Season of Discovery Feral Druid DPS Stat Priority

Before we begin, it should be said that gear in WoW Classic tends to be very unique, and as such, you will often be chasing very specific items, rather than simply following a stat priority list. Still, a more detailed explanation on each of a Druid's relevant stats will help you understand why those pieces are so sought after.

1. Hit Chance (9% is the cap for special attacks against Molten Core bosses which are treated as being your level +3);
2. Strength (1 Str = 2 Attack Power);
3. Attack Power (includes Feral Attack power from items such as Automatic Crowd Pummeler);
4. Haste;
5. Agility (1 Agi = 1 Attack Power, and a small amount of crit, dodge, and armor);
6. Critical Strike (200% on normal swings);
7. Intellect (more Mana to powershift with).

Hit allows your attacks to land more often, which tends to be a large damage increase, as any miss is a tragedy for Feral, especially if it was a high Energy cost Shred!

As a Feral Druid, you get a large amount of Attack Power from Strength, making a strong DPS increasing stat.

Your weapon is a large contributor to your damage, although not as much as most other physical classes, as you do not use the damage range on the weapon directly, and thus only benefit from stats and special abilities associated with it such as the one on Automatic Crowd Pummeler.

Weapon Skill allows you to hit enemies more often and, more importantly, for a lot more damage when you land a Glancing Blow. Glancing blows are regular hits that deal reduced damage. Molten Core bosses are counted as being your level +3, which means 40% of your attacks will be glancing blows, which deal 35% reduced damage if you have the default maxed weapon skill.

Having at least +5 skill is a huge damage increase against end game bosses such as the ones in Molten Core as it massively increases your Hit chance and lowers the Glancing Blow chance and penalty. Make sure to use the new Feral Combat Specialization Rune in order to massively decrease your penalties, as displayed below:

Defense / Weapon Skill Difference	Glancing Penalty	Miss Chance	Hit Cap
15 (baseline vs Molten Core Bosses)	35%	8%	9%
14	31%	7.8%	8.8%
13	27%	7.6%	8.6%
12	23%	7.4%	8.4%
11	19%	7.2%	8.2%
10 (with Feral Combat Specialization)	15%	6%	6%
9	11%	5.9%	5.9%
8	7%	5.8%	5.8%
7	5%	5.7%	5.7%
6	5%	5.6%	5.6%
5	5%	5.5%	5.5%
4	5%	5.4%	5.4%
3	5%	5.3%	5.3%
2	5%	5.2%	5.2%
1	5%	5.1%	5.1%
0	5%	5%	5%

There are also items that increase your Feral Combat skill, such as Aged Core Leather Gloves, which can be used to further increase your skill and reduce combat penalties accordingly.

While rare in WoW Classic, there are a few Haste effects that are valuable, for example the 50% attack speed increase of Automatic Crowd Pummeler or Catnip.

These have traditionally been great for Feral due to weapon damage not being counted towards Feral damage and more Haste allowing for extra Rage and Mauls to be dished out.

Like Strength, Agility also increases your Attack Power, but only by half, compensating by also increasing your dodge, armor, and critical chance.

Similar to Agility, direct increases to Critical Strike are fantastic, especially as they synergize with Blood Frenzy.

Typically a caster stat, the reason Intellect is listed at all is because it gives Feral Druid more Mana to convert to Energy with Furor and Cat Form powershifting!