Feral Druid Frequently Asked Questions — Shadowlands 9.0.2

Many Feral mechanics benefit from the Pandemic effect. This means that you can refresh them with up to 30% of the duration remaining and it will be added on 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;
• Savage Roar — 10.8 seconds (assuming 5 Combo Points).

Any time remaining after the above thresholds will instead be added onto the maximum duration from the new cast, and combine together for an extended uptime. This allows you to refresh any time within this window, whenever is most opportune for you.

Conditionally, yes. Ideally you should avoid wasting any Energy, which is 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 not waste any resource 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.

Snapshotting refers to mechanic 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 things like trinkets or dynamic buffs such as Savage Roar. This means maintaining Bleeds with these effects up is very important to making 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 present.

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 has an effect on everything else.

This applies to gear, set bonuses, trinkets, Azerite traits, and in certain circumstances, 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:

For Feral, there is no strict "amount" or breakpoint of any stat that you are required to reach. Nor are there any points at which a stat stops being desirable. In the majority of cases, the specific secondary you have is less important than the volume. This is however, another case of a situation in which a simulation done to check your ideal gear pieces and stat values will provide you invaluable information.

Druids have limited race options for each faction, but the current simulations for races indicate the following: