Feral Druid DPS Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.2

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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 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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.