Feral Druid DPS Easy Mode — Shadowlands 9.0.2
On this page, we explain how to easily play Feral Druid in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.2, using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.
Foreword
This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.
The Basics of Feral Druid
Feral can be quite overwhelming to the new player due to the focus on dual resource management and maintaining numerous buffs/debuffs at once. Despite the quite complex base toolkit however, talents offer a number of options that can simplify some of the management mechanics that are required of a Feral player. This page will focus on a build that negates some of the more extreme management requirements that the advanced sections encourage, to make the playstyle more forgiving.
If you are completely new to Feral as a spec and need more detailed information on each individual ability available to you, we have a Spell Summary page that covers each of them.
No matter the build you take as Feral, Bleeds remain omnipresent as part of gameplay. Due to that, you will need to be able to track them and your Energy/Combo Points effectively so you do not fall behind. This build will grant a lot more room for failure but will not compensate for more egregious mistakes, as Feral has a naturally unforgiving nature toward mismanagement. Due to this, you should take a look at our Addons page for tools to track these effects:
Covenant Choice for Feral Druid
Most of the Covenant choices are extremely close for Feral, with some exceptions depending on specific scenarios. Due to the flexibility in different content types and ease of use, we recommend using Kyrian.
Remember though, there is no real wrong choice here. A good Soulbind to pair this with is Pelagos, which starts off strong, but can be swapped out later down the tree. Ideally, you should follow this tree path.
Conduit Choice for Feral Druid
Best Potency Conduits for Feral Druid
Sudden Ambush
Taste for Blood (single-target)
Carnivorous Instinct (AoE)
Best Endurance Conduits for Feral Druid
If you want more detailed explanations of selections for your Covenant, Soulbinds and Conduits you can use our dedicated page here:>/p>
Talent Choices for Feral Druids
The talents listed below are selected either for ease of use, or for a more easy-to-understand gameplay style. While in a number of cases there are alternatives on the tree that will provide more if played well, they create much more room to play incorrectly severely hurting performance. Due to this, treat this as a starting point.
- Level 15:
Sabertooth
- Level 25:
Wild Charge
- Level 30:
Restoration Affinity
- Level 35:
Mighty Bash
- Level 40:
Soul of the Forest
- Level 45:
Brutal Slash
- Level 50:
Moment of Clarity
Remember these talents do compromise on output for ease of use. If you are looking for the absolute best options or a more in-depth evaluation of each talent, you can look at our full talents page below.
Stat Choices for Feral Druid
The current Feral stat priority is as follows when using this build:
- Agility;
- Critical Strike;
- Mastery;
- Versatility;
- Haste.
Primary stats are the go-to in Shadowlands for many classes, and Feral is no different, so item level is usually the highest priority. Past this, Critical Strike is the go-to secondary, with Mastery as a solid second that even gains some value in AoE.
Generally we try to keep our Easy Mode pages the same as our more detailed stats page, but more detail alongside any nuance regarding what to pick when is covered here.
Legendary Choice for Feral Druid
Feral has a few good Legendary options, but a great first craft
that works in every scenario is Cat-eye Curio. This eases up some
of the demands of Energy management, and provides a solid boost to both
single-target and AoE damage without adding any extra difficulty, so is
a perfect fit for your first option.
For more detailed explanations of legendaries, and some alternatives in different scenarios you can always refer to our dedicated legendary page.
When it comes to what gear to look out for, you can use our Gear page linked below.
Basic Rotation for Feral Druids
- Cast
Rip if at 5 Combo Points and it is not present on the target.
- Use
Berserk.
- Use
Tiger's Fury when under 40 Energy to increase damage and gain Energy, or if
Berserk is active.
- Maintain
Rake if it is not present, this can be refreshed if under 4 seconds remaining. Try to line this up with
Tiger's Fury.
- Maintain the
Thrash debuff with 2 or more targets nearby.
- Cast
Ferocious Bite if at 5 Combo Points with
Rip active to increase its duration.
- Cast
Brutal Slash to build Combo Points.
- Cast
Shred to build Combo Points if no Brutal Slash charges are available.
Due to the fluid nature of the Feral DPS style that relies on you
juggling two resources alongside Bleed uptime, you have a less strict
rule to using your abilities. Talents have been selected to minimize the
requirements for pooling and management. Both Bloodtalons
and
Primal Wrath are strong alternatives that add in extra
power in certain situations but do require more gameplay know-how so
are covered in the talent section. The main basic takeaways are that
you need to maintain
Rip,
Rake, and spend excess
Combo Points on
Ferocious Bite to extend Rip via
Sabertooth. You can find a more detailed version of the
priority list that covers more advanced talents on our dedicated
rotation page.
Changelog
- 23 Nov. 2020: Page updated for Shadowlands launch.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Druid Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can also follow him on Twitter.
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