Feral Druid DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

Feral Druid in single-target focus heavily on its resource economy, building Combo Points by spending Energy, then consuming them on powerful Finishing moves. This resource management is at the core of every build, paired with active Bleed maintenance throughout.

1. Cast Ferocious Bite / Ravage with an Apex Predator's Craving proc.
2. Cast Tiger's Fury on cooldown - Click for Details

   • Aim to use alongside 5 Combo Points, or when 50 Energy below your cap.
3. Cast Berserk on cooldown. Sync with Tiger's Fury.
4. Cast Convoke the Spirits on cooldown. Always line up with Berserk.
5. Cast Rip with 5 Combo Points if it's not active, or in Pandemic range - Click for Rip Rules

   • Aim to only apply/refresh this with Tiger's Fury active when possible.
6. Cast Ferocious Bite / Ravage with 5 Combo Points and Rip applied.
7. Cast Ferocious Bite with 5 Combo Points and Rip applied.
8. Cast Feral Frenzy on cooldown. Sync with Tiger's Fury.
9. Cast Frantic Frenzy on cooldown. Cast during Tiger's Fury when possible.
10. Cast Chomp on cooldown. Dump your Energy with 4 seconds remaining on its cooldown.
11. Cast Shred with Sudden Ambush active.
12. Cast Rake if it's not active on your target, or within Pandemic range.
13. Cast Moonfire if it's not active on your target, or within Pandemic range.
14. Cast Shred to build Combo Points.

Feral requires you to manage your Energy and Combo Points efficiently. While a little Enegy waste isn't too bad, you should never be wasting any Combo Points. In particular you need to watch out for bursts of generation with Panther's Guile that add a mix-up into your spend goals. After that, you need to make sure you maintain your Bleeds in Rake and Rip, ideally buffing them with Tiger's Fury. Some key notes are:

• Rip should be up at all times, and ideally each time you cast Tiger's Fury, aim to refresh it to snapshot the buff. This can and should also be done with Rake.
• With Lunar Inspiration, you should maintain Moonfire in a similar way to Rake, aiming for 100% uptime and buffing it with Tiger's Fury.
• Berserk should be cast on cooldown, synced with Tiger's Fury. When playing with Convoke the Spirits, you should always make sure to blanket the cast with both of these effects. If using Ashamane's Guidance, this should be every other cast.
• Feral Frenzy should be cast on cooldown. With Focused Frenzy, this allows it to align with every Tiger's Fury cast. If playing with Frantic Frenzy for AoE reasons, this means it should line up with every third Tiger's Fury, or can be held for every other to also sync with your Berserk.
• Chomp is used on cooldown every 20 seconds. Anticipate the cooldown, and try to dump Energy just beforehand so you can use it.
• When committing resources to cast Ferocious Bite / Ravage, Always be at 50 Energy or more.
• When playing with Apex Predator's Craving, you should aim to consume these as soon as possible to avoid wasting follow-up procs.

FAQWhen Should I Refresh my Bleeds and DoTs?

Whenever they aren't active on your target, or if they're within their Pandemic timer and won't overwrite a stronger snapshot.

FAQDo I Always Spend at 5 Combo Points?

Yes. Despite potential overflow from Primal Fury and Panther's Guile, the resource economy lends itself to maximizing Combo Points.

FAQWhat is Snapshotting?

Snapshotting is a Feral-specific mechanic, that is linked specifically to Tiger's Fury in Midnight. This causes DoTs and Bleeds applied while the buff is active to retain the damage increase for their entire duration. You should ideally refresh effects during this window, and avoid overwriting stronger DoTs before they expire.

Feral in AoE relies on important talent picks to convert its single-target finishers into AoE attacks. Primal Wrath does this for Rip, while Rampant Ferocity does so for Ferocious Bite. Its playstyle remains fairly similar to single-target, but with some extra wrinkles.

1. Cast Primal Wrath with 5 Combo Points under these conditions - Click for Conditions

   • Rip isn't active, or is within its Pandemic timer;
   • Rip snapshot can be strengthened with Tiger's Fury.
2. Cast Ferocious Bite / Ravage with 5 Combo Points, or with Apex Predator's Craving.
3. Cast Tiger's Fury on cooldown - Click for Details

   • Aim to be 70 or more Energy below your cap when used.
4. Cast Berserk on cooldown. Sync with Tiger's Fury.
5. Cast Feral Frenzy on cooldown. Sync with Tiger's Fury.
6. Cast Frantic Frenzy on cooldown. Cast during Tiger's Fury when possible.
7. Cast Convoke the Spirits with Tiger's Fury active - Click for Details

   • Cast this during Berserk, before Tiger's Fury expires, with as few Combo Points as possible.
8. Cast Swipe with Sudden Ambush active.
9. Cast Rake, cycling between targets.
10. Cast Moonfire, cycling between targets.
11. Cast Chomp when usable.
12. Cast Swipe to generate Combo Points.

Many of the rules that Feral plays by in single-target remain in multi-target situations, but cyclying Rake between targets is important. This is especially true when playing with Double-Clawed Rake, doubling the speed you can blanket enemies with the effect. Key notes are:

• Primal Wrath is always taken in AoE, allowing you to apply Rip easily to all nearby enemies. This is your top priority in any situation where you don't have Bleeds currently active.
• Ferocious Bite should be used when you have Rips active and are at 5 Combo Points to trigger Rampant Ferocity. As Druid of the Claw, this is even more important with Ravage, so make absolutely sure you have Bleeds applied.
• You should generate Combo Points by cycling targets to apply Rake. Once you have these active, use Swipe as your secondary builder.
• Moonfire with Lunar Inspiration can also be maintained, but only at lower (2-3) target counts.
• Apex Predator's Craving procs are more plentiful, and should be consumed as often as possible. Still make sure that you have Rips applied to trigger Rampant Ferocity.

FAQWhat Finisher do I Cast in AoE?

Always aim to have Rip applied via Primal Wrath at all times. Following that, excess resources are spent on Ferocious Bite to trigger Rampant Ferocity.

FAQDo I Always Spend at 5 Combo Points?

Yes. Even moreso in AoE, maxing out your Combo Points is important due to the higher volume of resources available.

FAQWhat is Snapshotting?

Snapshotting is a Feral-specific mechanic, that is linked specifically to Tiger's Fury in Midnight. This causes DoTs and Bleeds applied while the buff is active to retain the damage increase for their entire duration. You should ideally refresh Rip during this window via Primal Wrath.

Feral has a relatively fixed opening sequence. This is done to generate enough Combo Points to set up Bleeds and DoTs, then enters into its cooldown windows. How you spend your first few sets of Combo Points, however, varies slightly depending on the situation. Select your chosen encounter type below:

1. Cast Prowl before combat starts.
2. Cast Rake from Stealth to trigger Pouncing Strikes.
3. Cast Moonfire.
4. Cast Shred until you are at 5 Combo Points.
5. Cast Rake on different targets until you reach 5 Combo Points.
6. Cast Berserk & Tiger's Fury in the same GCD.
7. Cast Chomp.
8. Cast Rip.
9. Cast Primal Wrath.
10. Cast Feral Frenzy.
11. Cast Frantic Frenzy.
12. Cast Ravage.
13. Cast Ferocious Bite.
14. Cast Convoke the Spirits.
15. Continue with the normal priority list.

Always try to have all of your setup done before beginning Berserk, as you'll be flooded with resources you ideally want to be spending on Ferocious Bite. Some notes are:

• As Druid of the Claw, Killing Strikes is always taken, so your first Tiger's Fury will instantly grant Ravage. This replaces your opening Ferocious Bite cast.
• You always want to try and get Feral Frenzy Frantic Frenzy on cooldown after applying your Rip effect. Use this to set up your first Ferocious Bite.
• Following this, your setup should be done and you can cast Convoke the Spirits, blanketed by both Berserk and Tiger's Fury.
• Ideally Chomp is cast right after entering Berserk. You should aim to drop below 30% Energy in your first build cycle after the opener to do so.

Berserk is Feral's major cooldown. This lasts for 15 seconds, with a cooldown of 3 minutes (reduced to 2 minutes with Berserk: Heart of the Lion). This is your strongest damage window, and should be used as close to on cooldown as possible alongside other strong effects. While active, it provides several benefits:

• Generates 1 Combo Point every 1.5 seconds
• All ability damage increased by 15%.
• Combo Point generating abilities generate 1 additional Combo Point, and up to 3 Combo Points can be stored above the cap as Overflowing Power.
• Finishing Moves consume Overflowing Power stacks to refund the same amount of Combo Points.
• Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane — duration increased to 20 seconds, and the Energy cost of Cat Form abilities reduced by 25% while active.
  • Ashamane's Guidance additionally reduces Incarnation's cooldown to 90 seconds when taken.

While there are a lot of effects tied into it, the main impact is quite simple: you deal significantly more damage, and have access to much more resources. Feral has powerful 2-minute burst windows due to this, so it strongly encouraging on-use trinkets to lean into it further. This should be lined up with Tiger's Fury and Convoke the Spirits. While active, you should aim to be spending as many resources as possible, ideally having none left as it expires.

With Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane taken, you also get access to a single use of Prowl in combat each time you use it. This should be used to apply an empowered Rake via Pouncing Strikes, ideally with Tiger's Fury active.

Tiger's Fury is a 30-second cooldown, is off the GCD, and instantly generates 50 Energy when used. Additionally, all Feral ability damage is increased by 15% for 10 seconds. This damage increase also Snapshots Bleed effects applied while active, applying to their full duration. There are a number of talents present on the Feral tree that interact with this:

• Predator — increases the duration by 5 seconds, and increases the damage of Combo Point generating abilities by 40% of your Haste at all times.
• Savage Fury — Tiger's Fury grants 10% Haste and 25% increased Energy recovery rate for 8 seconds.
• Raging Fury — increases the duration by an additional 5 seconds.
• Tiger's Tenacity — causes your next three Finishing Moves after casting to also restore 1 Combo Point. Additionally, the Tiger's Fury damage snapshot applied to Bleeds is also increased by 10%.
• Carnivorous Instinct — increases the damage bonus by 6% per point spent.
• Killing Strikes — Druid of the Claw gains Ravage the first time this is used each time you enter combat, with thise choice node selected.
• Strategic Infusion — Wildstalker increases the chance for Shred, Rake and Swipe to critically strike for 6 seconds when cast.
• Implant — Wildstalker also applies a Bloodseeker Vines when this is cast and when it expires with this choice node selected.

Tiger's Fury makes up a major part of Feral's talent tree, and is a core component of gameplay. It's pressed as close to every 30 seconds as possible, ideally with low Energy to take advantage of the refund. While active, you should aim to reapply fresh Bleeds to snapshot them, and sync its uses with other strong cooldowns such as Berserk and Convoke the Spirits.

Convoke the Spirits is a 2-minute burst cooldown which, when used, casts a quick succession of 16 Druid spells (free of cost) over 4 seconds. This can be channelled while moving, but is also susceptible to interrupt effects. Each cast prefers a Feral Spell, but a handful of abilities from other specs are also mixed into the pool. This prioritizes single-target abilities on your current target. Some quick notes about the abilities it casts are:

• Ferocious Bite is the finisher in the Feral pool. This is considered a max Combo Point cast that did consume additional Energy, but is not increased further by Saber Jaws.
• Any Combo Point generating ability will still generate a Combo Point for you.
• The "exceptional spell" it can cast is Feral Frenzy.
• Moonfire, Rejuvenation, Regrowth and Wrath are also in the pool.
• Sudden Ambush will be consumed.
• Ravage will be consumed.
• Apex Predator's Craving will not be consumed.

Due to the buffs provided by Berserk and Tiger's Fury, this should always be cast during these windows. Their cooldowns naturally align, so avoid drifting them apart from each other.

Ashamane's Guidance is also taken by some builds, reducing the cooldown to 1-minute while also reducing the spell count to 12. This lower cooldown means you should strictly stick to a 1-minute cast cycle to keep it aligned with Berserk and Tiger's Fury. Feral Frenzy is also more frequently picked from the pool of spells when used.

Feral Druid's core rotation is dictated by its dual resource system: Energy and Combo Points. The first of these, Energy, has a base capacity of 100 (increased by certain Talents), and refills at a rate of 11 Energy per second (increased by Haste). This is used to fuel every ability, both your Combo Point generators, and your Combo Point finishers.

Feral has a few different abilities to build Combo Points (known as generators): Shred, Rake, Swipe, Moonfire (with Lunar Inspiration) and finally Feral Frenzy. When used, these generate at least 1 Combo Point, and with Primal Fury taken will also generate an additional one when dealing a Critical Strike. These are in turn used to fuel your most powerful abilities.

Finishing Moves (known as finishers) spend all your Combo Points at once, and often come with an Energy cost. The more Combo Points spent, the higher the damage (or stronger the effect), so always aim to cast with the cap of 5. Your most commonly used finishers are Rip / Primal Wrath to apply powerful DoTs, and Ferocious Bite for direct damage.

Due to the slow generation of Energy for Feral, the concept of "pooling" Energy is worth understanding. This means holding your ability uses until certain conditions are met, then spending to maximize efficiency. Feral always has a natural amount of downtime in its rotation, so planning these moments rather than being forced into a dry period is usually better. Also, try to always bottom out your Energy in the lead-up to each Tiger's Fury cast, which generates a burst of resources.

Omen of Clarity procs should be used as soon as possible (below 5 Combo Points) to avoid overwriting procs. With Moment of Clarity, this allows you to sit on one charge, allowing it to accumulate up to 2.

Feral should always aim to have 100% uptime on both Rake and Rip, with additional DoTs included based on your talent build. This is the core of your damage output, and creates the maintenance playstyle that Feral is built around. Remember, if you're playing Circle of Life and Death all of the below effects expire 25% faster!

• Rip — costs 20 Energy, but duration is dependent on how many Combo Points you apply it with. Aim to use 5 for the best Energy efficiency, and when you do so it lasts for 24 seconds.
• Rake — costs 35 Energy to apply, lasts for 15 seconds. Apply rotationally.
• With Lunar Inspiration — Moonfire costs 40 Energy, lasts for 18 seconds. Apply rotationally.

Feral benefits from the Pandemic effect on its DoTs, allowing you to refresh specific DoT effects up to 30% early, and carry the remaining duration into the next cast. This does not carry over any snapshotting effects; which instead need to be present when the new effect is applied. The Pandemic timers are as follows:

• Rake — 4.5 seconds
• Rip — 7.2 seconds (assuming 5 Combo Points)
• Moonfire — 4.8 seconds

Note that these amounts are reduced by 25% with Circle of Life and Death, increasing their tick speed.

"Snapshotting" is a core pillar of Feral Druid gameplay, used to power up your Bleed effects. In Midnight, this has been significantly pulled back, with only a handful of key effects falling under this category.

The effects that have the snapshot interaction with Bleeds, and which DoTs they affect are:

• Tiger's Fury — all DoT effects;
• Pouncing Strikes — Rake (from Prowl).

Tiger's Fury is the sole activator for most of your Snapshotting, and as such it's a lot simpler to make use of. Simply always remember to reapply Bleeds during this window, and ideally avoid doing so outside of it. Generally, the rule to follow is to only ever overwrite a DoT effect if you will apply a stronger snapshot, if possible. If you aren't currently able to do so, then wait until the initial Bleed expires to reapply.

Tracking these is a little more difficult with the UI changes coming in Midnight, though it should be noted that the icon changes when a Bleed was applied under a snapshot effect. Your action bar will also switch over to the empowered icon, highlighting that a stronger Bleed is available to be applied, so use these to guide your decisions.

Ferocious Bite is your direct-damage finisher, but it's only used siphon off excess Combo Points after you have Rip (or Primal Wrath) active. When casting it, make sure to have enough room with the remaining duration that you can generate Combo Points before DoTs expire. Also always try to have 50 Energy when using Ferocious Bite to amplify its damage (and doubly so if playing with Saber Jaws).

As covered in the rotation section, this is only something you commit to when you have spare resources. While it can be appealing to see the big damage it deals, losing uptime on DoTs is almost never worth the investment. Apex Predator's Craving procs, however, cause this to be completely free, and should be consumed immediately. These procs do gain the bonus damage from extra Energy consumption, but do not get increased further by Saber Jaws.

The above rules also apply to Rampant Ferocity, causing it to be amplified by additional Energy consumption. This talent makes it even more important to have Rip applied to all nearby targets before committing to it, as it only hits targets with DoTs active.

As Druid of the Claw, you also gain access to Ravage procs. These follow all of the above rules, being functionally identical to Ferocious Bite in terms of how it scales. These should ideally be cast as soon as possible to avoid overwriting procs (especially in AoE), but still try to make sure you meet the Energy thresholds to maximize its damage.

Feral Frenzy should be used when you have 0-2 Combo Points, and immediately followed with a finishing move. This means you both need the Energy to cast it, and to use the follow-up Combo Point spender in quick succession. Whenever possible, overlap this with Tiger's Fury. It also comes with a follow-up choice node:

• Focused Frenzy reduces the cooldown by 15 seconds, and increases damage dealt by 40%.
• Frantic Frenzy is the AoE equivalent, blinking rapidly between targets and applying a strong Bleed.

Both of these nodes are strong either in single-target or AoE, and are usually picked up to add to Feral's burst toolkit. With Focused Frenzy, it is always paired with every Tiger's Fury cast, while Frantic Frenzy is either held to align, or used with every third cast, depending on your pull cadence or add spawns. Damage is also amplified for Druid of the Claw via Tear Down the Mighty.

New in Midnight, Chomp has a 20-second cooldown and no cost, dealing high Physical damage to your target and tripled if it critically strikes. This can only be used after fallng below 30% Energy, or within 2 seconds after. This is a solid single-target option, and should be cast whenever available - ideally during Tiger's Fury, but don't hold it to align. Damage is also amplified for Druid of the Claw via Tear Down the Mighty.