Feral Druid Frequently Asked Questions — Dragonflight 10.0.5

Last updated on Jan 24, 2023 at 14:08 by Wordup and Xanzara 25 comments
General Information

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.

1.

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 Icon Rake — 4.5 seconds;
  • Rip Icon Rip — 7.2 seconds (assuming 5 Combo Points);
  • Thrash Icon Thrash — 4.5 seconds;
  • Moonfire Icon Moonfire — 4.8 seconds;

With the Circle of Life and Death Icon Circle of Life and Death talent these values are proportionally shorter:

  • Rake Icon Rake — 3.375 seconds;
  • Rip Icon Rip — 5.4 seconds (assuming 5 Combo Points);
  • Thrash Icon Thrash — 3.375 seconds;
  • Moonfire Icon 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.

2.

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 Icon Rip and Rake Icon Rake, and ideally also Thrash Icon Thrash. The latter extends especially to situations where you are playing with Taste for Blood Icon Taste for Blood.

3.

Convoke or Incarnation?

Your decision comes down to the type of burst damage window you are looking for. Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane Icon Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane takes more time to get its damage out but is extremely potent over its duration. Convoke the Spirits Icon 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.

4.

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 Icon 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 Icon Omen of Clarity proc being wasted.

5.

What is Snapshotting?

Snapshotting refers to mechanics involving Tiger's Fury Icon Tiger's Fury and Bloodtalons Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Rake is buffed by Tiger's Fury, and Rip Icon 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.

6.

What Finisher do I cast in AoE?

In virtually all situations currently, when extra targets are present, your finishing move will be Primal Wrath Icon Primal Wrath at all times. While the Sabertooth Icon Sabertooth effect is nice to maintain, the raw damage of Primal Wrath Icon Primal Wrath and Tear Open Wounds Icon Tear Open Wounds is more valuable, and instead your Ferocious Bite Icon Ferocious Bite casts (and thus uptime of Sabertooth) is fuelled by Apex Predator's Craving Icon Apex Predator's Craving. This shifts slightly if you are looking for more priority damage, at which point you should maintain Rip Icon Rips with Primal Wrath and Bite your kill target.

7.

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:

8.

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.

9.

Which Race is best for Feral Druid?

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

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For the complete simulation results, check out Bloodmallet.com
10.

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.
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