Feral Druid Leveling Guide From 1 to 80 for WotLK Classic

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

Fast Feral leveling makes use of both Bear Form and Cat Form, as Bear has vastly superior area-of-effect (AoE) damage with Swipe (Bear) plus Thorns and the survivability to survive against multiple enemies, while Cat has superior single-target (ST) DPS when at high energy.

After you fully exhaust your Energy, consider swapping to Bear form for extra damage and survivability against tougher enemies. If you have Furor, you will be able to keep some of the Cat Energy you regenerate while in Bear when you swap back to Cat Form later, improving your overall DPS.

Even if you never want to swap forms in the middle of combat, being able to use Bear for AoE and Cat for ST is a huge leveling boon, and the multiple Bear talents taken allow you to be an extremely strong dungeon tank. Finally, it is worth mentioning that Predatory Strikes and Nurturing Instinct combined allow you to contribute some healing to a (dungeon) group while leveling, making you a true jack of all trades!

In Wrath you will be able to unlock Glyphs that improve your abilities at the following levels:

1. Level 15 unlocks your first Major and Minor Glyphs;
2. Level 30 unlocks your second Major Glyph;
3. Level 50 unlocks your second Minor Glyph;
4. Level 70 unlocks your third Minor Glyph;
5. Level 80 unlocks your third Major Glyph.

As a Feral Druid you will want to be using Glyph of Maul and Glyph of Claw early on, which will later be swapped to Glyph of Mangle once you unlock Mangle at Level 50. The final major glyph is only unlocked at Level 80, at which point you should swap to an end-game build.

For minor glyphs, Glyph of Thorns, Glyph of Dash, and Glyph of Challenging Roar are fine quality of life options.

The value of Prowl is significant, as it allows you to skip irrelevant enemies when chasing a quest objective or avoid world PvP. Prowl also allows you to do stealth openers, but the specific usage of these depends on the situation and the specifics of your target.

Cooldowns such as Berserk and Tiger's Fury with King of the Jungle should be used as much as possible to speed up kills, especially for tougher enemies. Use Berserk when around 90 Energy in order to be able to spam abilities for its whole duration and use Tiger's Fury when at under 40 Energy to avoid wasting any part of its 60 Energy boost.

1. Make sure Mark of the Wild and Thorns are active on you at all times.
2. Make sure Mark of the Wild and Thorns are active on you at all times.
3. Use Moonfire and Wrath to level up until you can do the Bear Form quest at Level 10.
4. Range-pull enemies in dangerous positions with Faerie Fire (Feral) and use it as one of your first globals on a new enemy.
5. Before Cat Form is available, use Bear Form and Maul.
6. Before Cat Form is available, use Bear Form and Swipe (Bear) for AoE, Maul for ST.
7. Use Cat Form, Claw, and Rip for ST and Bear Form plus Swipe (Bear) for AoE.
8. Use Cat Form, Rake, Claw, and Rip for ST and Bear Form plus Swipe (Bear) (or Glyphed Maul) for AoE.
9. Use Cat Form, Rake, Claw, and Rip or Ferocious Bite for ST and Bear Form plus Swipe (Bear) (or Glyphed Maul) for AoE.
10. Use Cat Form, Rake, Mangle (Cat), and Rip or Ferocious Bite for ST and Bear Form plus Swipe (Bear) (or Glyphed Maul) for AoE.

Buying everything is, essentially, the way to go, as spell costs are quite low and all of them have uses, even if small ones.

If you are doing a completely new character and want to save as much gold as you can for your mounts, you can opt to buy only the recommended skills for the rotation in the section above.

By setting yourself up with an upgraded user interface and macros from the get-go, you will make your leveling process much easier. Check out our Feral Druid Macros and Addons guides in the links below for the full list.

When leveling, stay alert for weapon upgrades you might encounter, as these will improve your experience significantly. You will also need to complete various class quests in order to be able to use your animal forms.

These quests can be different for Horde and Alliance Druids, and the early quests also have differences between Horde races. To help you with both weapons and quests, we have made two dedicated guides:

Once you reach maximum level, we recommend you dive into our Feral DPS Druid Guide, which covers everything you need to know about playing Feral DPS in the end game.

We especially recommend reading through these pages:

• Our Feral Druid Talent builds guide contains the PvE-oriented builds for Feral Druids;
• The Feral Druid Rotation guide contains details on how to perform your rotation optimally in raids;
• Browse the Feral Druid Stats guide to learn about your stat priority as an Feral Druid and how they contribute to your performance at maximum level;
• The Gear guide for Feral Druids contains the best gear pieces to look for at Level 80 in order to maximize your damage.

Alternatively, you can go into Feral Tank Druid Guide, which covers the tanking aspects of Feral Druids.