WotLK Classic Feral Druid DPS Stat Priority (2024)

Last updated on Jun 30, 2023 at 16:00by Seksixeny3 comments

On this page, you will find out the optimal PvE stat priority for yourFeral Druid DPS in WotLK Classic. We first present the statpriority, before delving into more complex explanations.

1. Strength (2 Attack Power before similar multipliers to Agility);
2. 8% Hit before talents / Draenei to cap Hit;
3. Agility (1 Attack Power and some Crit before being multiplied by Survival of the Fittest,Improved Mark of the Wild, and Blessing of Kings);
4. 26 Expertise Points before Primal Precision to reduce Boss Dodge % to 0;
5. Critical Strike;
6. Armor Penetration (best stat once you can hit the 1400 cap with gems, gear and trinket procs);
7. Haste;
8. Feral Attack Power (stat on weapons dependent on their item level, has 20%extra scaling than regular Attack Power from Predatory Strikes);
9. Attack Power.

For actual EP values, try out the FeralDPS Wrath Simulator. Input your gear, buffs, talents, andglyphs, hit the Stat Weights button and it will give you the exact valueof each stat for your current gear profile! The stat priority above is a roughordering of the EP values coming out for the preset profiles.

Feral Druids scale well with Armor Penetration, Strength, Agility,Hit, Expertise, and Critical Strike, as well as most other stats to a lesser extent.

Armor Penetration can be your best stat or relatively weak, depending on howmuch you already have of it. It allows your attacks to partially ignore your enemy'sArmor, down to a minimum of 315 armor, and stacks with other Armor reduction debuffs,such as Faerie Fire and Sunder Armor.

The amount of damage reduction provided by each point of Armor startsoff very high and gradually reduces as more Armor is stacked, with the typicalWrath boss having 41% damage reduction and 10643 Armor. Thus, the value of reducingthe first 20% of boss armor is much lower than the value of reducing the final 20%,making Armor Penetration be a weak stat when you have little of it, and extremelystrong when you are reducing the final points of Armor of an enemy near the 1400Armor Penetration rating cap.

When using Armor Penetration proc trinkets, such as Mjolnir Runestoneor Grim Toll, you should aim for the soft Armor Pen cap, which isobtained by subtracting the amount of armor reduction provided by the procs fromthe hard cap, for example 1400 - 751 = 649 Armor Penetration goal from gearand gems for a item level 239 Mjolnir.

Feral Druids receive 2 Attack Power (AP) per point of Strength.This is your strongest stat for pure AP gain, which will increase your damage doneby all attacks.

Against boss targets, you have a 8% chance to miss attacks, which requires263 Hit to be overcome. Reaching the Hit cap is a decent DPS increase, but byno means mandatory due to Feral's Energy refunds on abilities and finishing movesthat fail to land.

Feral Druids get extra Crit, Dodge, and Armor from each point of Agilitywhile in Cat Form or Dire Bear Form. Your Agility is also multiplieddue to Blessing of Kings, Survival of the Fittest, andImproved Mark of the Wild.

Expertise reduces the chance of your attacks being parried or dodged. It takes32.79 Expertise Rating for a 1% Dodge and Parry chance reduction and boss enemieshave 6.5% Dodge and 14% Parry baseline, making it useful to have some Expertiseto avoid being dodged while attacking from behind.

Feral Critical strikes deal highly increased damage due to Predatory Instinctsand Relentless Earthsiege Diamond and generate extra Combo Points throughPrimal Fury, making it an excellent stat with direct influence on the speedof your Combo Point generation.

The current phase has gear so powerful, that it allows you to hit the soft criticalstrike cap, where you will always land a critical strike or a glancing blowwith your white auto-attacks. Hitting this cap is even easier when you considerstrong critical strike increasing effects, such as the ones on Death's Choiceand Idol of Mutilation, and on a perfect gear setup it is generally worthwhileto swap Critical Strike increasing gems to Haste in order to avoid going over thecap.

Haste increases your attack speed, allowing you to get more auto attacksoff in a given period of time.

Your weapon DPS range is completely irrelevant, as Feral forms use their ownhidden weapons with normalized damage. The main thing you want is Feral AttackPower, which only depends on the item level of the weapon you are trying to equip.

Attack Power is the base stat off which all of your damage is calculated. ForFeral Druids this is especially true, since your auto attack damage gets nobenefit from weapon DPS.

Stamina is incredibly important for Feral Tanks in particular, as they get a high multiplieron their Stamina values due to Dire Bear Form and Heart of the Wild.Combined with Blessing of Kings, Survival of the Fittest, andImproved Mark of the Wild, each point of Stamina increases your maximumhealth by 16 instead of the normal 10! However, Stamina remains important forFeral DPS Druids as well.

Armor reduces your damage taken by Physical attacks. This is a great mitigationstat when it comes on your Leather pieces, as it is multiplied by Dire Bear Form,Thick Hide, and Survival of the Fittest, but any Armor on non-Leatherslots is not multiplied, and thus quite weak.

Each point of Defense gives you an additional 0.04% chance to be missed, notto be crit, and to dodge. While it used to be important to avoid being criticallyhit, in Wrath Classic the Survival of the Fittest talent takes care of makingyou uncrittable by itself, making this stat only useful for its avoidance benefits.

Resilience is only found on PvP gear and reduces your chance to suffer a CriticalStrike. While it used to be important to avoid being critically hit, in Wrath Classicthe Survival of the Fittest talent takes care of making you uncrittable byitself, making this stat only useful in PvP.

Resistance, while inherently niche due to different bosses dealing differentmagical damage types, can be very useful while progressing specific bosses.Wearing resistance gear of a type makes you take less damage or even completelyavoid damage when hit by that type of magical damage.

Intellect, Spirit, and maybe even Mp5 will most likely be on some of your gear,but they hold little to no value as a Feral Druid. Intellect and Spirit onlybecome valuable when you use Mana, which can really only happen through swappingforms repeatedly.