Feral Druid DPS Spell Summary in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we list the spells that you will often use as a Feral Druid.
The other pages of our Feral Druid guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.
About Our Author
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.
1. Spell Summary of a Feral Druid
Once again in Battle for Azeroth, Feral maintains a lot of the core that has formed its gameplay for the past few expansions. This page serves as an explanation of the different spells and give a brief rundown of the tools Feral has access to. If you are already experienced with the specialization and are very comfortable, it is recommended to skip past this, otherwise this is a good starting point to get a base understanding before moving onto later sections of the guide that covers more nuanced aspects.
You will spend the majority of your time in 
Cat Form, which
grants access to your Feral abilities, increases your base movement speed by
30%, grants immunity to Polymorph effects and reduces fall damage.
2. Feral Druid's Main Resources
Feral comes with a dual resource system of Energy and Combo Points. Energy
fuels the majority of your abilities, most of which either generate a Combo
Point (builders) such as 
Shred, or spend your Combo Points
(finishers), such as 
Rip. You come with a baseline cap of 100
Energy, though some talents and spells can alter this, and you regenerate 10
per second. Combo Points are spent all at once on your finishers, and the
intensity of your finishers is based on how many Combo Points were consumed (up
to the maximum of 5).
3. Feral Druid Basic Abilities
These are your primary abilities that come with the spec before any talents get involved. All of these form the core of your gameplay and most things are built around them.
3.1. Bleeds
Feral has a focus on Damage over Time effects called Bleeds, dealing high Physical damage to targets affected over a moderate period of time, sped up by Haste, and having Bleeds active can also buff the strength of other specific spells cast. Managing your Bleeds is the core gameplay hook of Feral.
Rake is your first rotational Bleed, instantly dealing moderate
Bleed damage then high Bleed damage over 15 seconds, and generating one Combo
Point, at the cost of 35 Energy. Managing this is relatively easy as it has no
pre-requisites other than the Energy to cast it, and should be kept up at all
times on your main target.
Rip is your second Bleed, and, unlike Rake, is a
finisher that costs up to 5 Combo Points to deal very high Bleed damage over 24
seconds. This consuming all available Combo Points, and costs 30 Energy. Making
sure you balance your rotation to have 5 Combo Points when this needs to be
refreshed is crucial, as Rip is a powerful source of damage for Feral.
Finally, 
Thrash is your AoE Bleed tool, dealing low Bleed
damage and then moderate Bleed damage over the next 15 seconds to all targets
within 8 yards around you at the cost of 45 Energy, and generating one Combo
Point. This only enters into the rotation during multi target situations, but
otherwise is not used as its damage is quite weak, and costs a large amount of
Energy.
3.2. Other Feral Abilities
Shred is your core filler spell, dealing high Physical damage at
the cost of 40 Energy, and dealing 20% additional damage if there is a Bleed
effect present on the target. If used while Stealthed, it deals an additional
50% damage and has double the chance to critically strike. This is your main
builder to convert Energy into Combo Points in single target, and is used
frequently.
Swipe is the AoE alternative to Shred, dealing
moderate Physical damage for 40 Energy, and also dealing 20% additional damage
to Bleeding targets. This is only used generally above 3 targets to replace
Shred, but is the main AoE tool coupled with Thrash to
activate the Bleed requirement.
Ferocious Bite is the other Feral finisher alongside
Rip, dealing high Physical damage for 25 Energy, and consuming up
to 5 Combo Points. It can also consume up to another 25 Energy to deal 100%
extra damage, and if used on targets below 25% health, will refresh your
Rip effect to its full duration. This is used rarely due to be it
being expensive, and impacting your rotation if misused. Under 25% health,
however, this completely replaces Rip as it refreshes it, and forms a
pseudo-Execute window for Feral.
Moonfire deals low Arcane damage to your target leaving a small
Arcane DoT effect lasting 16 seconds. This is not used rotationally outside of
talent choices, and is relegated to a tool to pull additional targets due to it
pulling you out of Cat Form.
3.3. Feral Offensive Cooldowns
Tiger's Fury is a low cooldown, low duration spell off the Global
Cooldown that instantly generates 50 Energy, and increases all damage you deal
by 15% for 10 seconds, on a 30-second cooldown. This is used rotationally to
boost your Energy back up after spending a large amount, and for the damage
bonus window it provides. This increase is snapshotted and applied to the
entire DoT effect of any Bleed applied when active.
Berserk is Feral's big cooldown, reducing the cost of all
Cat Form abilities by 40%, and increasing your maximum Energy by 50
for 15 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. This provides a small amount of extra
burst Energy and frees up your rotation to not be so starved, and also has good
applications in AoE situations to allow you to cast resource spenders freely.
Try to synchronize this with Tiger's Fury whenever used.
3.4. Feral Procs and Passives
Primal Fury is a passive effect that causes any direct damage
Critical Strikes to generate 2 Combo Points instead of the usual 1. This is not
applied to your DoT Bleed effects. This can also only generate 1 point with AoE
tools such as Swipe, regardless of the number of Critical Strikes
that occur. This serves as a dynamic way of gaining additional Combo Points
during combat, and increasing the desirability of the stat.
Omen of Clarity grants your auto attacks a chance to make
your next Shred, Swipe or Thrash cost
no Energy when cast. This provides additional Energy via allowing free casts
during your rotation, and is used to fill some gaps in generation to allow for
more finishers to be used without being restricted.
Predatory Swiftness is a proc that has a 20% chance to occur per
Combo Point spent, up to a guaranteed 100% when spending 5. This causes your
next 
Entangling Roots, 
Rebirth or 
Regrowth
within 12 seconds to be instant cast. This has some synergy with specific
talents, but largely serves as a way of using some tools without requiring you
to commit to stopping to cast the spell.
3.5. Feral Utility Tools
Feral's defensive tool is 
Survival Instincts, reducing all damage
you take by 50% for 6 seconds on a 2-minute recharge, with 2 charges. This is a
powerful tool due to its high reduction effect, and its flexibility due to using
a charge system. Remember however that its low duration and long recharge time
means you should not be too liberal using it unless necessary, and try to align
it with predictable high damage periods.
Regrowth heals your target for a moderate amount, and leaving a
small HoT lasting for 12 seconds. This has a 1.5-second cast, a 40-yard range,
and can be made instant cast via Predatory Swiftness.
Bear Form is accessible to Feral, shapeshifting you into a Bear
granting 220% increased Armour, and 25% additional Stamina. This is an instant
shift, and can be used as an extra survival tool via the increased health. This
can be particularly useful due to having no cooldown, so can be used very
liberally.
Growl taunts your current target, causing it to attack you for
up to 3 seconds. This has a 30-yard range, an 8-second cooldown, and requires
you to be in Bear Form.
Feral also comes with a baseline movement tool in 
Dash,
activating Cat Form granting an additional 60% Movement Speed within your Cat
shapeshift for 10 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. Whilst it is a massive boost
to speed while active and has a significant duration, again be sparing when
using it as its long cooldown is very prohibitive.
For raid utility, Feral brings 
Stampeding Roar, increasing the
movement speed of you and all allies within 15 yards by 60% for 8 seconds on a
2-minute cooldown. This is very powerful in Raid environments in specific fights
with mechanics that lend themselves to it, but be aware of the short radius and
position accordingly when using.
Maim is a Combo Point spending move that deals low Physical
damage for 35 Energy, and spending up to 5 Combo Points to stun your target for
up to 5 seconds, on a 20-second cooldown. Due to its high resource cost this is
not an amazing tool, but can be used if a stun is really needed on targets.
The Feral interrupt is 
Skull Bash, interrupting enemy spellcasts
for 4 seconds on a 15-second cooldown, but comes with the added advantage of a
mini-charge to your target from up to 13 yards away, which can also come in
handy.
Infected Wounds causes your Rake effect to reduce the
movement speed of any targets affected by 20% for 12 seconds when applied.
Entangling Roots roots your current target in place for up to 30
seconds, but any damage dealt may break the effect. This has no cooldown, a
1.7-second cast, and a 35-yard range. This serves as a point and click crowd
control tool, and can be made instant via Predatory Swiftness.
Feral being a Druid also comes equipped with access to Rebirth as
an in-combat resurrection tool. This has a 10-minute cooldown, a 2-second cast
time, and can be made instant using a Predatory Swiftness proc. This
shares the raid-wide combat resurrection cooldown during Raid Encounters.
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