Feral Druid DPS Spell Summary — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

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, with the duration increasing based on the number spent. This consumes all available Combo Points, and costs 20 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 40 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 30% 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 35 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. This is used whenever you have surplus resources available, but is otherwise avoided, due to it potentially causing issues with your Bleed management due to Energy starvation.

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 forcing 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 20 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 30 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.

4. Changelog