Druid Hero Talents — The War Within (11.2)

This page is covers only the new Hero Talents available in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best standard Feral and Druid talents and complimenting builds for Feral Druid, check out our Talents page:

In Season 3 both are close in Raid situations, with the edge going to Druid of the Claw.

Wildstalker performs well in single-target, with its new set improving burst and adding extra ways to activate Thriving Growth consistently. Its slightly harder execution built around DoT management, alongside a weaker cleave toolkit puts it slightly behind, but still definitely competitive.

Druid of the Claw provides both strong single-target and cleave, as well as powerful on-demand burst options. This suits it well to a variety of encounters in Manaforge Omega, and paired with its defensive advantages it just barely earns the raid recommendation after acquiring the Season 3 set bonus.

The Season 3 recommendation in Mythic+ remains Druid of the Claw at all key levels.

Druid of the Claw has more explosive 2-minute burst windows and provides very strong AoE with good planning, while still maintaining a good core of single-target for bosses. It is also fairly simple to execute, mapping onto the Feral core just with the addition of Ravage procs to manage. These are also made even stronger with the addition of the Season 3 tier set, making what it's already good at even better. Alongside that, it is incredibly durable, bringing multiple additional defensive tools to deal with more lethal dungeon encounters.

Wildstalker provides a large increase to DoT effects, using a build to support it while still maintaining good priority damage. It has a shorter damage cycle, centering around 30-second, 1-minute, and 2-minute timers to deal its burst damage after setting up in each pull. The Season 3 tier set also provides even more reliable ways to apply Thriving Growth and trigger Bursting Growth, giving strong AoE payoffs to good setup. It has a slightly higher execution requirement due to Unbridled Swarm management, and that paired with its lower durability makes it less suited to the Mythic+ environment.

Season 3 Tier Sets are unique in that the bonus granted dynamically changes based on your current hero talents. Both trees want to switch to this bonus as soon as possible, and once you acquire it the recommendations are as follows:

• Raid - Druid of the Claw or Wildstalker
• Mythic+ - Druid of the Claw

The section below covers what each of the two bonuses are when using the respective hero talent:

2.

Season 3 Tier Sets

You can use the switch below to view each of the respective set bonuses:

Hero Talents
Druid of the Claw	Wildstalker

2.1.

Druid of the Claw Set Bonuses

The Druid of the Claw set provides a number of follow-up bonuses to Ravage:

• Druid Druid of the Claw 11.2 Class Set 2pc — Ravage grants 10% Haste and Critical Strike, and increases the damage of your Bleed effects by 30% for 5 seconds.
• Druid Druid of the Claw 11.2 Class Set 4pc — Ravage has a 40% chance to trigger a second Ravage at 100% of the same power 4 seconds later.

This set provides even more incentives to cast Ravage frequently by providing a substantial buff after each cast. The 4-piece echoes also proc the 2-piece as well, giving even more uptime to the effect. While the bonuses are quite simple, that definitely doesn't stop them from being very effective.

2.2.

Wildstalker Set Bonuses

The Wildstalker set bonuses focus on triggering additional Bloodseeker Vines via Thriving Growth, alongside amplifying Bursting Growth:

• Druid Wildstalker 11.2 Class Set 2pc — Increases the rate your Bloodseeker Vines trigger by 40%, and Tiger's Fury cases will apply Bloodseeker Vines to up to 3 valid nearby targets when cast.
• Druid Wildstalker 11.2 Class Set 4pc — Bloodseeker Vines have a 20% chance to trigger Bursting Growth every 2 seconds at 100% effectiveness. Each stack of Bloodseeker Vines present on an enemy increases Bursting Growth damage taken by 40%.

This set is quite versatile, both the natural proc rate of your Bloodseeker Vines, and providing guaranteed ways to apply it via Tiger's Fury. The 4-piece also provides benefits to stacking up additional Vines on targets, while also providing additional passive triggers of Bursting Growth for each Vine you have active. Bear in mind, the 2-piece will only ever send one Vine to each individual target if there are less than 3.

Below are brief explanations of the effects the above-recommended hero trees have in each given content type.

4.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Feral Druid

Druid of the Claw
Hero Talents Wildstalker
Hero Talents

4.

Best Druid of the Claw Feral Build

Druid of the Claw has very little impact on the core Feral gameplay loop. The main change is the addition of Ravage procs, which enhance Ferocious Bite, and need to be consumed quickly to avoid waste. Your Berserk also significantly increases the rate at which these are gained via Claw Rampage, improving its already very strong 2-minute window.

It provides solid AoE through both Primal Wrath and Rampant Ferocity while simultaneously bringing good priority damage through Ferocious Bite anchor targets. Alongside that, it brings extremely good defensive tools giving it an even bigger edge in particularly lethal Mythic+ content.

For the 3 choice nodes on the tree, there are the following options:

• Ruthless Aggression vs. Killing Strikes - while Ruthless Aggression does increase the rate you trigger Ravage, Killing Strikes providing a consistent trigger, and the follow-up rewards makes it the preferred choice.
• Empowered Shapeshifting vs. Wildpower Surge - this choice is easy, with Empowered Shapeshifting being a strong passive damage increase while also providing defensive benefits for free.
• Strike for the Heart vs. Tear Down the Mighty - the extra damage and resource smoothing provided by Strike for the Heart significantly outperforms the cooldown reduction on Feral Frenzy, and is always taken.

4.

Best Wildstalker Feral Druid Build

The changes to your playstyle with Wildstalker are moreso from the Feral talent tree than what the Hero tree brings, as the benefits of Thriving Growth happen in the background. These provide additional damage over time while also amplifying your own damage, and don't need to be actively played around.

Defense and utility-wise, however, there really is not very much to write home about aside from some additional free group healing.

For the 4 choice nodes on the tree, there are the following options:

• Entangling Vortex vs. Flower Walk - both of these are very niche in terms of their utility, and the choice comes down to preference.
• Bond with Nature vs. Harmonious Constitution - depending on how much you make use of Predatory Swiftness, Harmonious Constitution can get some value. The more common pick is the passive benefits from Bond with Nature though.
• Resilient Flourishing vs. Root Network - Root Network can provide some extra Vines in multi-target scenarios, but the many benefits from extra Vine duration and fallback from targets dying makes Resilient Flourishing the preferred choice.
• Twin Sprouts vs. Implant - The reliable application of Implant is strong, but the extra benefits of multiple stacks with the Season 3 bonus causes Twin Sprouts (while a bit more random) to be the preferred choice.

Druid of the Claw only has to watch out for Ravage procs that occur throughout combat, making sure to consume them quickly and efficiently. This intensifies during Berserk due to Claw Rampage.

There are no big rotational considerations caused by the Wildstalker Hero Talents, as all of the effects are passive procs that come from your regular rotation. Bloodseeker Vines will naturally trigger from DoTs applied, so it's even more important to keep them up.