Feral Druid Frequently Asked Questions — Dragonflight 10.0.5
On this page, we go over several of the most frequently asked questions regarding Feral Druid in World of Warcraft — Battle for Azeroth Dragonflight 10.0.5. 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, it is extremely condensed but could be more reliable overall. Still, it can be reduced to a 1-minute cooldown should it be needed. They are
both reasonable options, and preference plays a large part in which you
play.
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.
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 at all times. 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 fuelled 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.
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
- 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 Xanzara, a long term feral player and theorycrafter filling in for Wordup. He has played feral in all kinds of content, with a focus on high end raiding, for several expansions going back to Wrath of the Lich King. You can find him regularly prowling in the Dreamgrove druid discord community
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