Feral Druid DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.0.5)

Feral Druids in single-target focus on building Combo Points via Energy spenders, and consuming them with powerful Finishing moves in a cycle. It is a mixture of resource management and DoT maintenance, with a heavy emphasis on planning with some reactive elements.

1. Cast Ferocious Bite / Ravage with an Apex Predator's Craving proc.
2. When at one or less Bloodtalons charges, pool Energy so you can trigger it after your next Finisher.
3. Cast Tiger's Fury on cooldown at 5 Combo Points or 30 Energy below your cap.
4. Cast Rip with 5 Combo Points if it is not active, or expiring within 57 sec -
   • Aim to only apply or refresh this with Tiger's Fury and Bloodtalons active if possible.
5. Cast Rake if it is not active, or expiring within 35 sec.
6. Cast Moonfire if it is not active on your target, or expiring within 35 sec.
7. Cast Adaptive Swarm.
8. Cast Feral Frenzy on cooldown at 0-1 Combo Points.
9. Cast Berserk on cooldown, aligning with Tiger's Fury. Try to sync with Convoke the Spirits.
10. Cast Convoke the Spirits, with Tiger's Fury active and as few Combo Points as possible.
11. Cast Ferocious Bite / Ravage with 5 Combo Points and Rip has more than 57 sec remaining.
12. Cast Rake with Sudden Ambush if your DoT can be empowered by Pouncing Strikes.
13. Cast Shadowmeld and apply Rake if your DoT can be empowered by Pouncing Strikes.
14. Cast Brutal Slash if close to 3 charges.
15. Cast Thrash if it is not active, or expiring within 35 sec.
16. Cast Shred to generate Combo Points.

The most important thread throughout all of Feral is making sure that you maintain Rip and Rake as efficiently as possible, ideally snapshotting them with Tiger's Fury and Bloodtalons. After that, your excess Energy and Combo Points are used to fuel Ferocious Bite while always keeping in mind your Bleed maintenance. Some key notes are:

• Adaptive Swarm is cast on cooldown to get full value both out of its damage and the amplification to your DoT effects. This should align well with both Feral Frenzy and Tiger's Fury.
• When playing with Bloodtalons, you need to be especially aware of your Energy state and current number of charges. Plan around these carefully to make sure that after a finisher, if you are about to run out of charges, you can activate it with 3 generators. You should pool to do so.
• With Lunar Inspiration you should be maintaining Moonfire in a similar way to Rake, aiming for 100% uptime.
• Your Sudden Ambush procs should be used on Rake to make full use of the effect from the Pouncing Strikes snapshot. Try not to refresh this early if you will apply a weaker Bleed
• If playing Night Elf, you also have access to Shadowmeld which can be used to stealth and apply Rake that benefits from Pouncing Strikes as a cooldown.
• If you are committing resources to cast Ferocious Bite / Ravage, you should make sure you are at 50 Energy to maximize the damage bonus it provides.

Feral in AoE almost entirely hinges on powerful talent picks in the tree that attach AoE components to single-target finishers. Primal Wrath allows for much easier application of Rip, and Rampant Ferocity converts Ferocious Bite into AoE damage when paired together.

1. Try to cycle 3 builders between finishers to activate Bloodtalons, but avoid wasting Combo Points.
2. Cast Primal Wrath with 5 Combo Points under the following conditions -
   • Your Rip is inactive or has less than 34 sec remaining during Berserk;
   • Your Rip is inactive or has less than 7 sec remaining;
   • Your Rip snapshot can be strengthened with Tiger's Fury or Bloodtalons.
   • There are 8 or more targets present.
   • There are 7 or more targets present.
3. Cast Ferocious Bite / Ravage with 5 Combo Points or with Apex Predator's Craving active.
4. Cast Adaptive Swarm, ideally on a target with below 3 stacks.
5. Cast Tiger's Fury on cooldown while 70 or more Energy below your cap.
6. Cast Berserk on cooldown with Tiger's Fury and Convoke the Spirits.
7. Cast Feral Frenzy if at 0-1 Combo Points.
8. Cast Convoke the Spirits during Tiger's Fury with Rip active on all targets.
9. Cast Thrash if it is not active, or expiring within 35 sec.
10. Cast Rake, cycling between targets.
11. Cast Brutal Slash if close to 3 charges.
12. Cast Moonfire, cycling between targets.
13. Cast Swipe to generate Combo Points.
14. Cast Thrash if it is not active, or expiring within 35 sec.

Many of the rules that Feral plays by in single-target remain in multi-target situations, alongside the need to apply Rake to multiple enemies. Primal Wrath replaces Rip entirely, and excess Combo Points are spent on Ferocious Bite for priority damageto trigger Rampant Ferocity. Apex Predator's Craving procs are spent as quickly as possible. Key notes are:

• When playing Druid of the Claw, casting Ravage is your top priority with 5 Combo Points so long as you already have Rip applied via Primal Wrath. This also extends to Ferocious Bite to trigger Rampant Ferocity.
• Swipe Brutal Slash replaces Shred as soon as an additional target is present, and you also need to make sure to maintain Thrash on all nearby targets. You should also always aim to have Brutal Slash below its max charges so as not to waste its recharge time.
• With Bloodtalons, you should aim to refresh it every single finisher cycle. This is usually with a Swipe Brutal Slash, Rake and Thrash each time you spend your Combo Points. Try not to overcap Combo Points in pursuit of this refresh, though.
• Rake should be maintained on as many targets as possible, using any Sudden Ambush procs to amplify them. Aim not to overwrite stronger snapshot Bleeds if possible. Moonfire with Lunar Inspiration should also be maintained when at lower target counts.
• With Unbridled Swarm taken, you should aim to cast Adaptive Swarm on targets that do not have a Swarm present on them to maximize the chance of cloning the effect.
• Apex Predator's Craving procs are more plentiful, but it sometimes makes it hard to slot in between Bloodtalons cycles. Aim to consume these as a priority.

Feral has a relatively fixed opening sequence to generate enough Combo Points to get its Bleeds set up, then enters into its cooldowns. How you spend your first few sets of Combo Points, however, varies depending on the target count, so select the encounter type below:

1. Cast Prowl before combat starts.
2. Cast Rake from Stealth to trigger Pouncing Strikes.
3. Cast Moonfire.
4. Cast Brutal Slash to spend a charge.
5. Cast Thrash if you have not yet triggered Bloodtalons.
6. Cast Thrash.
7. Cast Shred until you are at 5 Combo Points.
8. Cast Rake on different targets until you reach 5 Combo Points.
9. Cast Adaptive Swarm.
10. Cast Berserk.
11. Cast Tiger's Fury.
12. Cast Primal Wrath with your first 5 Combo Points.
13. Cast Rip to your primary target.
14. Cast Rip with your first 5 Combo Points.
15. Cast Feral Frenzy.
16. Cast Shred Swipe Brutal Slash and Rake until you reach 5 Combo Points.
17. Cast Ferocious Bite Ferocious Bite Ravage.
18. Cast Convoke the Spirits when low on Energy and Combo Points with Tiger's Fury active.
19. Continue with the normal priority list.

Always try to have all of your major effects applied before entering into Berserk, as you will be spending a lot of time casting, building, and spending aggressively due to the resource flood. Some notes are:

• If playing Killing Strikes as Druid of the Claw, your first Tiger's Fury will instantly grant Ravage, replacing your opening Ferocious Bite cast. It is still cast at the same point in the sequence.
• Convoke the Spirits is relatively flexible when you use it — ideally when you are low on resources and have Tiger's Fury active.
• When playing with Feral Frenzy, in the opener we empty our Combo Points, cast this and immediately use another finisher to be efficient.
• With Bloodtalons, it may be necessary to cast Thrash early in the opener to make sure you trigger the effect before your first Rip, depending on other talents taken.
• Both Berserk and Tiger's Fury are off the GCD so they can be used alongside each other alongside another ability immediately.
• In AoE situations, the opening Rip is replaced with Primal Wrath, and Shred is replaced with Swipe Brutal Slash and applying multiple Rakes to build to your first finisher.

Berserk is Feral's major damage cooldown, lasting 15 seconds with a baseline cooldown of 3-minutes, reduced to 2-minutes with Berserk: Heart of the Lion. While active, it provides a number of benefits:

• Generate 1 Combo Point every 1.5 seconds
• Combo Point generating abilities generate 1 additional Combo Point, and up to 3 Combo Points can be stored above the cap as Overflowing Power
• Finishing Moves restore Combo Points based on your current stacks of Overflowing Power.
• All ability damage increased by 15%.
• With Berserk: Frenzy — Combo Point generating abilities apply a Bleed for 150% of the damage dealt over 8 sec.
• With Incarnation: Avatar of Ashamane — duration increased to 20 seconds and Energy cost of Cat Form abilities reduced by 25%.

While there are a lot of effects tied into it, the main impact is quite simple: you deal a lot more damage and have access to significantly more resources. Feral deals a very large amount of damage during its cooldown windows, so making sure to use this on cooldown and burn off the extra resources is key.

Tiger's Fury has a 30-second cooldown off-global-cooldown button that instantly generates 50 Energy and increases the damage of all of your Feral abilities by 15% for 10 seconds. This damage increase also "snapshots" Bleeds applied, amplifying them for their full duration. There are a number of specific talents that enhance this:

• Predator — increases the duration by 5 sec, and increases the damage of Combo Point generating abilities by 40% of your Haste.
• Savage Fury — also causes Tiger's Fury to grant 10% Haste and increase your Energy recovery rate by 25% for 6 seconds when cast.
• Raging Fury — increases the duration by an additional 5 sec.
• Tiger's Tenacity — causes your next 3 Finishing Moves after casting to also restore 1 Combo Point. The damage snapshot applied to Bleeds is also increased by 10%.
• Carnivorous Instinct — increases the damage bonus by 6% per point spent.

As you can see Tiger's Fury makes up a major part of Feral's talent tree and is a core component of gameplay. It is generally pressed as close to every 30 seconds as possible, ideally with low Energy to take advantage of the refund. While it is active, you want to make sure to reapply any Bleeds to take advantage of the snapshot, and layer it over any other cooldowns such as Berserk.

Convoke the Spirits has a 2-minute cooldown, and when used casts a quick succession of 16 Druid spells free of cost over 4 seconds. This prefers Feral spells, but some abilities from other specs will also be mixed in. As of The War Within, this will prioritize single-target abilities on your current target. Some quick notes about the abilities it will aim to cast:

• Ferocious Bite is the finisher it will attempt to cast. This will be considered as 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.
• Any effects that apply to ability casts such as Sudden Ambush will be consumed.
• The "exceptional spell" it can cast is Feral Frenzy.

Convoke the Spirits is always paired with Berserk and Tiger's Fury to maximize the burst of damage it provides. It can also be reduced to a 1-minute cooldown with Ashamane's Guidance (reducing the spells cast to 12), but is still always synced with these other buffs.

As a Feral Druid, the core of your abilities needs Energy to be used. Your Energy bar has a capacity of 100 Energy (increased by some Talents) and refills at a rate of 11 Energy per second baseline. Your Energy regeneration is increased by your Haste.

Feral has a pool of abilities that generate Combo Points (known as generators), those being Shred, Rake, Swipe / Brutal Slash, and Thrash, Moonfire (with Lunar Inspiration) and lastly Feral Frenzy. Alongside this, you have abilities that consume these Combo Points (known as finishers) that consume all current Combo Points to deal damage based on the amount used. The more Combo Points consumed, the higher the damage (or stronger the effect) of each of these. Combo Point generation is also greatly impacted by Primal Fury, which causes Critical Strikes with your generators to grant an additional Combo Point.

Due to the slow generation of Energy for Feral, the concept of "pooling" Energy for key moments is an important one. This means holding your ability casts until certain conditions are met to then spend, as there will always be some amount of natural downtime present in the Feral rotation. Making sure to empty your resource leading up to each Tiger's Fury is also a good idea to avoid wasting the Energy it grants when cast.

Omen of Clarity procs should be used as soon as your cycle allows so that they do not get overwritten by subsequent procs. With Moment of Clarity, this allows for more flexibility to sit on one charge, allowing it to accumulate up to 2.

Feral should always be aiming 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 defines Feral. Bear in mind if you are playing Circle of Life and Death all of the below effects expire 25% faster.

• Rake costs 35 Energy to apply and lasts for 15 seconds, making it the easiest tool to manage.
• Rip costs 20 Energy, but its duration is also dependent on how many Combo Points it is applied with, so you should aim to apply Rip at 5 Combo Points for the best Energy efficiency. When done at 5, it lasts for 24 seconds.
• Thrash costs 40 Energy to cast and deals its damage over 15 seconds. This should also be maintained at all times in AoE and Single-Target.
• With Lunar Inspiration — Moonfire now has a 40 Energy cost, and is similarly important to maintain like Rake.

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

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

Note that these amounts are reduced by 25% when using Circle of Life and Death due to the increased tick speed.

Tracking these is made considerably easier when using external addons to keep tabs on each buff and debuff. It is recommended to use some additional tools to make sure you are always aware of your current buff/debuff state due to how core it is for Feral, so check our addons page for recommendations.

Bleed snapshotting is a core component for Feral Druids, but it only works with some specific damage-increasing buffs. Snapshotting means that the damage to the Bleed effect will be decided at the time of application and carry over the amplification effect of the following buffs (where applicable) for the entire duration.

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

• Tiger's Fury — all DoT effects;
• Sudden Ambush — Rake;
• Bloodtalons — Rip / Primal Wrath;
• Moment of Clarity — Thrash.

Tiger's Fury applies to any Bleed effect, while Bloodtalons will only apply to your Finishers in Rip and Primal Wrath. Sudden Ambush also only applies to Rake via the Pouncing Strikes effect.

Generally, the rule of thumb is to avoid refreshing Bleeds if you will overwrite a stronger snapshot if possible, and instead wait until they are about to expire or you have a more opportune moment to do so.

Ferocious Bite is your big direct-damage finisher, but it is only used to bleed off excess Combo Points after you have Rip (or Primal Wrath) active on targets. If you intend to cast it, you should make sure these have enough remaining duration to still generate Combo Points before they expire. You should also always aim to cast this at 50 Energy to consume extra, amplifying its damage (which is significantly more important if playing with Saber Jaws).

As covered in the rotation section, this is treated as something you only cast when you have room to. While it can be appealing to see the big damage it deals, losing uptime on DoTs is not worth it. Apex Predator's Craving procs do cause this to be completely free and should be consumed immediately,as they do gain the damage bonus from extra Energy consumption, but do not get increased further by Saber Jaws. These rules also apply to AoE with Rampant Ferocity — it is even more important to make sure Rip is applied via Primal Wrath to ensure the damage will trigger.

Ravage granted by Druid of the Claw also still follows the same rules for casting, although in AoE it becomes a much higher priority to spend these procs to avoid wasting any.

Playing around Bloodtalons is slightly more complicated than the regular Feral rotation, due to a heavy focus on Energy management and cycling. The effect is triggered by a combination of any three different Combo Point generators cast them within a window of 4 seconds, meaning you need enough resources to complete a full cycle when you intend to trigger it. The abilities that can trigger this are:

• Shred;
• Rake;
• Thrash;
• Swipe / Brutal Slash;
• Moonfire (with Lunar Inspiration;
• Feral Frenzy.

You generate 3 charges each time, so you have a good amount of time to plan around your next cycle, though in AoE when Apex Predator's Craving is more plentiful you may find you need to do so more aggressively. Generally, talent builds make sure to have at least one of either Brutal Slash or Lunar Inspiration to make sure it can comfortably trigger this each time without having to resort to weaker abilities to trigger it. This is also a strong snapshot effect applying to finishers, so you should always aim to have Rip / Primal Wrath empowered by this.

Feral has a number of rotationally impactful talents, but have small rules to playing them rather than being overarching playstyle shifts. We cover these below:

This is generally cast on cooldown to amplify our other DoT effects. If possible, aim to refresh this on a boss that has 1-2 stacks as close to the end of the duration as possible to extend the duration is optimal. Unbridled Swarm has some small extra considerations:

• In AoE, applying Adaptive Swarm follows a priority list of enemy states, enemies with 2 stacks > 1 stack > no swarm > 3 stacks in that order.

Sudden Ambush procs are generated from Finishers, so you will generally be at zero Combo Points when this is generated. Ideally, you want to spend this to maintain Rake so it can benefit from the Pouncing Strikes to significantly amplify its damage, pairing it with other snapshot effects when possible. In multi-target situations, aim to maintain this on multiple targets instead. Avoid overwriting buffed Rakes in single-target unless you will also be applying an amplified one.

When using Brutal Slash, try to ensure that you always have at least one charge on cooldown, but bank charges for when a wave of enemies is about to spawn. This is worth casting as a more energy-efficient equivalent to Shred in single-target With Bloodtalons taken as well, this serves as a third activator in the sequence to activate it in single-target.

Feral Frenzy should be used when you have 0-2 Combo Points, and you should follow this up with a Finishing Move. This means you need to ensure that you have the Energy available to use the surge of Combo Points instantly. Ideally, you should pair every other cast of this with Tiger's Fury.