7.3 Feral Guide

Wil

Wil

Grandfathered

Intro


Welcome to my 7.3 Feral guide. With the recent patch, feral has received a 33% damage increase to all abilities making it pretty op.

To compare, here’s some screenshots.


Here’s my feral in patch 7.2
gvN7D

http://imgur.com/a/gvN7D

And here’s my Feral in 7.3
http://imgur.com/a/Hq4JK
Hq4JK

(Doubled everyone’s damage with a 4 cap)
http://imgur.com/a/QYZqp
QYZqp


This class is super op if played right.


A few things to keep in mind.

This guide is for players who are familiar with the game, and will understand the "lingo" I use throughout this guide. If you are totally new to druid and WoW PvP, I'd recommend searching up basic feral guides to gain a better, core understanding of the class.

I’ve also been playing 20-29 feral since MoP. A lot of the things I’ll explain here I think about intuitively and usually don’t have to type out and explain. If some things end up becoming convoluted, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to edit the guide or reply with a better explanation.


Let’s first start off with races.


Races


Alliance


Worgen:

Darkflight - This ability increases your speed by 40%. It can be super useful for catching up to enemy flag carries, kiting players, or even flag carrying and getting across the battleground faster.

Viciousness - This passive increases your critical strike by 1%. It's an alright ability and will make your bleeds hit a little bit harder but it isn't the end-all-be-all for this race.


The rest of the Worgen passives are pretty trivial and won't do a lot for you so it isn't worth spending time on them.


Night Elf:

Shadowmeld - This is probably one of the best abilities for a feral druid. With Blizzard reducing the cooldown of Prowl from 10 seconds to 6 seconds, you'll now be able to stealth and open with rake stun a lot more often(I'll explain this a bit more later). Because of this, Shadowmeld is useful for a few reasons.

A) You can shadowmeld into a Prowl and get a clutch rake stun to peel for your healers, FC, etc.

B) You can dodge huge hitting abilities like Chaos Bolt, Flanking Strike, Ray of Frost, etc. by predicting when the enemy will cast, and hitting shadowmeld at the last second. This will nullify all damage from that ability being cast on you.

C) Getting enemies off your back. If a giant zerg is on you, hitting shadowmeld will make you invisible for a second making all enemies un-target you. This is helpful for getting away/juking out your opponents. Or for allowing your healer to get some nice heals in without having to deal with incoming damage.


Overall, both Alliance races are viable for feral in their own ways. In my opinion, Shadowmeld really helps for getting additional rake stuns making Night Elf slightly better. However, playing Worgen shouldn't put you at a huge disadvantage.


Horde


Tauren:

War Stomp - This is a fantastic ability for CC. I can’t count the amount of times War Stomp has saved my ass. War Stomp can also be used in an opener which I’ll explain more in depth later. Essentially, you can use War Stomp as an additional stun when opening up on the target to keep them from casting.


Endurance - Endurance is a passive ability that increases your stamina by about 5%(scales with level). This is a nice addition when in PvP as it makes you a little bit less squishy.


Troll:

Berserking - This ability increases your haste by 15% for 10 seconds. It’s very nice when you’re opening and want to spread dots around as fast as possible.

Da Voodoo Shuffle - This decreases the duration of all movement impairing effects(slows, roots, etc.) by 20%. However, because you’re a druid you can just switch to a different form to take these effects off. It’s still a nice passive though.


Again, both races are viable for feral. I have both a troll and tauren druid, and I don’t see a huge difference between the two. If you’re having a hard time deciding I’d recommend tauren as the warstomp is a bit more useful.
 
Abilities


Because this is an intermediate guide, I’m assuming you have a basic understanding of a feral druid’s abilities. However, I’ll still take the time to go over them, and explain how they work together.


Bear Form - This ability is more useful than people make it out to be. If you’re taking a lot of damage, it can be super helpful to just sit in bear form until your healers have topped you off. Bear Form increases your armor by 200% and stamina by 55%. Tldr; you’ll take a lot less damage in this form.


Cat Form - Cat form increases your movement speed by 30% and is the form you should be in 99% of the time. That’s really all you have to know.


Dash - I see A LOT of druids use dash the second it comes off cooldown. Don’t do that. I usually save dash for getting away. Or, if I have good heals on me, to get around the map faster and spread bleeds quicker. A lot of druids will dash right out of the gates. Don’t do that. Dash should be saved for the right time (catching up to a flag carrier, getting back to healers faster, running away, etc.)


Entangling Roots - Again, I see druids misuse this ability a lot or never use it at all. I usually like to set an op melee class (survival hunter, arms warrior, Ret pala, etc.) as my focus and use my focus roots macro(this will appear in the macros section) on them. This will allow your teammates to run away and prevent the rooted target from doing damage. Keep in mind that druids can shift out of roots. However, if you spam roots on a druid this inhibits them from casting abilities as they have to wait for their global cooldown to reset. I usually use this in conjunction with Berserking for faster casts.


Another great way to use roots is to force a trinket. Say a healer is following their flag carrier. Casting roots on them does a few things.

1)It makes their flag carrier LoS their heals

2) It can force their trinket.

3) Casting roots doesn’t put you in combat. So if the healer trinkets, you can stealth and open with a rake stun.


Ferocious Bite - 99% of the time I never use this ability. Ferocious bite will consume 25 additional energy which increases its damage by 100%. This means that, costing 25 energy, you should wait until you’re at 50 energy to bite a target. Though ferocious bite can hit pretty hard, you’re better off applying a full rip or spamming bleeds on other targets.


Growl - Pretty much only useful to keep rogues out of stealth or to keep pets off your healers. I think I’ve cast this 5 times.


Moonfire- This is your main dot ability. Though the base damage is pretty low(only 300 damage) the dot damages for a whopping 1.4k! The great thing about moonfire is, when specced to Lunar Inspiration, it only costs 35 energy. Not only making it one of your hardest hitting dots but also most efficient to spread.


Prowl - Puts you in stealth. 99% of the time I’ll make sure I can stealth before opening.


Rake - When using rake from stealth, Rake will stun the target for 4 seconds. This is super great to use if interrupting a cast or just opening in general. This is the first spell I ever use in a rotation. It’s also a nice bleed but it’s low on the priority list.


Regrowth - A lot of people underestimate the power of regrowth. If I see a teammate going down, I usually stop what I’m doing and just spam regrowth on them. The tiniest heals can make the biggest difference. I cannot stress enough how important off healing is.


Remove Corruption - If you have Rogue poisons or Warlock dots on you, I’d recommend using Remove Corruption before going into stealth. It will take the dots off so you won’t get hit out of stealth.


Revive - Rarely use this. Meme ability.


Rip - This is your strongest hitting ability. Applying a 5 combo point rip does 2.2k damage. I always prioritize this over using ferocious bite.


Shred- Shred is a pretty good combo point builder. It doesn’t do a ton of damage but I’ll either use shred or moonfire to build my combos.


Teleport: Moonglade - Takes you to druid land.


Thrash- Thrash is your one AOE ability. I only use this to get rogues or druids out of stealth. Never use this as a damaging ability. It costs 45 energy and only does 400 bleed damage. A total waste of your time and energy(get it?).


Tiger's Fury - Tiger’s fury instantly restores 20 energy and increases damage by 15% for 8 seconds. I always use this ability before I apply bleeds or ferocious bite.


Travel Form - This makes you go super fast. In the 29 bracket, people have mounts so it isn’t super overpowered, however it’s great for outrunning people.


Feral Instinct - Just makes it harder for people to catch you out of stealth.


Primal fury - Whenever one of your abilities crits(excluding damage over time abilities) that attack generates an extra combo point. This is super helpful for getting to 5 combo points faster.
 
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Talents


Feral’s have 3 talent choices.


Lunar Inspiration - I use lunar inspiration 95% of the time. Lunar Inspiration allows you to cast moonfire in cat form for only 35 energy. Not only is it a super powerful dot, but it’s also a great combo builder.


Blood Scent - The other 5% of the time I’ll use Blood Scent. Blood scent increases your critical strike chance by 10% increasing the chance that you’ll gain an extra combo point from abilities. I use this more in arenas if I’m running a super bursty comp. However, the 10% increase is very insignificant.


Predator - Predator renews your tiger’s fury cooldown whenever someone with your bleeds applied dies. I won’t go in depth because this talent sucks.



So now that we’ve seen all our abilities, how do we use them?


Rotations


Basic Opener


Rake > Shred > Moonfire > Tiger’s Fury> Rake > Moonfire > Rip at 5 Combo points.


A few things to keep in mind:

  1. I use shred as it has a higher chance to critically strike and therefor give me an extra combo point. If this happens, skip the moonfire after it so it’ll look like this.
Rake>Shred(critical strike)>Tiger’s Fury>Moonfire>Rip @ 5 pts.

2) Shred can be substituted with moonfire, however I like the extra burst it gives in the opener.

3) Always make sure you’re stealthed before opening on a target. REMEMBER: Casting rake from stealth stuns the target for 4 seconds!

4) After Tiger’s fury, I reapply rake and moonfire as they now will do 15% more damage. Make sure you apply your rip with tiger’s fury active for maximum damage.


After you have Rip on you main target(I usually choose a healer or squishy target) it’s time to spread those bleeds!


Here I usually just spam moonfire on as many targets as a can. Once I’ve hit ~3-4 combo points, I choose another target to apply Rake, Moonfire, and Rip to. Ideally you’ll do this when Tiger’s Fury is up, but if it isn’t feel free to just apply it without. Your goal is to spread as many bleeds around as possible.


Burst Opener


Rake>Moonfire>Shred to 4 combo points>Tiger’s fury>moonfire>Ferocious bite at 50+ energy.



The only time I use ferocious bite is in duels, 1v1s (when the target already has full bleeds on them), on a target below 20% health or on a flag carrier with a lot of stacks. Again, you’re better off putting bleeds on everyone than biting.


Remember that you should wait until you’re at 50+ energy to bite as it will do 100% increased damage. Add the Tiger’s Fury 15% damage increase and maybe even a Berserker buff damage increase and you’re good to go.


Other Helpful Tips


I see feral bleeds as priority based.


Rip(5 combo points) > Moonfire > Rake.


Pretty much, when I’m not applying Rip, I’m spamming moonfire. When I am applying Rip, I’ll make sure to sneak a Rake in there for extra dot damage but it isn’t mandatory. However, moonfire is.


Using Shadowmeld.


A great trick is using shadowmeld, re stealthing and then using rake to stun your target. This is great to save yourself from dying or to peel for other people. So it looks something like this


Shadowmeld>Wait a tiny bit to restealth>Prowl>Rake


Using War Stomp


War Stomp can also be added to your opener to add additional CC.


Rake>Shred>Moonfire>War Stomp>Tiger's Fury>Rake>Moonfire>Rip


Duels

Feral dules are pretty easy.


I’d recommend staying in stealth, ranging your target and just spamming moonfire until you have 5 combo points. After that use tiger’s fury, ferocious bite and one shot your target.

I usually use this method versus DPS specs.


For Healers, I use the same basic opener at the top, run away for a restealth, and then use the aforementioned ferocious bite duel method.


Another thing I like to do(which for some reason really triggers people) is to apply bleeds, LoS my target and get a restealth. Dash can also be a super helpful ability for getting away and getting to these LoS spots.


For outside of Orgrimmar, I use the hut (Pirpir’s hut) with the quest NPCs and run around it until I’m able to restealth.

http://imgur.com/a/7M6OC



For Goldshire, I use the Blacksmith and use the inside and outside to line.

http://imgur.com/a/qcUw1
 
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Macros


There are a few helpful macros for Feral.


Focus Moonfire


#showtooltip

/cast [@focus] Moonfire


Allows you to cast moonfires more efficiently without having to tab through different targets. I don’t use this a ton but it’s nice to have.


Focus Roots


#showtooltip Entangling Roots

/cast [@focus] Entangling Roots


Casts roots on your focus.


Focus Rake


#showtooltip Rake

/cast [@focus] Rake


Casts rake on your focus. Helpful for applying bleeds as well.


Focus Rip


#showtooltip Rip

/cast Rip [@focus] Rip


I think you get the idea by now.


Troll Macro


/violin


Just to mess with people ;)


Mouse Over Regrowth.


#showtooltip Regrowth

/use [@mouseover,help,nodead][help,nodead][@player] Regrowth


Casts Regrowth on the target you’re moused over. You can also hover your mouse over their unit frame to heal them. Please off heal!


Spam Stealth


#showtooltip Prowl

/cast [nomodifier] !Prowl

/cancelaura [modifier] Prowl


This macro will allow you to spam your stealth button without the fear of accidentally putting yourself out of stealth.


Cancel Stealth


#showtooltip Prowl

/cancelaura Prowl


Cancels Stealth for when you need to get out.


Spam Rake


#showtooltip

/cleartarget

/targetenemy

/cast Rake


This macro is really helpful for getting people out of stealth. I usually have this bound to a separate key than my usual rake. Simply put, if you hit this a lot(I have this bound to Shift MouseWheel Up/Down) it will cast rake on someone the millisecond they pop up.


Conclusion


I think this about does it for the feral guide. If I missed anything it’d love to add it. Feel free to message me in game or in the comments if you have any questions. Have fun!
 
Return of the feral
 
I think your overstating the strength of rip and understating the strength of bite.....24 seconds in this meta is to long for the payoff save a few specific circumstances
 
Wil said:
Predator - Predator renews your tiger’s fury cooldown whenever someone with your bleeds applied dies. I won’t go in depth because this talent sucks.
Click to expand...
no it is not. it is the best talent to get due to massive energy starvation at 20.
I see why all the boomy rerollers would hate it.
anyway. 33% buff can only mean one thing - time to play something else.
 
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