Feral Druid DPS Guide — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

The Midnight Pre-Patch brings some fairly significant changes to Feral, impacting a lot of previously core mechanics. Snapshotting in particular has been simplified significantly, while the number of active buttons used has seen major reductions. While some parts remain similar to The War Within, there's definitely less things to pay attention to - for better or worse. Since these changes have a fairly large impact on how the Spec operates, changes are broken down into sections below.

While the spec saw some sweeping changes at its core, Hero Talents remain very similar to how they were before. Some additional integration has been added to new talent options, but their damage profile split is still looking to remain the same. A brief overview of changes are:

• Druid of the Claw Changes - Click for Details

  • Tear Down the Mighty now increases the damage of Feral Frenzy and Chomp by 25%.
  • Empowered Shapeshifting damage bonus to Shred and Swipe reduced to 6% (down from 10%).
  • Strike for the Heart now increases damage of affected abilities by 10% and Critical Strike chance by 5%.
  • Three new talents: Limb from Limb, Twin Claw and Exacerbating Wounds.
  Druid of the Claw mostly saw some additional methods to access Ravage, while trying to still keep some value from Bleed effects via new talents. In particular, Tear Down the Mighty has been made more appealing by amplifying both the new Chomp and Feral Frenzy, but is otherwise built in the same way as The War Within: a focus on high impact Ferocious Bite enhancements.
• Wildstalker Changes - Click for Details

  • Vigorous Creepers increases damage dealt to targets by 6% (down from 4%).
  • Demonic Intensity increases Demonsurge damage by 5% per stack, down from 10%.
  • Three new talents: Patient Custodian, Rampancy and Green Thumb.
  Instead for Wildstalker, very little was changed about the tree, retaining its strong focus on Bleeds and DoT effects. New talents incorporate a stronger focus on Bursting Growth by adding a passive chance for it to trigger from Bloodseeker Vines, but still remains a fairly simple passive tree.

Feral saw some sweeping changes in particular to snapshotting mechanics and how they relate to Bleeds. Most notably, Bloodtalons has been removed and Sudden Ambush has been reworked, so the primary source of Bleed amplification is solely Tiger's Fury. This means there's a lot less debuff juggling and it's easier to operate.

Additionally, a few specific changes have been made in the tree:

• Thrash and Brutal Slash have been removed from the tree.
• Chomp has been added as a high damage attack available at certain Energy thresholds
• Feral Frenzy has had a follow-up node added - either reducing its cooldown to 30 seconds with Focused Frenzy, or converting it to AoE with Frantic Frenzy.
• Ashamane's Guidance now reduces the cooldown of Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane to 1m30s.
• Blood Spattered and Hunger for Battle added, providing bonuses from Rip in AoE.

Note: The Feral Apex Talent - Unseen Predator - is a key effect for the spec in Midnight, amplifying both DoTs and finishers. While this is very powerful, it doesn't drastically alter the playstyle when taken, and will not be available until Midnight fully releases.

In both the utility and defensive department, Feral remains very similar to The War Within, aside from the loss of Nature's Vigil. The Midnight landscape is effectively the same, bringing Typhoon, Ursol's Vortex and Incapacitating Roar, while still having Innervate for your healers.

Hopefully this summary has provided a quick primer for the big changes arriving with Midnight so you can focus on being as ready as you can for the launch on March 2nd (or February 27th with Early Access). If you're looking to go the extra mile and optimize your leveling journey in Midnight, take a look at our recommended consumables to have ready to reach max-level as soon as possible!