Feral Druid DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities - Dragonflight 10.2.6 (2024)

The buttons below can be used to select between curated talent loadouts fromour talent page. You can also use the switches below to add or removeindividual talents you may also be using:

Convoke STSustain STFeral AoE

Talent Selections
Apex Predator's Craving	Adaptive Swarm	Bloodtalons
Brutal Slash	Convoke the Spirits	Double-Clawed Rake
Feral Frenzy	Lunar Inspiration	Primal Wrath
Sudden Ambush	Thrashing Claws	T31 Set

Single TargetAoEOpener

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

1. Cast Tiger's Fury on cooldown, ideally at 30 Energy or less.
2. Cast Berserk on cooldown with Tiger's Fury active.
3. Maintain Rip on your target with 5 Combo Points. Only refresh this with Tiger's Fury and Bloodtalons active.
4. Cast Ferocious Bite if at 5 Combo Points and Rip is active on your target.
5. Maintain Thrash, ideally with Omen of Clarity procs.
6. Cast Shred or Brutal Slash to build Combo Points.

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

• The Tier 31 set bonus just increases the frequency of your Feral Frenzy casts, which should be done on cooldown to activatethe damage window. If using Convoke the Spirits, you should alwaysmake sure to cast Feral Frenzy before entering into the channel to havethe buff active.
• While in Berserk, you want to make sure that all of yourfinishers are cast with 5 Combo Points. However, outside of this, youcan spend at 4 instead to avoid any potential overflow that would costvaluable resources.
• When playing with Bloodtalons, you need to be especiallyaware of your energy state and current number of charges. Plan aroundthese carefully to make sure that after a finisher, if you are aboutto run out of charges, you can activate it quickly with 3 builders. Thisis done by pooling followed by a combination of Shred, Thrash, Rake and either Moonfire or Brutal Slash.

Feral in AoE almost entirely hinges off powerful talent picksin the tree that allow for much easier application of Bleed effects inAoE. It relies heavily on a mix of the high power spender Primal Wrath(which can be selected above) and tab-target gameplay with Rake.

1. Cast Tiger's Fury on cooldown, ideally at 30 Energy or less.
2. Cast Berserk if available, ideally alongside Tiger's Fury.
3. Maintain Rip on as many targets as possible.
4. Cast Ferocious Bite if at 5 Combo Points, Rip is active on all targets and your Energy is about to cap.
5. Maintain Thrash, ideally with Omen of Clarity procs.
6. Cycle Rake on as many targets as possible.
7. Cast Swipe to build Combo Points.

Many of the rules that Feral plays by in single-target remain in Cleaveand AoE situations, and it introduces the multi-DoT requirement of cycling Rake depending on choices. Your finishers are largely replaced by Primal Wrath whenever taken, with Apex Predator's Cravingprocs being consumed as quickly as possible. Key notes are:

• Swipe Brutal Slashreplaces Shred as soon as an additional target is present, and youalso need to make sure to maintain Thrash on all nearby targetsas much as possible.
• With Bloodtalons, you should aim to refresh it every singlefinisher cycle. This is usually with a Swipe Brutal Slash, Rake and Thrash each time you spend your Combo Points.Try to not overcap Combo Points in pursuit of this refresh, though, as thatleaves more damage on the table.
• Dire Fixation in AoE is more of a priority damage toolyou can use to single out an important target to anchor your damagefrom. This does not need to be maintained but is something that canbe helpful.
• Rake should be maintained on as many targets as possible,using your Sudden Ambush procs wherever possible. With Double-Clawed Raketaken, be aware when refreshing whether you are overwriting a strongersnapshot if you are switching targets quickly. Moonfirewith Lunar Inspiration should also be maintained when at lowertarget counts.
• Apex Predator's Craving procs are more plentiful, but dueto the extra resources and strain on GCDs, it sometimes makes it hardto slot in between Bloodtalons cycles. Try to consume thiswherever possible.

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

1. Warning - please select an encounter style!
2. Cast Prowl before combat starts.
3. Cast Rake
4. Cast Shred until you are at 5 Combo Points.
5. Cast Swipe Brutal Slash until you are at 5 Combo Points.
6. Cast Berserk.
7. Cast Tiger's Fury and spend your opening Combo Points on Primal Wrath.
8. Cast Tiger's Fury and immediately apply Rip.
9. Continue with the normal priority list.

Always try to have all of your major effects applied before enteringinto Berserk in single-target, as you will be spending a lotof time casting Shred and Ferocious Bite due to theresource flood. Some notes are:

• Both Berserk and Tiger's Fury are off the GCD so that they canbe used alongside another ability immediately.

Season 3: AmirdrassilSeason 2: AberrusSeason 1: Vault

Season 3 introduces the Benevolent Embersage's Guidance Tier Set,available from the Amirdrassil. The bonuses granted are:

• Druid Feral 10.2 Class Set 2pc - casting Feral Frenzy alsogrants Smoldering Frenzy, increasing all damage you deal by20% for 8 seconds.
• Druid Feral 10.2 Class Set 4pc - reduces the cooldown of Feral Frenzyby 15 seconds, and during Smoldering Frenzy, enemies burnfor 10% of the damage you deal to them over 10 seconds.

This bonus requires you to take Feral Frenzy at all timesto activate the effect. While extremely powerful, adding in a big30-second cooldown burst window to overlap with other effects; itplays intuitively. You simply cast it on cooldown, making sure toline other cooldowns up with these casts. Make sure as well to haveall of your DoTs set up before entering into it - you want tofill the 8 seconds with as much direct damage as possible.

This bonus is weighted toward the 4-piece, and as such, you shouldonly switch over as soon as you have the full set completed.

Season 2 introduced the Strands of the Autumn Blaze Tier Set,available from the Aberrus. The bonuses granted are:

• Druid Feral 10.1 Class Set 2pc - your auto-attacks have a 25% chanceto grant Shadows of the Predator, increasing Agility by 1%. Eachapplication above 5 has an increasing chance to reset back to 2stacks.
• Druid Feral 10.1 Class Set 4pc - when Shadows of the Predatorresets, you gain 8% increased Agility and generate 1 Combo Pointevery 2 seconds for 8 seconds.

While the bonus is mostly passive and happens in the background,there is a small rotational quirk when the 4-piece activates. While Predator Revealed is active, waiting at 4 Combo Points forit to tick over and reach 5 Combo Points is advised to avoid anywaste. Otherwise, procs will just happen naturally to boost yourAgility.

You should aim to unlock this bonus as quickly as possible, butideally only after acquiring the full 4 pieces.

Season 1 introduced the Lost Landcaller's Vesture Tier Set,available from the Vault of the Incarnates. The bonuses granted are:

• Feral Druid 2pc increases the damage of Rip and Ferocious Bite by 6%.
• Feral Druid 4pc causes Finishing moves to increaseyour Rip, Rake and Thrash damage,and increase the chance for Shred, Swipe / Brutal Slash, Rake and Thrash to critically strike by 2%per Combo Point spent for 4 seconds.

While both of these are solid bonuses and provide a substantial increasemost of Feral's damage, they do not require any actual gameplaychances to use. The 4-piece on the surface looks quite complex,but just playing the rotation as you usually would provides thefull benefit.

BloodtalonsAdaptive SwarmSudden AmbushBrutal SlashLunar InspirationApex Predator's Craving

When playing with Bloodtalons, you will often be playing ina cycle. That means you will trigger the effect by spendingEnergy in quick succession via Shred into Rakeinto Thrash/ Brutal Slash (if taken), and then siton the three charges before you consume them for a Finisher. If you do nothave any charges remaining from a previous cycle, that means you needto think about your Energy pool before casting a Finisher to makesure you can quickly cast three different Combo Pointgenerators following that to re-activate the buff.

Due to there now being 3 charges, you should be able to buffall of your finishers with Bloodtalons with as littlewaste as possible. Plan out expected refreshes of Rakewith Tiger's Fury to efficiently generate these stacks,and aim to overlap your Rip Bleed inside this buffwindow as well paired with a Bloodtalons stack.

Playing around Adaptive Swarm has some small quirks thatcan be optimized if you choose to do so, and there are additional rulesto consider depending on if you play with Unbridled Swarm:

• Base Adaptive Swarm should be applied to your main target withBleeds active. This can be refreshed, and the charges will be added ifit bounces back from an ally. The ideal tactic (once you have an active swarm)is usually to refresh a swarm on the boss that has 1 or 2 stacks as close-to-optimalto the end of the duration as possible, refreshing the dot and extendingthe duration on your desired target.
• With Unbridled Swarm, Adaptive Swarm bounces each have a chanceto clone into two swarms, making the ability more complex to optimize withslightly different rules for single-target and AoE:
  • In single-target, ideally, you should build up swarms and then leavethem alone. When you do not have any (or few) active swarms, cast it onthe enemy (refreshing 1-2 stacks at the end of the duration as witha normal swarm). When you have a lot of active swarms, cast it on anally with 1 stack or no swarms on them. This is to maximize the possible number of bounces (and, therefore, chances forcloning).
  • On multi-target, you generally apply the same rule to enemy targets;Prioritizing enemies with 2 stacks, then 1 stack, and finally targetswithout any swarm active. In Mythic+, you can refresh activeswarms on allies between pulls when out of combat to keep them rollingbetween different packs. Your priority should be 2 stacks > 1 stack >no swarm > 3 stacks in that order.

Sudden Ambush procs are generated from Finishers, so youwill generally be at zero Combo Points when this is generated. Ideally,you should spend these on Rake if possible for the Stealthdamage bonus and, when possible, pair it with Tiger's Furyto snapshot it at its highest potential. In multi-target situations,you should use this on separate targets to have multiple high-damageRakes ticking. In contrast, try to avoid overwritinga buffed Rake in single-target if you can. In all other situations,use it for Shred if you have excess procs. Note as wellthat during Berserk, this adds another multiplierto both of these abilities, keeping it valuable during cooldowns.

When using Brutal Slash, try to ensure that you always have atleast one charge on cooldown, but bank charges for when a waveof enemies is about to spawn. Try to have short-duration buffs such as Tiger's Fury active for as many high-target casts as possible. Insingle-target, this is worth casting as a more energy-efficient equivalentto Shred. With Bloodtalons taken as well, this is usuallythe third activator in single-target when you have your Bleeds alreadymaintained.

Lunar Inspiration revolves around keeping up the Moonfire DoT. This should be maintained on a single target at alltimes. You should also multi-DoT targets with it when you are dealing witha cleave situation and have selected this. Moonfire should be refreshed whenthere are 4.8 seconds or less left on its duration to make maximum use of thepandemic effect. With this talent, it also becomes a Bloodtalonsactivator.

Apex Predator's Craving is quite simple to play around with - whenevera proc happens, you should aim to consume it as quickly as possible to avoidwasting a follow-up proc. Due to the Ferocious Bite being free ofany resource cost and dealing the maximum possible damage, there is noreason to sit on these procs when they occur.