Feral Druid PvP Guide for TBC Classic

Feral Druids are a weaker Rogue in most situations. They have strong burst damage and can stealth, but lack Rogue's multiple crowd control abilities and, especially, a Mortal Strike-style effect such as Wound Poison.

This makes their damage easy to heal through, and forces them to depend on teammates for healer control and kill setups. On the upside, they can heal with Lifebloom and other heal-over-time effects, remove Poisons with Abolish Poison, and keep themselves mobile with shapeshifts, making them an excellent solo PvP specialization.

Thus, they require specific Arena compositions to succeed, but are all-around great in Battlegrounds and World PvP.

This is a generalist PvP build, which takes Primal Tenacity and Nurturing Instinct as well as Nature's Grasp for kiting and Omen of Clarity for the insane burst it can provide, if luck is with you.

Rather than a fixed rotation, Druid gameplay is about treading a fine balance between damage, healing, and crowd controlling. Use your spells to burst down unsuspecting enemies, and survive until help arrives!

• Burst down enemies from stealth with Ravage, Shred, Mangle (Cat), and Ferocious Bite. Rip can also be used on high-Armor targets, such as Paladins and Warriors.
• Keep yourself alive with Bear Form, Lifebloom, and Barkskin.
• Stay in control of the match with Entangling Roots, Feral Charge, and Cyclone.
• If going for a longer match, keep your Mana healthy with Innervate and tactically slipping away to drink, possibly while also using Shadowmeld to make yourself harder to interrupt.

You can find our recommended gear, gems, and enchants for PvPing as a Feral Druid in the link below.

Feral Druids require specific compositions in order to perform, due to their multiple flaws. These are some of the strongest Druid compositions in each Arena bracket:

In 2v2, Druid + Rogue, Druid + Warlock, Druid + Disc Priest, and Druid + Hunter are your best compositions.

In 3v3, Druid + Disc Priest + Hunter (or Rogue) is your best composition.

In 5v5, Feral Druid struggles to fit into any team, as melee are easily focused down and the lack of a Mortal Strike effect is a big problem, but if you still want to play it in this bracket, make sure to get a Hunter in your setup for the ranged Mortal Strike assist when focusing a target.

In order to become the best Druid possible, you should understand what your talents and spells are for. The amount of details that can go into this section of the guide is endless, but we will try to keep things brief in order to give you a general idea which you can use to jumpstart your PvP experience.

Prowl allows you to go into stealth. This drastically lowers the range at which enemies can see and attack you, giving you initiative in PvP. Use it at the start of each match, but be careful of enemy Humans with Perception, especially if they can also use stealth effects (Rogues).

Cat Form enables most of your damage and stealth, but is also extremely squishy, so make sure you are not being actively focused by Physical DPS classes when you shift into it.

Bear Form increases your defenses significantly, especially against Physical damage. While your damage will be weaker in this form, it is recommended to shift into Bear Form when under attack by Physical DPS classes, as you are unlikely to survive otherwise. You can also use Bash and Feral Charge while in this form, which are invaluable for crowd control and interrupting enemies as well as quickly moving around the battlefield.

Barkskin is a defensive cooldown that reduces your damage taken by 20% for 15 seconds on a 1-minute cooldown. This is usable while stunned and is one of your first lines of defense.

Innervate greatly increases the target's Mana regeneration for a short time, making it especially good when used on targets with high Spirit.

Abolish Poison removes a Poison effect from your target every 2 seconds for 8 seconds. Use it to stay mobile and increase your healing done against enemy Rogues, or to remove enemy Hunter Viper Stings. You can also go into Bear form in order to stop being affected by Viper Sting.

Hibernate is a crowd control ability that puts a Beast to sleep for 30 seconds. This is usable on enemy Druids while they are in animal forms and Hunter pets.

Entangling Roots is a crowd control ability that roots the target in place for up to 27 seconds depending on the rank. Use it to crowd control enemy melee players and pets.

Cyclone is a short cast that stuns its target and makes it immune to damage and healing. It has multiple PvP uses and is one of the most powerful additions to the Druid kit in TBC Classic.

Faerie Fire creates a magic debuff on its target, lowering their Armor and making them unable to turn invisible or stealth while active. This is very useful against enemy stealth classes, especially Rogues trying to restealth.

Nature's Grasp causes the next target to damage you in melee to be rooted, allowing you to easily escape.

Lifebloom is an instant cast that heals the target over a period and stacks up to three times on the same target. When it ends or is dispelled, it bursts, instantly healing the target for a large amount. This is an extremely Mana-efficient heal that also has dispel protection, making it a superb PvP ability.

Finally, it is important to note that Cyclone shares diminishing returns with Blind, and it is important to avoid overlapping these two crowd control abilities.

Entangling Roots shares diminishing returns with Frost Nova and the Water Elemental freeze ability. Bash also shares diminishing returns with all stuns except Kidney Shot, which is on its own DR category in TBC Classic.