Feral Druid DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Talent Choices for Feral Druid

Level	Choices
15	✓ Predator	✓ Sabertooth	? Lunar Inspiration
30	? Tiger Dash	? Renewal	? Wild Charge
45	✓ Balance Affinity	? Guardian Affinity	? Restoration Affinity
60	? Mighty Bash	? Mass Entanglement	? Typhoon
75	✓ Soul of the Forest	✓ Savage Roar	? Incarnation: King of the Jungle
90	✓ Scent of Blood	✓ Brutal Slash	✓ Primal Wrath
100	? Moment of Clarity	✓ Bloodtalons	? Feral Frenzy

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Talent Cheat Sheet for Feral Druids

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. As such, below are 3 builds for different circumstances that hone in on the power talents.

2.1. Open World, Levelling and Dungeons — AoE Oriented

This build is very much focused upon your open world gameplay allowing for additional boosts and flexibility with movement between encounters.

• Level 15: Predator
• Level 30: Player's Choice
• Level 45: Player's Choice
• Level 60: Player's Choice
• Level 75: Soul of the Forest
• Level 90: Primal Wrath
• Level 100: Bloodtalons

2.2. Raids — Single Target Oriented

Note that if a Raid encounter specifically demands AoE, then the above build used in Dungeon situations will likely serve you better, in particular if you can capitalize upon Predator resets for single-target boosts. Otherwise, use the following build.

• Level 15: Sabertooth
• Level 30: Player's Choice
• Level 45: Player's Choice
• Level 60: Player's Choice
• Level 75: Soul of the Forest
• Level 90: Brutal Slash
• Level 100: Bloodtalons

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Feral Druid

✔ Predator

✔ Sabertooth

? Lunar Inspiration

Tier 1 talents offer a variety of different damage boosting effects for different situations.

• Predator causes the cooldown of Tiger's Fury to be reset when a target with one of your Bleed effects applied dies, and lasts an additional 5 seconds.
• Sabertooth increases the damage of Ferocious Bite by 20%, and refreshes the duration of your Rip effect on the target by 4 seconds per Combo Point spent.
• Lunar Inspiration allows the use of Moonfire in Cat Form, causing it to grant 1 Combo Point, deal damage based on Attack Power, and cost 30 Energy.

Your choice here depends on encounter type and content being tackled. If you expect targets to be dying frequently (either be it adds or during AoE) then Predator will serve best granting additional uses of Tiger's Fury.

In predominantly single target or slight cleave situations however, both Sabertooth will be the superior choice in all reasonable situations. Lunar Inspiration can have some uses, but is currently trailing behind alternatives.

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Feral Druid

? Tiger Dash

? Renewal

? Wild Charge

Tier 2 provides movement and survival options.

• Tiger Dash replaces your Dash ability, replacing it with a short burst of 200% movement speed decaying over 5 seconds on a 45-second cooldown.
• Renewal instantly heals you for 30% of your maximum health on a 1.5-minute cooldown. This can be used in any Shapeshift form.
• Wild Charge is an active ability that has a 15-second cooldown. This provides a different movement option based on the shapeshift form you are in, as follows:
  • No shapeshift form: Fly to the targeted allies location.
  • Travel Form: You leap forward 20 yards.
  • Cat Form: You leap behind your target within 25 yards, dazing them for 3 seconds.
  • Bear Form: You charge your target within 25 yards, immobilizing them for 4 seconds.
  • Moonkin Form: You leap 15 yards backwards.
  • Aquatic Form: Your swim speed is increased by 150% for 5 seconds.

This talent tier provides some situational choices, but usually you will be taking Wild Charge due to its low cooldown and flexibility. This gives you ways to stick to your target more consistently without impacting your other movement tools. Tiger Dash on the other hand can provide a very powerful non-committal burst of speed, but the loss of your baseline Dash in exchange is not ideal, so is more situational based on the encounter.

As for Renewal, the talent is generally not worth taking since you have other healing options (such as Regrowth), and you can always take Restoration Affinity as well if you feel you really need more healing.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Feral Druid

✔ Balance Affinity

? Guardian Affinity

? Restoration Affinity

Tier 3 grants access to affinities, which allow you to focus on a secondary Druid specialization, granting access to a small amount of the tools available to them.

• Balance Affinity grants you the Astral Influence passive ability, which increases the range of all your abilities by 3 yards. Additionally, you gain access to the Balance-spec abilities Moonkin Form, Starsurge, Lunar Strike, Solar Wrath, and Sunfire.
• Guardian Affinity grants you the Thick Hide passive ability, which reduces all your damage taken by 6%. Additionally, you gain access to the Guardian-spec abilities Ironfur, and Frenzied Regeneration.
• Restoration Affinity grants you the Ysera's Gift passive ability, which heals you (or a nearby ally, if you are at full health yourself) for 3% of your maximum health every 5 seconds. Additionally, you gain access to the Restoration-spec abilities Rejuvenation, Wild Growth, and Swiftmend.

For increasing your DPS, the only option in this tier is Balance Affinity, where the increased ability range will make it easier to multi-DoT targets. Even doing damage in Moonkin Form is acceptable for short periods of time when you cannot otherwise attack the target in melee range (though its DPS output obviously does not compare with your Cat Form abilities).

Guardian Affinity offers a very useful passive damage reduction that will almost always be of great worth during progression raiding. Moreover, going into Bear Form (combined with using Survival Instincts), you can soak up very dangerous abilities and in some cases tank an enemy in an emergency if needed.

Finally, Restoration Affinity is the least appealing talent in this tier. The active abilities it provides will not be of much use during raids due to pulling you out of Cat Form, but they can be good during solo content. The passive ability is decent for raids but most often out-classed by the Guardian Affinity damage reduction passive.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Feral Druid

? Mighty Bash

? Mass Entanglement

? Typhoon

Tier 4 Offers different crowd control options.

• Mighty Bash is an active ability with a 50-second cooldown, which stuns the target for 5 seconds. It is usable in all shapeshift forms.
• Mass Entanglement is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown, which roots the target and all enemies within 15 yards of them in place for 30 seconds. Damage done to rooted targets may break the effect. Mass Entanglement is usable in all shapeshift forms.
• Typhoon is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown. It knocks back all targets within 15-yards in a cone in front of you, dazing them for 6 seconds. It is usable in all shapeshift forms.

Your choice here depends entirely on encounter mechanics or content you are applying it to. Typhoon and Mighty Bash both provide powerful control methods if you can capitalise upon them, but it is entirely personal preference.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Feral Druid

✔ Soul of the Forest

✔ Savage Roar

? Incarnation: King of the Jungle

Tier 5 provides a variety of damage delivery boosts depending on the type of fight you are engaging with.

• Soul of the Forest causes your finishing moves to grant 5 Energy per Combo Point spent and deal 5% increased damage.
• Savage Roar is an active finisher ability that grants you 10% increased damage and 10% increased Energy generation when active. Its duration depends on how many Combo Points you consume when cast, as follows:
  • 1 Point: 12 seconds.
  • 2 Points: 18 seconds.
  • 3 Points: 24 seconds.
  • 4 Points: 30 seconds.
  • 5 Points: 36 seconds.
• Incarnation: King of the Jungle replaces Berserk. It lasts 30 seconds (up from Berserk's 20), and in addition to Berserk's other bonuses, it also allows Prowl to be used once while in combat and causes Shred and Rake to deal damage as though you were in stealth, granting them additional bonuses.

Soul of the Forest is currently the recommended choice due to its ease of use, but Savage Roar is also a strong option in single target and AoE situations. Each provide a solid boost to overall damage, and additional Energy generation, assuming they are used correctly. Your pick will depend on fight styles and personal preference in most situations.

Incarnation: King of the Jungle can be useful if a fight demands an increased amount of burst, but is otherwise weaker than both other choices on the tier.

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Feral Druid

✔ Scent of Blood

✔ Brutal Slash

✔ Primal Wrath

Tier 6 grants a variety of different tools depending on the combat situation you want to specialize in.

• Scent of Blood causes each enemy hit by your Thrash casts to reduce the cost of Swipe by 3 Energy for 6 seconds.
• Brutal Slash replaces Swipe, has 3 charges and an 8-second recharge time (reduced by Haste), a reduced Energy cost and like Swipe, also awards one Combo Point when used.
• Primal Wrath is an active finisher ability that deals AoE damage around you, and applies the Rip effect to all targets hit. Duration and damage is increased based upon Combo Points spent, as follows:
  • 1 Point: 4 seconds.
  • 2 Points: 6 seconds.
  • 3 Points: 8 seconds.
  • 4 Points: 10 seconds.
  • 5 Points: 12 seconds.

Primal Wrath serves as the strongest sustained AoE option, becoming the best choice whenever an additional target is present. This allows for a much better resource cycle, granting a strong outlet for Combo Points generated when multiple targets are active for high damage.

Brutal Slash is an option for quick bursts of AoE due to the charge system, and is also the only choice that impacts single target.

Scent of Blood can see some gains with certain traits, and is a solid AoE option assuming you can capitalise on the full duration of the buff and sustain the Energy required.

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Feral Druid

? Moment of Clarity

✔ Bloodtalons

? Feral Frenzy

Tier 7 provides alterations to your rotational tools, requiring additional Global Cooldowns to capitalize upon.

• Moment of Clarity causes Omen of Clarity to trigger 50% more often, and increase the damage of your next Shred, Thrash, Swipe, or Brutal Slash casts by 15%, and can stack up to 2 times. It also permanently increases your maximum Energy by 30.
• Bloodtalons causes Regrowth or Entangling Roots casts to make the next two melee abilities (used within 30 seconds) deal 25% increased damage for their full duration (which is of notable relevance if they are Bleeds).
• Feral Frenzy is an active ability with a 45-second cooldown that deals a burst of Physical damage and additional Bleed damage over 6 seconds. This also instantly grants 5 Combo Points when cast.

Bloodtalons is currently the strongest choice on the tier, but not as clear cut as at launch. Note that when this buff is consumed on a Bleed effect, the bonus will be snapshotted and apply to every tick thereafter, until it is refreshed or overwritten by a new cast.

Moment of Clarity provides an easy alternative for the rotation, increasing your Energy generation via free Shred casts, and by extension increasing the cycle of your Combo Point expenditure. This is the easier of the choices, but has a lower ceiling than the alternative in Bloodtalons.

Feral Frenzy provides a burst tool that can smooth out dips in the rotation when you are unlucky with your Primal Fury triggers and become resource starved. It can also grant a medium cooldown burst tool that can be combined with Tiger's Fury every other cast. In situations where this is desirable, this is a very strong option.

10. PvP Talents (War Mode)

In Battle for Azeroth, there will be the option to go into "War Mode". Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling 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 make yourself available for open world PvP, and the possibility to be killed while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

10.1. Feral Druid War Mode Talents

In this section we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing open world PvE gameplay.

10.1.1. General PvP Talents

• Adaptation is likely your most passive choice, since it will automatically remove loss of control effects over 5 seconds. It is recommended for leveling to take this PvP talent.
• Relentless is also a passive ability, but it does not automatically remove crowd control abilities, but instead reduces the duration.
• Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all movement impairing effects and all loss of control effects.

10.1.2. Feral Druid PvP Talents

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

1. Rip and Tear provides an instant way of applying both Rip and Rake to your target without a Combo Point cost, and is great for starting a fight with more powerful enemies without requiring any ramp up, so is highly recommended as an extra tool.
2. Savage Momentum causes successful interrupts with Skull Bash to reset the cooldown of Tiger's Fury. This can be useful for additional Energy and damage windows, but you will generally be using Predator in the open world so they may overlap and hurt its strength.
3. 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.
4. Ferocious Wound provides additional damage to your Ferocious Bite that can be useful on high health targets due to it being tied to the maximum health of your target, but is not as strong on weaker enemies.
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. Tooth and Claw can also provide a modest amount of additional survival and tankiness when in Bear Form, and slightly boost damage via giving access to Enraged Maul if you are finding yourself struggling with enemies.

Earthen Grasp, Freedom of the Herd, Malorne's Swiftness, Enraged Maim, and Protector of the Grove, on the other hand, have very limited PvE uses, being more focused on in-combat control and group assistance, so are more suited to a PvP engagement, and as such are not really recommended.

11. Changelog