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Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we list your Feral Druid core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.5. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Feral Druid.
The other pages of our Feral Druid guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.
About Our Author and Reviewer
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.
This guide has been reviewed and approved by Xanzara, a top-ranking Feral Druid, who sometimes streams on YouTube.
1. Feral Druid Single Target Rotation
The Feral Druid rotation revolves around keeping up various buffs and debuffs, while generating Combo Points and using them on Finishing Moves.
- Maintain
Savage Roar if taken. - Maintain
Rake. - Maintain
Rip (at below 25%, or with 
Sabertooth taken, replace with 
Ferocious Bite). - Maintain
Moonfire if 
Lunar Inspiration is taken. - Use any
Omen of Clarity procs to maintain 
Thrash if using 
Luffa Wrappings. - Cast
Tiger's Fury at 20 Energy or less. - Cast
Ashamane's Frenzy, try to sync this with Tiger's Fury uses. - Cast
Shred to build combo points. - Cast Ferocious Bite if at 5 Combo Points and
Apex Predator is active. - Cast Ferocious Bite if at 5 Combo Points and Rip/ Savage Roar do not need refreshing within 10 sec.
When using 
Bloodtalons, you should aim to cast instant 
Regrowths
gained through 
Predatory Swiftness just before a finisher, and if possible also refresh 
Rake if it is within
the pandemic window to spend the charges. Also you should always have a Bloodtalons
charge active when casting 
Ashamane's Frenzy.
Also try to sync your refreshes of both Rake and 
Rip with
your 
Tiger's Fury windows, as this will snapshot the damage increase for
the duration, as elaborated on further on in the page.
While this rotation is correct and, for the most part, complete, putting it into practice takes a slightly deeper understanding. For this, we strongly suggest that you read our detailed section.
2. Feral Druid Opening Sequence
Below, we list the ideal way to start the fight.
- 5-20 seconds before the pull, cast
Regrowth, if you are using
the 
Bloodtalons talent. - Immediately before the pull, use your Potion and
Prowl. - Cast Rake.
- If taken, cast Savage Roar.
- Cast
Berserk/
Incarnation: King of the Jungle and Tiger's Fury - Cast Ashamane's Frenzy.
- Cast Moonfire if Lunar Inspiration is taken.
- Cast Shred to reach 5 Combo Points.
- Cast Rip.
- Continue with the normal rotation.
3. Multiple Target Rotation for Feral Druids
Depending on the number of targets, there are a number of additional steps that need to be taken, and you should mould your ability usage around these rules.
3.1. Ashamane's Frenzy
Whilst Ashamane's Frenzy is listed in the single target priority, in
situations where you could hold the spell to hit a priority target, saving it
for up to 50% of it is needed. Bear the
encounter in mind due to this, and plan ahead for situations that would allow
you to capitalise on that.
3.2. Brutal Slash
When using 
Brutal Slash, try to make sure that you always have at least
one charge on cooldown, but have as many charges as possible when a wave of enemies
comes into range. Try to have short duration buffs such as Tiger's Fury and
Bloodtalons active on as many high target casts of this as possible, as it
deals massive AoE burst damage with each cast.
3.3. Long Duration Adds
3.3.1. 2-3 Targets
Against 2-3 high health, high priority targets, you should aim to maintain
Rake on all of them, alongside maintaining 
Thrash (though this
is a lower priority). Against 2 targets, you should use 
Shred as your
Energy spending filler to gain Combo points, whilst at 3, this should be replaced
with 
Swipe. Whenever possible, try to maintain Rip on as many
targets as possible when Combo Points allow.
3.3.2. 4-8 Targets
After 4, you should be maintaining Thrash on all targets as the
highest priority, and Rake on as many targets as possible that your
Energy allows. At 5 Combo Points, maintain Rip on the most important
targets.
3.3.3. 9+ Targets
Against 9 or above, you should maintain Thrash on all targets and
then spend energy on Swipe. Spend combo points on Rip on the
most important targets when you reach 5.
3.4. Short Duration Adds
When there are 3 or more short-lived, high priority targets, you should apply
Thrash and then Swipe, while spending your Combo Points on
Ferocious Bite as bleeds will be unlikely to tick for their full duration.
3.5. Priority Targets
In case of multiple low priority targets and one high priority target (such as a boss), you have two options.
- Perform a single target rotation on the high priority target while
maintaining Thrash on all targets. If you are facing 5 or more
targets, you can replace Shred with
Swipe in your single
target rotation. - Perform a single target rotation on the high priority target and completely ignore the other targets.
4. Feral Druid Cooldowns
Feral comes with 2 DPS cooldowns, one being short cooldown, short duration and more rotational, whilst the other is a mid duration, long cooldown.
- Tiger's Fury increases your damage done by 15% for 8
seconds, on a 30-second cooldown. Additionally, it instantly restores 60
Energy. It should be used on cooldown, but always make sure it does not
cause you to reach maximum Energy.
- Berserk reduces the cost of your abilities by 50% for 15
seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. It should be used as many times as possible
during the encounter, and ideally stacked with Tiger's Fury, as we
explain later on in the guide. Note that choosing the
Incarnation: King of the Jungle talent causes it to replace
Berserk.
Additionally, your talents have the potential to provide you with additional active DPS cooldowns. We discuss this, as well as the proper timing and usage of your default cooldowns in a subsequent section.
5. Mastering Your Feral Druid
The above information tells you everything you need to know in order to get the most out of your Feral Druid's DPS toolkit. Here, however, I will go into more in-depth aspects that let you truly shine and understand the fundamentals of decision making.
5.1. Mastery: Razor Claws
Your 
Mastery: Razor Claws increases the damage that your bleeds do. This
affects Rake, Rip, Thrash and the bleed portion of
the Artifact active, Ashamane's Frenzy.
5.2. Combo Points and Energy
As a Feral Druid, most of your abilities need Energy to be used. Your Energy bar has a capacity of 100 Energy and refills at a rate of 10 Energy per second. Your Energy regeneration is increased by your melee haste.
Some abilities add a Combo Point, and are considered builders, those mainly
being Shred, Rake, Swipe and Thrash, alongside
the Artifact active, Ashamane's Frenzy. Other abilities, termed
Finishing Moves, consume your Combo Points. The more Combo Points a Finishing
Move consumes, the more powerful (or longer-lasting) its effect is. Your Combo
Point generation is increased by 
Primal Fury, which causes your Combo Point
generating abilities to generate two Combo Points any time they critically
strike.
5.3. Single Target Rotation in Detail
The Feral Druid rotation is a balance of keeping up several bleeds on
the target as well as keeping up 
Savage Roar if talented, while
continuously generating Combo Points.
5.3.1. Bleeds & DoTs
You should always strive to have 100% uptime on the target with
Rake and Rip. This forms the core of your damage output, and
making the most of them is what makes the difference between good play and great
play.
Rake costs 35 Energy to apply and lasts for 15 seconds (shorter with
Jagged Wounds), making it quite simple to manage.
Rip costs 30 Energy but its potency is also dependant on how many
Combo Points it is applied with, so you must always be applying Rip with 5 Combo
Points.
Thrash costs 45 Energy to cast and deals its damage over 15 seconds.
This only enters into the rotation during multiple target situations, but is
easy to maintain as it applies to all targets hit.
If you have taken the 
Lunar Inspiration talent, then you also need
to have 100% uptime with 
Moonfire. Note this is not a Bleed so gains
no benefit from Mastery, but can be cast from 40 yards making it the easiest
to maintain.
5.3.2. What to do the Rest of the Time
When your bleeds and self-buff are all up and do not need to be
refreshed, you will essentially be filling the time with casts of
Shred or Swipe to generate Combo Points, or dumping resources with
Ferocious Bite.
In addition to Shred, some Combo Points will also be generated by your casts
of Rake, although this number is much smaller.
5.3.3. Energy Management
Patch 7.3 has removed a lot of the free time that has been present in the Feral
rotation in Legion, and as such Energy pooling is less restrictive compared to
the past. It can still be a gain, and should mostly be done to deal with certain
fight mechanics. Make sure to use your Energy wisely however so you can still
maintain your bleeds, and dump as much Energy as possible leading up to your
Tiger's Fury casts so as to not waste any that it grants.
Omen of Clarity procs should be used right away, so that
they do not get overwritten by subsequent procs.
5.3.4. When to Refresh Bleeds
Your bleeds no longer snapshots your character's stats, as they had once done. That said, bleed snapshotting does still exist for Feral Druids, but it only works with some specific damage-increasing buffs. This means the damage of your bleeds is determined at the time when they are applied, based on what buffs you have active, and the bleeds will continue to do the same damage throughout their durations, even if those buffs expire in the meantime. It also means that they will not dynamically update with new applications of said buffs. The result of this is that bleeds applied when you are under effects that increase your damage are more powerful than bleeds applied when you are not under any such effects.
The effects that affect the damage of your bleeds are:
- Tiger's Fury;
- Bloodtalons (tier 7 talent).
This means that you gain more DPS by applying or refreshing your bleeds at the right time (when you benefit from one of the aforementioned bonuses), and doing this will net a large amount of increased damage dealt by your bleed effects.
With regards to duration, Rake and Thrash can safely be refreshed with 4.5
seconds remaining or less (but even refreshing them with more time left will
only be a minor DPS loss), while Rip can safely be refreshed with 7.2
seconds or less. In the case of Rip, when the target is about to reach 25%
health, it is a good idea to apply a new, fully buffed Rip with any effects
you have available that you can then extend for the rest of the fight (via
Ferocious Bite). If you have taken the Lunar Inspiration
talent, then Moonfire can be refreshed with 4.2 seconds remaining on
its duration.
Note that if you have the Jagged Wounds talent, then the
remaining durations when it is safe to refresh change to 5.8 seconds for
Rip, or 3.6 seconds for Rake and Thrash.
Regarding Rake, it is important to ensure that your Rake always
benefits from a Bloodtalons proc. Any Rake that is applied without
benefiting from Bloodtalons should be reapplied with Bloodtalons as soon
as possible. Moreover, if your Rake is about to expire and you have a
Bloodtalons proc, you should refresh Rake to benefit from it.
This is made considerably easier with external addons to track, and there are some recommendations on our add-on page.
5.3.5. When to Refresh Savage Roar
The timing for refreshing Savage Roar is not very strict, but you
should still try to refresh it right as it is about to expire so as not to
waste any of its duration.
It is, however, important to note that if you have 5 Combo Points and 10.8 seconds (assuming it was cast at 5 Combo Points) left on Savage Roar, you can refresh it without losing any of its duration due to the pandemic effect. Making use of this can make keeping up the buff quite a bit easier, but refreshing Savage Roar even with fewer than 5 Combo Points is acceptable in emergencies.
5.3.6. Ferocious Bite
Ferocious Bite is a finishing move that costs 25 Energy and deals
damage based on how many Combo Points you use it with. Its damage is
increased, by up to 100%, at the cost of extra Energy, up to 25. That is
to say, if you use Ferocious Bite with 25 Energy, it will deal its base
damage (based on how many Combo Points you have). If you use it with 50
Energy, then its damage will be increased by 100%.
Whenever you use Ferocious Bite on a target that is below 25% health, your
Rip on the target will be refreshed. This makes it a much more
efficient way of maintaining Rip on the target, since you are dealing damage
while also refreshing Rip, for the same amount of Combo Points. A Rip that is
refreshed in this manner will have the same power as its original application
(determined by how many Combo Points you applied it with, or any buffs that
were present at that time).
You should normally use Ferocious Bite with 5 Combo Points, but if the
target is below 25% health and Rip will expire before you have time
to reach 5, you should just use it with however many Combo
Points you have, in order to refresh Rip.
It is a DPS gain to pool Energy to 50 before using Ferocious Bite (provided that it does not cause your Rip to fall off), boosting its damage.
As we have mentioned, if your Energy and Combo Points are at maximum
capacity, and Rip and Rake do not need to be immediately
refreshed, you should use Ferocious Bite even if the target is above 25%
health.
5.4. Detailed Cooldown Usage
Both of the cooldowns listed earlier on this page are important to use correctly and have a considerable impact on your performance if done poorly.
5.4.1. Tiger's Fury
There are several things to consider when using Tiger's Fury.
- It should always be used on cooldown.
- Before using Tiger's Fury, make sure you have as little Energy as possible to avoid becoming capped thanks to the 60 Energy it provides you with.
5.4.2. Fury of Ashamane
7.2 added a new one point trait Fury of Ashamane that
causes Tiger's Fury casts to also grant yourself and 4 allies 600
Versatility for 10 seconds. This bonus is variable in value, depending
on whether it targets healers or DPS in your group (which is unfortunately
completely random currently).
It's possible to play further into this trait by using 
Predator
as a talent choice, assuming you can get a reasonable amount of resets to
apply this more frequently. However, doing so will be sacrificing personal
damage for the sake of others in the group that is not reliable, so is not
advised.
5.4.3. Berserk
Berserk reduces the Energy cost of all your abilities by 50% while
it is active. It is a very strong DPS cooldown, allowing you to cast your
abilities more often.
You will want to use Berserk as many times as possible during the
fight. Ideally, you should pool Energy before using Berserk (up to around
50-80), so that you can use more abilities throughout its duration. If you
are under the effects of 
Heroism/
Bloodlust/
Time Warp,
then you should not pool Energy, and instead you should use Berserk when
you have near minimum Energy.
Moreover, it is optimal to use Berserk when Tiger's Fury is
available or has 7 seconds or less left on its cooldown, so that you
can fit the entire duration of Tiger's Fury inside Berserk.
5.4.4. Tier 1 Talents
Predator is quite straightforward, and the only thing to look out
for is not wasting any of the Energy you gain from Tiger's Fury
(unless you know you will be able to reset its cooldown again shortly
anyway).
Lunar Inspiration revolves around keeping up the
Moonfire DoT. This should be maintained on a single target at all
times, and you should also multi-DoT targets with it when you are dealing with
multiple enemies. Moonfire should be refreshed when there is 4.8 seconds or
less left on its duration.
5.4.5. Tier 5 Talents
Incarnation: King of the Jungle should be used on cooldown, or saved
for moments when you need to do increased damage should they occur. Whilst
this is active you should have no issue with Energy starvation, so should be
free to cast as much as possible during the window.
If you have taken the Jagged Wounds talent, your rotation will
remain the same, except that you will have to refresh your bleeds more
often. Moreover, the remaining amount of time when you can safely refresh them
without losing duration is decreased by 20%.
5.4.6. Tier 6 Talents
Brutal Slash is essentially a super- Swipe, which should be
used to damage multiple targets. If you want to burst down a large pack, try to
have Tiger's Fury up at the same time. Against a single target,
you can still use Brutal Slash (instead of Shred), provided that you
will have all the charges available for when you need to use it against
multiple enemies.
If you are using Bloodtalons, try to make sure that any Brutal
Slashes cast during AoE are buffed by this effect, as it will be the biggest
part of your damage. In single target, you can generally just dump all of
these charges during your Tiger's Fury window, as that should generally
sync up with the recharge time. Try not to waste your Omen of Clarity
procs on this however, due to how cheap the spell is to cast.
Savage Roar no longer snapshots its damage increase onto Bleed
effects in 7.3, so a lot of the maintenance aspect is simplified. This mostly
now means that you are able to focus on keeping Rip active regardless
of whether you have Savage Roar present, and simply cast it as soon as possible
afterwards and the damage increase will dynamically update if things go wrong.
This buff is paramount to keep active at all times however, so try to plan
ahead when spending your Combo Points so that it does not fall off for too long.
5.4.7. Tier 7 Talents
Bloodtalons buffs your next 2 melee abilities following a
Regrowth, increasing their damage by 20%. Ideally, one charge
should be used on a finisher, while the other should be used on a
Rake or Ashamane's Frenzy.
You should hold on to your Predatory Swiftness proc until you have
5 Combo Points. Then, you can use your free Regrowth to trigger
Bloodtalons. The Bloodtalons buff lasts 30 seconds, so once it is triggered,
you have plenty of time to use it up. Since Predatory Swiftness only lasts 12
seconds, you can make things easier on yourself by casting finishers at high
Energy when possible. This will allow you to immediately cast the abilities
you need.
Elune's Guidance should be used when you have 0 Combo Points, and
you should follow this up with a Finishing Move. Normally, the Finishing Move
you will use is going to be Ferocious Bite, so you need to make sure
that you have the 50 Energy required for it when you use Elune's Guidance,
since otherwise you will waste Combo Points. Indeed, making sure not to waste
any Combo Points is the key element related to this talent. Once you use
Elune's Guidance, you should not spam Shred, and instead use one
or two Combo Point generators (if the first one is not a critical strike) and
let Elune's Guidance give you the rest of the Combo Points up to 5.
Moment of Clarity means that you will have an increased frequency
of Omen of Clarity procs, allowing you periods of smoother Energy
management by having some builders come free. Try to make sure you don't cap
your Energy when these trigger, and be aware that you should pool less aggressively
when using this to allow room for the effect to be useful.
6. Tier 19 Set Bonuses for Feral Druid
The Feral 2-piece and 4-piece both orient themselves around your bleed effects. The
2-piece does not currently provide a DPS increase to cast Thrash on single target.
These have both been changed in patch 7.3 to account for the different changes that were
made to the spec to keep them roughly even, but still appealing. They are still, however,
not worth targetting over the Tomb of Sargeras options.
- 2-piece: Thrash now deals 15% additional damage.
- 4-piece: Shred and Swipe deal 8% increased damage for each Bleed effect you have on the target.
The 2-piece does not alter your single target rotation at all, and should not be
played around, as it is generally just a flat increase to your AoE damage. The 4-piece
introduces maintaining Thrash during 
Clearcasting procs, but not
outside of it. You should be using these procs when it is not currently active, or if
it is in the pandemic range, or during Berserk/ Incarnation: King of the Jungle.
Just do not over commit to casting it if it will negatively impact your Rake/ Rip
usage with Bloodtalons active.
Both of these bonuses pair very well with 
Luffa Wrappings, which encourage
maintaining Thrash at all times, and makes them a good single target choice
instead of simply AoE when combined.
7. Tier 20 Set Bonuses for Feral Druid
Both the 2-piece and 4-piece on the Tier 20 set focuses upon your primary Bleed
finisher Rip.
- 2-piece: Gain 1 Energy each time Rip deals damage.
- 4-piece: Rip deals 10% increased damage and lasts 4 sec longer.
You should aim for the 4-piece bonus as soon as possible, dropping Tier 19 at similar item levels. The Tier 20 2-piece also works very well with the current Tier 19 4-piece bonus, so whilst gearing up within Tomb of Sargeras combining both bonuses until you have access to a full set of Tier 20 is ideal.
The Tier 20 2-piece also encourages maintaining Rip on multiple targets
more aggressively due to the increased Energy generation. The 4-piece reduces the
requirement to maintain Rip as much without it, freeing up more Energy
and space to use Ferocious Bite, and making it far easier to keep
your Rip effect up on multiple targets.
8. Tier 21 Set Bonuses for Feral Druid
Tier 21 has a mix of focus between your Rip effect and a proc that
adds to your Ferocious Bite value.
- 2-piece: When Rip deals damage, it has a 10% chance to repeat the
same damage.
- 4-piece: When Rip deals damage, there is a 4% chance to cause your
next Ferocious Bite to consume no Combo Points and count as if you
consumed the maximum amount of Energy.
The 2-piece has a 10% chance to repeat the damage of each Rip tick
(note that this cannot critically strike), granting additional
value to the primary DoT effect for Feral, but other than this nothing exceptional.
The 4-piece grants a 4% chance on each Rip tick (including both the
2-piece bonus and 
Ashamane's Rip) to cause your next Ferocious Bite
cast to cost no Combo Points. This should ideally be cast as soon as possible
with 5 Combo Points available to allow room for it to trigger again for further
Ferocious Bite cast.
You should aim for both of these bonuses if there is an item level gain as the difference between it and Tier 20 is not significant.
9. ChangeLog
- 28 Nov. 2017: Updated for T21 Antorus changes.
- 29 Aug. 2017: Updates to all affected abilities and effects for 7.3, including updated use of Savage Roar, and details of new talent combinations.
- 16 Jun. 2017: Updated page for new Tier 20 bonus values.
- 12 Jun. 2017: Updated for 7.2.5 with new Set Bonus information.
- 27 Mar. 2017: Added section regarding Fury of Ashamane.
- 09 Jan. 2017: Added Tier 19 set bonus section.
- 25 Oct. 2016: Replaced mentions of Healing Touch with Regrowth (the latter has replaced the former for non-Restoration Druid specs).
- 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
- 30 Jul. 2016: Made a few tweaks and improvements to the bleed refreshing section, and removed a few archaic elements.
- 22 Jul. 2016: Made slight fixes and improvements, without affecting rotation.
- 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
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