Feral Druid DPS Guide — Dragonflight 10.2

Feral, the Melee DPS specialization for Druids, forms its core gameplay around a dual resource system of Energy and Combo Points and uses them to apply powerful Bleed DoT effects on targets. Alongside that, both are used in tandem to create a build-and-spend system that incorporates pooling for high-damage moments.

Strengths

• Strong AoE both in cleave and uncapped scenarios
• Can quickly switch between full AoE and priority damage when needed
• Strong burst cooldowns for different situations
• Gains resources and damage from low priority enemies dying
• Powerful defensive toolkit
• Good group utility and control options

Weaknesses

• Has to sacrifice a little bit to pick up AoE tools and vice versa
• Reliant on cooldown timers and uptime to get full value
• Raid utility is limited
• Brings nothing unique as a melee, an often contested raid spot
• Resource mis-management is very punishing

We are maintaining a list of changes for Druids, so you can see what changes with every patch of Dragonflight.

With the release of Patch 10.2 and Season 3, alongside the addition of new loot and the Tier Set bonus, Feral has also received some small tweaks to its talent tree. While the list is quite small, it does have an impact on build choices going forward.

• Cat's Curiosity has been removed, and replaced with Saber Jaws, a new high Energy cost Ferocious Bite talent.
• Apex Predator's Craving has had its proc chance increased in single-target, with a slowly reducing chance as new targets are added.
• Ashamane's Guidance has been reworked for Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane, instead causing your Rip and Rake effect to each individually increase affected enemies damage taken from you by 3% each. This is active during the cooldown, and for 30 seconds after it fades.
• Rampant Ferocity damage has been increased by 10%.
• Innervate can now be cast while in Cat Form.

While a lot of the changes being made in builds are influenced by the new set bonus, for single-target, both Saber Jaws and Apex Predator's Craving have a large impact on the playstyle. This adds in a reactive proc with much more value and frequency than previously and requires careful Energy management to get the most out of the additional Ferocious Bite bonus damage. All of our pages have been updated to account for these changes, alongside new Season 3 builds and recommendations ready for you to jump into the new content.

Please have a browse and know that your feedback is welcome on our forum!

If you are interested in playing a Feral Druid but have yet to get one at max level, you can look at our leveling guide for pointers to help you along the way.

Adjusting once you hit max level to a new UI can also be quite difficult, especially with the number of things that Feral requires you to track. Therefore, we recommend looking at our Addons and Macro page to use these while leveling to get used to them to make the transition smoother.

Feral is one of the more complex specs to grasp due to relying on a dual resource system that requires you to manage and pool them correctly at different times. It has a slow passive resource in Energy that can be converted into Combo Points via generator spells, such as Shred, and then spent on finishing moves, such as Ferocious Bite.

Alongside this, Feral also has Bleed mechanics that apply debuffs to your target that require different resources - Rake needing Energy and Rip needing Combo Points. This creates a spec that, on paper, seems very busy with a lot to pay attention to but tends to play slower and more measured. This puts more weight on your decision-making and foresight than your snap gameplay. Once you grasp the concepts, however, it tends to click into place and becomes a lot more fluid to manage; it just takes a little practice!

It also has a very robust AoE toolkit that links together well, making use of Primal Wrath to apply the Rip effect to targets around you and Tear Open Wounds to activate these again when cast repeatedly. Rampant Ferocity and Sabertooth also keeps Ferocious Bite relevant in AoE, and Apex Predator's Craving allows us to convert all of those active Rips into more big moments, creating a satisfying synergy between the entire toolkit.

If you have never played Feral before and are looking to learn the basics of what the spec has access to, we recommend looking through our Spell Summary first, as well as the Easy Mode page linked below too.

While we always recommend simming yourself for ideal results, we do provide a dedicated Feral gearing page that lists the Best in Slot items to look out for in the current season of Dragonflight.

Once you have started to gear, you should ideally have the appropriate consumables, gems, enchants, and more to go alongside your new items. We have a dedicated page for exactly this, as shown below, and the stats page, where you can find more information on our stat priority and any necessary changes you may need to make with consumables.

Like all specs, Feral, when leveling, plays very differently at max level when progressing or doing end-game content. Therefore, we have dedicated pages for Mythic+ and PvP to cover the nuances of these content paths.

If you are looking for an answer to a specific question, often these are common queries many players have. We keep pages that cover the most frequently asked questions and also mistakes players tend to run into.

While Feral has been quite strong for the latter half of the Patch 10.1 cycle, Season 3 is adding in more reasons than ever to play one. The set bonus is a standout, adding an extra 30-second burst damage profile into your arsenal alongside an already powerful single-target spec getting better. Its AoE remains good and easy to fit in, though funnel is slightly weaker going forward. From a damage perspective, there are a lot of good reasons to consider Feral, and with a good defensive toolkit at its disposal as well I expect to see more of them in Patch 10.2.

On top of that, it also brings Mark of the Wild if you have no other Druids, Innervate can now be cast in Cat Form which is extremely welcome, and you have access to Rebirth to combat res in Mythic+.