Feral Druid DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.0.7)
On this page, we explain how to easily play Feral Druid in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.0.7), using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.
Foreword
This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.
The Basics of Feral Druid
Feral can be quite overwhelming to new players due to the dual resource system paired with numerous buffs and debuffs to maintain. Despite that complex appearance, it has a very fluid playstyle once you grasp the core rules. It aims to generate Combo Points with abilities that cost Energy such as Shred, and spend them on Finishing moves such as Ferocious Bite. It also maintains multiple damage-over-time Bleed effects in Rake and Rip using Energy and Combo Points respectively. It is a slower-paced spec, more focused on ability and resource management than high activity. If you are completely new to Feral and need more information on the abilities available to you, you can check out our Spell Summary page.
Currently, Wildstalker has the slight edge in single-target making it the recommendation there, while Druid of the Claw wins out in AoE situations. Both trees are equally viable, but these will be the recommendations on this page, as they have similar execution requirements.
Beginner's Guide to Feral Druid in The War Within
Beginner Single-Target Talents for Feral Druid
Feral's single-target build gives up the majority of its AoE tools 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!
Beginner AoE and Mythic+ Talents for Feral Druid
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.
Beginner Feral Druid DPS Rotation
Buff your group with Mark of the Wild, and start combat from Prowl. Feral can be quite involved, and the below section aims to cover the basic needs to understand how to get started with the spec. Due to there being some variations on how the spec is played in single-target and AoE, they have been separated into two sections below:
Single Target
- Always open the fight from Prowl with Rake.
- Your main Combo Point builders are Shred and Brutal Slash.
Spend Combo Points on applying and maintaining Rip, and any spare can be
spent on Ferocious Bite.
- Consume Apex Predator's Craving procs whenever they happen with Ferocious Bite.
- Keep Rake, Moonfire and Thrash active on your primary target at all times.
- Cast Tiger's Fury on cooldown at low Energy, and Adaptive Swarm whenever available. Use Feral Frenzy when at 0-2 Combo Points.
- Cast Berserk alongside Tiger's Fury, and make sure to use Convoke the Spirits during this window.
AoE
In AoE, as your hero talent changes to Druid of the Claw there are some changes that happen to the way the spec plays:
- Your main Combo Point builder switches to Brutal Slash, and cycling between targets to apply Rake, and applying Thrash.
- Primal Wrath replaces Rip as your way to apply it to multiple targets by spending Combo Points.
- Apex Predator's Craving triggers more frequently in AoE, so should be consumed more aggressively.
- Make sure to cast Ravage whenever it triggers (this replaces your Ferocious Bite keybind).
- Adaptive Swarm, Tiger's Fury rules are the same as in single target.
- Berserk and especially Convoke the Spirits should only be cast when you have Rip applied to targets via Primal Wrath.
Defensive Spells for Feral Druid
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.
Feral Druid Stat Priorities
The most versatile Feral stat priority for different situations is:
- Agility;
- Mastery = Critical Strike;
- Haste;
- 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.
Changelog
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7 with much simpler basic rotation section.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 30 Sep. 2024: Switched single-target recommendation to Wildstalker.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for recent Bloodtalons hotfix.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4 with small talent changes.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5, no changes necessary.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, no changes necessary.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5 to include Dire Fixation.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1, slightly updated build due to new talent options.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Druid Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can also follow him on Twitter.
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