Feral Druid DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.0.5)

Feral's single-target build gives up the majority of its AoE tools in order to do as much damage as possible and smooth out its resource economy. With Wildstalker, there is a focus on maintaining DoTs as efficiently as possible while also managing your Energy and Combo Points to weave in occasional Ferocious Bite casts. Due to this, it picks up a lot of Energy talents to make that easier alongside options to emphasize its DoT damage. If you are more interested in alternative builds or details on how choices are made, check our talent page:

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

In AoE, Feral aims to maintain Rip on all nearby targets via Primal Wrath and then spends all excess Combo Points on Ferocious Bite to trigger Rampant Ferocity. Time in between is spent generating Bloodtalons via Brutal Slash, Rake and Thrash to empower finishers further. It also tries to maintain Rake on as many targets as possible through tab-targeting. Lastly, it aims to consume both Apex Predator's Craving and Ravage as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Feral's goal is to generate Combo Points, and balance its Energy resource to maintain a number of Bleed effects on targets. Rake and Thrash are maintained with Energy at all times, while Rip requires both Energy and Combo Points to apply. Combo Points are generated through the use of Energy spending abilities — Shred, Rake and Thrash. Any excess Combo Points generated while Bleed is active is spent on Ferocious Bite to deal strong direct damage.

Energy is generated passively, or with the active skill Tiger's Fury which gives a quick burst of extra resources. This is off the GCD, and used on cooldown for the damage buff. Alongside that, any DoT effects applied while under its effect maintain the damage boost until they expire or are refreshed.

Aside from this core, there are also some additional buttons and talents that are regularly taken in the sample build that you need to keep in mind:

• Wildstalker has no immediate hero talent tree effects to pay attention to, but the build picks up Lunar Inspiration, which adds Moonfire into the pool of DoTs you need to maintain.
• Omen of Clarity procs make your next Energy spender free, and should be used as quickly as possible so long as you do not waste the Combo Points generated.
• Berserk is our main cooldown, and provides additional Combo Points both passively and from generators alongside a flat damage bonus, and resource overflow protection, and is used as often as possible.
• Convoke the Spirits casts 16 Druid spells in quick succession during a 4-second channel, prioritizing Feral abilities. This is cast on cooldown, ideally aligning with Berserk.
• Brutal Slash is an additional Combo Point generator with 3-charges and a short cooldown. This is cheaper than Shred, and should be used both for damage and to help trigger Bloodtalons.
• Bloodtalons provides a strong increase to our next 3 Finishing moves after casting 3 different generators within 4 seconds. This is a powerful effect that requires some Energy pooling, and if you are struggling to do so then the alternative Lion's Strength is close enough to be taken instead for ease of use.
• Adaptive Swarm is a DoT effect that amplifies other DoT effects while active on a target, and is used on cooldown.
• Feral Frenzy should ideally be overlapped with other buff effects such as Tiger's Fury when possible, and when you are at low Combo Points for a refill.

In AoE, Feral plays much the same as in single-target using an anchor target, replacing Rip casts with Primal Wrath to maintain the effect on multiple enemies. Excess Combo Points are used on Ferocious Bite to trigger Rampant Ferocity.

Some key things to bear in mind with our AoE build is as follows:

• Primal Wrath is only used to maintain Rip, so only use it when it needs to be refreshed. This is your highest priority on all targets, so try to avoid letting it fall off.
• Apex Predator's Craving is an additional proc to react to in AoE situations, and should ideally be cast as quickly as possible to avoid any waste.
• Bloodtalons charges get consumed quickly due to the above, so aiming to trigger it as frequently as possible to stay at a comfortable number of charges is a good idea when learning.
• Brutal Slash is much more valuable than in single-target, and should always be kept recharging.

Barkskin provides a 30% damage reduction for 12 seconds (with Oakskin), on a 1-minute cooldown. This is Feral's consistent defense tool and due to the low cooldown can be used liberally to reduce the incoming damage from dangerous attacks.

Survival Instincts grants complete 60% damage reduction (with Oakskin) for 6 seconds. This is a backup defensive tool for the most dangerous damage, when Barkskin is not available or will not cover the incoming damage.

Bear Form provides a significant increase to health and armor when active. While your damage tools are very limited while in this form, you can switch to this quickly to survival a lethal hit and heal back up after.

Renewal restores 30% of maximum health on a 1.5-minute cooldown. This is off the GCD, so can be used whenever you feel in danger to top yourself back up.

Predatory Swiftness triggers from Combo Point spenders, and makes your next Regrowth cast instant. These can be used in empty globals to help keep yourself healthy when you would otherwise be casting nothing.

The most versatile Feral stat priority for different situations is:

1. Agility;
2. Mastery = Critical Strike;
3. Haste;
4. Versatility.

Stat priorities will change based on other talents taken in different builds, but, in general, this should serve you well. For finer details regarding each stat and the reason behind why they are picked can be found on our full stat page linked below.