So how are people liking the expansion aside from questing? I haven't heard or read anything about raids/dungeons/garrison/professions and so on
I'm level 95 with my druid in Talador and this has to be my favorite leveling experience so far. I really like the new elements of the garrison and outposts and missions, and the zones have been pretty great so far.
I also finally didn't completely out-level a zone before finishing all the quests, so that's great!
my ilvl on this druid is 575, but my hunter is a boosted character so it has fairly low ilvl, which probably means it will take me longer to level him up through Draenor
Are feral druids any good this patch? mostly talking PVE
My thinking is pretty much inline with apt101. I raid a ton (one Mythic group, one more casual/alt gearing group) and I have really liked this expansion so far a ton. Barring any major issues with Blackrock Foundry when it releases this'll be probably my favorite opening tier of all time, which is saying something because I really enjoyed BC.
But my buddies who aren't hardcore raiders, even some in the casual group which is only a two day thing, some of them feel they're running out of steam. I don't really get the impression there's any less endgame stuff to do outside of raiding then there ever has, but my perspective is blurred simply because raiding has always been the only thing I really care about anyway.
As for your question on Feral, I play it at a reasonably high level. The spec is generally very good in Highmaul and will continue to be good in BRF. There are downsides, mainly that Feral is still straight bad at burst intervals (Adds on Margok, Adds on Tectus) and burst AOE (Adds on Margok, stands on Kargath, All of Tectus). I actually go Guardian as a third tank on Mythic Tectus because I do more damage on that fight as a tank. If I wasn't Guardian I would either be Boomkin or just be sat for that fight.
Basically, anything small that needs to die quickly and isn't going to live through full duration of bleeds, Feral is bad at killing it. On sustained single target which is most fights, and sustained cleave (Brackenspore, Twins) they are very competitive.
The other downside is that the spec isn't easy compared to others. It is much simpler than it used to be with the introduction of pandemic thresholds and no more trinket snapshotting, but it's still harder than most melee specs. A WW Monk for example is going to beat you in every aspect with similar gear and a much, much simpler rotation. That's not saying alot because WWs pretty much beat everyone else too but it's something to think about. If you don't plan to be very well researched and practiced, you'll probably do better as a different spec. Also it's kinda mediocre for CMs if you care about that, but still doable.
Another thing is the downtime. Simmed Feral has something like a 45% downtime meaning you spend 45% of your time pooling energy and waiting for pandemic thresholds. I use this time to take stock of all my buffs and debuffs so I can plan what I'm going to spend my energy and combo points on next, and throwing rejuvs on myself and others. I often do over 50% of my healing taken to myself, which isn't an obvious benefit but makes a huge difference. very few other specs can keep themselves alive without losing dps like Feral can, I'm almost always the last melee to die. So i don't see the downtime as a downside but Rogue or Warrior players used to GCD capping at all times might find it jarring.
Finally, looking forward to future tiers, the spec is being outpaced on sims at inflated gear levels, and given that it's not exactly a weak spec by any means, I doubt Blizz will do much to counteract that. So in future tiers I will probably play Balance myself, when I'm not healing.
Maybe this is more of an in-depth answer than you were looking for haha but I like to talk about Feral when I can since I'm the only Feral player in my guild. I have a ton of fun with the spec personally and feel as if I'm very effective at my role, when the mechanics of the fight don't hamstring me. We haven't pulled Mythic Margok yet but I imagine I'll either sit or play as third tank again.