Feral Druid Frequently Asked Questions — The War Within Pre-Patch
On this page, we go over several of the most frequently asked questions regarding Feral Druid in World of Warcraft — The War Within Pre-Patch. This will be updated as more common repeated questions surface over the course of the expansion.
When Should I Refresh My Bleeds and DoTs?
Many Feral mechanics benefit from the Pandemic effect. This means that you can refresh them with up to 30% of the duration remaining, and they will be added to the new application (but snapshotting will not be carried over). This includes the following abilities at the following times:
Rake — 4.5 seconds;
Rip — 7.2 seconds (assuming 5 Combo Points);
Thrash — 4.5 seconds;
Moonfire — 4.8 seconds;
With the Circle of Life and Death talent these values are
proportionally shorter:
Rake — 3.4 seconds;
Rip — 5.4 seconds (assuming 5 Combo Points);
Thrash — 3.4 seconds;
Moonfire — 3.6 seconds;
Any time remaining after the above thresholds will instead be added onto the maximum duration from the new cast and combined for an extended uptime. This allows you to refresh any time within this window, whenever is most suitable for you.
What Uptime Should I Have on My Bleeds?
In virtually all situations, you should strive to have as close to 100%
uptime on both Rip and
Rake, and ideally also
Thrash.
Convoke or Incarnation?
Your decision comes down to the type of burst damage window you
are looking for. Convoke the Spirits is generally strong, providing
an extremely condensed amount of damage to your primary target, and also has
the option to be available every minute. On the other hand,
Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane is a powerful amplifier to your
Berserk windows alongside making Energy much smoother while active.
Its duration extension makes it more focused around planning windows well
to get full use out of, especially in dungeons, alongside having a cumbersome
follow-up talent that is rarely useful. The decision of which is mostly down to
your other choices made, and the encounter/content you are engaging in.
Should I Pool Resources?
Conditionally, yes. You should avoid wasting any Energy, the primary
resource you will pool. Generally, you will begin to pool
this at high Combo Points and start spending when you need to refresh an
effect (though with Bloodtalons taken, you will do a pool-dump-pool
cycle instead). The primary rule is to use resources wisely for Feral as
that dictates your output at all times, and pooling is often a core part
of that. Ideally, you should put yourself in a situation where you
generate your Combo Points and wait on Energy before re-entering into
another Spend-Generate-Pool cycle to minimize the chance of an
Omen of Clarity proc being wasted.
Do I Always Spend at 5 Combo Points?
Currently due to the high value of Combo Points and the potential to accidentally
overflow with Primal Fury, it is advised to spend at 4 when outside of
cooldowns. Due to
Berserk having built-in overflow protection however,
during your cooldowns you should always aim to spend at 5. Also, when playing
Coiled to Spring, the overflow protection it provides usually means
you should always aim to reach 5 Combo Points with your finishers.
How do I play with Saber Jaws?
Saber Jaws puts extra emphasis on making sure you consume additional
Energy with each
Ferocious Bite to amplify the damage. This means you need
to be more mindful of your Energy state when consuming Combo Points to make sure
you capitalize on this, rather than just sending it as soon as possible. It also
means our Energy to damage conversion is higher with finishers, making pooling
even more important in some cases to reset your cycle after a Bite. You should
already be doing this, but it's made even more important when this is taken.
Note that
Apex Predator's Craving has no interaction with this talent.
What is Snapshotting?
Snapshotting refers to mechanics involving Tiger's Fury and
Bloodtalons, that will confer the damage increase to the entire
Bleed DoT effect if these buffs are present when you apply them. This
is specific to these two effects and does not apply to
trinkets or active effects such as
Sabertooth. This means
maintaining Bleeds with these effects up is very important to make
the most out of them, and ideally, you want to make sure
Rake
is buffed by Tiger's Fury, and
Rip is buffed by both that and
Bloodtalons if taken. You should also try to minimize the number of
times you overwrite these effects without these buffs.
What Finisher do I cast in AoE?
In The War Within, you should always aim to be using Primal Wrath
to maintain
Rip. Following that, excess resources should be spent on
Ferocious Bite. In situations where cleave is required taking
Rampant Ferocity to convert this to AoE damage is recommended. Aim to
only cast Primal Wrath based on the Rip timer, rather than refreshing
it too early.
What Piece of Gear is Better?
The answer to this question in any context will always be to simulate it. This is because what is an upgrade for you may not be an upgrade for someone else. In other words, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all answer, even when talking about 2 completely identical comparisons from you to another person. Everything in your gear affects everything else.
This applies to gear, set bonuses, trinkets, and talents.
The only exception to this rule is when a specific fight dictates a certain set of optimal talents and gear pieces that enhance their strength. If you are curious about what kind of setup to go for a specific fight, WarcraftLogs.com's rankings and statistics are a good place to see what others are doing.
We have a guide on how to sim yourself here:
How much Haste, or other secondary stats, should I have?
For Feral, there is no strict "amount" or breakpoint of any stat you must reach. Nor are there any points at which a stat stops being desirable. In most cases, the specific secondary you have is less important than the volume. However, this is another case of a situation in which a simulation to check your ideal gear pieces and stat values will provide you with invaluable information.
Which Race is best for Feral Druid?
Druids have limited race options for each faction, but the current simulations for races indicate the following:
Changelog
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4, added note about spending at 4 Combo Points.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5, small update to encourage Convoke in Season 3 more.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Added note for Saber Jaws and reviewed for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, no changes necessary.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5, added note about Dire Fixation in AoE.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1, small change to indicate Convoke parity.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight 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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