Need some help with feral druid

[Hornreaper 0]

Hello all!

So to start off, I am NOT a feral druid :) Sorry, i'm a nasty hunter. I am here though to find help for my wife. We have been raiding years together, and you would think by now I would pick up on some feral druid tendancies, but all I know how to do is take my face and smash it on the keyboard (yay pets.)

Anyways, my wife is feral, and her numbers are not good. I'm not going to sugar coat it, because looking at logs (which I will provide) you will see them. Character name is Aslen. Most of the time, she's pulling 10-20% class damage, and 5-10% ilvl damage. This is very new, because in years past she has usually been at the top. One of the major reasons for change this expac, is that all of her feral druids she talks with have all quit....so she has nobody to talk to about what she is doing wrong.

I do know that she uses Ovale to manage her rotation and bleeds.

If anybody could take a look at the logs and her character page and give feedback, that would be amazing. Thank you all for any supportive comments. 

Character - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/veknilash/Aslen/simple

Logs - https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/1pjCPa9kcmXZhNxL#fight=8&type=damage-done (This is just one boss, feel free to look at others.)

Thanks!

[Shells 64]

Hi

Good stuff in stepping forward to get some help. From the little I know about Ferals is that their current rotation is pretty intense and takes alot to get it perfect. While its not perfect your damage will be low so I expect that is part of what is going on.

Hopefully some of the more knowledgeable heads will be able to direct you better. 

[Groundhack 0]

From what I can tell at a glance is a few problems.

1.) She does not have all her artifact golden traits.

2.) Her rip uptime is pretty low, I would try to maintain 90%+ on rip and rake.

3.) Low thrash usage. Looking at similar druids on this fight they have about 22 casts of thrash throughout the fight and your wife did 6.

4.) She is not keeping 100% uptime on savage roar 

[Hornreaper 0]

Thank you!

I want to learn more about feral druids to help her out, but I can only do so much really. I also know she's very shy about approaching people, hence why I am doing it. It would be great to get some good tips and ideas on what she can change to improve output.

 

[Frantoz 0]

Hi,

First I am not a great feral, but here is what I see

Your wife has taken bloodtalons and is wasting it

The RIP uptime is very low

Savage Roar uptime is moderate at best

Claw Analyst

This is a useful tool, copy paste the warcraft logs address for a fight into it, it will give you the overview of what you did.

I would try using Predatory Swiftness for the Regrowth/Bloodtalons proc with 5 combo points up, wait a little to pool some energy, spend the 5 points, rake/shred to 5, repeat. (there is more to it, but just a general guide to get to 5 and then have bloodtalons available)

None of the RIPs were buffed with Bloodtalons, you have to fix that.

Almost all the Bloodtalons were spent on Shred (19) then Rake(16). from 36 available

I would get a bleed strength tracker, so it is easy to see if a new RIP would be stronger/the same/weaker than the current one.

I use Dot Focus, and I switched off almost everything except RIP and dot strength.

She should also try to use as many buffs as possible on Ashamanes Frenzy. It is a powerful CD, make more of it

Hope this helps, or at least hope it is not way off the mark :O

 

 

Edited March 2, 2017 by Frantoz

[Flairck 0]

HI there,

As a full time feral i can see a few issues with her dps, much has been said in the posts above.

Going off the armory link i couldn't look at her feral gear as at the time she was in resto gear, but her talent choice is overall good but on some bosses it is wise to switch Bloodtalons for Brutal Slash . Bosses where you overall have a good focus on many adds its beter to go for Brutal Slash

Another thing with feral is stats. Mastery and Critical strike the prefered stats. Myself i aim for 70% Mastery 40% Critical Strike and any little bit of Haste and Versatility is welcome but i don't bother to much with those 2, but thats just me. I know some ferals rather have loads of Critical Strike. Myself i noticed a big increase in dps once i reach over 65% Mastery.

The next thing with feral is your DoT's and Buffs. you realy need to keep them active as much as possible.
Feral buffs:
- Tiger's Fury  use whenever off cooldown. (or use a macro i posted below).
- Savage Roar keep it up at all times it should never drop off.
- Bloodtalons Always use before using a finishing move (even at full HP or cast it on your tanks with mouseover macro's) and always use before using Ashamane's Frenzy

#showtooltip Rake
/cast Rake
/cast Tiger's Fury

Your dots mainly being Rake and Rip can never drop off and if they do, put them on your target asap.
I know some people rather not hear the next bit i will say but there are a few addons that can help with her rotation, one i like to use to get to know the basics of a rotation is Ovale. its pretty good for many classes and specs.

Feral isn't a bad spec to play but its all about keeping up your buffs and dots hence why more people seem to switch to Balance as its somewhat easier (in my opinion) then feral. Once you get the hang of it its realy fun to play.

hope this helps a bit.

Flairck - EU-Darkspear

[Serrow 0]

On 3/8/2017 at 9:49 AM, Flairck said:

HI there,

As a full time feral i can see a few issues with her dps, much has been said in the posts above.

Going off the armory link i couldn't look at her feral gear as at the time she was in resto gear, but her talent choice is overall good but on some bosses it is wise to switch Bloodtalons for Brutal Slash . Bosses where you overall have a good focus on many adds its beter to go for Brutal Slash

Another thing with feral is stats. Mastery and Critical strike the prefered stats. Myself i aim for 70% Mastery 40% Critical Strike and any little bit of Haste and Versatility is welcome but i don't bother to much with those 2, but thats just me. I know some ferals rather have loads of Critical Strike. Myself i noticed a big increase in dps once i reach over 65% Mastery.

The next thing with feral is your DoT's and Buffs. you realy need to keep them active as much as possible.
Feral buffs:
- Tiger's Fury  use whenever off cooldown. (or use a macro i posted below).
- Savage Roar keep it up at all times it should never drop off.
- Bloodtalons Always use before using a finishing move (even at full HP or cast it on your tanks with mouseover macro's) and always use before using Ashamane's Frenzy

#showtooltip Rake
/cast Rake
/cast Tiger's Fury

Your dots mainly being Rake and Rip can never drop off and if they do, put them on your target asap.
I know some people rather not hear the next bit i will say but there are a few addons that can help with her rotation, one i like to use to get to know the basics of a rotation is Ovale. its pretty good for many classes and specs.

Feral isn't a bad spec to play but its all about keeping up your buffs and dots hence why more people seem to switch to Balance as its somewhat easier (in my opinion) then feral. Once you get the hang of it its realy fun to play.

hope this helps a bit.

Flairck - EU-Darkspear

Ok so while I do kinda agree with this post, I do not recommend EVER macro'ing your Tiger's Fury with your Rake. That is the number one biggest mistake you can make as a Feral Druid. Please do not ever use that macro.

As I don't have access to her logs, I can't really help you that much, but I can offer my assistance to some degree. If you're on Horde side you're welcome to whisper me - Serrow-EmeraldDream ; I'm usually always online, and I will gladly work with you/her one on one with your rotation.

If she is struggling with Savage Roar and Blood Talons, I recommend swapping to Incarnation and Brutal Slash or just Incarnation in general. Savage Roar in it's current state is very difficult to use. If you are running Blood Talons I recommend running the following macro.

/run SetCVar("autoUnshift",0)
/cast [target=mouseover,help,nodead][help][target=player] Regrowth
/run SetCVar("autoUnshift",1)

This will keep you from shifting out of cat form without a Proc, and will also allow you to mouseover heal if needed.

Your opener is also a big factor, so I would recommend following some online guides and testing out what fits best for you. If you have any other questions I recommend consulting the Feral Druid Discord or contacting me directly! I'm always open to helping out newer Feral Druids, and the Discord is a very welcome place for those that are in need of assistance.

[Heehaw 0]

I'm an experienced feral (https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/character/1068671/latest/) and happy to provide some advice.

 

She will never be able to keep up with the top end druids as her Artefact isn't maxed out, poor trinkets and only has one DPS legendary. Feral isn't in a great place atm either.

That being said, there is vast room for improvement on her side.

Talents

Last Talent Row Predator is a great talent in Nighthold as it gives more energy on most encounters and makes the rotation easier by giving a bigger window to snapshot Tiger's Fury on bleeds. If she isn't going to change this talent row in every encounter, I'd suggest switching to Predator.

 

Fifth Talent Row Savage Roar should be replaced with Incarnation: King of the Jungle when using Convergence of Fates. Be careful though as this can be a trap and will reduce DPS if you are unable to use an extra Incarnation: King of the Jungle during the encounter. For more reliable DPS, drop the Convergence of Fates and stick with Savage Roar.

 

Last Talent Row Bloodtalons is good but on encounters like Skorpyron and Tichondrius Brutal Slash will pull ahead as there are regular adds to cleave.

 

Gear

Her gear is nowhere near optimal...

• Consider switching Convergence of Fates with another trinket (see above).
• Replace Arcanogolem Digit as it is very poor in most NH encounters.
• Use Draught of Souls while pooling energy (after your bleeds and savage roar are up).
• Sacrifice Haste and Versatility for more Crit on your gear (aim for above 30% at least) as the extra combo points really help smooth the rotation after the secondary stat nerf.

Opener
Her Opener was very poor on Chrono. Biggest issues I can see are wasting energy on Rake (4 used in first 30s when the bleed lasts 15s), no Thrash used, no prepot, wasn't in cat form until 4s into the fight and Bloodtalons are wasted. Try the following:

 

• With Bloodtalons, cast Regrowth go into stealth and use potion ALL BEFORE THE PULL.
• Use Berserk and Rake while still stealthed (these can be macro'd together to make things easier)
• Use Savage Roar (she will have 1 or 2 combo points)
• Use Ashamane's Frenzy, Thrash (usually with Clearcasting but during Berserk you can keep it on and not struggle for energy, Shred to 5 combo points and use Rip
• Continue with the rotation being careful not to refresh bleeds too early. You may be able to squeeze a Ferocious Bite in there, but be careful as it is very expensive!

Edited March 17, 2017 by Heehaw
Added Wowhead Links

[Hornreaper 0]

Going to post an update to this!

Thank you all for the advice. She went back to resto to help the guild, but is now leaning back to feral. That being said, I have logs of a quick normal ToS run our guild did. Aslen DPS

If somebody would be interested in perusing that and giving some pointers it would be great. Things to note: I have already plugged this into Checkmywow.com and seen some things she can do from there. That's also hard to judge on because it's against patchwerk, but that's a different topic.

Anyways, anymore notes would be greatly appreciated!

-Hornreaper

[Frantoz 0]

On Goroth the three main issues i see are savage roar only up 88% of fight - needs much more

RIP up 92%, needs some more

no RIPs buffed with bloodtalons, 0/9 buffed RIPs, this needs to be fixed :)

didnt look at any other fights

use clawanalyst :)

http://clawnalyst.nimos.ws/T12yqNDQzMca7Lg9_2_0.html

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by Frantoz
added claw lik