Cataclysm Classic Feral Druid DPS Spell Summary

While not all abilities in your spellbook have the same degree of importance, they all have their uses, which we will try to quickly explain in the following sections.

While in Cat Form, you will have two resources to deal with: Combo Points and Energy. Energy automatically regenerates over time and is used for abilities such as Mangle, which generates Combo Points.

Combo Points can be accumulated up to 5 and are spent on finisher abilities that use all Combo Points at once for an especially powerful effect (such as Rip).

These abilities use Energy and generate Combo Points:

• Claw uses Energy to generate a Combo Point and deal extra damage. It is a weak ability, but due to its lack of positional requirements and caveats, also one of the most-used abilities until Mangle replaces it down the line.
• Rake is similar to Claw but deals less upfront damage while bleeding your target to deal some extra damage over time. Because the bleed cannot crit, this is generally weaker than Claw.
• Mangle is also very similar to Claw but deals a lot more damage and leaves a debuff increasing bleed damage taken by 30% on the target, which is helpful for your other bleed abilities.
• Shred is your strongest attack once you have its support talents, but can only be used from behind the target, which prevents it from being used much while soloing.
• Swipe swipes in front of you, dealing damage to all targets.
• Ravage can only be used while stealthed and behind the target and deals a lot of damage to the target, as well as generating a Combo Point. This is the favored way to open until Pounce is unlocked.
• Pounce is also only usable from stealth but stuns the target and deals bleed damage instead of doing direct damage. This is the favored way to open on most targets due to the lack of positional requirements and the stun can help mitigate damage taken.

These abilities use Combo Points for a powerful attack:

• Rip is a powerful bleed that consumes Combo Points and Energy to put a damage-over-time effect on your target. Against targets that will live through its full duration, this is one of your main damage dealers.
• Savage Roar is a maintenance buff which increases your auto-attack damage by 80% for a duration based on how many Combo Points were spent. You should keep it up as much as possible while performing the rest of your rotation.
• Ferocious Bite is similar to Rip but deals its damage instantly. However, it generally does lower damage than the bleed over its full duration, especially when fighting high Armor targets.

These are other utility abilities that are only usable while in Cat Form.

• Faerie Fire (Feral) is a free Feral version of Faerie Fire that can be only cast in Cat and Bear form. It lowers the Armor of the target and makes them unable to stealth while active.
• Prowl allows you to go into stealth. This drastically lowers the range at which enemies can see and attack you, and gives you access to some abilities that can only be used while in stealth. You can only go into stealth while not in combat, and being attacked or using any ability while stealthed will bring you out of it.
• Tiger's Fury is typically used alongside King of the Jungle as a form of burst Energy regeneration, and also increases your damage for 6 seconds.
• Dash increases your movement speed by 70% for 15 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown. A useful mobility cooldown.
• Cower lowers your threat against your current target.
• Feline Grace is a passive that makes you take less fall damage.
• Feral Charge causes you to leap behind your target, dazing them for 3 seconds.
• Leader of the Pack is a talent in the Feral tree that passively buffs you and your party members' Critical Strike chance by 5%.

While in Bear Form you will use Rage instead of Mana or Energy. When you deal auto-attack damage or take damage you will generate Rage, which can then be spent on attacks.

• Bear Form turns you into a bear, drastically increasing your Armor and health. This is the form you will want to assume when under heavy pressure, as well as while tanking.
• Growl taunts the target to attack you. This is a critical tanking ability, which can save the lives of your teammates.
• Challenging Roar growls at every nearby target to attack you for 6 seconds. While it has a large cooldown, this is invaluable for AoE tanking in emergencies.
• Mangle is a strong attack that costs Rage and has a small cooldown. It also debuffs the target with 30% increased bleed damage taken. Use it whenever available.
• Lacerate causes bleed damage over time on the target and stacks up to 3 applications.
• Maul is a strong attack that empowers your next auto attack but makes it cost Rage instead of granting Rage, so it should only be used when you have excess Rage.
• Swipe swipes in front of you, dealing damage to all targets.
• Demoralizing Roar decreases the Attack Power of all enemies around you.
• Bash stuns your target for a few seconds.
• Frenzied Regeneration is a cooldown that converts Rage into health, healing you over a few seconds.
• Feral Charge charges your target, rooting them for 4 seconds.
• Enrage generates Rage over 10 seconds.

These are other abilities that all Druids possess and which are part of your utility package. We will list the most important ones at the top, but you can read about all of them if you want to learn more about being a Druid.

Every ability below will take you out of form when used, making them very dangerous to use while actively tanking anything in bear form!

• Stampeding Roar is a new Cataclysm ability which makes your nearby raid members much faster for a short duration.
• Wild Mushroom is another new Cataclysm ability that you can pre-position in a place where multiple enemies will be standing shortly for a burst of damage.
• Flight Form and Swift Flight Form are unique Druid flying forms which allow for instant air travel. They cannot be cast while in combat.
• Mark of the Wild is a Druid raid buff that increases primary stats by 5% and magical resistances by up to 97. It is equivalent to Paladin Blessing of Kings.
• Thorns buffs the target for 20 seconds, causing enemies who attack the target to take a small amount of Nature damage for each attack. If multiple enemies are attacking the same target, this can translate into a lot of extra damage!
• Omen of Clarity is a buff that causes your next ability to be Mana, Rage, or Energy free.
• Barkskin is a defensive cooldown that reduces all damage taken by 20% for 12 seconds on a 1-minute cooldown. This is usable while crowd controlled.
• Innervate causes the target to regenerate 5% of their Mana over 10 seconds, or 20% if cast on self.
• Rebirth allows you to resurrect a group member while in combat.
• Remove Corruption removes a Curse and a Poison from your target. When combined with the Nature's Cure talent, it will also remove a Magic effect.
• Hibernate is a crowd control ability that puts a Beast or Dragonkin to sleep for 40 seconds. This is usable on enemy Druids while they are in animal forms.
• Entangling Roots is a crowd control ability that roots the target in place for a duration.
• Cyclone is a short cast that stuns its target and makes it immune to damage and healing.
• Nature's Grasp puts a 45-second buff on you which roots the next target to damage you.
• Starfire is a long cast that will deal a high burst of Arcane damage.
• Moonfire is an instant cast, damage-over-time effect.
• Wrath is a short cast ability that deals some Nature damage.
• Hurricane deals damage to targets in an area for every second while you channel.
• Faerie Fire creates a magic debuff on its target, lowering their Armor and making them unable to turn invisible or stealth while active.
• Soothe removes all Enrage effects from the target.
• Track Humanoids allows you to track nearby Humanoids, including players, on your mini-map.
• Lifebloom is an instant cast that heals the target over a period and stacks up to three times on the same target.
• Rejuvenation is a heal-over-time effect you can cast on yourself or allies to heal them every few seconds for a while.
• Regrowth is a heal with a shorter cast time that does a burst of healing and puts a healing-over-time effect on the target.
• Healing Touch is a powerful heal with a longer cast.
• Tranquility is a powerful healing cooldown that, while channeled, heals raid members every 2 seconds for 8 seconds on a 8-minute cooldown.