Feral Druid DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.0.7
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 — Dragonflight 10.0.7.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Feral DPS Druid rotation.
Feral Druid Rotation
Welcome to the Rotation section of our Feral Druid guide. If you came here without first checking over the Spell List/Glossary page, we recommend that you do so if you are new to the specialization. Understanding what your spells and abilities do will make it much easier to understand what is discussed on this page.
If you are looking for an introductory primer to get started and find the full breakdowns overwhelming, you can always start with our Easy Mode page to get yourself started with a close-to-optimal build and a more straightforward breakdown. While the recommendations on the page below are not strictly optimal for endgame, they provide an excellent springboard to get to grips with the core gameplay Feral focuses on:
In addition to your rotation in general content, there is also a separate section of this guide devoted to how your playstyle may change in Mythic+ as situations are often less scripted and more hectic. Please take a look at the page below if you are looking for more tailored information for that content:
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
Feral Druids in single-target focus on building Combo Points via Energy spenders, and consuming them with powerful Finishing moves in a cycle. It is a mixture of resource management and DoT maintenance, with a heavy emphasis on planning with some reactive elements.
We have provided rotation switches below that allow you to populate the priority list based on talents we recommend in the Talents section. Check each box based on your current talents . Passive options or talents without direct impact on the rotation are not included.
Talent Selections | ||
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- Cast
Tiger's Fury on cooldown, ideally at 30 Energy or less.
- Maintain
Rip on your target, refreshing if less than 7 seconds remaining with 5 Combo Points.
- Cast
Ferocious Bite if at 5 Combo Points,
Rip is active and your Energy is about to cap.
- Maintain
Rake, refreshing at 4 seconds remaining if you are below 5 Combo Points.
- Maintain
Thrash, ideally with
Omen of Clarity procs.
- Cast
Shred to build Combo Points.
The most important thread throughout all of Feral is making sure that you
maintain Rip and
Rake as efficiently as possible, ideally
snapshotting them with
Tiger's Fury and
Bloodtalons if
applicable. After that, your Energy and Combo Points are used for direct
damage, but always make sure you have enough in the tank to keep Bleeds
active.
Multiple Target Rotation for Feral Druids
Talent Selections | ||
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- Cast
Tiger's Fury on cooldown, ideally at 30 Energy or less.
- Maintain
Rip on as many targets as possible.
- Cast
Ferocious Bite if at 5 Combo Points,
Rip is active on all targets and your Energy is about to cap.
- Maintain
Thrash, ideally with
Omen of Clarity procs.
- Cycle
Rake on as many targets as possible.
- Cast
Swipe to build Combo Points.
Many of the rules that Feral plays by in single-target remain in Cleave
and AoE situations, so you will find your gameplay similar with some
slight deviations alongside some multi-DoTing when possible. Your finishers
are largely replaced by Primal Wrath whenever taken, with
Apex Predator's Craving
procs being consumed as quickly as 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 (this also applies to
Moonfire with
Lunar Inspiration
taken).
Feral Druid Opening Sequence
Feral has minor quirks depending on which talents you select when navigating the opening sequence to set up its Bleed effects. Select options from the tool below to populate the list:
Talent Selections | ||
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- Cast
Prowl before combat starts.
- Cast
Rake
- Cast
Shred until you are at 5 Combo Points.
- Cast
Berserk.
- Cast
Tiger's Fury and immediately apply
Rip.
Always try to have all of your major effects applied before entering
into Berserk in single-target, as you will be spending a lot
of time casting
Shred and
Ferocious Bite due to the
resource flood.
Convoke the Spirits is also relatively flexible
when you use it - ideally when you are low on resources. Both
Berserk
and
Tiger's Fury are off the GCD so that they can be used alongside another
ability immediately.
In AoE situations, the opening Rip is replaced with
Primal Wrath,
and
Shred is replaced with either
Swipe /
Brutal Slash
or applying multiple
Rakes to build to your first finisher.
Vault of the Incarnates Tier Set Bonus for Feral Druid
Season 1 introduces a Tier Set available from the Vault of the Incarnates raid, and the Inspiration Catalyst, unlocked in patch 10.0.5. The bonuses granted by the Lost Landcaller's Vesture set are:
-
Feral Druid 2pc increases the damage of
Rip and
Ferocious Bite by 6%.
-
Feral Druid 4pc causes Finishing moves to increase your
Rip,
Rake and
Thrash damage, and increase the chance for
Shred,
Swipe /
Brutal Slash,
Rake and
Thrash to critically strike by 2% per Combo Point spent for 4 seconds.
While both of these are solid bonuses and provide a substantial increase most of Feral's damage they do not require any actual gameplay chances to use. The 4-piece on the surface looks quite complex, but just playing the rotation, as usual, will provide the most benefit, and micro-managing the buff is unnecessary.
Bloodtalons
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
stacks wherever possible to snapshot your Bleeds at their highest
damage potential.
Adaptive Swarm
Playing around Adaptive Swarm has some small quirks that
can be optimized if you choose to do so, and there are additional rules
to consider depending on if you play with
Unbridled Swarm:
- Base
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. The ideal tactic (once you have an active swarm) is usually to refresh a swarm on the boss that has 1 or 2 stacks as close-to-optimal to the end of the duration as possible, refreshing the dot and extending the duration on your desired target.
- With
Unbridled Swarm,
Adaptive Swarm bounces each have a chance to clone into two swarms, making the ability more complex to optimize with slightly different rules for single-target and AoE:
- In single-target, ideally, you should build up swarms and then leave them alone. When you do not have any (or few) active swarms, cast it on the enemy (refreshing 1-2 stacks at the end of the duration as with a normal swarm). When you have a lot of active swarms, cast it on an ally with 1 stack or no swarms on them. This is to maximize the possible number of bounces (and, therefore, chances for cloning).
- On multi-target, you generally apply the same rule to enemy targets; Prioritizing enemies with 2 stacks, then 1 stack, and finally targets without any swarm active. In Mythic+, you can refresh active swarms on allies between pulls when out of combat to keep them rolling between different packs. Your priority should be: 2 stacks > 1 stack > no swarm > 3 stacks in that order.
Sudden Ambush
Sudden Ambush procs are generated from Finishers, so you
will generally be at zero Combo Points when this is generated. Ideally,
you should spend these on
Rake if possible for the Stealth
damage bonus and, when possible, should be paired with
Tiger's Fury
to snapshot it at its highest possible damage. In multi-target situations,
you should use this on separate targets to have multiple high-damage Rakes ticking. In contrast, try to avoid overwriting
a buffed Rake in single-target if you can. In all other situations, use it for
Shred
if you have excess procs. Note as well that during
Berserk
you cannot consume these as the effect is naturally caused by it.
Brutal Slash
When using Brutal Slash, try to ensure that you always have at
least one charge on cooldown, but bank charges for when a wave
of enemies is about to spawn. Try to have short-duration buffs such as
Tiger's Fury active for as many high-target casts as possible. This
is also a good
Bloodtalons activator in single-target.
Feral Druid Cooldowns
Feral comes with 2 DPS cooldowns, one being a short cooldown, high uptime buff that is 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, granting their respective bonuses if using
Pouncing Strikes. This has a 3-minute cooldown (but can be reduced by other talents), 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.
You should always be planning your Energy around the 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. Note as well in AoE scenarios (especially
Mythic) if enemies are frequently dying and you are using
Predator you can use this even if you are refreshing an old
buff solely for the quick burst of Energy.
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
the window with as much Energy in reserve as possible to
cast as many high-impact spells as possible.
Optional Read: Mastering Your Feral Druid
The above information tells you everything you need to know 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 needs 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 and DoT maintenance gameplay.
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 and 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
it gains no benefit from Mastery. Still, it can be cast from 40 yards making it easier
to maintain as a filler during downtime or on different targets not in melee
range.
All of your damage-over-time effects will expire 20% faster with
Circle of Life and Death if taken, so bear this in mind.
Energy Pooling
Energy pooling is beneficial and should be done in most circumstances.
It is not mandatory but can be helpful to improve your output when dealing
with specific 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, 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 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 applies to any Bleed effect, while
Bloodtalons
will only apply to your Finishers in
Rip and
Primal Wrath.
Sudden Ambush also only applies to
Rake via the
Pouncing Strikes
effect.
When to Refresh Bleeds and Buffs
Feral benefits from the Pandemic effect on many tools, allowing you to refresh specific DoT effects, buff up to 30% early, and carry the remaining duration into the next cast. This does not carry over any snapshotting effects; they 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
Note that these amounts are reduced by 20% when using Circle of Life and Death
due to the increased tick speed.
Tracking these is made considerably easier when using external addons to keep tabs on each buff and debuff. 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 can hit in
Dragonflight, and making sure the Combo Points get the most significant return for
investment is essential.
As covered in the rotation section, ensure 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 resources that it will not cause either to fall off.
Talent Specifics
Predator is quite straightforward. 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. 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 are 4.8 seconds or less left on its duration to make maximum use of the
pandemic effect.
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.
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 simultaneously. 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. Make sure to have as many charges as
possible if extra targets are coming.
Bloodtalons provides a buff with two charges that increase
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 /
Brutal Slash,
Thrash,
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 sure that you have it active for each cast. If you miss the buff when using a Finisher, it is a massive 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
ensure that you have the Energy available to use
the surge of Combo Points instantly. Ideally, you should pair every
other cast of this with
Tiger's Fury, too, to boost the damage.
Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane 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 essential
to pair it with other damage boosts like
Tiger's Fury
to make the most of it due to it being a cooldown. Aim to have spent
all resources as it is about to expire.
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.
Ashamane's Guidance when paired specifically with Incarnation
has an assumed bug, where it cannot proc within an active buff and extend it,
but you can extend a proc with a cast of Incarnation itself. In
practice, this reduces its uptime compared to the expected value which is
worth noting. It has roughly 1 RPPM, so will trigger very infrequently
during an encounter so do not rely on it or hold anything for these.
Soul of the Forest is a simple talent that boosts your Finishers
and smooths out your Energy generation. The benefit this talent confers is
enormous to the rotation after each Finisher.
Apex Predator's Craving is quite simple to play around with - whenever
a proc happens, you should aim to consume it as quickly as possible to avoid
wasting a follow-up proc. Due to the
Ferocious Bite being free of
any resource cost and dealing the maximum possible damage, there is no
reason to sit on these procs when they occur.
Changelog
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated 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 Xanzara, a long term feral player and theorycrafter filling in for Wordup. He has played feral in all kinds of content, with a focus on high end raiding, for several expansions going back to Wrath of the Lich King. You can find him regularly prowling in the Dreamgrove druid discord community
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