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Druid tactics/Feral

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Contents

Notable Spells and Abilities

(Dire) Bear Form

Casting Regrowth and/or Rejuvenation before shifting to bear form can provide continued healing (as well as the associated threat in group settings) allowing the druid to remain in bear form longer before shifting to heal. Bash or Nature's Grasp can be used to buy time to refresh your HoTs and shift back into bear without taking damage while in caster form. Enrage (druid talent) can be excellent for providing rage before a pull or while a mob is rooted, and is also useful when combined with Frenzied Regeneration providing additional healing.

In Bear Form and Dire Bear Form you receive

  • Additional attack power based on your level
  • A percent bonus to armor rating from items. Armor rating from enchantments and agility is not multiplied.
  • A percent bonus to stamina
  • A rage bar like a warrior's

A bear's paws attack at a base 2.5 attack speed.

Bears can use several abilities, some akin to other classes, others unique to bears.

Cat Form

While solo, Cat form is most useful for single-target, burst DPS, and avoiding enemies using stealth. Cat DPS is quite akin to rogue DPS, both being based on energy.

In Cat form, you receive

  • Additional attack power based on your level
  • 1 attack power per point of agility
  • 2 attack power per point of strength
  • An energy bar like a rogue's

A cat's claws attack at a base 1.0 attack speed.

Cats can use a variety of moves, many similar to rogues.

Travel Form

Travel Form increases movement speed by 40%. This is very handy for running away from a fight, or just getting some distance from your opponent to root him or heal yourself. Try casting Rejuvenation before shifting to Travel Form. It is still useful after getting your mount when you only need to run a short distance (i.e. from the auction house to the mailbox), when running in combat, and when collecting herbs. Travel Form works outdoors only. With the 3 piece set bonus from the Warlord's Sanctuary PvP set, it is possible to improve Travel Form to the point you can keep up with Standard (75 Riding Skill) Mounts! Do note: Many players never use Travel Form relying instead on Cat Form enhanced by 2 talent points in Feral Swiftness, the Cat form benefits (stealth, combat/defense) far outweighing those of the Travel Form (10% faster, greatly reduced mana cost).

Aquatic Form

Aquatic Form allows a druid to breathe under water indefinitely. Movement speed while swimming is increased by 50%, however you will not be faster than a character on land. Like Travel Form, you cannot cast spells while in Aquatic Form. Also be warned that Hunter pets are actually faster than you are in water. Switch briefly to aquatic form while in under water combat to take a breath without having to surface.

Gear and attributes

  • Each point of Strength is worth 2 points of attack power. 14 points of attack power result in 1 additional weapon DPS.
  • Each point of Agility increases armor by 2, adds to dodge chance, and adds to critical strike chance. Also increases Attack Power in cat form by 1.
    • Agility is preferred over Dodge rating for tanking pieces because druids get more dodge from agility than other tanking classes, and because agility scales with Blessing of Kings.
    • Agility is usually preferred over Critical strike rating, because druids also get more critical strike chance from agility than other physical DPS classes. This is less clear cut however.
  • Each point of Stamina is worth 10 health, and receives variable multipliers in Bear form (depending on talents).
  • Attack Power increases the strength of your attacks in feral forms.
  • Each point of Intellect gives 15 mana. It contributes to mana regeneration as of patch 2.4. As a feral druid your intellect is increased by 20%, making this a good attribute for your healing set, but is low priority for your feral set.
  • Each point of Spirit increases your health and mana regeneration. This can be important when soloing as it will allow you to heal between fights instead of eating, but is otherwise not useful.
  • Feral druids should maintain separate cat and bear sets of gear.
    • Cat gear should have a lot of AP, strength, and agility.
    • Bear gear should focus on armor, stamina, and agility.
  • Collect an up-to-date healing set. Druids are decent healers even if they have no points invested in Restoration. Healers are in such demand that being willing and able to heal will open a lot of doors for you. Some groups may also ask you to off-heal on certain quests or boss battles.

Soloing

  • Cat form is very useful for soloing, but when more than one mob is pulled you will have a better chance of surviving in bear form.
  • Using a few Heal-Over-Time spells on yourself and then tanking in bear form will let you solo mobs that are ordinarily very difficult to defeat.
  • Nature's Grasp will enable you to back off and cast during a fight.
  • Unlike a rogue, you don't have Distract or Vanish, so extra care must be taken when stealthing.
  • Prowl is useful for avoiding PvP and escaping when you're being corpse-camped. It's also great for going AFK.


Soloing as a feral is not only feasible but also highly capable of killing even high level mobs quickly.

Start by loading up on as much "... of the Bear" gear and any other STR/AGI/STA gear you can afford close to your current level. This will give you the stamina and DPS required to chew through the mobs. Don't worry about int or spirit because you won't need mana above what your regular base stat gives you. Once you reach about level 55, the most desirable random drops will be "... of the Beast" with all 3 str/agi/sta.

Generally, you'll start each fight from stealth. Until you get Pounce (level 36) you're going to use Ravage (level 32) and before that you'll use Shred (level 22). Pounce the enemy and then Shred them from behind. You should regen enough energy to Shred twice. This should take out a sizeable amount of the mob's health. Sometimes you can get one extra Shred if Omen of Clarity procs, which can be very devastating. Once you've spent the duration of the Pounce stun, switch over to either Mangle or Claw. Once you get to 4 or 5 combo points use Rip if they're over half health or Ferocious Bite otherwise. Make sure to shift out to heal yourself between fights in reasonable measure; there's nothing as humiliating-feeling as dying to a mob when you pulled at low health.

Keep in mind that you'll still regenerate mana while in feral form so next time you swap out you'll probably find a full mana bar waiting for you to just heal up and move on. No food, water, or bandages required. Great for the lazy and cheap people out there!

You can use Farie Fire from a distance to avoid overpulling in crowded areas. If you do accidentally overpull, use one of your crowd control spells or shapeshift to bear and just tank them down. Barkskin can rescue a lot of bad situations either by allowing you to cast healing spells on yourself without suffering any pushback from damage, or by reducing all damage taken in any form.

Group damage dealing

Cat form is the source of physical DPS for a druid. It's very similar to rogues in the fact that there's an energy bar present, they're vulnerable to physical damage due to the lack of an armor multiplier, and they put out quit a bit of physical melee damage. Cats and rogues also share "similar" skills. Some examples are:

Before Wrath of the Lich King, cat DPS wasn't very desirable. A hunter or rogue was much more viable for physical DPS. However, since the expansion, cat DPS has dramatically increased. Savage Roar is the core ability that's been given to feral druids to put us on par for dps. It's the equivalent to a rogue's Slice and Dice in the fact that having it up increases damage by a VERY sizable amount, and because of this you want to ensure this talent is up at all times when DPSing.

Gear and stats

The gear, gems, enchants and glyphs you select will have a massive effect on your rotation.

  • The more critical strike chance you have, the more chance you have to get extra combo points, which will allow you to get Savage Roar up faster.
  • See Hit for how much Hit you can use before it is wasted. It will change depending on whether you're doing raid bosses, regular dungeons or heroic dungeons.
  • You should gem for Strength and Agility over Attack Power because they give the same effect, but Blessing of Kings increases Strength and Agility but not Attack Power.
  • Agility is overall a better stat than Crit Rating because the agility to critical strike rating coefficient for druids is particularly favorable.

Suggested glyphs for sustained DPS:

Single target

The following rotation has proven itself for me and others. It works well not only for highly rated gear, but even for a set of crafted blue items.

  • Get behind the target as soon as possible, the target cannot block or parry your attacks from behind.
  • As soon as the tank starts, start of by using Mangle
-Some feral druids would suggest starting with a ravage or pounce, ravage is an energy drainer, it does not affect future attacks, and if it didn't crit, it's damage is not really high compared to mangle.
-As for pounce, again, doesn't deal significant damage and wastes energy, further more it prevents the mob from being kited by the tank.
  • If you were lucky, you now have 2 combo points on the target, use Savage Roar, else use Rake, and then Savage Roar
  • Use Rake
  • Use Shred.
  • You should be out of energy by now, if so, use Tiger's Fury and then Rip
    • If you know your target is going to die before Rip can do much damage use Ferocious Bite instead.
  • OoC procs and the variable combo points generated by criticals make a fixed rotation difficult, so from here you should use a priority system:
    1. Keep Savage Roar Up
    2. Keep Mangle Up
    3. Keep Rake Up
    4. Keep Rip Up
      • As of the arrival of patch 3.1, a new talent was introduced to feral druids, Primal Gore - Allowing Rip to critically hit, making it's damage highly important - RIP must be kept up, even at the cost of a satisfying Ferocious Bite.
    5. Ferocious Bite if all of the above are true and you have five combo points and more than 4 seconds on Savage Roar and Rip.
    6. Shred when you have spare energy and time between all the above.
      • Shred's damage increases when mangle and rake are up on the target, no point using it if they are not.
  • Use Tiger's Fury whenever it's available and you can use all of the bonus energy. The energy granted is much more important than the damage bonus, so it's not worth delaying it to coincide with finishing moves.


  • What about Berserk - When should I use it?
    • When you are sure you can use the full duration. Popping Berserk just before all the enemies die is a waste. Similarly popping it just before you need to run around Heigan's room is also a waste.
    • When you have Savage Roar, Mangle and Rake up.
    • Make sure you have more then 70% energy - it halves the energy cost of all your moves, effectively doubling the energy you have at the time you use it, so the more the better.
    • Avoid Ferocious Bite while berserking because it will drain a disproportionate amount of energy. If you get to five CP and don't need to Rip or Savage Roar, just keep shredding anyway.
    • Keeping the above in mind, do not hesitate to use Berserk, as it's 3 minutes cooldown is usually short enough for it to be available and the next encounter with the enemy.

Multiple Targets (Raids)

a.k.a: AoE
For us feral druids, up until 3.0.8 came and changed everything, AoE was fiction - But! No more! I am not sure how this will look like when 3.1 gets here, but for now, Swipe (Cat) is awsome. Not many classes can out dps a well geared swiping feral dps druid.

  • Stealth your way to the back of a target then will last long enough to allow you to rake it twice, and then use Savage Roar on it.
  • As soon as the tank starts, use Rake till you got enough combo points to ensure Savage Roar will last the entire fight.
  • Use Savage Roar
  • Position your self so that the mobs are all infront of you, and start Swiping (:
    • If you got any "Use" trinkets or Berserk it will be a good time to pop them right before swiping.

Group Tanking

Main article: Druids as tanks

Bear form is the form used for tanking by druids. It's very similar to warriors in the fact that there's a rage bar present and you have high armor and high HP. Bears and warriors also share "similar" skills. Some examples are:

Bears originally tanked by means of massive HP and extremely high dodge rates and armor mitigation (easily being able to hit the armor cap when geared in high end dungeon armor). Blizzard changed this with Wrath of the Lich King. Bonus armor and HP have been reduced from leather items. Weapons, rings, trinkets, and necklace no longer benefit from the armor multiplier in bear form. However additional dodge and armor increase talents have been added, such as the armor bonus added into Survival of the Fittest. The HP of a bear tank is still one of our biggest selling points and tends to be substantially more than that of a paladin, warrior, or death knight.

You can take on the role of the tank or offtank using Bear Form. For those inexperienced in tanking, a good general-purpose procedure for a Druid in Bear Form is:

  • Starting in caster form, cast Rejuvenation on yourself to offset damage in early combat (as well as generate threat). Note that it is inadvisable to start the majority of your battles this way, as this can use mana very quickly, leaving unable to switch back into bear form. It is, however, advisable to start boss battles this way once your mana is full.
  • Either pull with a ranged spell like Starfire or start in Bear Form pull with Faerie Fire (Feral).
  • Use Bash and/or Feral Charge to interrupt enemy casters.
  • Let loose with a Demoralizing Roar. If you have it, also cast Faerie Fire (Feral) on at least the highest-level mob.
  • Use Swipe or Maul to hold aggro - or, in an emergency, use Challenging Roar (note the long cooldown).
    • If you have good feral gear with high Strength and Agility you'll find that using Maul and changing targets constantly generates more threat than using Swipe
  • Use Growl to regain aggro from mobs that decide to go after your party's cloth-wearers.
  • If the battle goes over 30 seconds, recast Demoralizing Roar and Faerie Fire (Feral).
  • After the battle, switch to caster form to heal yourself, and assist the main healer in healing the rest of the party. (You don't use but do regenerate mana while in Bear Form, so you might as well use it before entering combat.) Do not push your limits with mana regeneration, or you will have no mana left to switch back into bear form.

Extra PvP Tactics

See Druid tactics for general PvP strategies regardless of talent spec.

In PvP feral druids used to suffer from mana issues but since the 3.0.8 patch this issue no longer exists because of the changes to Primal Tenacity. Feral's have very intense burst damage for lighter armor classes and powerful bleeds that ignore the mitigation of heavy armor classes. Druids in general also have multiple types of CC and interrupts at their disposal. These include:

Feral DPS in Raids

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