WotLK Classic Feral Druid DPS Stat Priority

Last updated on Jan 18, 2023 at 12:00 by Seksixeny 3 comments

On this page, you will find out the optimal PvE stat priority for your Feral Druid DPS in WotLK Classic. We first present the stat priority, before delving into more complex explanations.

1.

Stat Priority for Feral Druids

  1. Agility (1 Attack Power and some Crit before being multiplied by Survival of the Fittest IconSurvival of the Fittest, Improved Mark of the Wild IconImproved Mark of the Wild, and Blessing of Kings IconBlessing of Kings);
  2. Armor Penetration;
  3. Critical Strike;
  4. Strength (2 Attack Power before similar multipliers to Agility);
  5. 8% Hit before talents / Draenei to cap Hit;
  6. 26 Expertise Points before Primal Precision IconPrimal Precision to reduce Boss Dodge % to 0;
  7. Haste;
  8. Feral Attack Power (stat on weapons dependent on their item level, has 20% extra scaling than regular Attack Power from Predatory Strikes IconPredatory Strikes);
  9. Attack Power.

For actual EP values, try out the Feral DPS Wrath Simulator (work in progress). Input your gear, buffs, talents, and glyphs, hit the Stat Weights button and it will give you the exact value of each stat for your current gear profile! The stat priority above is a rough ordering of the EP values coming out for the preset profiles.

2.

Stats Explained for Feral Druid

Feral Druids scale well with Agility, Armor Penetration, and Critical Strike, as well as most other stats to a lesser extent.

2.1.

Agility

Feral Druids get extra Crit, Dodge, and Armor from each point of Agility while in Cat Form IconCat Form or Dire Bear Form IconDire Bear Form. Your Agility is also multiplied due to Blessing of Kings IconBlessing of Kings, Survival of the Fittest IconSurvival of the Fittest, and Improved Mark of the Wild IconImproved Mark of the Wild.

2.2.

Armor Penetration

Armor Penetration allows your attacks to partially ignore your enemy's Armor. This is one of the best stats for Feral, as all of their damage is Physical, and it becomes better the more of it you have, as it becomes more and more valuable to reduce an enemy's Armor as their total Armor value decreases.

2.3.

Critical Strike

Feral Critical strikes deal highly increased damage due to Predatory Instincts IconPredatory Instincts and Relentless Earthsiege Diamond Icon Relentless Earthsiege Diamond and generate extra Combo Points through Primal Fury IconPrimal Fury, making it an excellent stat with direct influence on the speed of your Combo Point generation.

2.4.

Strength

Feral Druids receive 2 Attack Power (AP) per point of Strength. This is your strongest stat for pure AP gain, which will increase your damage done by all attacks.

2.5.

Hit

Against boss targets, you have a 8% chance to miss attacks, which requires 263 Hit to be overcome. Reaching the Hit cap is a decent DPS increase, but by no means mandatory due to Feral's Energy refunds on abilities and finishing moves that fail to land.

2.6.

Expertise Rating

Expertise reduces the chance of your attacks being parried or dodged. It takes 32.79 Expertise Rating for a 1% Dodge and Parry chance reduction and boss enemies have 6.5% Dodge and 14% Parry baseline, making it useful to have some Expertise to avoid being dodged while attacking from behind.

2.7.

Haste

Haste increases your attack speed, allowing you to get more auto attacks off in a given period of time.

2.8.

Feral Attack Power and Weapon Stats

Your weapon DPS range is completely irrelevant, as Feral forms use their own hidden weapons with normalized damage. The main thing you want is Feral Attack Power, which only depends on the item level of the weapon you are trying to equip.

2.9.

Attack Power

Attack Power is the base stat off which all of your damage is calculated. For Feral Druids this is especially true, since your auto attack damage gets no benefit from weapon DPS.

2.10.

Stamina

Stamina is incredibly important for Feral Tanks in particular, as they get a high multiplier on their Stamina values due to Dire Bear Form IconDire Bear Form and Heart of the Wild IconHeart of the Wild. Combined with Blessing of Kings IconBlessing of Kings, Survival of the Fittest IconSurvival of the Fittest, and Improved Mark of the Wild IconImproved Mark of the Wild, each point of Stamina increases your maximum health by 16 instead of the normal 10! However, Stamina remains important for Feral DPS Druids as well.

2.11.

Armor

Armor reduces your damage taken by Physical attacks. This is a great mitigation stat when it comes on your Leather pieces, as it is multiplied by Dire Bear Form IconDire Bear Form, Thick Hide IconThick Hide, and Survival of the Fittest IconSurvival of the Fittest, but any Armor on non-Leather slots is not multiplied, and thus quite weak.

2.12.

Defense

Each point of Defense gives you an additional 0.04% chance to be missed, not to be crit, and to dodge. While it used to be important to avoid being critically hit, in Wrath Classic the Survival of the Fittest IconSurvival of the Fittest talent takes care of making you uncrittable by itself, making this stat only useful for its avoidance benefits.

2.13.

Resilience

Resilience is only found on PvP gear and reduces your chance to suffer a Critical Strike. While it used to be important to avoid being critically hit, in Wrath Classic the Survival of the Fittest IconSurvival of the Fittest talent takes care of making you uncrittable by itself, making this stat only useful in PvP.

2.14.

Resistance

Resistance, while inherently niche due to different bosses dealing different magical damage types, can be very useful while progressing specific bosses. Wearing resistance gear of a type makes you take less damage or even completely avoid damage when hit by that type of magical damage.

2.15.

Other Stats

Intellect, Spirit, and maybe even Mp5 will most likely be on some of your gear, but they hold little to no value as a Feral Druid. Intellect and Spirit only become valuable when you use Mana, which can really only happen through swapping forms repeatedly.

3.

Changelog

  • 18 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
  • 20 Sep. 2022: Page added.
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