Feral Druid DPS Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)

The 20th Anniversary update, Patch 11.0.5, had some very limited changes for Feral. While some did not make it into the initial patch notes, the list of changes were:

• Ravage proc duration increased to 20 seconds.
• Shred damage increased by 20%.
• Rake damage increased by 5%.
• Wild Slashes increases the damage of Swipe and Thrash by 40% (up from 25%).
• Killing Strikes now correctly triggers for Druid of the Claw when Ravage is triggered by Convoke the Spirits.

These changes have very little impact on build or playstyle decisions, and are simply pure buffs and bugfixes to existing effects.

Other than that, the pages have been reviewed for the patch release to be accurate with current information for Feral to keep you informed for the rest of Season 1 in The War Within.

Feral Druids have had a number of small tweaks following the launch of the expansion, adjusting some ability and hero talent effects.

8th October Hotfixes:

Some small hotfixes have been added to improve Wildstalker cleave damage:

• Thriving Growth trigger chance slightly increased when Rip or Rake are active on multiple targets
• Bursting Growth damage increased by 10%

This slightly reduces the gap between this and Druid of the Claw in AoE situations, but does not shift the recommendations made elsewhere in the guide.

17th September Hotfixes:

Some additional hotfixes have been added, most importantly reverting the change to Rampant Ferocity interacting with Bloodtalons, and instead shifting the benefits to the spec aura and individual abilities:

• Rampant Ferocity is no longer affected by Bloodtalons and Lion's Strength
• All damage increased by 3%
• Rip damage increased by 6%
• Ferocious Bite and Ravage damage increased by 3%
• Feral Frenzy damage increased by 10%

This is largely a net buff, but reduces some of the AoE throughput provided by the interaction being removed. This does however simplify some of the decision making between Ferocious Bite and Primal Wrath in AoE situations.

3rd September Hotfixes:

With a last minute hotfix, Bloodtalons and Lion's Strength have had the damage of Rampant Ferocity added into their multiplier. This significantly narrows the best performing builds back toward these talents being mandatory, and the guide has been updated to reflect that. Alongside this, some further sim and gameplay optimizations have pushed Druid of the Claw as a stronger option — especially in single-target with the new set bonus.

Feral in The War Within had some small tweaks to both its spec and class trees aiming to streamline some of its AoE toolkit, and make resources more of a core focus. The class tree changes were more minor, adding some quality-of-life changes, and both new Hero Talent Trees have also been introduced:

• Druid of the Claw - focuses on Feral's direct damage abilities, centered around a brutal finisher proc, Ravage, which empowers Ferocious Bite.
• Wildstalker - leans into the Damage-over-Time aspect of the spec, spreading blood seeking vines through Thriving Growth to bleed your foes out.

• Two new talents have been added: Coiled to Spring to help with Combo Point overcapping and Savage Fury to empower Tiger's Fury windows.
• Energy talents have had their effects reduced, most notably Tireless Energy, Moment of Clarity and Soul of the Forest.
• New talents Coiled to Spring has been added, replacing Dire Fixation, providing Combo Point overcapping protection.
• Tear Open Wounds has been removed, and Rampant Ferocity improved to be the primary AoE finisher talent.
• Predator no longer causes Tiger's Fury to reset when targets die, and instead boosts Combo Point generator damage based on Haste.
• Berserk duration reduced to 15 seconds, and now increases all ability damage by 10% when active. Berserk: Heart of the Lion is now also a flat 1 minute cooldown reduction to it when taken.
• Sabertooth has been reworked into a debuff applied to your target increasing all DoT effects, rather than a buff affecting all active Rips.

• Astral Influence no longer affects auto-attacks or Cat Form abilities.
• A large number of talents have been shuffled around, making pathing early a little easier, but much stricter later on.
• Fluid Form has been added as a quality-of-life method of switching quickly between shapeshifts. Oakskin and Ursoc's Spirit have also been added as defensive improvements.
• Some nodes have had their point cost reduced by one, most notably Thick Hide, Feline Swiftness and Lycara's Teachings.

While there is a longer list of changes to both trees, these are the most impactful to the overall gameplay style of Feral. In particular, the loss of Astral Influence means Feral has to adjust to having a noticeably shorter range in combat, and with the loss of Predator resets Energy is more important to manage in AoE.