Feral Druid DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.1

Within the Feral tree, several core talents are used at all times, and then a mix of flex talents that allow you to specialize or hybridize for single-target, AoE, or priority damage should you need it. Due to that, below, we provide two specialized builds to cover these situations and a third, more Hybridized version that is flexible for both Raid and Mythic+ situations that are recommended in our Mythic+ guide.

Import codes for all 3 of the builds are as follows:

• Single-target: BcGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAg0goIJJJl0ikSSSkkAAAAAAQBgEBAIJJJRSkSCtEHAAAAAAASAAA
• AoE: BcGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEJt0kQSSkU0CKJJJSCAAAAAAFAkEAgkkkQSOgSCtEHAAAAAAASANAA

Both of these builds are highly specialized, and there is a middle ground you can obtain with the highest value picks of both. Something Feral does have to contend with, however, and you should consider when building your character, is that a lot of your final points are one or the other. There is a lack of talents that do both things to some degree, and instead an abundance of options that go all in on either single-target or AoE. The decision-making comes down to which tools are the most valuable to maintain.

In pure single-target situations, Feral has to forego a lot of its cleave and AoE options to take more specialized talents focused on dealing as much damage to one target as possible. There are some limited options allowing it to do limited cleave, but due to Feral's average base single-target tools, it needs everything it can get to bring up its base. There are, however, a few options that are up to your preference that are within margin, dictated by difficulty or use cases that you can choose from:

• Lunar Inspiration - this is now close enough in Season 1 that it is worth considering adding another maintenance DoT to your rotation and honing in even further on that aspect of the spec. This is much more focused on single-target (though it can theoretically multi-DoT), but it raises difficulty.
• Circle of Life and Death - this is an easy swap from the second point of Carnivorous Instinct should you choose. It slightly increases the pace of the spec, but points are now very tight below the 20 gate, and it is not quite as powerful as the ideal setup.
• Brutal Slash - provides an extra Bloodtalons activator should you need it and does relevant damage. This and Lunar Inspiration are generally exclusive due to GCD and point constraints, serving similar purposes.
• Relentless Predator - does smooth out your Berserk windows substantially, and injects a lot of Energy into the rotation via Ferocious Bite refunds. Simplifies some resource management by softening the punishment of overspending.
• Ashamane's Guidance - polarizing due to its RNG, this is still a powerful option granting free Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane windows that will always be at least somewhat valuable thanks to the Berserk rework.
• Convoke the Spirits - more niche, but improvements in Patch 10.1 bring this back as a solid option to deal very highly condensed burst should it be necessary. This is always paired with the above to bring it down to a 1 minute cooldown.

Due to some of Feral's most valuable AoE tools coming exclusively from the talent tree, this is where you build most of your damage for multi-target situations. These picks range from versatile cleave options to exclusively AoE picks that have a granular impact on how far you want to invest into AoE, but generally because of how high the potential is, you will regularly be selecting them in a package. Some talents of note are:

• Primal Wrath + Tear Open Wounds - this is the crux of the AoE package and is always taken. Without these, the AoE toolkit struggles to function properly.
• Relentless Predator - while exclusively AoE, it has huge value in keeping Ferocious Bite is relevant at higher target counts and is a relatively low cost swap to take it whenever extra targets are present.
• Apex Predator's Craving - gives a way to leverage both your active Rips, and the AoE component of Ferocious Bite from the above to keep both finishers relevant. It can also lead to additional funnel damage.
• Double-Clawed Rake - probably the lowest value AoE talents due to its limited impact, but at low target counts, is extremely high value. This is usually one to drop if you want to hybridize more.
• Infected Wounds - similar to above, these are usually paired together in AoE and if you drop one, there is sometimes room to drop the other as well.
• Merciless Claws - this is an option for a more hybridized AoE boost, but fitting it in is difficult.
• Tireless Energy - if you are really struggling to make use of Predator resets and need additional Energy to smooth things out, this is a very niche option to solve that. It will almost always come at the cost of throughput though.

For a stronger leaning to AoE situations, the focus is on empowering Primal Wrath (and Ferocious Bite through Rampant Ferocity and Apex Predator's Craving), dealing extremely high sustained AoE damage but at the cost of some single-target focused options. This is recommended in extended sustained AoE encounters or trash-heavy dungeons in Mythic+ where you can consistently maintain multiple targets, and also ideally when you can rely on some Predator resets for additional Energy. For pure output, this remains ideal at large target counts and suits Mythic+. However, certain affixes and dungeons may require you to sacrifice some AoE to hybridize more.

For pure single-target situations, Feral can forego a lot of its cleave and AoE options and take a build specialized in dealing as much damage to one target as possible. This has a heavy focus on Ferocious Bite and your Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane windows, and as such, it takes a lot of Energy-positive talents and effects that enhance these windows. It opts for Lion's Strength as it clashes less with the Combo Point flood during this, alongside the build not having Brutal Slash to activate Bloodtalons easily. It also takes Ashamane's Guidance for additional chances to trigger the effect, though it has an RNG component.

While the builds above cover different broad profiles, they do not cover the specific nuances of each boss. It can be a tricky decision to decide between other conflicting interests. Generally, we recommend the Hybrid build for most raid encounters, but for bespoke builds made for each boss, you can check our tips page below:

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. You can check our page below if you want advice tailored to Mythic+.

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

Ability	Explanation
Omen of Clarity	Causes your auto-attacks to have a chance to make your next Shred, Swipe or Thrash cost no Energy. This generates a significant amount of Energy and is required to sustain the rotation in most cases, so is always taken.
Primal Wrath	An active finisher that deals direct damage and applies Rip to all targets hit. This is our AoE spender and is taken in any situation where more than one target is present.
Tear Open Wounds	Causes Primal Wrath re-casts on targets with Rip present to consume some of the remaining duration. This is what allows us to recast Primal Wrath so frequently without the worry of losing DoT damage and is taken in multi-target situations.
Merciless Claws	Increases Shred damage by 20% and Swipe / Brutal Slash damage by 15% against Bleeding targets. This is effectively a passive boost due to our Bleeds and is a solid passive increase, especially in single-target.
Thrashing Claws	This is moreso an ease-of-use option, causing Shred and Swipe to apply the Thrash effect. This removes Thrash entirely from your rotation, making it easier to maintain the Bleed, but at a performance loss.
Predator	Provides a flat bonus to Tiger's Fury duration and causes its cooldown to reset whenever an enemy affected by your Bleeds dies. This provides a lot of additional Energy and uptime whenever there are frequently dying targets and is a consistently useful talent.
Double-Clawed Rake	Causes Rake casts to apply to a second target. Makes multi-DoT maintenance easier and is taken in multi-target situations.
Sabertooth	Increases Ferocious Bite damage and causes each Combo Point spent by it to increase all your active Rip damage. Provides additional incentive to Bite targets and has good synergy with followups for most situations, and is generally a required pathing node, so it is always taken.
Tireless Energy	Increases base Energy regeneration by 10/20% and max Energy by 30/60. It gives more room for pooling and is a solid choice in most situations, but when points become tight, is often dropped for stronger effects so long as you have enough resources to maintain the key cycle.
Pouncing Strikes	Grants a 60% damage bonus to Shred and Rake from stealth, gives Shreds buffed this way double the Critical Strike chance and Rake a stun effect. On its own not very important, but with supporting talents such as Sudden Ambush, this can provide some extra damage. Regardless though, this is mandatory for pathing deeper into the tree.

The first block of talents are mostly universal increases to the core rotation, dictating your access to Energy related effects to build the primary cycle. The only big decision here is whether you take Primal Wrath and the supporting AoE talents around it, but you will always path through Sabertooth and Pouncing Strikes to unlock the second tier of talents. Ideally, you will spend the minimum possible points here to gain access to later options.

Ability	Explanation
Survival Instincts	Powerful, but long cooldown defensive option. While this is not throughput, pathing must reach our major offensive cooldown, so is always taken.
Berserk	Our major cooldown, causing Shred and Rake to deal 50% increased damage, and cause Finishing moves to also refund up to 3 Combo Points generated above the cap of 5. Also causes all Combo Point generating abilities to generate an additional Combo Point, and passively generates 1 Combo Point per second. It provides a huge flood of resources alongside overflow protection, and has some enhancing talents to focus more on this window.
Berserk: Heart of the Lion	Each Combo Point spent reduces the cooldown of Berserk by 0.5 seconds. Generally will reduce the cooldown by roughly 1 to 1.5 minutes, making it align more conveniently for most encounters, so is often taken due to the other Berserk empowering talents.
Berserk: Frenzy	Causes Combo Point generating abilities to apply a Bleed effect for 100% of the damage dealt over 8 seconds. Adds further Strength to your Berserk windows, especially in single-target, due to the damage increase it provides to Shred and is always taken.
Sudden Ambush	Gives finishing moves a 6% chance per Combo Point to cause your next, Shred or Rake to deal damage as if you were stealthed. Thanks to Pouncing Strikes, this is an extremely strong single-target option, but points are often too tight to access this in multi-target situations.
Raging Fury	Causes your Finishing moves to extend the duration of your active Tiger's Fury effect by 0.4 seconds per Combo Point. This competes on a choice node with Tiger's Tenacity, but is a significantly better option for a much higher, consistent Tiger's Fury uptime.
Infected Wounds	Increases the damage of Rake by 30% and adds a small slow while active. An all-round good talent that works well in multi-target thanks to Double-Clawed Rake.
Dreadful Bleeding	Increases Rip damage by 18%. This affects all of your active Rips and is always taken.
Moment of Clarity	Increases the chance for Omen of Clarity procs to trigger by 50%, allowing it to accumulate a second charge and increase the damage of abilities that consume it by 15%. A good all-round talent that smooths out the rotation, but can be dropped in AoE should you be stable on Energy.
Brutal Slash	Replaces Swipe with a stronger, cooldown/charge-based ability. This is generally worth the trade-off as you rarely need to Swipe more than once when building Combo Points back up to 5, and has benefits in single-target, especially with Bloodtalons. Competes with Wild Slashes on the choice node, but this is more of a simple passive, which is generally weaker.
Taste for Blood	Increases the damage dealt by your Ferocious Bite by 5% per Bleed, you have active on the target. A solid option for a variety of builds that lean into a Bite playstyle, especially in single-target.
Relentless Predator	Reduces the Energy cost of Ferocious Bite by 20%. Helps with some of the Energy issues caused by frequently using Bite in single-target, but is an optional choice for Bite oriented builds.
Rampant Ferocity	Causes Ferocious Bite to deal 35% of its damage to targets affected by your Rip, dealing reduced damage above 5 targets. This is taken predominantly in cleave/AoE builds as it allows otherwise single-target bites to deal some AoE damage and works with both the AoE and Hybrid builds to capitalize on those spenders in between Primal Wrath.
Lunar Inspiration	Allows you to cast Moonfire in Cat Form, but causes it to cost 30 Energy and generate 1 Combo Point. This is now a worthwhile single-target option in Patch 10.1, but is in an awkward place and has a higher gameplay requirement than alternatives. It can be worthwhile, but is optional, depending on comfort.
Predatory Swiftness	Mandatory pathing node that allows Regrowth or Entangling Roots to be instantly cast in Cat Form following successful Finishing moves, providing a good survival boost or crowd control.

This tier of talents mostly dictates what final talents you have access to and round out your focus depending on if it is more Bleed or Bite-focused. Many choices here are quite versatile, but some are specialized, allowing you to pick and choose based on how you want to navigate the tree and where you want to end up. Generally, though, the central block of Berserk, Dreadful Bleeding and Raging Fury are always taken.

Ability	Explanation
Carnivorous Instinct	Provides a flat increase to the damage bonus provided by Tiger's Fury. This is a strong selection due to the high uptime of the buff, and usually has at least one point taken, but the bottom rows are contentious enough that there is often not enough room to take two.
Bloodtalons / Lion's Strength	Both options are strong, effective buffs to your Finishing Moves. Bloodtalons is the more complex of the two requiring you to pool slightly and cycle your abilities correctly, but rewards you with a higher damage buff to your Finishers. Lion's Strength on the other hand is less conditional if you do not have other talents, such as Brutal Slash to conveniently trigger it, and it is easier to execute. One of these two options is almost always taken, and thanks to the Patch 10.1 buffs, generally Bloodtalons is superior now that it generates 3 charges.
Feral Frenzy	Deals a small amount of damage and applies a heavy, short duration Bleed on your target with a 45-second cooldown and generates 5 Combo Points when activated. This is a powerful instant generator and is taken in most single-target situations.
Adaptive Swarm	is a short DoT/HoT that increases the potency of your over-time-effects when active on a target. It will also jump between allies and enemies in a cycle, healing, and dealing damage in the process. Due to the Strength of Rip and our other bleeds and its relatively high uptime, this is a strong single-target option but falls off in multi-target.
Unbridled Swarm	Adds a multi-target component that improves Adaptive Swarm further in situations where you can have multiple active, but it has minimal effect in single-target.
Frantic Momentum	Grants Finishing moves a 6% chance per Combo Point spent to grants 10% Haste for 6 seconds. A solid increase in any target count is required pathing to reach strong end talents.
Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane / Convoke the Spirits	Both of these are powerful options, either improving your Berserk by increasing the duration and reducing Energy costs while active, or grants a powerful burst cooldown in Convoke the Spirits that will cast a flurry of Druid spells (preferring Ferocious Bite) over a 4-second channel. Both of these are strong in different scenarios depending on if you want condensed or extended burst, but we generally take Incarnation for additional duration to take advantage of all the supporting Berserk talents.
Ashamane's Guidance	Improves your previous talent selection, either granting a small chance for auto-attacks to trigger Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane for 6 seconds or reducing the cooldown of Convoke the Spirits by 1 minute and reducing the number of spells cast by 4 while increasing the chance for it to trigger Feral Frenzy. This is a strong option regardless of which you take, however, points are quite tight in this row, making it hard to fit in. With Incarnation, this can be extremely powerful for single-target but is much more RNG than alternatives.
Cat's Curiosity	Causes abilities that consume Clearcasting to also generate some of their Energy cost. This provides a large amount of bonus Energy and is good in all situations should you be running into Energy issues, but most builds aim to cover this earlier in the tree to pick stronger talents in these rows.
Soul of the Forest	Increases the damage of your Finishing moves and causes them to generate 3 Energy per Combo Point spent. This is a powerful talent in all situations and has a big impact on how smooth the rotation plays with regards to your Energy available, so it is always taken.
Circle of Life and Death	Causes your Bleed effects to deal their damage 20% faster. This effectively gives you more ticks of all of them in a shorter time, and due to how much damage they deal, this is a powerful talent taken in almost every situation regardless of target count.
Veinripper / Rip and Tear	A choice node that is mostly used for pathing, and both are valid options but provide modest increases. Rip and Tear is generally preferred in AoE situations where you are casting a lot of Primal Wrath while Veinripper removes some of the maintenance components of your Bleeds, increasing their duration.
Apex Predator's Craving	Gives all of your Rip damage ticks a small chance of causing your next, Ferocious Bite to cost no Energy or Combo Points and guarantee it deals the maximum possible damage. This is a strong talent, especially in AoE situations that have a lot of Rips applied at once and give a much higher uptime of Sabertooth to amplify their damage. This can be fired as soon as it procs, and is taken in a variety of builds, especially AoE ones.

All of the talents below this line are quite powerful, so you ideally want 10 points spare when you reach here to spend. That means pathing earlier should be done with that in mind. What you take depends on preference, target count, and desired damage profile, as what is selected here will warp your focus.

"War Mode" is an optional feature that enables open-world PvP encounters that confer 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 to take.

If you are interested in doing PvP as a Feral Druid or 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. 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.
2. Ferocious Wound provides additional damage to your Ferocious Bite that can be useful on high health targets due to the maximum health reduction it applies. Value is mostly tied to the difficulty of the enemies you are encountering.
3. Leader of the Pack increases the movement speed of you and nearby allies by 10% and causes players to heal for 3% of their maximum health when they critically strike with an 8-second cooldown. This provides some additional speed and sustain passively, but no longer impacts damage in Patch 10.1.
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. Still, you will generally be using Predator in the open-world, so that overlap makes it less damage oriented.
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 minimal uses for extra movement speed. Still, you will only have a large number of Rips active if 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, Reactive Resin, Malorne's Swiftness, Wicked Claws, and Strength of the Wild on the other hand, they have very limited PvE uses, being more focused on in-combat control and group assistance. These are much more focused on PvP encounters, so they are not recommended for open-world play.