 1h and could at least use a offhand.
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I think that druids running around with 2H Mauls seems to fit a bit nicer when we do actually see the weapons. Presumably the reason they switched it to a 2H was so they didn't have to go around and itemise feral offhands as well. IIRC there weren't really any decent off hands for a feral druid, and with a 2H we can (in theory at least) get more suitable stats. Theoretically they could still create feral 1H and the existing ones weren't immediately broken on release of TBC.
The AP = 1H AP is probably what they always used when balancing druid feral dps when levelling, so it makes sense to scale FAP with item level/quality in exactly the same way.
As has been pointed out here before, this is also what happens with caster weapons, the 2H with bonuses don't suddenly game more +spell effect as a result of being a 2H rather than a 1H, what they gain is more stats, and while we can't stack FAP on the weapon with FAP on an offhand like a caster can, we can instead double dip and stack FAP with strength or AP. (caster weapons never seem to have more than the base weapon amount of +spell/heal)
There is still some questions that needs to be examined of course, does a feral druid keep up their scaling with improved gear?. My guess would be no for both feral dps and tanking, at least with the available itemisation. Now maybe the solution to that is to to change the way that base (weapon + level) feral dps scales, but it seems to me that the feral druid is a different beast altogether, and that switching just FAP over to the value given by (arbitary) 2Hers isn't necessarily going to neccessarily help in the long run.
In any case, with such a complex system overall, they probably just balance things with some sort of random walk adjustment until things seem right
