Feral Druid DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — 12.1

Feral Druid's core rotation is dictated by its dual resource system: Energy and Combo Points. The first of these, Energy, has a base capacity of 100 (increased by certain Talents), and refills at a rate of 11 Energy per second (increased by Haste). This is used to fuel every ability, both your Combo Point generators, and your Combo Point finishers.

Feral has a few different abilities to build Combo Points (called generators): Shred, Rake, Swipe, Moonfire (with Lunar Inspiration) and finally Feral Frenzy. When used, these generate at least 1 Combo Point, and with Primal Fury taken can also generate an additional one when they critically strike.

Finishing Moves (called finishers) spend all your Combo Points at once, and often come with their own Energy cost. The more Combo Points spent, the higher the damage (or stronger the effect), so always aim to cast with the cap of 5. Your most commonly used finishers are Rip / Primal Wrath to apply powerful DoTs, and Ferocious Bite for direct damage.

Due to the slow generation of Energy for Feral, it often makes use of the concept of "pooling" Energy. In practice, this means holding ability uses until certain conditions are met, building up a reserve of resources, then spending to maximize efficiency. Feral always has a natural amount of downtime in its rotation, so planning these moments rather than being forced into a dry period is usually better. It's also a good idea to bottom out your Energy levels right before using Tiger's Fury, to give room for the burst of Energy it generates.

Omen of Clarity procs should be used as soon as possible (below 5 Combo Points) to avoid overwriting procs. With Moment of Clarity, this allows you to sit on one charge, giving you some room to plan around the extra free generator it enables.

Feral should always aim to have 100% uptime on both Rake and Rip, with additional DoTs included based on your talent build. This is the core of your damage output, and creates the maintenance playstyle that Feral is built around. Remember, if you're playing Circle of Life and Death all of the below effects expire 25% faster!

• Rip — costs 20 Energy, but duration is dependent on how many Combo Points you apply it with. Aim to use 5 for the best Energy efficiency, and when you do so it lasts for 24 seconds.
• Rake — costs 35 Energy to apply, lasts for 15 seconds. Apply rotationally.
• Moonfire (with Lunar Inspiration) — costs 40 Energy, lasts for 18 seconds. Apply rotationally.

Feral benefits from the Pandemic effect on its DoTs, allowing you to refresh specific DoT effects up to 30% early, and carry the remaining duration into the next cast. This does not carry over any snapshotting effects; which instead need to be present when the new DoT is applied. The Pandemic timers are as follows:

• Rake — 4.5 seconds
• Rip — 7.2 seconds (assuming 5 Combo Points)
• Moonfire — 4.8 seconds

Note that these amounts are reduced by 25% with Circle of Life and Death, increasing their tick speed.

"Snapshotting" is a core pillar of Feral Druid gameplay, used to power up your Bleed effects. In Midnight, this has been significantly pulled back, and only a handful of specific buffs maintain this behaviour.

Abilities that have the snapshot interaction with Bleeds, and which DoTs they affect are:

• Tiger's Fury — all DoT effects
• Pouncing Strikes — Rake (from Prowl)

Tiger's Fury is the main activator for the majority of your Snapshotting, so making use of the mechanic is a good deal simpler in Midnight. Just remember to reapply Bleeds during this window, and avoid overwriting any empowered DoTs you've previously snapshotted until they expire. Generally, the rule to follow is to only ever overwrite a DoT effect if you will apply a stronger snapshot. If you aren't currently able to do so, then wait until the initial Bleed expires to reapply.

Tracking these is a little more difficult with the UI changes introduced in Midnight, though it should be noted that the icon changes when a Bleed was applied under a snapshot effect. Your action bar will also switch over to the empowered icon, highlighting that a stronger Bleed is available to be applied, so these can both be used to assist your decision making.

Ferocious Bite is your direct-damage finisher, and you should only commit Combo Points to it after you have Rip (or Primal Wrath) active. When cast, make sure your current Rip has enough remaining time to allow you to generate the Combo Points necessary to refresh it. Always try to have 50+ Energy when using Ferocious Bite to amplify its damage (doubly so if playing with Saber Jaws).

As covered in the rotation section, this is only something you commit to when you have spare resources. While it can be appealing to see the big damage it deals, losing uptime on DoTs is almost never worth the investment. Apex Predator's Craving procs, however, cause this to be completely free, and should be consumed immediately. These procs do gain the bonus damage from extra Energy consumption, but do not get increased further by Saber Jaws.

The above rules also apply to Rampant Ferocity, causing it to be amplified by additional Energy consumption. This talent makes it even more important to have Rip applied to all nearby targets before committing to it, as it only deals damage to enemies affected by the DoT.

As Druid of the Claw, you also gain access to Ravage procs. These follow all of the above rules, being functionally identical to Ferocious Bite in terms of how it scales. These should be consumed as soon as possible to avoid overwriting procs (especially in AoE), but still try to make sure you meet the Energy thresholds to maximize its damage.

Feral Frenzy should be used when you have 0-2 Combo Points, and immediately followed with a finishing move. This means you both need the Energy to cast it, and to use the follow-up Combo Point spender in quick succession. Whenever possible, overlap this with Tiger's Fury. It also comes with a follow-up choice node:

• Focused Frenzy reduces the cooldown by 15 seconds, and increases damage dealt by 20%.
• Frantic Frenzy is the AoE equivalent, blinking rapidly between targets and applying a strong Bleed.

Both of these nodes are strong either in single-target or AoE respectively, and are picked up in every build to enhance Feral's burst toolkit. With Focused Frenzy, it is always paired with every Tiger's Fury cast, while Frantic Frenzy is either held to align, or used with every third cast, depending on your pull cadence or add spawns. Damage can also be amplified through Tear Down the Mighty when playing Druid of the Claw.

New in Midnight, Chomp has a 20-second cooldown and no cost, dealing high Physical damage to your target, and deals triple damage with a critical strike. This can only be used after falling below 30% Energy, or within a 2 second window after meeting that threshold. When taken it should be cast whenever available - ideally during Tiger's Fury, but don't hold it to align. Damage is also amplified for Druid of the Claw via Tear Down the Mighty.

The Feral Apex Talent, Unseen Predator, focuses on adding additional damage to your finisher casts. These add even more incentive to cycle your resources correctly, and are used in all builds currently:

• Unseen Predator first point - Ferocious Bite has a 15% chance per Combo Point spent to trigger either Unseen Slash or Unseen Swipe, depending on targets nearby. Deals reduced damage if less than 5 Combo Points and 50 Energy was spent to trigger it.
• Unseen Predator second and third point - increases all damage you deal by 7.5% per point for 1 second per Combo Point spent when an Unseen Attack is triggered via Unseen Predator. Extra attacks will extend the duration.
• Unseen Predator fourth point - increases all Rip damage you deal by 30%. Additionally, casting Tiger's Fury will cause your next two Combo Point generating attacks to trigger an Unseen Attack at maximum strength.

These will occur throughout your rotation, dealing direct damage and amplifying all damage you deal in the brief window after it triggers. Due to the power being weighted toward passive bonuses, there's very little rotational considerations needed to maximize the effect. The only thing it does do is solidify the need to spend at 5 Combo Points to avoid the penalty for spending too aggressively.

Berserk is Feral's major cooldown. This lasts for 15 seconds, with a cooldown of 3 minutes (reduced to 2 minutes with Berserk: Heart of the Lion). This provides a huge damage increase, so should be used as close to on cooldown as possible, alongside other damage boosting effects. While active, it provides several benefits:

• Generates 1 Combo Point every 1.5 seconds
• All ability damage increased by 15%.
• Combo Point generating abilities generate 1 additional Combo Point.
• Up to 3 Combo Points can be stored above 5 as Overflowing Power stacks.
• Finishing Moves consume Overflowing Power stacks to refund the same amount of Combo Points.
• Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane — duration increased to 20 seconds, and the Energy cost of Cat Form abilities are reduced by 25% while active.
  • Ashamane's Guidance additionally reduces Incarnation's cooldown to 90 seconds.

While there are a lot of effects tied into it, the main impact is quite simple: you deal significantly more damage, and have access to much more resources. Feral's 2-minute burst windows are quite potent using this, and it should always be lined up with Tiger's Fury and Convoke the Spirits casts. While it's active, spend more aggressively to take advantage of the flood of resources.

When upgraded to Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane, you also get access to a single use of Prowl in combat each time you cast it. Use this to apply an empowered Rake via Pouncing Strikes.

Tiger's Fury has a 30-second cooldown, is off the GCD, and instantly generates 50 Energy when used. Additionally, all Feral ability damage is increased by 15% for 10 seconds. This damage increase also Snapshots Bleed effects applied while active, improving them for their full duration. There are a number of Feral talents that interact with this:

• Predator – increases duration by 5 seconds, and the damage of Combo Point builders by 40% of your Haste.
• Savage Fury – Tiger's Fury grants 10% Haste and 25% increased Energy regen for 8 seconds.
• Raging Fury – increases the duration by an additional 5 seconds.
• Tiger's Tenacity – causes your next three Finishing Moves after casting to also restore 1 Combo Point. Additionally, the Tiger's Fury damage snapshot applied to Bleeds is increased by 10%.
• Carnivorous Instinct – increases the damage bonus by 6% per point spent.
• Druid of the Claw – Killing Strikes grants Ravage when cast the first time each combat.
• Wildstalker – Strategic Infusion increases Shred, Rake & Swipe Critical Strike chance for 6 seconds.
• Wildstalker – Implant applies a Bloodseeker Vines when cast and when it expires.

Tiger's Fury has a lot of presence on the Feral talent tree, and its 30-second timer dictates a lot of Feral's gameplay flow. Since it's off the GCD, it's pressed as close to every 30 seconds as possible. When possible, aim to have low Energy to make use of the refund, and apply fresh Bleeds to snapshot them if they're about to expire. Try to keep this in cycle to maintain its alignment with Berserk and Convoke the Spirits.

Convoke the Spirits is a 2-minute cooldown which, when used, casts a quick succession of 16 Druid spells (free of cost) over 4 seconds. This can be channelled while moving, but is affected by enemy interrupts. Out of the wide pool of spells, Feral abilities are preferred, but a handful of casts during the channel will be from other specializations. If you aren't in melee range it will default to casting abilities that can be used from a distance. Some quick notes about the abilities it casts are:

• Ferocious Bite is the finisher in the Feral pool. This is considered a max Combo Point cast that did consume additional Energy, but is not increased further by Saber Jaws.
• Any Combo Point generating ability will still generate a Combo Point for you.
• The "exceptional spell" it can cast is Feral Frenzy.
  • This will change to Frantic Frenzy if taken.
• Moonfire will benefit from Lunar Inspiration, but only if taken. It is also always in the pool.
• Rejuvenation, Regrowth and Wrath are also in the pool.
• Sudden Ambush will be consumed.
• Ravage will be consumed.
• Apex Predator's Craving will not be consumed.

Due to the damage multipliers granted while Berserk and Tiger's Fury are active, this should always be cast during buff overlaps. All of their cooldowns align naturally, so try not to drift them. Finally, in single-target and especially AoE, make sure you have active Rips that will last the entire channel duration.

Ashamane's Guidance is a follow-up node that, when paired with Convoke the Spirits, reduces the cooldown to 1-minute, the spell count to 12, and the channel duration to 3 seconds. While not always taken, when played its cooldown should strictly be kept to its 1-minute timer, so as to avoid drifting it away from Berserk.