Feral Druid DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.2
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Feral Druid in both single-target and multiple-target situations. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2.
If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Feral DPS Druid rotation.
Feral Druid Rotation
Welcome to our Rotation page for Feral Druids. Here we go over the details of playing the spec in different PvE scenarios.
Easy Mode
If you are looking for a more simple entry into how to play the spec and the rotation sections below seem like to much, you can always check out our Easy Mode page that gives a close-to-optimal alternative to get to grips with the basics.
PvP
The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.
Feral Druid Single Target Rotation
The Feral Druid rotation focuses on maintaining Bleed effects while managing your two resources in Energy and Combo Points to deliver damage to your target in a cycle.
Use the below switches to tailor the rotation around the talents or situations you expect to be using, and it will populate the rotation priority list and opener appropriately:
Talents | Covenant | Effects |
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- Cast
Tiger's Fury on cooldown, ideally at 30 Energy or less.
- Cast
Berserk if available.
- Maintain
Rip on your target, refreshing if less than 7 seconds remaining with 5 Combo Points.
- Maintain
Rake.
- Cast
Ferocious Bite if at 5 Combo Points,
Rip is active and your Energy is about to cap.
- Cast
Shred to build Combo Points.
When playing with Bloodtalons you will often be playing in
a cycle. That means you will trigger the effect by spending
Energy in quick succession via
Shred into
Rake
into
Thrash/
Brutal Slash (if taken), and then sit
on the two charges before you consume them for a Finisher. If you do not
have a buff already active from a previous cycle, that means you need
to think about your Energy pool before casting a Finisher to make
sure you can quickly cast three different Combo Point
generators after to trigger the buff again.
Try to make sure you sync your refreshes of Rake with
Tiger's Fury windows wherever possible. This extends to
Rip as well, which should also overlap with
Bloodtalons
stack use wherever possible to snapshot the highest possible increase
to your Bleeds.
How to use Covenant Abilities as Feral Druid
Feral's Covenant abilities all focus on adding an extra cooldown tool and in most cases are simply used as the highest priority due to the base damage coupled with no resource cost. Some notes are:
Kindred Spirits should ideally be applied to a party member that have cooldowns that can align with it, which can vary due to Mikanikos' Soulbind ahd the Conduit. After that, it should be empowered on cooldown ideally alongside
Tiger's Fury to generate the highest pool for both of you to consume both in single-target and AoE scenarios.
Adaptive Swarm should be applied to your main target with Bleeds active. This can be refreshed and the charges will be added if it bounces back from an ally.
Convoke the Spirits should be cast on cooldown, but try to save it for burst periods if needed. Casting this after dumping Energy is good due to the spells casting for free, and can generate its own
Tiger's Fury if you do not have it available.
Ravenous Frenzy should be paired with
Berserk whenever possible, and ideally also
Tiger's Fury. This increase is good in both in single-target and AoE, and try to have some pooled Energy to stack this every Global Cooldown. If you have none available, you can use
Soothe or
Remove Corruption to extend the window without triggering the negative effect.
Effects of Conduits on Feral Druid
Feral has two Conduits that impact the rotation if you are making use of them, and has some rules to bear in mind if you have them equipped.
Sudden Ambush procs after Finishers should ideally be spent on
Rake if possible due to the extra damage bonus provided from Stealth. If possible, you should align this with
Tiger's Fury, and apply it to separate targets if you get repeat procs. Try not to overwrite these buffed Rake effects until they are about to fall off, unless you have a new proc, but otherwise spend it on
Shred.
Taste for Blood encourages having all three of your Bleed effects active on targets (those being
Rake,
Rip and
Thrash). With
Bloodtalons this will happen naturally, but whenever this Conduit is taken you should be maintaining Thrash against a single target.
Double Legendary Impact
While Feral does have some good options available with the final 9.2
Covenant package, there is very little in the way of meaningful rotational
changes that come when
double legendaries are
applied. Apex Predator's Craving simply adds in a proc that needs to be
reacted to with a free
Ferocious Bite cast, and
Frenzyband just
amplifies the strength and frequency of your
Berserk windows.
Tier 28 Set Bonus Impact
Unfortunately for Feral the set bonus is really low impact and has
virtually no direct gameplay implications. The only thing to consider is
making sure to not hold Berserk too long and waste some
potential cooldown reduction, but if possible try and align the cast with
situations where the
Feral Druid 4-Piece bonus can hit multiple targets.
These rules run opposite to each other, which can sometimes be awkward.
Multiple Target Rotation for Feral Druids
A lot of the rules that Feral plays by in single-target remain in Cleave and AoE situations, so you will find your gameplay being similar with some slight deviations alongside some multi-DoTing when possible.
Swipe replaces
Shred as soon as an additional target
is present, and you also need to make sure to maintain
Thrash
on all nearby targets as much as possible. You should also try to keep
Rake active on as many additional targets as your Energy generation
allows to capitalize on the multi-DoT potential Feral has.
Brutal Slash
When using Brutal Slash, try to make sure that you always have at
least one charge on cooldown, but bank charges for when a wave
of enemies come into range. Try to have short-duration buffs such as
Tiger's Fury active for as many high-target casts as possible.
Primal Wrath
If playing Primal Wrath, this effectively replaces your Finishers
at all times and is the primary way of turning Combo Points into AoE damage.
Try to make sure you maintain
Rip via this spell on as many targets
as possible in sustained AoE.
Feral Druid Opening Sequence
Below, we list the ideal way to start the fight:
- Pre-cast
Prowl to begin in Stealth.
- Open with
Rake from Stealth.
- Cast
Thrash or
Brutal Slash if using
Bloodtalons.
- Cast
Shred until at 5 Combo Points.
- Cast
Berserk and immediately after
Tiger's Fury.
- Apply
Rip.
- Continue with single-target rotation.
Always try to pair Berserk and
Tiger's Fury together
to stack the damage increases. Both of these are off the Global Cooldown
in Shadowlands so can be used in any order.
In AoE situations, you will replace the opening Shreds
with
Swipe (or applying
Rake to other targets if possible),
and the first
Rip with
Primal Wrath if taken to get your
Bleed effects rolling.
Feral Druid Cooldowns
Feral comes with 2 DPS cooldowns, one being short cooldown, short duration and more rotational, while the other is a mid duration, long cooldown.
Tiger's Fury increases your damage done by 15% for 10 seconds, on a 30-second cooldown and is also off the Global Cooldown. Additionally, it instantly restores 50 Energy. It should be used on cooldown, but try to burn any excess Energy before casting so it does not waste the generation portion.
Berserk causes your
Shred and
Rake to behave as if you were in Stealth, conferring their respective bonuses. This has a 3-minute cooldown, lasts 20 seconds and is off the Global Cooldown. You should aim to pair this with as many other buffs as possible such as
Bloodlust and
Tiger's Fury as the burst window it provides is significant in Shadowlands.
You should always be planning your Energy around the Energy
refund provided by Tiger's Fury, so drain in advance as its
cooldown ends. You should aim to refresh any Bleeds that you need
to while it is active for the snapshot effect.
Berserk requires you to more aggressively cycle
between builders and Finishers due to the refund provided. This means
you will sometimes drain yourself, but try to make sure you enter
into the window with as much Energy in reserve as possible to
cast as many high impact spells as you can.
Mythic+ Rotation
While the rotation page covers the majority of gameplay in PvE settings, there are sometimes special rules that apply to dealing with Mythic+ situations. You can check our Mythic+ page below for more details.
Optional Read: 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, we go through the more specific details that let you understand the fundamentals of what makes Feral Druid tick, helping your decision making.
Combo Points and Energy
As a Feral Druid, the core of your abilities need Energy to be used. Your Energy bar has a capacity of 100 Energy and refills at a rate of 11 Energy per second. Your Energy regeneration is increased by your Haste.
Feral has a pool of abilities that build Combo Points (defined as builders)
being Shred,
Rake,
Swipe /
Brutal Slash,
and
Thrash. To go with this, you have abilities that spend these
(defined as Finishers), consuming all current 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 grant an additional
Combo Point any time they critically strike with direct damage.
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.
Rake costs 35 Energy to apply and lasts for 15 seconds, making
it the easiest tool to manage.
Rip costs 20 Energy but its duration is also dependent on how
many Combo Points it is applied with, so you should aim to apply Rip at 5
Combo Points for the best Energy efficiency. When done at 5, it lasts
for 24 seconds.
Thrash costs 40 Energy to cast and deals its damage over 15
seconds. This much like Rake is easy to maintain and applies to all targets hit,
and should be maintained at all times in AoE. Certain effects such as
Taste for Blood also encourage keeping this up even in single-target.
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 easier
to maintain as a filler during downtime, or on extra targets not in melee
range.
Energy Pooling
Energy pooling is useful, and should be done in most circumstances.
It is not mandatory, but can be useful to improve your output when dealing
with certain fight mechanics. Making sure you have a healthy pool of Energy
before dumping allows you to frontload damage more effectively. You should
always make sure to spend any excess before pressing Tiger's Fury
if possible, so as to not waste the generation it grants.
Omen of Clarity procs should be used as soon as your
cycle allows, so that they do not get overwritten by subsequent procs.
Snapshotting
Bleed snapshotting does still exist for Feral Druids, but it only works with some specific damage-increasing buffs. Snapshotting means that the damage the Bleed effect will do will be decided at the time of application, and carry over the amplification effect of the following buffs (where applicable) for the entire duration.
The effects that have the snapshot interaction with Bleeds are:
Tiger's Fury;
Bloodtalons (tier 7 talent).
Tiger's Fury applies to any Bleed effect, while
Bloodtalons
will only apply to your Finishers in
Rip and
Primal Wrath.
When to Refresh Bleeds and Buffs
Feral benefits from the Pandemic effect on many tools, allowing you to refresh certain DoT effects and buffs up to 30% early and carry the remaining duration into the next cast. This does not carry over any snapshotting effects though, they 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)
Thrash — 4.5 seconds
Moonfire — 4.8 seconds
Savage Roar — 10.8 seconds (assuming 5 Combo Points)
Tracking these is made considerably easier when using external addons to keep tabs on each individual buff and debuff, and there are some recommended options on our Addons page.
Ferocious Bite
You should always be pooling Energy to 50 before using Ferocious Bite
if you intend to cast it (provided it does not impact your
Rip uptime).
The additional 100% damage is significant due to how hard Bites now hit in
Shadowlands, and making sure the Combo Points get the biggest return for
investment is important.
As covered in the rotation section however, make sure that you have room
to cast Ferocious Bite before committing the resources to it. That means you
have your Bleed effects in Rake and
Rip maintained, and
have enough excess resource that it will not cause either to fall off.
Talent Specifics
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 casts
when there are repeat triggers (unless you know you will be able to reset its
cooldown again shortly after). Also make sure that any target that is about
to die has a Bleed applied to make sure to capitalize on it.
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
a cleave situation and have selected this. Moonfire should be refreshed when
there is 4.8 seconds or less left on its duration to make the maximum use of the
pandemic effect.
Sabertooth allows you to cast additional
Ferocious Bites
due to the extension effect on your active
Rip. This is not infinite
however, and you will need to re-apply
Rip roughly every minute. Any
extensions that occur via Sabertooth will also carry over snapshotted effects
such as
Tiger's Fury, so try to plan your refreshes around this
cooldown.
Tier 5 Talents
Soul of the Forest is a simple talent that boosts your Finishers
and smooths out your Energy generation. The benefit this talent confers is
huge to the rotation after each Finisher, and is also the easiest to execute
with any talent options.
Incarnation: King of the Jungle empowers your
Berserk by
increasing its duration to 30 seconds and reducing the Energy cost of all
abilities by 20%. This should still be used on cooldown and it is especially
important to pair it with other damage boosts like
Tiger's Fury
to make the most of it due to it being a cooldown choice. Make sure to
have spent all resources as it is about to expire.
Savage Roar provides a flat damage buff to all damage when active,
which updates dynamically to any DoT effects when activated alongside a small
bump to Energy generation. This is an extra maintenance buff so you need
to make sure you have enough resources available to keep it active at all
times, while weaving in
Rip and
Rake uptime. Make sure
to plan ahead for when this is falling off, especially if it aligns with your
other debuffs and upcoming
Tiger's Fury windows.
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. On single-target
this is used as a cheap Combo Point builder due to the higher Energy
efficiency compared to
Shred, so make sure it is always
recharging. Just make sure to have as many charges available as
possible if extra targets are coming.
Primal Wrath replaces your Finishing move choices whenever a
second target is present, allowing you to instead focus on generating the
Combo Points to fuel the
Rip uptime when in AoE sitautions. Treat
it as the primary AoE Finisher whenever taken.
Scent of Blood allows for a short surge of cheap
Swipe
casts following a
Thrash, proportional to the number of
targets struck. This performs quite poorly but when taken you need to make
sure to time your Swipe casts within the window for higher Energy
efficiency.
Tier 7 Talents
Bloodtalons provides a buff with two charges that increases
the damage of your next two Finishers by 30% after you cast 3 separate
Combo Point generators within 4 seconds. Activators are
Shred,
Rake,
Swipe,
Thrash,
Brutal Slash
and
Moonfire (with
Lunar Inspiration taken). This means
you will always need to pool some Energy to be able to fit in a quick
burst of 3 abilities to trigger this buff, creating a cycle of pooling
energy, casting a Finisher, triggering the buff and repeating.
You should be aware of when you need to regain these charges as you only need to do this every other Finisher, but with this talent taken you must make absolutely sure that you have it active for each cast. If you miss the buff when using a Finisher, it is a huge hit to the power of this talent.
Feral Frenzy should be used when you have 0 Combo Points, and
you should follow this up with a Finishing Move. This means you need to
make sure that you have the Energy available to instantly make use of
the surge of Combo Points. Ideally you should also be pairing every
other cast of this with
Tiger's Fury too to boost the damage.
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 do not cap
your Energy when these trigger (which is helped by the additional Energy limit
granted), and be aware that you should pool less aggressively when using this to
allow room to make use of the effect.
Changelog
- 20 Feb. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Page updated for Shadowlands launch.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Druid Guides
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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.
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