Feral Druid PvP Guide for Cataclysm Classic

Feral DPS Druids are powerful melee in PvP that can stealth, do massive damage over time with their bleeds on multiple targets, and also crowd control enemies and keep allies and themselves healthy with instant casted spells through Predatory Strikes.

Their main weaknesses are the lack of a healing reduction effect and the fact that they are quite squishy when caught off-guard in Cat Form, but both can be resolved by using specific compositions, making an experienced Feral DPS Druid a very strong contender for the top PvP ranks.

Strengths

• Good mobility with Feral Swiftness and good at stopping enemy mobility with Infected Wounds
• High control with multiple interrupts, stuns, and Predatory Strikes for instant healing and Cyclones
• Not limited by Mana, allowing for constant damage pressure through the game, which bypass armor through heavy bleed damage over time

Weaknesses

• Gear dependent for both survivability and damage
• Lack of a healing reduction taken effect limits the longevity of damage done to enemies who can be healed
• High skill requirements as you need to stay on your target while staying alert for swaps and using your utility on both allies and enemies

• Glyph of Bloodletting — allows you to extend Rip by up to 6 seconds on most targets.
• Glyph of Berserk — increases the duration of your Berserk by 10 seconds.
• Glyph of Rip — increases the damage of Rip by 15%.

• Glyph of Pounce — increases the range of Pounce by 3 yards, making it easier to land your opener.
• Glyph of Barkskin — reduces the chance you will be critically hit by 25% while Barkskin is active, making it a much more powerful defensive cooldown.
• Glyph of Feral Charge — reduces the cooldown of Feral Charge, increasing your mobility and damage potential with free Ravages.

• Glyph of Mark of the Wild — reduces the Mana cost of Mark of the Wild by 50% which makes it cheaper to cast.
• Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth — removes the reagent requirement from Rebirth.
• Glyph of Dash — reduces the cooldown of Dash by 20%, increasing your potential mobility in the process.

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary Page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this section. In PvP you will need to react and adapt to different situations, meaning you will not always follow the recommended rotation below. Aim to do whatever allows you to stick on your target the most while dealing as much damage as possible.

1. Use Tiger's Fury when available while you are under 40 Energy;
2. If Berserk is available and 15 or more seconds remain on Tiger's Fury's cooldown, auto-attack until ~90 Energy and use Berserk;
3. Keep Mangle's debuff on your target ;
4. Use and refresh (after it expires) Rip at 5 Combo Points;
5. Use and refresh (after it expires) Savage Roar;
6. Use and refresh (after it expires) Rake;
7. Feral Charge on cooldown and use the free Ravage you get from Stampede;
8. Use Shred (or Mangle if you cannot attack from behind the target) to build Combo Points.

Feral DPS Druids have multiple cooldowns, both defensive and offensive.

Use your offensive cooldown Berserk when at high energy to maximize the amount of abilities you can use during its effect, preferably while the enemy healer is crowd controlled.

Use your defensive cooldowns Barkskin, Frenzied Regeneration, and Survival Instincts whenever you drop low or are facing heavy damage. Most of the time it will be enough to use a single one of these, but for extra dangerous situations you, will want to use multiple of them at once.

In addition to your main spells and cooldowns, you also have many utility spells that can be game-changing when used in the proper scenario. Make sure you understand each of the spells listed below to fully take advantage of your entire spellbook.

• Stampeding Roar — can be useful to chase fleeing enemies and also to allow yourself or allies to escape danger and kite away when low on health.
• Dash — provides you with a large movement speed increase, which has similar personal benefits to Stampeding Roar.
• Cyclone — is your main form of crowd control. This will prevent a target from being able to do anything, including being healed, but will also prevent any damage to them for the duration.
• Faerie Fire — reduces enemy armor and prevents restealthing.
• Nature's Grasp — causes players who attack you to be hit by automatic Entangling Roots, making it easier to get away from enemy melee.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your Feral DPS Druid in Cataclysm PvP, these are the recommended professions:

1. Blacksmithing — Gives you two additional sockets with Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves, enabling you to stack more Resilience in this season.
2. Jewelcrafting — Gives you three powerful gems, in this case Mystic Chimera's Eye, which can boost your Resilience even higher.

The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for a Feral DPS Druid in PvP.

When it comes to evaluating Feral DPS Druid's place within the Arena, we have created a number of guides devoted to listing a variety of popular team compositions which you can find below.