Feral Druid Frequently Asked Questions — Dragonflight 10.2
On this page, we go over several of the most frequently asked questions regarding Feral Druid in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2. 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 — 3.375 seconds;
Rip — 5.4 seconds (assuming 5 Combo Points);
Thrash — 3.375 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.
The latter extends especially to situations where you are playing with
Taste for Blood.
Convoke or Incarnation?
Your decision comes down to the type of burst damage window you
are looking for. Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane takes more time to
get its damage out but is extremely potent over its duration.
Convoke the Spirits
on the other hand, is extremely condensed but is less reliable. It can also be reduced
to a 1-minute cooldown should more frequent burst windows be needed. They are
both reasonable options, and Patch 10.2 has improved Convoke enough to make it
preferred in many situations, especially with the Tier 31 set bonus. It all comes
down to the type of damage you need most.
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.
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.
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 buffs 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 virtually all situations currently, when extra targets are present,
your finishing move will be Primal Wrath. While
the
Sabertooth effect is nice to maintain, the raw damage of
Primal Wrath and
Tear Open Wounds is more valuable, and
instead your
Ferocious Bite casts (and thus uptime of Sabertooth)
is fueled by
Apex Predator's Craving. This shifts slightly if
you are looking for more priority damage, at which point you should
maintain
Rips with Primal Wrath and Bite your kill target.
Do I Maintain Dire Fixation in AoE?
This depends on the type of pull you are engaged in. Usually, if there
is any priority target to anchor the debuff to, using Shred
to activate
Bloodtalons and maintain this is a good idea
to even out damage across the pack. This extends to bosses with add
waves you want to cleave down, but in large AoE situations where most
targets have equal health, it is not worth the effort to maintain it
actively.
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
- 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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