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Actually, the reason behind dire bear form is the warrior/paladin switch from mail to plate at level 40. The attack power is pretty minor.

I would love to see dire catform as an alternative to catform rather than an upgrade or simple skin change. For example, they could position dire catform as the feral PvP form (maneuverability, escape from CC, snares, cheat death analogue, and so on but no rip) or as the melee group support form (innate infected wounds proc, finishing move for a 2%/combopoint groupwide haste, etc, but slower energy regen).