Feral Druid DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.0.2

Feral has a number of flex choices within the talent tree that lean toward different damage delivery methods, both with single-target and AoE focuses. Below are two different options that will serve you best in different scenarios as a quick pick up and play build.

This build is very much focused upon your multi-target gameplay allowing for additional boosts and flexibility with movement between encounters. It also leverages extra targets dying to allow you to deal more damage, alongside better sustained AoE tools.

Be sure to use the 'Copy Export String' button to import our build ingame.

Use the following build to get the most out of your damage to one target. Please note that this build drops Survival Instincts in order to maximize damage.

While the builds above cover different broad profiles, they do not cover specific nuance of each individual boss. It can be a tricky decision to decide between different conflicting interests. For example in many multi-target encounters AoE will feature as a significant element but not completely ecplise the need for single-target damage. Another example is when extra survivability provided by Survival Instincts is needed.

Two such compromised builds are provided here as import strings for easy import into the game:

Single-target with extra defensives: BcGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQkUQiIJJJl0OgokExBSCAAAAAAKCgIAgIJJBJSLhWkAAAAAAASA

Raid-boss with significant multi-target components: BcGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIkUSRikkEJFtDgSSkcgkAAAAAAgiAICAISSSQi0SoFJAAAAAAgEA

Mythic+ tends to require a more versatile damage profile that can necessitate you mixing and matching different talents to cover a full run depending on affixes or composition each week. If you want advice tailored to Mythic+, you can check our page below.

Some of the Feral talents also require additional maintenance to make use of during moment to moment gameplay. You can find more details on how to incorporate these into your priority on our rotation page.

• Omen of Clarity and its associated clearcasting proc generates a significant amount of energy through its free ability casts and is core to every build.
• Primal Wrath is our multi-target Finisher, and with sufficient support from other talent is even a decent single-target finisher. Core talent that should be picked in all situations where multi-target damage is applicable.
• Primal Claws makes generators have a small chance of generating additional Combo Points. Unfortunately the chance is too low for this talent to be worthwhile.
• Merciless Claws increases Shred, Brutal Slash and Swipe damage on bleeding targets. Solid talent that adds a decent amount of damage in most circumstances.
• Predator increases the duration of Tiger's Fury and causes the cooldown to refresh when a target affected by one of your bleeds die. The Tiger's Fury duration is always solid, and this talent becomes more powerful when a lot of targets die.
• Double-Clawed Rake causes your Rake to apply itself to two targets. Very solid choice for any situation with multiple-targets.
• Protective Growth causes Regrowth to reduce your damage taken. This talent is solid damage reduction, but competes with damage options and thus cannot be recommended.
• Lunar Inspiration allows Moonfire to be cast in Cat Form. Solid talent in most situations outside of very large multiple-target situations.
• Sabertooth increases Ferocious Bite damage and causes it to increase Rip damage for a few seconds. Solid single-target choice and its central location means you often path through.
• Tireless Energy increases energy regen and maximum energy pool. Solid choice in every situation.
• Pouncing Strikes makes Shred and Rake deal more damage when cast from stealth. This is critical to power up other talents like Berserk and I consider it near-mandatory.

• Sudden Ambush makes your finishing moves occasionally allow you to cast an ability as if from stealth. Good single-target and ok on multi-target, but for a relatively high cost of 2 points.
• Rampant Ferocity makes Ferocious Bite hit all targets affected by Rip for a part of the damage. This talent is not very strong at area-of-affect damage compared to other talents but allows otherwise single-target bites to cleave for some extra benefit.
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• Berserk makes finishing moves restore some of their Combo Point cost; makes Swipe generate additional Combo Points and make Shred deal damage as if they were cast from stealth. Near mandatory talent point for allies situations.
• Tear Open Wounds makes Primal Wrath consume 4s of an existing Rip dot and deal a portion of that damage instantly. Very strong multi-target damage increase, and even decent in single-target.
• Taste for Blood causes Ferocious Bite to deal increased damage to a target for each of your bleeds applied to it. It is a decent single-target increase, but expensive because of the two points needed.
• Predatory Swiftness allows you to cast a Regrowth or Entangling Roots for free without leaving Cat Form after using a finishing move. Unlike in previous expansions this is no longer associated with any form of damage increase, but is very strong for increased survivability and the odd root.
• Moment of Clarity increases the proc rate of Omen of Clarity and attaches a small damage increase to the clearcasting proc. Requires a previous point in Omen of Clarity but provides a decent sized damage increase in all situations.
• Infected Claws increased Rake damage and makes it apply a slow when cast. Good combination of utility and damage increase for on of our core abilities and is strongly recommended.
• Dreadful Bleeding increases Rip damage. A very solid all around DPS increase.
• Relentless Predator reduces the energy cost of Ferocious Bite by 20%. This is a rather weak talent.
• Raging Fury/ Tiger's Tenacity Raging Fury allows finishing moves to extend the Tiger's Fury buff. This is a very strong talent and is strongly recommended. Tiger's Tenacity flips this around and instead makes Tigers Fury generate Combo Points when you cast a finisher. In general, Tiger's Tenacity suffer from sharing a slot with Raging Fury which is mostly the stronger choice. In a rare situation where you have a constant stream of Predator procs it can however be better.
• Berserk: Heart of the Lion causes each finishing move to reduce the remaining cooldown of Berserk. An decent choice all around.
• Survival Instincts is a strong damage reduction cooldown. Pure utility but is very commonly needed in both higher M+ and raid situations.
• Berserk: Frenzy makes direct damage from your generators used under Berserk deal additional damage in the form of a bleed. A strong single-target talent, but a lot more modest on multi-target.
• Brutal Slash/ Wild Slashes Brutal Slash replaces Swipe with a stronger but cooldown limited version. Wild Slashes instead just increases Swipe and Thrash damage by 20%. Brutal Slash is typically the stronger of the two and has single-target impact, but Wild Slashes are an acceptable choice and is better at very large multi-target situations where you want to omit Rake maintenance.

• Carnivorous Instinct increases the potency of the damage buff granted by Tiger's Fury. Decent talent point in all situations.
• Frantic Momentum gives finishing moves a chance to apply a small haste buff. Decent talent point in all situations.
• Cat's Curiosity makes clearcasting procs restore energy in addition to making an ability free to cast. Decent talent point in all situations.
• Lion's Strength/ Bloodtalons Lion's Strength increases damage of Rip and Ferocious Bite. Bloodtalons instead gives you a larger damage increase but requires you to use 3 different generators in a sequence. Bloodtalons is typically slightly stronger, but if you do not want to worry about proccing it, Lions Strength is a viable alternative.
• Adaptive Swarm is a short dot/hot that increases the potency of your over-time-effects. It will also jump between friends and foes and heal or deal damage. You can add more stacks by casting the ability on a target that already has the dot applied. Strong DPS increase in most situations.
• Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane/ Convoke the Spirits Incarnation improves Berserk by adding a energy cost reduction and extending the duration. Convoke instead is a 2m cooldown that will cast some druid abilities (with a preference for Ferocious Bite) over a brief channel. Both are pretty strong in their own right, but Convoke is typically the stronger choice with better gear whereas Incarnation is stronger early on.
• Soul of the Forest increases the damage of your finshing moves, and makes them restore some energy when cast. Very strong talent in all situations.
• Veinripper/ Rip and Tear Veinripper extends duration of bleeds, whereas Rip and Tear makes Rip (and thus Primal Wrath) apply a shorter mini-rip when being applied. Rip and Tear is currently on the weaker side, and Veinripper is mostly useful in mixed AoE situations.
• Feral Frenzy is a strong generator on a cooldown. It generates 5 Combo Points immediately and apply a short and strong bleed. Strong talent in single-target, and decent in most situations.
• Unbridled Swarm adds a chance to Adaptive Swarm to duplicate itself when it jumps between two targets. Very strong talent for multiple-target situations.
• Ashamane's Guidance empowers either Convoke the Spirits or Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane depending on which talent you have. With Convoke it makes the cooldown and duration shorter, and increases the chance of Convoke to cast Feral Frenzy. With Incarnation it instead gives your auto attacks a chance to proc a short duration version of Incarnation without triggering the cooldown. This is a rather strong talent regardless of which of the two modes apply.
• Circle of Life and Death makes your bleeds deal their full damage faster. This is advantageous as it allows you to cast more of them in a given fight. Very strong generally.
• Apex Predator's Craving gives Rip ticks a chance to make your next Ferocious Bite free. Particularly strong at channelling damage from Rips applied to many targets with Primal Wrath into a single target. This additionally empowers your AoE by allowing you to gain the buff from Sabertooth.

"War Mode" is an optional feature that enables open-world PvP encounters that confers some benefits when active:

• Grants access to PvP talents in the open-world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at max level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will open yourself up to open-world PvP, so be aware of hostile enemy players who could interfere with you, this is a risk you will have to decide on your own if you want take.

If you are interested in doing PvP as a Feral Druid or just want to know how to navigate Feral Druid PvP encounters, check out our dedicated PvP guide.

In this section we will rank the PvP talents for leveling and playing in open-world PvE scenarios.

Generally the selections are made to optimize your ability to kill enemies faster, increasing your pace when moving through content.

1. Leader of the Pack increases the Critical Strike chance of you and nearby allies by 5%, and causes players to heal for 5% of their maximum health when they critically strike with a 6-second cooldown. This is the best option available on the PvP tree for open-world purposes.
2. Fresh Wound can provide additional burst to targets when applying your Rake effect, and is a solid increase across the board when cycling between targets.
3. Ferocious Wound provides additional damage to your Ferocious Bite that can be useful on high health targets due the maximum health reduction it applies. Value is mostly tied to the difficulty of the enemies you are encountering.
4. Savage Momentum causes successful interrupts with Skull Bash to reduce the cooldown of Tiger's Fury, Stampeding Roar and Survival Instincts by 10 seconds. This can be useful for moving around the world and extra burst windows on targets, but you will generally be using Predator in the open-world so that overlap makes it less flexible.
5. Thorns can provide some use if in situations with extra enemies present, to allow you to deal additional damage back when being hit.

King of the Jungle can provide very limited uses for extra movement speed, but you will rarely have a large number of Rips active unless you are AoEing large groups with Primal Wrath, at which point you will likely not be moving far away.

Freedom of the Herd, High Winds, Malorne's Swiftness, Wicked Claws, and Strength of the Wild on the other hand have very limited PvE uses, being more focused on in-combat control and group assistance. These are much more focused on PvP encounters, so are not recommended for open-world play.