[Feral] Tier 17 Tips and Tricks

[Kazistrasz 216]

This thread is for Feral druid tips, tricks, and discussions in how to best handle the various boss fights throughout Tier 17 including Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry. Feel free to contribute or discuss anything encounter-specific you find from exceptional talent choices to ways to take advantage of class mechanics. 

 

Bradykin has a guide with talent set up for every boss in his guide.  Please refer to it here: https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/10826-feral-bradykins-feral-guide-lead-the-pack/

 

Highmaul

-->Kargath Bladefist

-->The Butcher

-->Tectus

-->Brackenspore

-->Ko'ragh

-->Twin Ogron

-->Imperator Mar'gok

 

Blackrock Foundry

-->Gruul the Subjugated

-->Oregorger

-->Blast Furnace

-->Hans'gar and Franzok

-->Flamebender Ka'graz

-->Kromog

-->Beastlord Darmac

-->Operator Thogar

-->Iron Maidens

-->Blackhand

 

 

 

Highmaul

 

Kargath Bladefist

 

Talents:

Displacer Beast | Incarnation | Bloodtalons

 

If possible, convince your RL that going into the stands is not beneficial to the raid (as our AoE damage is pitiful).  That being said, make sure when you are knocked back by Chain Hurl to not be standing too close so that you do get pulled up.

 

Berserker Rush will kill you.  When the ability is about to come off its timer, be read to run and stay behind him.

 

Don't fall in the pit....nobody wants to be THAT guy.

 

The Butcher

 

Talents:

Incarnation | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

Tectus

 

Talents:

Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

WATCH YOUR FEET!

Make sure you aren't Rake cleaving the whole time.  Single target whatever the priority is.  Feel free to keep up Thrash though.

 

Brackenspore

 

Talents:

Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

When the Fungal Flesh Eaters spawn, switch your primary focus to them and if possible, maintain Rip on the boss.  All single target damage (Shred) should be used on the add.

 

Ko'ragh

 

Talents:

Displacer Beast | Incarnation | Ursol's Vortex | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

Thrash the Volatile Anomalies...don't worry about using swipe as your other strong AoE classes should be handling them.  As the tank kites the Anomalies into the void zones, lay down your Ursol's Vortex.  This allows the tank to leave the zone (not take excess damage) and have the adds stay put while ranged finish them off.

 

As the boss moves to the center to gain his shield, be sure to stay back and allow the proper soaker to stand in their place.  You will still be able to attack him at max melee range.

 

Expel magic:fire should be handled by using DB right before the debuff expires.  Make sure you are not blinking into an area where other people are. 

Expel magic:arcane is avoided by standing near the side of the boss.  If you follow the boss from behind, you will likely be caught in the arcane trail and be damage heavily.

 

Twin Ogron

 

Talents:

Incarnation | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

Try to keep Rip on both targets.  Prioritize Rip>FB.  

Keep your focus on Pol as Phemos often runs away with Whirlwind.

 

Movement tier talents....it is really your choice.  I prefer Displacer Beast as you can get caught in between some tricky fire lines and simply blink past them.  Feline Swiftness is also very strong here.

 

Imperator Mar'gok

 

 

Blackrock Foundry

 

Gruul the Subjugated

 

 

Oregorger

 

 

Blast Furnace

 

 

Hans'gar and Franzok

 

 

Flamebender Ka'graz

 

 

Kromog

 

 

Beastlord Darmac

 

 

Operator Thogar

 

 

Iron Maidens

 

 

Blackhand

[Bradykin 16]

Yo Kaz. I'll give you a list of what I got when I'm not so tired.

[Paloro 39]

Kargath:

If possible, convince your RL that going into the stands is not beneficial to the raid (as our AoE damage is pitiful).  That being said, make sure when you are knocked back by Chain Hurl to not be standing too close so that you do get pulled up.

 

Berserker Rush will kill you.  When the ability is about to come off its timer, be read to run and stay behind him.

 

Don't fall in the pit....nobody wants to be THAT guy.

 

Talents:

Displacer Beast | Incarnation | Bloodtalons

 

 

The Butcher:

Talents:

Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

Single target fight....enough said.

 

Tectus:

Talents:

Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

WATCH YOUR FEET!

Make sure you aren't Rake cleaving the whole time.  Single target whatever the priority is.  Feel free to keep up Thrash though.

[Bradykin 16]

The Butcher:

Talents:

Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

For Butcher, i'd actually recommend Wild Charge on the movement tier. After bounding cleave, this is the fastest way to return to the boss.

[Paloro 39]

For Butcher, i'd actually recommend Wild Charge on the movement tier. After bounding cleave, this is the fastest way to return to the boss.

While it is the quickest way to return to the boss, it also puts you directly behind him...which happens to be in between the two stack points.

 

I'd rather not take the chance to gain anymore stacks or cause more stacks to be gained by someone else.

 

 

Brackenspore:

Talents:

Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

When the Fungal Flesh Eaters spawn, switch your primary focus to them and if possible, maintain Rip on the boss.  All single target damage (Shred) should be used on the add.

 

Twin Ogron:

Talents:

Incarnation | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

Try to keep Rip on both targets.  Prioritize Rip>FB.  

Keep your focus on Pol as Phemos often runs away with Whirlwind.

 

Movement tier talents....it is really your choice.  I prefer Displacer Beast as you can get caught in between some tricky fire lines and simply blink past them.  Feline Swiftness is also very strong here.

 

Ko'ragh:

Talents:

 

Displacer Beast | Incarnation | Ursol's Vortex | Dream of Cenarious | Bloodtalons

 

Thrash the Volatile Anomalies...don't worry about using swipe as your other strong AoE classes should be handling them.  As the tank kites the Anomalies into the void zones, lay down your Ursol's Vortex.  This allows the tank to leave the zone (not take excess damage) and have the adds stay put while ranged finish them off.

 

As the boss moves to the center to gain his shield, be sure to stay back and allow the proper soaker to stand in their place.  You will still be able to attack him at max melee range.

 

Expel magic:fire should be handled by using DB right before the debuff expires.  Make sure you are not blinking into an area where other people are. 

Expel magic:arcane is avoided by standing near the side of the boss.  If you follow the boss from behind, you will likely be caught in the arcane trail and be damage heavily.

[Bradykin 16]

While it is the quickest way to return to the boss, it also puts you directly behind him...which happens to be in between the two stack points.

 

I'd rather not take the chance to gain anymore stacks or cause more stacks to be gained by someone else.

 

Post knockback, aka Bounding Cleave, is the only point in the fight that he cannot cleave the melee, therefore, there is 0 danger from this. The melee restack as he charges the ranged. This will give you 3-4 seconds more uptime each bounding cleave, and since this fight is about a damage race, I think the greater risk is posed by not optimizing then by leaping between the piles during the time he can't cleave the piles, and everyone else got knocked back anyways and are not back to the boss yet. 

I personally have been using Wild Charge every time, and not had the least danger from doing so. I maintain it is a strictly superior choice for dps uptime.

[Bradykin 16]

Here is my personal how-to-Feral tips for Highmaul:

 

Kargath Bladefist

Talents: Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarius | Bloodtalons

 

Avoid being the person sent to the stands at all costs, we are terrible at it. If for some forsaken reason you are sent up there, don't bother using more AoE then Thrash, just try to burst down the relevant mobs (The not-grunts)

 

For the rest of the fight, it's pretty tank and spank for melee. Be careful not to get Berserker Rushed, and beyond that, just stab the boss. Dodge the ground sludge, and the fireballs if on mythic. The only thing of note for us is to be careful not to blow our cooldowns right before chain hurl, because you will lose about 10 seconds of uptime on the boss there. Use all of your energy right before the chain hurl, and save any cooldowns for afterwards. Otherwise, there is no reason to save cooldowns during this fight.

 

 

The Butcher
Talents: Wild Charge | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarius | Bloodtalons

 

The Butcher is the raid's target dummy, so we need to put on our best face for dpsing and healing. Utilize your off-healing, since we have nothing else to focus on: Use your spare GCD's to throw out Rejuvs, and send your Healing Touches towards logical targets. Most groups will swap melee piles at 3 stacks of the bleed, which comes out every 5 seconds. Since our Survival Instincts lasts 6 seconds, use it just before the second bleed is applied, to mitigate the most damage. Save some stacks of SI for the last 30%, when the healing is more strained. Wild Charge is important on this fight to give us the most uptime, as it is the fastest way to return to the target dummy whenever the target dummy uses Bounding Cleave.

 

IMPORTANT: The Butcher has a 5 minute enrage. That means that you will not be able to use your cooldowns more then once beyond using them on the pull. Don't just mash them when they come back up 3 minutes in, be intelligent about it. Since we only get 1 more use of them, let's time it right. For those with proc or on-use trinkets, the best timing for your second pot + cooldowns would be aligned with those trinkets. For instance, I use the Darkmoon card (115 second ICD) and Lucky Coin (2 minute cooldown). So both of those will be used at roughly 2 minutes into the fight again, and be back for around 4 minutes (Darkmoon card sometimes doesn't keep to schedule, but it's pretty consistent). Aligning my cooldowns with the trinkets at 4 minutes will be a massive dps increase for me. Look at your trinkets, and see if there is an optimal time for your second cooldowns. If there isn't, use it at 30% health, when the damage becomes higher and the burn should go faster. 30% also gives you time to apply a good bloodtaloned Rip (if one is not applied) to refresh constantly with Bites below 25%.

 

 

Brackenspore

Talents: Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarius | Bloodtalons

 

Use Displacer Beast over Feline Swiftness if on flamethrower duty. If you are not using the flamethrower, this boss is really simple for melee: kill adds, stand in the good mushrooms. This fight has a 10 minute enrage timer, which means that if you are quick on using your cooldowns as they are up, you will get to use your 3 minute cooldowns 4 times this fight. Do so. This will be more important then aligning it with trinkets/mushrooms. If your raid is going to kill it before the 9 minute marker and you want to pad dps, then align them and only use the 3 that are timed well with trinkets or Blue Mushrooms. The optimal time for Survival Instincts is during Infesting Spores while on a blue mushroom, since our passive healing + green should basically handle ourselves without healer involvement for all difficulties but mythic. When the Fungal Flesh-Eater is up, maintain Rake on both targets, and focus the Flesh Eater (You can try to maintain rip on both targets if the Fungals dieing is not a problem for your group, but it is better to hard focus the add if your raid is struggling to kill them in time). Beyond that, there isn't much to say.

 

 

Tectus

Talents: Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarius | Bloodtalons

 

Our main job on Tectus is not to die. Get your dodging boots on, and use your increased speed to dance around all of the dust clouds and earth spikes. We have a major advantage over most melee in our natural movement speed, so we should use it. For Phase 1, swap to adds and dot them up, but try to keep your bleeds on the boss at all times. For Phase 2, you can keep rake on both targets if they are beside each other, but focus down the appointed target. I would save major cooldowns during this part for Phase 3. In Phase 3, we unfortunately are put in a cleave fight as a class without good cleave. However, we gotta do the best we can. Keep Thrash up at all times, and try to roll rake on each target. One target should be marked with a skull: Put your Rips on that target, and try to have it be the one you are meleeing most of the time. It is worth it to refresh Thrash without an OoC proc for 4 target combat, although obviously preferable with one. Try to use your Bloodtalons procs on Thrash and Rip, with Rake being third priority. Use all of your cooldowns and your second potion at the beginning of this phase. Once the 4 motes are dead, rinse and repeat with the second 4. In terms of using Survival Instincts, I personally save 1 at all time for emergencies on this boss (and by emergencies I mean if I screw up and stand in the dust cloud) and use the others during Tectonic Upheaval (assuming the one casting it is not just going to die in the first second of the upheaval).

 

 

Twin Ogron

Talents: Preference | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarius | Bloodtalons

 

Our main job on Twin Ogron, once again, is to not die. However, we also have a boss where we can use our bleeds on both of the bosses for most of the fight. Thrash on OoC procs if you can hit them both, and keep rake on both at all time, with as much Rip uptime on both as you can achieve. Movement tier has choices here based on preference; the only one I would say is a terrible idea is Wild Charge. I personally prefer Feline Swiftness on this boss. but I know a lot of people like Displacer Beast for this fight, and it works just as well. When the bosses are split up, be aware of which one you are on and what it's mechanics are, because they both have anti-melee mechanics: Pol will charge across the room and splat anyone in his path, and Phemos will do a whirlwind. Pol is probably the better target to chase if you are forced to choose. In terms of Survival Instincts usage, I like to have 1 stack available during the Fire Waves, in case I mess up and get clipped by one of them. Other then that, good times to use SI would be Enfeebling Roar and Pulverize.

 

 

Ko'ragh

Talents: Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarius | Bloodtalons

 

The movement tier is not incredibly important in this fight, I feel like Feline Swiftness is the best choice but it shouldn't have a major effect on your performance. For melee, Ko'ragh is basically a target dummy for most of the fight, but for the part that he likes to run around annoyingly back and forth. Be aware of when he is going to charge to the ranged, and try to follow him there and back (if feasable) to get a bit more uptime. When he goes into his vulnerable phase, be VERY careful not to stick a paw into the circle, keep back and do your damage from outside of it. 

 

Beyond this, we actually have a metric crapton of utility in this fight. First of all, Stampeding Roar will break the Frost orb slow on everyone in range, which is amazing. Coordinate with other druids to break each one as needed. In the vulnerable stage, we can be very useful in grouping the adds up without ever leaving the boss, using Ursol's Vortex. By sticking it in the zone the tank is trying to drag the adds into, we can help keep them contained. While my raid has never asked me to use this, we also can Typhoon them straight into the circle, which would be hilarious, and highly effective (I think? As long as you don't aim it badly). If you are doing this, put the Ursol's down FIRST, so it snaps them all into the radius after you knock them through it. 

 

 

Imperator Mar'gok

Talents: Displacer Beast | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarius | Bloodtalons

 

Displacer Beast is absolutely amazing on this fight. Every time he knocks you back with the Force Nova, if you pause for a half second and then Displacer Beast, you will jump straight through it and only take a single tick of damage, rather then the 2-3 you would get by running through. Waiting that half second is important though, as if you don't you will get caught in the back part of the wave on the other side and take a couple unnecessary ticks of damage. I would recommend you time your cooldowns for the 2 transitions on this boss, even though they will most likely be up slightly before then, as that is when the damage is most relevant for the raid. For Phase 3, coordinate the use of Stampeding Roar with other druids to best run the raid away from the target that got Mark of Chaos'd. The best time for Survival Instincts is during the transition when the little adds are blowing up, and when one of the Arcane Aberrations is alive, excluding phase 1 because those ones are pushovers. I like to try and pocket a charge of SI for if I receive a high stacked Arcane Wrath for whatever reason, but if you gotta use it, then use it. Try to help the healers as much as you can. this is a long and grueling fight for them. Beyond that, do your damage, kill the adds in transition, and for god's sake don't step in any mines. 

[Paloro 39]

 

Ko'ragh

Talents: Feline Swiftness | Incarnation | Dream of Cenarius | Bloodtalons

 

The movement tier is not incredibly important in this fight, I feel like Feline Swiftness is the best choice but it shouldn't have a major effect on your performance.

Have you tried Displacer Beast for Expel Magic: Fire?

 

You can stay in until 0.5 seconds remaining on the debuff and then have increased run speed on your way back.

[Bradykin 16]

Have you tried Displacer Beast for Expel Magic: Fire?

 

You can stay in until 0.5 seconds remaining on the debuff and then have increased run speed on your way back.

 

I've used all three of them on Ko'ragh, Displacer works fine, I just felt like it was too risky to leave it to that time in case there isn't a clear spot. I just personally prefer Feline swiftness to chase the boss a tad faster as he runs back and forth dropping the circles. Personal preference, they all work well, it's not a movement fight.

[Roony 0]

What do you guys think about taking Lunar Inspiration for Brackenspore? Seeing as switching to adds is really key here, or if you're on spore duty.

Also, is FoN viable for movement-heavy fights like Tectus/Twins?

[Bradykin 16]

What do you guys think about taking Lunar Inspiration for Brackenspore? Seeing as switching to adds is really key here, or if you're on spore duty.

Also, is FoN viable for movement-heavy fights like Tectus/Twins?

 

Well, feral shouldn't be on spore duty, that's why you bring ranged.

 

LI might be close to Bloodtalons on this fight, but a properly played bloodtalons will be superior. The ONLY fight I would consider LI on is Twins, and i've still found Bloodtalons superior when used correctly.

 

Why on earth would you use FoN for those fights, or any fights. Force of Nature is terrible across the board for all druid specs atm, keep away from it.

[Paloro 39]

What do you guys think about taking Lunar Inspiration for Brackenspore? Seeing as switching to adds is really key here, or if you're on spore duty.

Also, is FoN viable for movement-heavy fights like Tectus/Twins?

The problem that I have with LI for Brackenspore is that everything is a priority target, meaning that it needs to die ASAP.  With another dot, you are creating more ramp-up time for your damage, meaning the target(s) will take longer to die.  

 

Sure, you'll be able to dot up a couple more things, but most likely those targets will be dead before your dot even ticks half way down.  

[Roony 0]

The problem that I have with LI for Brackenspore is that everything is a priority target, meaning that it needs to die ASAP.  With another dot, you are creating more ramp-up time for your damage, meaning the target(s) will take longer to die.  

 

Sure, you'll be able to dot up a couple more things, but most likely those targets will be dead before your dot even ticks half way down.  

Ah I see, thanks for explaining that.

[Harleking 0]

I have a question regarding Twin Ogron mythic.

Are you guys still using bloodtalon or lunar inspiration?

On HC i have no problems with my rotation, but on mythic i cant always keep up my rotation due to arcane charge and the debuff.

[Paloro 39]

I have a question regarding Twin Ogron mythic.

Are you guys still using bloodtalon or lunar inspiration?

On HC i have no problems with my rotation, but on mythic i cant always keep up my rotation due to arcane charge and the debuff.

LI is the higher damage performer on this fight.

 

Personally though, I excel at the BT rotation and feel like LI is a bit clunky.  I normally see a 1k dps difference here (with BT being higher).  This is performed on Heroic (since I solely use BT for Mythic) with the same gear set on the same night (since my guild clears 2x).

 

I say, use what you are most comfortable with.  Errors in either rotation will cause a damage loss.

[Krazyito 521]

Bradykin has a guide with talent set up for every boss in his guide.  Please refer to it here: https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/10826-feral-bradykins-feral-guide-lead-the-pack/

[Bradykin 16]

Bradykin has a guide with talent set up for every boss in his guide.  Please refer to it here: https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/10826-feral-bradykins-feral-guide-lead-the-pack/

 

Thanks, but you know, that section isn't quite done yet :P

 

I'll add those notes onto this thread when it is.