Dcm's 19 Feral Druid Guide

Dcm

idc
Hello guys, Dcm here, and this is my Feral Druid Guide!

With the current patch of 5.0.4, there had been a series of changes, including for the druid class. This guide is to show you everything about a feral druid. Such as, gearing, talent, abilities, macros and all of that other fun stuff. You will see below, there is a table of contents to help organize the guide and make it easier for people to read. Enjoy!

Table of Contents
1. New Abilities!
2. What Was Lost
3. Gear Sets/Enchants (chardev)
4. Talent Point
5. Races



1. New Abilities!

With the new patch, druids have been graced with a bunch of new abilities!

Savage Roar This new ability is a huge damage boost. The reason why I really like this ability is because if you kill something without ending up using your combo points, this can be activated and also doesn't break stealth. Pretty nifty if I don't say so myself.

Shred This new ability is very situational to use. The reason why I say this, is because for it to do more damage than Mangle, the target would have to have a bleed on it. (Which is why Rake is up 100% of the time.) Not to mention it also costs 5 more energy.

Tiger's Fury This new ability is a very nice cooldown and also helps druid to prevent energy starvation. Since I usually use Shred to obtain my 5th combo point, I usually pop this once I'm ready to use and finish it off with a Ferocious Bite.

Also this isn't a new ability, but I feel it's good to put out there. ALL specs of druids now have their shift out of roots again! No more having to waste a trinket on Frost Nova, or Entangling Roots.

2. What We Lost
As a Feral druid, I'm happy to say that we haven't lost as much as we gained, although we still lost some spells. Well, 1 actually.

Regrowth It's somewhat of a pain for the sake of survivability, but only Restoration has this ability now. Sad to say, our only way of survival is Rejuvenation, although it's healing as been signifigantly increased.



3. Gear Sets/Enchants

As a feral druid, there are many good gear sets to go off of. The first one is what I use, due to lack of items to complete the second set. The second one is one of the best possible sets that I can put together. If anyone has any others to share, feel free to post below. Also note that chardev is not yet updated to the current patch, so the stats are off.

Feral 1

Notes: You will notice that this set, is more agility/AP over crit. The reason being is stated above, due to lack of access to items. I also feel like this is the best and easiest set to obtain that is not grandfathered. Since resistance will soon become irrelevant (The fire also being right now, because there's not many fire spell power classes right now), the new BoA staff is better due to feral druids being dependent on top-end damage for overall damage increase. (It was not put on chardev because chardev does not yet show the staff)

Feral 2

Notes: This set is more crit orientated over agility/AP. There is roughly 7% more crit for the sacrifice of 30 AP. As of right now, hitcap is 8, but I'm not 100% sure on the current stats of Dread Pirate. Right now I believe it's 4 hit, making it go perfectly with BoA helm. Burnished Warden Staff is also better than Lava Dredger.

4. Talent Point
With the release of new talents, you are only able to spec into 1 thing, which is either an ability or a benefit. Most people may have thought Displacer Beast (blink/vanish) was the best, but think again!

Wild Charge is the way to go. The reason being, is that the effect of the charge varies depending on which shapeshift form you are in.

Bear Form- Charge to an enemy, immobilizing them for 4 seconds. (Root effect that does NOT cause diminishing return on Entangling Roots. 25 yard range.

Cat Form- Leap behind an enemy, dazing them for 3 seconds. 25 yard range.

Wild Charge is possibly one of the best gap closers in the bracket byfar, with it's reasonable range and 15 second cooldown. Feral druids also automatically gain 25% movement speed in cat form, making Feline Swiftness uncomparable.


5. Races
Every race for a druid is a very good choice, which is why it's mainly personal preference.

Alliance

Night Elf
- Offers Shadowmeld (making Displacer Beast much less useful), 5% extra speed in Prowl, 1% less nature damage taken and 2% chance to dodge melee/ranged attack.

Worgen- Better of the 2 races if you are using the second chardev with max crit. Reduces shadow and nature damage taken by 1%, Darkflight (40% increased movement speed that stacks with Travel Form, Tunnel Boots, Cat Form etc.) and faster Skinning.

Horde
Tauren- Better for defensive play. Offers 1% reduced damage from nature, Warstomp (2 second AoE stun), 5% more base health and faster Herbalism.

Troll- Better for offensive play. Offers Berserking (20% faster attack/casting speed), Beast Slaying (5% increased damage against beasts; believed to benefit against other druids in Bear/Cat Form), 10% increased health regeneration and 10% health regeneration in combat, 15% reduced duratation of slows (which is useless as a druid).



In conclusion, this is my feral druid guide. I will be adding things in and editing mistakes as time goes on, screenshots etc. Thank you for reading, and I hope this helped.

-Dcm
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey DCM, did you see the new staff? Burnished Warden Staff.

Yes I have taken notice of it. :) It has roughly 17 more top end then the Lava Dredger, but since resist isn't yet out of the game the 15 fire resist would be more crucial. But it can also be switched out depending on the other team's make up.

Absolutely no point in using that over the BoA mace since you lose 15 fire resist and gain nothing.

That's not nessecarily true. It can be switched out, as said above, since most feral druid damage is dependent on weapon damage and the staff has 17 more. The stats are the same, and the weapon speed is irrelevant.

Nice guide!
Was just wondering, at the moment would you think that 100 mana would be the best enchant for the chest? Since rejuv is only 18 mana you can get an extra 5 off (10 extra mana on top of that).

Thank you! And I agree that would be a viable option, but I would switch it out with 4 stats to chest depending on how many healers are on your team or how many 1v1s you'd seem to encounter.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes I have taken notice of it. It has roughly 17 more top end then the Lava Dredger, but since resist isn't yet out of the game the 15 fire resist would be more crucial. But it can also be switched out depending on the other team's make up.






That's not nessecarily true. It can be switched out, as said above, since most feral druid damage is dependent on weapon damage and the staff has 17 more. The stats are the same, and the weapon speed is irrelevant.


Thanks sneaky. but your wrong. Feral dmg is based around weapon dmg. Which that new staff as 17 more off.

It seems as if you guys don't even know how your own class works. Weapon speed and weapon damage mean nothing (in essence) to a feral druid. The only thing that matters is Damage Per Second (i.e. DPS). Both weapons will do the exact same damage because they both have the exact same DPS. Just because one has more topend because it's slower it doesn't mean that you'll gain more topend in kitty/bear form.

Why? Simply because when you shift into one of your druid forms, it takes the DPS on the weapon and normalizes it to a set speed...which means that when you are in kitty or bear form, only the DPS of the weapon is factored into the damage. If you equip the staff in kitty form and then equip the mace in kitty form (without changing any other gear), the Damage shown (for example, Damage: 77-94) will be the same for both because they both have the same DPS.

You can research this on Google if you like...here's a link to some people explaining it on Wowhead forums:

Feral Weapon DPS - Druid - Wowhead Forums

I don't play feral druids and I've known this from since Vanilla (or early BC, can't remember).
 
It seems as if you guys don't even know how your own class works. Weapon speed and weapon damage mean nothing (in essence) to a feral druid. The only thing that matters is Damage Per Second (i.e. DPS). Both weapons will do the exact same damage because they both have the exact same DPS. Just because one has more topend because it's slower it doesn't mean that you'll gain more topend in kitty/bear form.

Why? Simply because when you shift into one of your druid forms, it takes the DPS on the weapon and normalizes it to a set speed...which means that when you are in kitty or bear form, only the DPS of the weapon is factored into the damage. If you equip the staff in kitty form and then equip the mace in kitty form (without changing any other gear), the Damage shown (for example, Damage: 77-94) will be the same for both because they both have the same DPS.

You can research this on Google if you like...here's a link to some people explaining it on Wowhead forums:

Feral Weapon DPS - Druid - Wowhead Forums

I don't play feral druids and I've known this from since Vanilla (or early BC, can't remember).

I know exactly how my class works. I can even do tests and screenshots to show you that weapon damage is dependent. All of the abilities even say "400% WEAPON damage". Animal could also help prove this. His Shadestar Mace increases his mangle damage by around 20, and I doubt that .5 DPS will be all that increases it, making the topend irrelevent.

I'm sorry, but for years, even the tooltip of many feral abilities have said "xxx% weapon damage"

I've also been sitting here explaining that weapon speed is irrelevent. I have posted it many times.
 
imo you should do some chardevs of obtainable gear too, gloomshroud armor is not reasonably obtainable and is no longer in the game.

this druid is highly complained about and WTF-over about: with easily obtainable/farmed gear

Level 19 Tauren Druid | WoW World of Warcraft Armory Profiles | Masked Armory

Yeah I see what you mean. I made a note that I used the first (agi) gear set due to easier obtainable gear. Although, I forgot that double Argas is no longer obtainable so I need to change that to the pvp ring.

Thank you!
 
As the expansion comes out and slight things change im very interested to see what you add to this guide! Very nice start!
 
What am I missing out then? Ret paladin is also capped at 6, nondraenei... capped at 3%.

Repost @ Firetree - Game Guide - World of Warcraft

My druid ends up with almost 6% hit with 10 hit (so it would probably actually be 9). With the upcomming patch I'm sure they changed hitrating for melee/hunters to 4%. Although maybe ret/prot has some kind of talent, I'm not exactly sure.. I haven't looked into paladin for quite some time now.

As the expansion comes out and slight things change im very interested to see what you add to this guide! Very nice start!

Thank you! I will most definately be making some tweaks as patches/fixes come along and when I have more free time. :)
 
I know exactly how my class works. I can even do tests and screenshots to show you that weapon damage is dependent. All of the abilities even say "400% WEAPON damage". Animal could also help prove this. His Shadestar Mace increases his mangle damage by around 20, and I doubt that .5 DPS will be all that increases it, making the topend irrelevent.

I'm sorry, but for years, even the tooltip of many feral abilities have said "xxx% weapon damage"

I've also been sitting here explaining that weapon speed is irrelevent. I have posted it many times.

Post some tests of weapons with the same DPS and different damage range.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top