Feral Druid DPS Easy Mode — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

In Raids, Feral sacrifices a large portion of its AoE toolkit to focus on dealing as much damage to one target as possible. Druid of the Claw builds are centered around dealing as much damage with Ferocious Bite as possible, while managing Bleeds in the background.

The Hero Tree adds in Ravage, which functions as a random proc replacement to Ferocious Bite that's significantly stronger. It utilizes both Berserk and Convoke the Spirits as its cooldowns, while having Feral Frenzy and Focused Frenzy as a mid-range burst tool.

If you are interested in a deep dive on this or a Wildstalker build, check our talent page:

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

With Mythic+ being more focused on AoE, Feral adds AoE Rip applications using Primal Wrath into its arsenal, while spending excess Combo Points on Ferocious Bite to trigger Rampant Ferocity. Time in between this is spent generating Combo Points using Swipe, and applying Rake to multiple targets.

Druid of the Claw also adds in Ravage procs to convert Ferocious Bite into a high damage AoE finisher, alongside having Apex Predator's Craving procs to react to for instant, free Bite casts.

If you are interested in a deep dive on this or a Wildstalker build, check our talent page:

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

Before entering combat, always make sure to do the following:

• Be in Cat Form - Cat Form is required to cast most Feral abilities, so always be shapeshifted.
• Cast Group Buffs - Use Mark of the Wild to buff your party with Versatility.
• Start from Stealth - Prowl provides bonuses to your first Rake or Shred when you break stealth, so always aim to start combat from that state.

In single-target, Feral is all about balancing its resources to maintain full Rip uptime with as little investment as possible, so it can free up extra Combo Points to cast Ferocious Bite. Here's a brief breakdown of things to keep in mind to get you started:

• Spend Energy Wisely
  Spend Energy on builders to reach 5 Combo Points, and avoid overcapping.
  Combo Point Builders are - Shred, Rake and Feral Frenzy.
• Spend Combo Points Efficiently
  Always make sure to spend with a finisher when at 5 Combo Points.
  Priority - Rip if it's missing, otherwise Ferocious Bite.
  Ravage procs simplym replace Ferocious Bite casts.
• Maintain DoTs
  Make sure Rake and Rip are always applied to your target.
  Refresh these during Tiger's Fury if possible to snapshot the effect.
• Use Cooldowns
  Cast Tiger's Fury every 30 seconds with as little Energy as possible.
  Cast Feral Frenzy alongside it, and use Chomp on cooldown.
• Sync 2-minute Burst
  Berserk should be used every 2 minutes, synced with Tiger's Fury.
  Always cast Convoke the Spirits during this window, with both buffs active.

The best approach to learning Feral is to break things up into chunks. Learning each component of the resource management game can make it easier to get used to the flow, and build an intuition on when to refresh. We recommend doing it in these steps:

Feral Single-Target

Energy/Combo Point Management ➜ Bleed Uptime ➜ Cooldown Sequencing

In AoE, Feral uses Primal Wrath to apply Rip to all nearby targets. This is used to trigger free Ferocious Bite casts via Apex Predator's Craving, which in turn activates Rampant Ferocity:

• Build Combo Points
  These are primarily built by applying Rake to different targets.
  Swipe should be used at higher target counts.
• Use Finishers
  Combo Points are first on Primal Wrath to maintain Rip on enemies.
  Any excess is spent on Ferocious Bite to trigger Rampant Ferocity.
• React to Procs
  Use Apex Predator's Craving procs immediately, provided Rips are active.
  Ravage should be cast at 5 Combo Points, again with Rips active.
• Use Cooldowns
  Cast Tiger's Fury every 30 seconds with as little Energy as possible.
  Cast Frantic Frenzy on cooldown, syncing with Tiger's Fury when possible.
• Sync 2-minute Burst
  Berserk should be used every 2 minutes alongside Tiger's Fury.
  Always cast Convoke the Spirits during this window with Rip applied to all enemies.

While Feral follows similar principles in AoE, it's best to tackle the AoE playstyle after getting a handle on single-target - it follows similar rules, just with extra wrinkles. We advise the following:

Feral AoE

Resource Management ➜ Primal Wrath Uptime ➜ Reacting to Procs

Feral has access to a variety of different active and passive survival tools, giving it a lot of flexibility when dealing with incoming damage.

• Barkskin - provides a 30% damage reduction for 12 seconds (with Oakskin), on a 1-minute cooldown. This is Feral's consistent defense tool, and, due to the low cooldown, can be used liberally to reduce the incoming damage from dangerous attacks.
• Survival Instincts - grants 60% damage reduction (with Oakskin) for 6 seconds. This is a backup defensive tool for the most dangerous damage events, or when Barkskin is not available.
• Bear Form - provides a significant increase to health and armor when active. While your damage tools are very limited while in this form, you can switch to this quickly without any cooldown, allowing you to survive a lethal hit then heal back up after.
• Well-Honed Instincts - this triggers Frenzied Regeneration when you drop below 40% health, healing you for a large amount. This has a 120-second cooldown (90 with Perfectly-Honed Instincts), and can save you in a pinch. Druid of the Claw can also freely cast Frenzied Regeneration in Cat Form for the same effect, at the cost of 40 Energy and a 36-second cooldown.
• Predatory Swiftness - triggers from Combo Point spenders, and makes your next Regrowth cast instant. These can be used in empty globals to help keep yourself healthy.

The most versatile Feral stat priority for different situations is:

1. Agility
2. Mastery
3. Critical Strike
4. Haste
5. Versatility

Stat priorities will change based on other talents taken in different builds, but, in general, this should serve you well. For finer details regarding each stat and the reason behind why they are picked can be found on our full stat page linked below.

Added in The War Within, the Rotation Assist tool curated by Blizzard has two modes: the first highlights action bar buttons with a recommended priority, while the second provides a single keybind that automatically presses the top priority ability on that same list, but with a 25% GCD penalty between casts.

This provides a great starting point if you're just jumping into Feral and want to get a general feel for the gameplay flow it has. It does, however, come at a performance loss compared due to some limitations. Most importantly, the tool will currently not use Berserk, any racial bonuses or on-use trinkets - these all need to be cast manually by you if you use it. This also extends to movement, defensive and crowd control abilities.

The tool will generally manage DoTs to a reasonable degree, and since Feral has more downtime than average, the GCD penalty isn't as harsh as elsewhere. The lack of cooldown use does mean you'll need to manually be using these - in particular before it opts to cast Convoke the Spirits, but otherwise it's well suited to both Druid of the Claw builds provided on this page.