In this article, we list your Feral Druid (WoW MoP 5.2) core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation). We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that playing a Feral Druid will face you with.

The other articles of our Feral Druid guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Ravage, one of the best Feral Druids in the world, who raids in Apex. You can watch his stream on Twitch.

1. Single Target Rotation↑top

The Feral Druid DPS rotation revolves around keeping up various buffs and debuffs, while generating Combo Points and using them on Finishing Moves.

• Combo Point builders (by order of priority)
  1. Use Shred as your default Combo Point builder.
     • If you cannot attack the boss from behind, Mangle becomes your default Combo Point builder.
  2. Use Rake
     • only to keep 100% uptime on the bleed effect that it applies (every 15 seconds).
• Finishing Moves (by order of priority)
  1. Apply and maintain Savage Roar (preferably with 5 Combo Points).
  2. Apply and maintain Rip (with 5 Combo Points).
     • When the target is below 25% health use Ferocious Bite to refresh Rip. Use Ferocious Bite with 5 Combo Points preferably, unless Rip is about to wear off.

While this rotation is correct and, for the most part, complete, putting it into practice takes a slightly deeper understanding. For this, we strongly suggest that you read our detailed section.

2. Multiple Target Rotation↑top

When you are facing 2 targets, simply perform a single-target rotation on one of them. You can try to maintain Rake up on both of them.

If you are facing 3 or more targets, keep up your Savage Roar buff at all times, keep up the bleed effect from Thrash, and use use Swipe on cooldown. Use your remaining Combo Points to weave in Rip on the main target, if there is one.

It is also possible to switch into Bear Form and use Thrash if you are Energy-starved. Keep in mind that your threat generation will be very high in Bear Form, though, so always give the tanks a few seconds to pick up the adds properly.

3. Faerie Fire↑top

If no one else is providing the armor Weakened Armor debuff granted by Faerie Fire, then you should keep this debuff up yourself. Weakened Armor lasts 30 seconds.

4. Cooldowns↑top

You have two DPS cooldown.

• Tiger's Fury increases your physical damage done by 15% for 6 seconds, on a 30-second cooldown. Additionally, it instantly restores 60 energy. It should be used on cooldown.
• Berserk reduces the cost of your abilities by 50% for 15 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. It should be used as many times as possible during the encounter.

Additionally, your talents have the potential to provide you with an additional two active DPS cooldowns. We discuss this, as well as the proper timing and usage of your default cooldowns in a subsequent section.

4.1. Abilities Granted by Symbiosis

Symbiosis is a buff that you can place on one party or raid member. The buff lasts for 1 hour, and grants you an ability belonging to the target's class, depending on what your specialisation is. At the same time, the target receives one of your spells. Both of these spells come in a slightly modified version (less powerful than the original). You can see the full list of spells here, but the spells useful to you as a Feral Druid are:

• Soul Swap allows you to move your two main bleed effects ( Rip and Rake) to a new target. This is very useful for maintaining your DPS when switching targets. It is gained from Warlocks.
• Shattering Blow reduces the target's armor by 20% for 10 seconds. This is a very useful raid cooldown. It is gained from Warriors.
• Redirect allows you to move your existing Combo Points to a new target. This is very useful for maintaining your DPS when switching targets. It is gained from Rogues.
• Feral Spirit summons two Spirit Wolves that deal (a very small amount of) damage to the target, for 30 seconds. It is gained from Shamans.
• Play Dead, Divine Shield, and Dispersion all help you survive in various ways. These are gained from Hunters, Paladins, and Priests, respectively.

5. Optional Read: Mastering Your Feral Druid↑top

The above information tells you everything you need to know in order to have highly competitive DPS as a Feral Druid. However, in order for you to truly master the spec, there are more things that you need to understand in detail.

5.1. Combo Points and Energy

As a DPS Feral Druid, most of your abilities need Energy to be used. Your Energy bar has a capacity of 100 Energy and refills at a rate of 10 Energy per second. Your energy regeneration is increased by your melee haste (Haste Rating + haste-enhancing buffs).

Some abilities add one or several Combo Points on your target, up to a maximum of 5 Combo Points. Other abilities, called Finishing Moves, consume the Combo Points on your target. The more Combo Points a Finishing Move consumes, the more powerful its effect is. Your Combo Point generation is increased by Primal Fury, which causes your Combo Point generating abilities to generate two Combo Points any time they are critical strikes.

5.2. Single Target Rotation in Detail

The DPS Feral Druid rotation is a balance of keeping up several debuffs and bleeds on the target as well as keeping up Savage Roar on yourself, while continuously generating Combo Points.

5.2.1. Debuffs and Bleeds

The first debuff you must keep up on the target is Faerie Fire. Note that this debuff has equivalents from other classes, so if it is already being provided, you do not need to worry about it.

An equivalent of Faerie Fire is provided by any other Druids, Warriors, Rogues and Hunters. Note that Feral Druids' Faerie Fire is slightly better than other classes' because it is instantly applied at full strength (normally, it needs to stack up to 3 times), but this benefit is very minor and hardly worth considering.

Once this debuff is taken care of, you have two other bleed effects that you must try to have 100% uptime on the target with. They are Rake and Rip.

Rake only costs Energy to apply, making it quite simple to manage.

Rip costs Energy but its potency is also dependant on how many Combo Points it is applied with. You must always make sure that you are applying Rip with 5 Combo Points.

5.2.2. Savage Roar

Savage Roar is a self-buff that increases your physical damage done by 30%. It costs Energy to apply, and its duration (but not its potency) depends on how many Combo Points it is applied with. Essentially, it makes no difference how many Combo Points you use it with, but if you can apply it with a high number of Combo Points, it will ease the pressure on maintaining your rotation.

You must always have this buff active on yourself.

Note that, if you are using Glyph of Savagery, you can apply Savage Roar (with a 12-second duration) without having any Combo Points. This is very useful in case you make a mistake in your rotation and your Savage Roar expires or if you are finding it difficult to generate Combo Points steadily for some reason. Also, it is ideal for the start of the encounter, allowing you to use your first Combo Points on setting up Rip.

5.2.3. What to do the Rest of the Time

When your debuff, bleeds and self-buff are all up and do not need to be refreshed, you will essentially be filling the time with casts of Shred, generating Combo Points.

In addition to Shred, some Combo Points will also be generated by your casts of Rake, although this number is much smaller.

5.2.4. When to Refresh DoTs and Savage Roar

You should try to refresh Rip when there are 2 or fewer seconds remaining on the current Rip. When the existing Rip is stronger (it was applied at a time when your attack power was higher than it currently is), you will get an error message and you will not be allowed to refresh it. In this case, simply wait until it expires fully before reapplying it.

In a similar fashion, you should try to refresh Rake when there are 3 or fewer seconds remaining on the current Rake. The exception to this is mentioned in the Tiger's Fury section.

The timing for refreshing Savage Roar is not very strict, but you should still try to refresh it right as it is about to expire.

5.2.5. Ferocious Bite

Ferocious Bite is a finishing move that costs 25 Energy and deals damage based on how many Combo Points you use it with. Its damage is increased, by up to 100%, at the cost of extra Energy, up to 25. That is to say, if you use Ferocious Bite with 25 Energy, it will deal its base damage (based on how many Combo Points you have). If you use it with 50 Energy, then its damage will be increased by 100%.

Whenever you use Ferocious Bite on a target that is below 25% health, your Rip on the target will be refreshed. This makes it a much more efficient way of maintaining Rip on the target, since you are dealing damage while also refreshing Rip, for the same amount of Combo Points. A Rip that is refreshed in this manner will have the same power as its original application (determined by how many Combo Points you applied it with).

You should use Ferocious Bite with 5 Combo Points, unless Rip will expire before you have time to reach 5. In this case, you should just use it with however many Combo Points you have, in order to refresh Rip.

It will prove to be a DPS gain to pool Energy to 50 before using Ferocious Bite (provided that it does not cause your Rip to fall off), boosting its damage.

5.2.6. Bosses That Cannot Be Attacked From Behind

In case the target you are fighting cannot be attacked from behind and, thus, you cannot use Shred to generate Combo Points, you should use Mangle instead.

5.3. Detailed Cooldown Usage

How you use your two DPS cooldowns is very important to your performance as a Feral Druid.

5.3.1. Tiger's Fury

There are several things to consider when using Tiger's Fury:

• It should always be used on cooldown.
• Before using Tiger's Fury, make sure you have 35 or less Energy (to avoid becoming capped thanks to the 60 Energy it provides you with).
• Use any other damage-increasing spells or abilities at the same time as Tiger's Fury (Potion of the Tol'vir, Synapse Springs, on-use trinkets, etc.).
• Bleed effects cast while Tiger's Fury is active will benefit from the damage increase for their entire duration (even if Tiger's Fury runs out in the meanwhile). As a result, you should refresh Rake while Tiger's Fury is active, unless the current Rake has more than 9 seconds left on its duration. It is a DPS increase to refresh Rip while Tiger's Fury is active, but do not go out of your way to do this and simply refresh it before it is about to expire.

Keep in mind that Tiger's Fury cannot be used while Berserk is active, but Berserk can be used while Tiger's Fury is active. In most cases, you will want to use Berserk immediately after using Tiger's Fury.

5.3.2. Berserk

Berserk reduces the Energy cost of all your abilities by 50% while it is active. It is a very strong DPS cooldown, allowing you to cast your abilities more often.

You will want to use Berserk as many times as possible during the fight. Ideally, you should pool Energy before using Berserk, so that you can use more abilities throughout its duration, thus "saving" more Energy. Of course, you must take the reduced Energy cost into account when making sure that you do not cap your Energy. Therefore, it is acceptable to delay Berserk so that it does not line up with Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp, which would cause you to cap your Energy (this is especially true when Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp is used at the pull).

Whenever possible, you should use Berserk immediately after using Tiger's Fury.

5.3.3. Tier 4 Talents

Your Tier 4 talent of choice should be used as follows:

• Incarnation: King of the Jungle should be used when you require the burst offered by being able to use Ravage as a Combo Point builder (especially when the target is above 80% health) or when you wish to be able to enter stealth in combat.
• Force of Nature should be used on cooldown.

5.3.4. Tier 6 Talents

If you pick Dream of Cenarius as a talent, then you will have to weave in as many Healing Touches as possible into your rotation. You should do this in the following ways:

• Use Nature's Swiftness on cooldown, if you have chosen it as a talent.
• Use every Predatory Swiftness proc on a Healing Touch.

In case you pick Nature's Vigil as your Tier 6 talent, then you should make sure to use this cooldown as many times as possible during the fight. Ideally, you should stack it with other cooldowns and times when the boss takes increased damage.

6. Opening Sequence↑top

Below, we list the ideal way to start the fight.

1. 5 seconds before the pull, make sure to be in a good position for charging, or close to the boss if the fight allows it.
2. 4 seconds before the pull, begin casting a Healing Touch. This will proc your Dream of Cenarius talent.
3. 1.5 seconds before the pull, your Healing Touch cast should be done, and you should now
   • Go into Cat Form.
   • Use your Virmen's Bite potion.
   • Activate Prowl.
   • Cast Savage Roar.
4. Once the boss is pulled, charge if the boss is far away, or simply begin attacking otherwise.
5. Cast Ravage.
6. Cast Rake.
7. Cast Shred until you have 4 or 5 combo points (this will depend on whether or not you score a critical strike), then use Nature's Swiftness for an instant-cast Healing Touch.
8. If you have 4 combo points, use Rake. If you have 5 combo points, use Rip.

You have to make sure that someone else is applying Faerie Fire to the target. If no one else is doing so, then you should apply it after casting Ravage.

7. Changelog↑top

• 21 Apr. 2013: Added the option of going into Bear Form and using Thrash when attacking more than 3 enemies. Also added mention of the viability of delaying Berserk to avoid capping Energy during Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp. Added opening sequence section.