Feral Druid DPS Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.2
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Feral Druid in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.
Unique Challenges of Mythic+
In Mythic+ Dungeons, in particular at higher key levels, you will be presented with some of the most challenging and competitive PvE content available in WoW alongside Mythic Raiding.
In keystones, when playing as Feral, your responsibility to contribute to the group's success will be higher than in most raiding groups due to the smaller group size; therefore, skill and execution of strategy are crucial. Being versatile and able to adapt to any situation is a key factor here. It is one of the main things that differentiate it from the more specialized builds used in raiding.
On top of damage, you must also interrupt, dispel, and support the group simultaneously. That means some of the abilities you otherwise would not use often can be invaluable to your group, so make sure to utilize your entire suite of tools.
In this guide, we will be discussing the finer points of Feral Druid and how to get the most out of it, how to gear and set up your character, and some tips to push yourself further.
If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 3 page below.
Feral Druid Mythic+ Talent Build
For Feral in Mythic+, there are is one primary build that comes with a number of choices. These allow you to adjust your damage profile, adding additional single-target, cleave, or AoE depending on what your group needs. There are also some nice comfort options related to Energy if you are struggling to maintain a nice flow during combat. Our general recommendation is a more AoE-leaning build that still grabs the most efficient single-target options along the way. Beneath the build, we also explain the reasoning and any talent swap options available:
The core of Feral in Patch 10.2 revolves around the AoE loop of Primal Wrath,
Tear Open Wounds and
Apex Predator's Craving as it has for most of
Dragonflight. With some changes to the proc rate of Apex Predator as well, it means
that it retains more value at lower target counts, making the Feral damage profile
better than ever. The only major change going into the next season is the addition
of the Tier 31 set bonus that requires you to take
Feral Frenzy to activate it.
Talent Considerations
While the above build is the most rounded, there is a lot of room to customize some points depending on the style of damage you aim to focus on. Due to how granular the Feral tree is, precisely how much you want to lean into different damage types dictates your path down the tree. The most common flex points and the reasons behind taking them are as follows:
Talent Details
Strongly Recommended Talent picks
These are the talents that, while they can be swapped, should still mostly be taken in the majority of builds unless you need to find room for flex picks based on preference:
Feral Frenzy - while expensive below the high value 20 gate, this brings an extra single-target burst tool for priority damage and resource flood. It is also mandatory with the Tier 31 bonus as it activates the very powerful burst window, so in Season 3 will always be taken with this.
Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane extends the duration of
Berserk alongside freeing up more Energy, lasting long enough to cover most pulls, and is, when executed properly, the preferred pick here.
Convoke the Spirits is a great alternative, though, and pairs especially well with the Tier 31 bonus to feed into the burst window. This can also convert to a lot of AoE if paired with
Rampant Ferocity (so long as you set up beforehand with
Primal Wrath). It also can path through to
Ashamane's Guidance for a 1-minute timer, but this is a more niche pick due to how valuable points in these rows are.
Double-Clawed Rake - a strong AoE talent that makes it easier to maintain
Rake on multiple targets. This works best if you expect to spend the majority of the dungeon engaged with lots of enemies but provides no single-target benefit. It also doubles up the value of
Sudden Ambush procs
Infected Wounds - amplifies your
Rake so works well with the above
Double-Clawed Rake to apply it to multiple targets. This is recommended to pair as a package with other Rake talents, but it still has value in single-target situations, so is usually one of the last to be dropped.
Sudden Ambush - especially if you take the above two talents, this caps it off, allowing you to double up on the additional
Pouncing Strikes damage boost. It still remains strong in its own right, though, as both a single-target and AoE (if cycling
Rakes) option and a strong pathing node down the left side.
Moment of Clarity - if you are absolutely sure you are comfortable with your Energy management and
Predator resets, this can be dropped to fit in another throughput talent elsewhere on the tree. Removing this alongside all other Energy options puts a huge strain on your available resources, however, and is usually the last to drop.
Carnivorous Instinct - flat damage increase to your
Tiger's Fury, and due to the high uptime in Mythic+ thanks to
Predator has extremely good value. An expensive point to fit in but highly desirable, unfortunately, in Season 3 most builds can only squeeze in a single point.
Flex and Comfort Talent picks
These are options that can be useful in some niche builds, and do provide unique benefits. They are either more specialized (meaning you should think more thoroughly about how you will make use of them in a dungeon) or focused more on comfort:
Dire Fixation - This is extremely single-target focused, but it brings so much for a single talent point that it covers some of the pitfalls of the spec by allowing it to still provide competent boss damage. This is still recommended to play in most builds, but because of how specialized it is, falls into the flex category if you are looking for more AoE.
Rampant Ferocity - generally taken as a way to convert
Ferocious Bite into AoE damage; this is something that can be taken if you want to go all-in on doing as much to large groups as possible. Due to it providing no single-target, however, and playing counter to some of Feral's goals, it is much more niche.
Tireless Energy - solid extra Energy redundancy by increasing the cap and smoothing the resource. While it is not a remarkable damage increase, if you are running into issues managing your Energy, this can be a good pick to make the playstyle more fluid.
Adaptive Swarm - allows you to focus more on priority damage when taking a more Bleed heavy build, but only one point limits its uses to single targets.
Lion's Strength - this is an alternative to
Bloodtalons that is easier to execute, but due to the alternative now having 3 charges, it is hard to justify switching to. While it is a good pick for comfort, be aware that it will come with performance loss.
Feral's talent tree is extremely loose, allowing you to tailor exactly the balance you need each dungeon at a granular level, usually needing a mix-and-match style depending on your route. The recommended build is the most rounded, but the above options can push and pull you in the direction you need should you find the profile is not quite right for you.
If you want more information about all of the talent options and whether some could be more useful in certain situations, you should use our dedicated Talent page.
Tier Set Gameplay
Depending on your currently equipped set bonus, there are some small considerations. Due to there being a gap in acquisition at the start of the season, some small tips to play around them in Mythic+ are as follows:
Tier 30
Amirdrassil Set: Tier 31
Feral's Amirdrassil bonus injects an additional damage profile of 30-second
burst windows into its toolkit via Feral Frenzy, making it a mandatory
talent. Thanks to the additional cooldown reduction it provides, it means
we can easily plan around a comfortable cycle that slots into most pull
durations, allowing us to start strong.
When playing this, you want to make sure it aligns with Tiger's Fury,
and you have everything set up before activating it (meaning at least one
Primal Wrath cast to get things started). Due to the window being
short, you want to have some resources pooled and immediately after casting
Feral Frenzy dump as much resources into all targets as possible
to maximize the burst. This includes cooldowns such as
Berserk
and
Convoke the Spirits.
Aberrus Set: Tier 30
While soon to be retired in Season 3, for the early weeks this is still relevant. The Feral bonus for Aberrus is mostly passive, granting ramping Agility from auto-attacks that ramps up and eventually overloads into more Agility plus a trickle of Combo Points. When this happens, be aware that you will be generating faster than usual and should spend a little more aggressively with each tick to avoid waste.
Affixes in Dragonflight Season 3
As your key level climbs in Mythic+, you will encounter additional affixes each week throughout the season. The first activates at level 7, adding effects that trigger during combat, and the second begins at level 14, that trigger on enemy health thresholds or death. Feral has some unique tools to deal with the following affixes, and those not mentioned require no change:
Dealing With Affixes as Feral
Afflicted
Afflicted spawns up to two Afflicted Souls throughout the
dungeon when in combat. These have a 10-second cast Afflicted Cry that,
if successful, reduces the Haste of all players by 100% for 10 seconds that
can stack.
This can be stopped through any friendly dispel effect or through
healing the souls. While costly to reach on the class tree, Feral should still
take Remove Corruption to deal with these. You can also use
Predatory Swiftness
procs to heal them in an emergency.
Entangling
Entangling periodically snares all players in the group, spawning a circle around you and snaring you by 30%. If you do not snap the vine by getting out of the area within 8 seconds, you will be stunned for 3 seconds.
Feral has a lot of base movement speed to begin with, so it barely feels the slow,
and even better, if you get stuck in a bad spot, you can simply shapeshift out of
Cat Form to remove it.
Incorporeal
Incorporeal spawns up to two Incorporeal Beings roughly every 45
seconds. These begin a 5-second cast Destabilize that, if successful,
reduces the damage and healing done of all players by 50% for 10 seconds and can
stack.
These enemies are vulnerable to all crowd control and interrupts, therefore
Feral should always play Hibernate during these weeks. If you see a
cast about to go through or the second target is not under control, you can use
Skull Bash to buy some time until another party member covers it.
Raging
Raging causes each non-boss enemy to become immune to crowd control for 30 seconds after it reaches 30% Health.
All Feral builds path through Soothe, so you come with a natural
counter to this. Due to its cooldown, prioritize using this on enemies that
have dangerous casts to keep them locked down rather than using it aggressively,
and remember they can still be interrupted with
Skull Bash.
Sanguine
Sanguine causes all non-boss enemies to leave behind a pool of Ichor, dealing 15% of players health in Shadow damage per second while inside. This also heals enemies by 5% while inside, and pools last for 12 seconds. Pools no longer stack if they are connected in Season 3.
Managing this is largely on the group and the tank moving enemies out of the
area, while you aim to avoid them. Some will always slip through, however, so
taking Typhoon so you can knock enemies out of the healing area is
recommended.
Spiteful
Spiteful causes all non-boss enemies to spawn a Spiteful Shade, which fixates on a random player in the group. These slowly lose health, and deal heavy melee damage if they get close.
Due to how dangerous these are, having some form of control or escape when
each group of enemies die is advised. Typhoon is recommended here to
knock them away, buying you some time, but if you are forced to tank them for long
, then
Barkskin and running away is advised.
Feral Druid Mythic+ Rotation Considerations
The rules covered in the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page are still applicable here. In most situations, however, you will default to higher enemy counts, making cleave and AoE your focus. Some additional things to note that can be helpful when trying to improve your output due to the downtime, Mythic+ creates include:
- Pooling Combo Points as targets are about to die so that you can immediately
open with a high-value
Primal Wrath cast on the next pack gets you started quickly with each pull.
- Try to enter
Prowl between each pack and open with
Rake to lock down a high-priority target and prevent casts. This could be followed up with the above-mentioned Primal Wrath cast if any Combo Points were lost due to downtime. Just note that this Rake stun will DR other stuns on the target hit, so avoid this if you plan to organize stops.
- Plan your
Berserk casts around when you need high burst damage. Due to its duration, this can often be bosses, but that with
Berserk: Heart of the Lion, this cooldown is often closer to 2 minutes, so try not to waste uses by holding it too long.
- The same extends to
Convoke the Spirits if taken. This is a powerful burst tool, but make sure to already have
Rip active via
Primal Wrath so that the potential
Ferocious Bite casts will deal AoE damage via
Rampant Ferocity.
- Due to the reset effect,
Predator makes it very easy to set yourself up between each pack. Make sure that you apply Bleeds and maintain them as targets are dying (primarily via either
Thrash or
Primal Wrath) to trigger it. Do not be afraid to use it as targets are dying in a pack, as they will trigger a reset for the next pack anyway.
- Due to the resets mentioned above, you should be casting
Tiger's Fury very aggressively, especially as a target is about to die for the surge of Energy and damage increase window. Uptime should be almost permanent thanks to it and
Raging in any dungeon with enemies that die at a staggered rate.
Feral Druid Utility
Feral Druid has access to a lot of different tools to assist the group, mainly relating to crowd control and dispel effects, many of which are only available as talents on the Class tree:
Utility
Crowd Control and Dispels
Often, the most crucial part of any Mythic+ run (after how you will deal as much damage to kill enemies quickly) is how you intend to lock them down and avoid dangerous casts. Feral comes with some good options for both single-target and AoE disruption:
Skull Bash is the Feral interrupt tool on a 15-second cooldown, a 13-yard range and has a small charge. This should be used frequently to disrupt enemy casts and can also be used to re-engage targets at range using the charge aspect. Just be careful if using it from a distance, as the charge can put you in dangerous situations.
Remove Corruption removes both Curse and Poison debuffs from a targeted ally with an 8-second cooldown. Assisting your healer if they cannot remove them or multiple debuffs are present is strongly recommended. While costly to reach, this is recommended during
Afflicted affix weeks.
Soothe is an offensive Enrage effect dispel. This has a 40-yard range and a 10-second cooldown, and can be used in
Cat Form. This is incredibly valuable to any group in any dungeon that has Enrage effects or during
Raging affix weeks.
Entangling Roots is a soft crowd control option to lock down enemies in certain situations you want to keep out of range. However, they are still able to cast or attack from range if they have the ability to. This can also be made instant with
Predatory Swiftness procs.
Infected Wounds is passively applied by your
Rake effect, slowing targets by 20% for 12 seconds. Not a strong slow, but it can be useful if kiting is needed.
Maim and
Mighty Bash talents are both stun options available to Feral that can be used to lock down single targets and prevent non-interruptible casts.
Typhoon can push enemies back or interrupt casts from immune enemies. It can also force targets out of ground effects such as
Sanguine if needed, which is especially useful during these weeks.
Incapacitating Roar is an AoE interrupt effect on otherwise immune targets. The low cooldown of this makes it incredibly useful for large groups of enemies, but it does put you into
Bear Form, so it comes with a damage loss. That said, the AoE interrupt is more than worth it.
Ursol's Vortex locks enemies within the area to the position, pulling them back if they are forced or try to leave. This has good synergy with
Typhoon, acting as a pseudo-mass grip by gathering all enemies pushed to its center.
Hibernate is a crowd control option that can be cast on Beasts and Dragonkin with a 1.5-second cast and a 30-yard range. This puts your target to sleep for up to 40 seconds, but any damage taken will break the effect. This is a recommended pick to deal with the
Incorporeal affix.
Cyclone is an emergency crowd control tool that will banish your target for 6 seconds, making it unable to act and immune to all damage and healing effects. This can be used to lock down a dangerous target briefly but has a 1.5-second cast time, and only one enemy can be affected by this at once. It is also quite costly to reach on the tree.
Off-healing and Survival
After control, you also need to consider how you are going to survive in dungeons where damage intake can be extremely high or very frontloaded. That means sometimes more niche talents for raids become exceptionally valuable to make it through otherwise lethal mechanics in a situation where you are responsible yourself for surviving:
Bear Form allows you to assume a Tank-oriented form when used and also grants access to
Growl as a taunt effect. This can help in emergencies, increasing your survival and allowing you to redirect pressure from your tank. With
Ursine Vigor taken as well, it can act as a short window of additional Health to survive potentially lethal mechanics.
Predatory Swiftness allows you to cast
Regrowth instantly or
Entangling Roots after casting a finishing move at 5 Combo Points. This can assist with off-healing or provide emergency crowd control.
Protective Growth is an extremely costly point to take, as it is present on the spec tree where damage options are available, but is still an option if you find yourself struggling to survive.
Survival Instincts is now mandatory pathing in 10.0.5 and is a huge cooldown that is very useful for making it through the more lethal mechanics. You also have access to the
Barkskin baseline, which can be improved with
Matted Fur to give a little bit more overhead on one-shot mechanics, and the flat damage reduction from
Thick Hide on the Class tree.
Well-Honed Instincts can provide a perfect emergency heal should you be caught off guard or begin to bleed out over extended periods in some encounters and is a great option even at one point.
Renewal is an option for burst healing should you find yourself ticking out in bad situations due to high intake, or your healer falls behind. A good emergency button.
Nature's Vigil provides a conversion for your single-target damage events into healing, allowing you to contribute to the groups survival in high-damage moments without costing damage, so it should be taken in virtually all scenarios.
Heart of the Wild is a long cooldown, long duration option that gives a large amount of bonus survival while in
Bear Form, or additional healing when active. This is a very niche option to hybridize between roles if necessary, but the long cooldown makes it very restrictive in Mythic+ environments.
Protector of the Pack can also be taken to improve further your healing with
Predatory Swiftness, allowing for a stronger, instant emergency heal if needed.
Other Beneficial Tools
Lastly, these are some effects Feral has access to that do not fit into either of the above category, but can still be extremely useful within a dungeon and are worth considering and remembering:
Mark of the Wild provides 3% Versatility to your group and is brought by any Druid. Remember to buff this at the start of every dungeon or if an ally dies!
- The act of shapeshifting in or out of
Cat Form (or any other form) will also break roots, which can be helpful for some mechanics. It will also immediately snap
Entangling vines, removing the need to run out manually.
Innervate can and should be taken both due to pathing and the benefit of being able to help your healer out should an extended pull happen, and they need the 10 seconds of Mana-free casting.
Stampeding Roar grants movement speed to you and all allies within 15 yards. This can be used for getting back into range for damage, helping allies to avoid dangerous effects or get to the next pull faster.
Rebirth is a combat resurrection effect, allowing you to revive a player outside of the combat restrictions in the event of an unexpected death to keep the pull alive, but does require you to leave
Cat Form.
Gear and Trinket Options for Feral Druid in Mythic+
There are no significant alterations to the gear choices you should
be making compared to normal single-target and AoE situations, however,
we heavily recommend simming your own character to make sure.
Having Patchwerk and then Dungeon Slice profiles to see what can be
optimized. Dungeon Slice or Hectic Add Cleave, in particular,
is significant, as this will generate activations of
Predator with simulated enemy deaths.
Trinkets tend to lean toward on-use or proc effects that are powerful in all situations rather than specific ones, with a preference for any that are frontloaded for burst purposes, so your mileage may vary compared to those that are picked in raids. We tend to lean toward one passive proc/stat trinket paired with an on-use trinket to align with cooldowns and burst windows. You can look at our gear page to know more about the gear to aim for.
Changelog
- 10 Nov. 2023: Restructured and updated for Patch 10.2.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated link to Mythic+ hub.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, changed recommended build to a more Rake focused one.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5 and added Dire Fixation to build.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1, small build changes and added new Affix details.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed and updated 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.
- WoW Servers Down and Explanation
- Professions Capped at 150 Skill in Season of Discovery Phase 1
- Amirdrassil 10.2 Raid DPS Log Rankings, Week 3: In the Middle of Two Tuning Passes
- Gates of Ahn'Qiraj Open on Season of Discovery Realms
- Death Knight Atal'dazar +20 Solo in Dragonflight Season 3
- Metamorphosis Rune Found in Season of Discovery
- Number of Raid Bosses Per Expansion
- The 10 Rarest Still Obtainable Mounts (Video)