Powershifting

Powershifting is the act of switching out of and quickly or instantly back into a Druid shapeshift form such as [Cat Form], [Bear Form], or [Moonkin Form] for various benefits.

History

Ever since the original game was released, and for multiple expansions since, it used to be possible to swiftly exit and re-enter a shapeshift form through a number of methods, such as:

• Right-clicking the shapeshift form buff in the buff and debuff frame
• Clicking, or pressing the hotkey for, the shapeshift form in the interface
• Using the cancelaura or cancelform macro commands
• Using the cast or use macro commands with an exclamation mark prefix, e.g. /use !Cat Form

Utilizing either of these methods while in a form would cause the user to leave the form. The Druid would then be free to instantly re-enter the shapeshift form that was just left. Some macros would even put the Druid back in the form as well with no extra hotkey presses or mouse clicks necessary. All of these methods of quickly shapeshifting out of and back into a form became collectively known as powershifting.

Controversy

In practice, the manual methods for powershifting were not commonly used by skilled players nor recommended by the community as they were highly inconvenient and considerably more error prone than the practically flawless macro based methods.

As a result of the almost necessary macros that were used to powershift, players have argued that powershifting was in fact an exploit, or at least similar in nature to one.

Others have claimed that since, while awkward, it was entirely possible to perform powershifting through the default user interface or regular hotkeys found in the default keybinding menu, without the help of addons or macros, that powershifting must have been entirely intentional or at least not against the rules or spirit of the game.

Removal

In Patch 7.0.3, the pre-patch of Legion, all methods of leaving a form were made to incur a 1.5 second cooldown on the form that was just left. This effectively made powershifting impossible.

At the time Blizzard argued that the removal of the mechanic, which had grown into a staple of especially the Feral specialization toolkit, was due to the frequent shapeshifting causing the client to lag and that this fairly non-obvious mechanic was a detriment to players who did not know of or use advanced macros.

Similar arguments have been used by Blizzard when removing other mechanics which necessitated, or greatly benefited from, using macros or addons. Examples of such events include the introduction of dynamic stat scaling periodic damage effects in Patch 6.0.2 following the rise in popularity of addons such as AffDots to simplify usage of the snapshotting mechanic of dots.

Alternatives

Over the years multiple abilities such as [Prowl], [Tiger's Fury] and Dash have been made to automatically enter a shapeshift form on activation, ignoring any cooldown on the form. This can be used to circumvent the 1.5 second cooldown and enable quick or instant re-entering of the form that was just left. This is however very limited, as these abilities all have significant cooldowns of their own.

Additionally, it is possible to avoid wasting the 1.5 seconds of downtime by using an ability in caster form or to enter another form, although this is not considered powershifting as it is not re-entering the same form quickly. Moreover, it is commonly not optimal to do this as it is usually not what the user would like to do, which is likely to just quickly re-enter the form that was left.

Use Cases

Furor and Wolfshead Helm

Up until Mists of Pandaria, the talent [Furor] would grant the user an instant boost of Energy or Rage after entering [Cat Form] or [Bear Form] respectively, as opposed to starting with none.

By making use of the powershifting mechanism in combination with the [Furor] talent an advanced technique used by many skilled and knowledgeable Feral players was created. In order to maximize energy and thereby damage players would frequently powershift when low on energy and rapidly consume Mana Potions in order to prevent running out of mana. The technique was often used in conjunction with the infamous level 40  [Wolfshead Helm] which caused the strange appearance of very high-geared Feral Druids raiding in full epic tier sets and the latest, best gear, but still using a rare helm for characters not even level 60 which was crafted with simple materials.

This technique was rendered ineffective in Patch 3.0.2, the Wrath of the Lich King pre-patch, when the [Furor] talent was intentionally altered slightly to make the technique not work any longer. According to a Blizzard poster on the official forums the technique will not return as it was never intended and caused some rather strange player behaviour.

Disentanglement

Since the initial release of World of Warcraft all Druid shapeshift forms have, with a partial exception for all specializations except Restoration during the Cataclysm expansion, had the Disentanglement effect built in or otherwise offered, thereby allowing the user to remove any movement impairing effects with the activation of a shapeshift form.

A technique in which the user powershifts to efficiently get rid of such effects was thus developed and utilized heavily especially in PvP, with macros and guides suggesting its use as early as in The Burning Crusade.

The technique was well-known by players and Blizzard alike for many expansions without any signs that Blizzard was not accepting of its use. Proponents of the technique have therefore long argued that it can be assumed that the removal of powershifting was actually caused by Blizzard wanting to nerf the mobility of primarily the Feral specialization, and in order to avoid criticism opting to do so by disguising the nerf as a bug fix of powershifting.

Terminology

The term is sometimes assumed to only refer to the [Furor]-related technique, or the Disentanglement-related technique. It is often the case that players who predominantly participate in PvP activities refer primarily to the Disentanglement-related technique when using the term, whereas players who predominantly participate in PvE activities refer to the [Furor]-related technique.

There are also other, less common, uses of the term related to various convenience macros which choose form based on modifiers and the current location of the player, see Useful macros for druids for reference.

Real Life Reference

The term originates from the real-life motor racing term which refers to "The clutch [being] briefly depressed while the shift lever is slammed from gear to gear, keeping the engine in its power band." See Wikipedia for reference.