Feral Druid DPS Guide — Dragonflight 10.0.5
Welcome to our Feral Druid guide for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.0.5. Here, you will learn how to play as a Feral Druid in both raids and Mythic+ dungeons: from the very beginning to maximizing your DPS.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Feral DPS Druid guide.
Feral Druid Overview
Feral, the Melee DPS specialization for Druids, forms its core gameplay around balancing two resources while leveraging those to apply powerful Bleed DoT effects on targets. Alongside that, Energy and Combo Points are used in tandem to set up high burst windows via pooling gameplay.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Variety of high value damage profiles
Versatile talent tree with different builds
Strong AoE both in cleave scenarios and uncapped situations
Good burst cooldowns for priority damage
Gains damage from low priority enemies dying
Powerful defensive toolkit and off-healing capabilities
Good group utility options
Raid utility is limited
Resource mis-management is very punishing
Dragonflight Changes for Druids
We are maintaining a list of changes for Druids, so you can see what changes with every patch of Dragonflight.
Dragonflight Feral Druid Changes
Moving from Shadowlands, Feral has refocused toward its Bleed DoT effects,
substantially increasing their contribution to output while at the same time
reducing the highly focused Ferocious Bite focus that had become
prevalent. It has also received several extra tools to improve its AoE
gameplay, allowing it to deal damage in various scenarios more
efficiently. It has a diverse number of talents for different damage
profiles. Notable inclusions are:
Tear Open Wounds and
Rampant Ferocity keep finishers as a crucial part of the AoE rotation and add a much-needed AoE component to
Ferocious Bite casts, making funnel less all or nothing.
Double-Clawed Rake allows for easier multi-target application of
Rake, lessening the burden of tab-target maintenance.
Circle of Life and Death and
Apex Predator's Craving are both returning Shadowlands legendaries that were previously exclusive but can now be taken together with synergy for AoE situations and new talents available.
Sabertooth has been reworked to instead focus on your
Ferocious Bite empowering
Rip rather than extending it, keeping the core maintenance gameplay intact.
Predator is now much easier to access, so
Tiger's Fury resets are a core part of gameplay rather than a contentious pickup.
Leveling a Feral Druid
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.
Basics of Feral Druid Gameplay
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, e.g., 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!
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.
How to Gear Up as a Feral Druid
While giving hard rules on how to gear directly due to the increasing number of variables and systems in World of Warcraft, you can find some basic information on what you should be looking out for, especially Best in Slot options in the current tier on our dedicated gear page.
Once you have started to gear, you must ensure that you have the appropriate consumables, gems, enchants, and more. We have a dedicated page that covers these questions and a stat page that covers what stats are good, when, and what to aim for.
End-Game as a Feral Druid
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.
Improving as a Feral Druid
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.
Viability of Feral Druid in the Current Patch
Dragonflight Season 1 already showcased that Feral is much improved
from Shadowlands in terms of damage delivery profiles, with strong uncapped
AoE and a decent Mythic+ toolkit for different situations. The flexibility
of the tree is a strong point, and the 10.0.5 changes improve many of the
previously undesirable weaker talents bringing its single-target
potential up. While it does now enforce Survival Instincts in
the pathing, the buffs that came with it are generally a net positive, and the spec is likely to be in a good place.
Changelog
- 24 Jan. 2023 (easy mode page): Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (spells page): Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (talents page): Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (rotation page): Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (mythic+ page): Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (stats page): Reviewed and updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (enchants page): Reviewed and Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (addons page): Added some additional mouseover and talent macros.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (this page): Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (FAQ page): Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (gear page): Reviewed and Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (simulations page): Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Jan. 2023 (how to improve page): Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (simulations page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (gear page): Updated for Dragonflight season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (addons page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (enchants page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (stats page): Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (Vault of the Incarnates page): Initial boss guides for pre-release
- 11 Dec. 2022 (mythic+ page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (rotation page): Updated for Dragonflight season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (talents page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (spells page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (easy mode page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (this page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 11 Dec. 2022 (FAQ page): Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (talents page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (rotation page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (easy mode page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (mythic+ page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (stats page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (FAQ page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (enchants page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (spells page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (addons page): Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (gear page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (how to improve page): Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (simulations page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022 (this page): Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (this page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (FAQ page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (stats page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Covenants and Soulbinds): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (enchants page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Sanctum of Domination page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Sepulcher of the First Ones page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (easy mode page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Torghast): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (mythic+ page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Legendaries): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (rotation page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (talents page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (simulations page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (gear page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (spells page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (how to improve page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (addons page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 25 Oct. 2022 (Castle Nathria page): Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 20 Feb. 2022 (Patch 9.2 Analysis): Cleaned up ready for Patch 9.2 launch.
- 15 Jan. 2022 (Patch 9.2 Analysis): Page added with initial thoughts and information.
- 01 Nov. 2021 (Patch 9.1 Analysis): Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 17 May 2021 (Patch 9.1 Analysis): Page created with initial information.
- 12 Oct. 2020 (Ny'alotha page): Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
- 08 Jul. 2019 (The Eternal Palace page): Page added.
- 24 Jun. 2019 (Uldir page): This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
- 24 Jun. 2019 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
- 24 Jun. 2019 (Crucible of Storms page): This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary.
- 03 May 2019 (Crucible of Storms page): Updated with notes for each boss.
- 15 Apr. 2019 (Crucible of Storms page): Guide added.
- 03 Feb. 2019 (Battle of Dazar'alor page): Page added.
- 10 Dec. 2018 (Uldir page): Updated for patch 8.1 with disclaimer about information being unclear currently.
- 04 Sep. 2018 (Uldir page): Updated for preliminary Uldir release.
- 11 Aug. 2018 (Uldir page): Page created (empty for now) in preparation for the eventual Uldir release.
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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