AlbinoCow
Vaco Del Blanco
F2P Feral Guide - Tactics + Strategy (in progress)
WORK IN PROGRESS
This guide will cover all the basics of f2p feral druid pvp. However, it will go more in-depth into the techniques and more complicated questions that pop up after one has already become accustomed to how ferals work.
Table of Contents
1. Intro
Glossary:
ToT - Top of Tunnel, the area above each faction's tunnel in Warsong Gulch
CD - Cooldown, a spell that has a required time before you are able to use it once again or can be used to describe the period of time it takes until the the spell is able to be used again
GCD - Global Cooldown, the period of time implemented before you are able to use another spell / ability which is also affected by Global Cooldown
EFC - Enemy Flag Carrier, the enemy player who is holding your flag in Warsong Gultch
LoS - Line of Sight, term used when you are out of range (usually from material objects rather than distance) of a player's spells / moves
PET- Poison Extraction Totem
CP - Combo Point, the resource for finishers
2. General
Spells and Abilities:
Moonfire - Should be used solely to keep classes who can stealth from stealthing. In rare occasions it may be used to kill off an enemy who is not in your melee range or to stay in combat but have nothing to keep you in combat in your melee range. Rather than using a GCD to get into bear form, then taunt, you can moonfire directly out of cat form to make sure you stay in combat quickly
Rejuvenation - Your only healing ability as a feral. Since feral's mana regen in combat is quite poor, using this spell to heal allies (unless necessary) is not advisable if you are in combat. Once you are out of combat, with a long relief from any incoming enemies, this spell should be used to top off any near allies. This spell can also be used to stay in combat but since it uses nearly double the mana of moonfire, it isn't as efficient. Also, to stay in combat using this spell the target you heal must be in combat, which may not always be available. An intresting note to keep in mind is that you are able to cast rejuvenation on an ally in combat and, if you are out of combat yourself, stealth before entering combat because you healed him/her. This will allow you to be in combat and stealthed (no rogues can sap you for a limited time), and allow for you to get off a rejuvenation on an ally but still be stealthed. Obviously this isn't a gamechanging tactic, but its something to keep in mind and you don't lose much if anything since stealth is off GCD
Ferocious Bite - Pretty flat forward ability, use this as a finisher to kill an enemy. If you suspect you will not kill the target with this ability, or with additional teammates in a matter for ~6 seconds, then use rip instead. Many people will tell you wait till you have 50 energy to use this ability, even if you need to do that damage immediately to kill your target. Well that isn't really the case at all. If you still want the max bonus damage given by the additional 25 energy consumed upon use, you can use ferocious bite at ~45 energy. This is because the initial 25 energy base cost of the ability is used immediately, however the bonus consumed energy is taken around .5 seconds after using the ability. If used at ~45 energy, the first 25 energy will be consumed, then as time passes your energy will renew and by the time it consumed all your additional energy you will have had 25 energy. THIS ABILITY SHOULD NOT BE USED ON TARGETS THAT DO NOT NEED YOUR ADDITIONAL BURST DAMAGE TO KILL. Keep all combo points on targets as often as you can, instead of using ferocious bite you can shred or mangle and still get the kill in
Mangle - One of your 3 ways to gain CPs, should be used on targets you don't need to burst at the time and need CPs on. There is also a bear form version of mangle, which has a cooldown but no required energy use. Rarely one could use that when your energy in cat form is low / zero and you need to finish off an enemy. The bear form version actually his decently and shouldn't be ignored.
Prowl - Your stealth ability, keep in mind that feral has a passive that gives them increased stealth. Although this doesn't make it impossible for most players to see you, it helps. Some pretty obvious ways to avoid being caught in stealth is to stay behind where a target is facing. You don't have to be directly behind him/her but as long as they aren't facing you at any time, they will not be able to see you
Rake - Another ability used to gain CPs, this ability is not affected by armor and should be kept on your main target as much as possible. Some times that you could let rake fall off without renewing it, is if your target is low HP or whenever you feel dealing more direct burst damage is more important (like when you have a few allies who are also using some direct damage abilities). An important note to understand is that on any Guardian Druid / Prot War rake will do more damage than mangle at the same cost of energy and against geared players of those specs, rake will do more damage than even shred
Bear Form - While it seems like a simple ability that has obvious benefits, there are a lot of underlying effects bear form can really have because of its mechanics. To start with the obvious, going into this form will increase your stamina and armor by a noticeable amount, allowing you to take a lot more damage. But a side effect that many people don't think about is that when swapping forms your hp is increased through %. Too show how this % conversion is so useful for any non-guardian spec druid is simple. Well take 2k out of bear form druid, and say in bear form he has 2.5k hp (simple numbers for sake of understanding). So he goes bear form and takes 1k damage, leaving him at 1.5k hp or 60%% hp. If he goes back out of bear form he then will have 60% of 2k, which is 1200 hp, meaning he effectively took 800 damage from start to finish. So not even counting the damage mitigation bear form placed on the incoming damage, there was a 20% reduction of the incoming damage compared to if you were staying in non bear form the whole time. Now the % is based on the difference in hp by your bear form and non bear form. To find out how much damage reduction % you personally would have, go into bear form and divide it by your non bear form hp. However a side effect is that heals on you will be that % lower once you go back to non bear form. So, staying in bear form outside of times where incoming heals > incoming damage is actually pointless (of course you have to consider the physical damage mitigation difference). Generally I stay in bear form to mitigate the initial burst of incoming damage, as most healers in this bracket do not pre-heal (healing a target because you see he / she is about to take some damage), but if i judge that the incoming heals are equal or greater than the incoming damage ill just go cat form to continue doing dps. Important times not to stay bear form is after any incoming damage has ended and your healers are trying to top you. Unless you are going to take more damage immediately or soon after, your gimping your healers and making them work harder to top you off
Growl - This spell can be used to stay in combat and keep an enemy in combat, however it requires to be in bear form which would take a gcd and isn't always the best thing to do for kiting. Also used to taunt hunter pets off targets like your rogues, healers or someone who is about to die from that hunter pet. However, a taunt on a hunter pet only works for as long as the hunter doesn't "tell" it to attack the target again, or a different target. Also if you taunt it and the target it was orginially attacking stealths or dies, the pet AI ( artificial intelligence) will automatically attack you next. This could be overridden if the hunter "tells" the pet to attack a different target meanwhile or if you stealth / die or gain enough distance compared to where the pet is located. That is just something to keep in mind, sometimes you will taunt a hunter pet and it'll come back to bite you in the butt and annoy you for a few seconds even after it has left from the initial taunt. Growl cannot miss, so while you should already have spell hit cap, you don't have to worry about growl missing if you don't
Entangling Roots - An essential spell for any feral, especially if you are not using wild charge. This spell can be used offensively as well as defensively. To use it offensively you would use it to root targets fleeing quickly (like a paladin who used Speed of Light, or a mounted target). It has a 35 yard range and because it is casted, there is certain margin past the maximum distance a target can pass within the last milliseconds of the cast and it will still go off instead of being "out of range". Getting used to this margin and using it can really give you an edge on catching mounted / fast moving targets, that many other people do not have. If timed correctly this spell can be used to stop a charging target. For example, a warrior's charge range is 5-25 yards, which means you can start casting roots before he /she is even in range to charge you. If timed right, you can root him / her mid-charge, you will get stunned immediately but he / she will be rooted and not in melee range of you. This tactic could also be done with any spell that makes the person "lose control" of their movement for a certain time (examples would be a goblin's Rocket Jump, a monk's Roll or Flying Serpent Kick, a hunter's Disengage, a lock's Demonic Leap). With an addon that tracks how far your target is from you could make doing this a lot easier. To use roots defensively, it would be used on a melee on you / your teammates, or to stop a priest from getting in range for fear if he/she is running in.
Tiger's Fury - The go-to ability for bursting. It restores 60 energy so a common use is to use it once you get 5 CPs to immediately FB after. While that may be necessary some times, most cases you should actually wait till you hit ~35 energy before using Tiger's Fury. This way you can fit in exactly 2 mangles / shreds and still have 50 energy for a bite after. So waiting nearly 3-4 more seconds will give your burst damage a significant increase in overall damage. This is important so you are not relying on FB to crit in order to do major burst. As I've mentioned before, FB should only be used if it's necessary to kill that target. Many encounters I will save my CPs and kill off the target using shred or mangle. Since it is only on a 30sec CD, generally i will use it at the start of a game just to land 5 CPs on a target, by the time i will actually need to use it again i will have 5 CPs ready and it will be off CD. Do not be afraid to use this spell on your CP builders like shred. Rip burst is similar to how FB, i like to have some starting energy so after i use rip i can mangle or shred afterwards with the 15% damage increase. All your abilities damages are increased by 15%, so re-applying rake is beneficial if you think your target will outlast the tiger's fury uptime. It is off GCD, so you can use any ability at the exact same time as it and it will gain the benefit.
Shred - Use on target's with bleeds on that you want to burst or kill.
Savage Roar -
Rip -
WORK IN PROGRESS
This guide will cover all the basics of f2p feral druid pvp. However, it will go more in-depth into the techniques and more complicated questions that pop up after one has already become accustomed to how ferals work.
Table of Contents
- Intro
- General
- Talents + Races
- Styles
1. Intro
Glossary:
ToT - Top of Tunnel, the area above each faction's tunnel in Warsong Gulch
CD - Cooldown, a spell that has a required time before you are able to use it once again or can be used to describe the period of time it takes until the the spell is able to be used again
GCD - Global Cooldown, the period of time implemented before you are able to use another spell / ability which is also affected by Global Cooldown
EFC - Enemy Flag Carrier, the enemy player who is holding your flag in Warsong Gultch
LoS - Line of Sight, term used when you are out of range (usually from material objects rather than distance) of a player's spells / moves
PET- Poison Extraction Totem
CP - Combo Point, the resource for finishers
2. General
Spells and Abilities:
Moonfire - Should be used solely to keep classes who can stealth from stealthing. In rare occasions it may be used to kill off an enemy who is not in your melee range or to stay in combat but have nothing to keep you in combat in your melee range. Rather than using a GCD to get into bear form, then taunt, you can moonfire directly out of cat form to make sure you stay in combat quickly
Rejuvenation - Your only healing ability as a feral. Since feral's mana regen in combat is quite poor, using this spell to heal allies (unless necessary) is not advisable if you are in combat. Once you are out of combat, with a long relief from any incoming enemies, this spell should be used to top off any near allies. This spell can also be used to stay in combat but since it uses nearly double the mana of moonfire, it isn't as efficient. Also, to stay in combat using this spell the target you heal must be in combat, which may not always be available. An intresting note to keep in mind is that you are able to cast rejuvenation on an ally in combat and, if you are out of combat yourself, stealth before entering combat because you healed him/her. This will allow you to be in combat and stealthed (no rogues can sap you for a limited time), and allow for you to get off a rejuvenation on an ally but still be stealthed. Obviously this isn't a gamechanging tactic, but its something to keep in mind and you don't lose much if anything since stealth is off GCD
Ferocious Bite - Pretty flat forward ability, use this as a finisher to kill an enemy. If you suspect you will not kill the target with this ability, or with additional teammates in a matter for ~6 seconds, then use rip instead. Many people will tell you wait till you have 50 energy to use this ability, even if you need to do that damage immediately to kill your target. Well that isn't really the case at all. If you still want the max bonus damage given by the additional 25 energy consumed upon use, you can use ferocious bite at ~45 energy. This is because the initial 25 energy base cost of the ability is used immediately, however the bonus consumed energy is taken around .5 seconds after using the ability. If used at ~45 energy, the first 25 energy will be consumed, then as time passes your energy will renew and by the time it consumed all your additional energy you will have had 25 energy. THIS ABILITY SHOULD NOT BE USED ON TARGETS THAT DO NOT NEED YOUR ADDITIONAL BURST DAMAGE TO KILL. Keep all combo points on targets as often as you can, instead of using ferocious bite you can shred or mangle and still get the kill in
Mangle - One of your 3 ways to gain CPs, should be used on targets you don't need to burst at the time and need CPs on. There is also a bear form version of mangle, which has a cooldown but no required energy use. Rarely one could use that when your energy in cat form is low / zero and you need to finish off an enemy. The bear form version actually his decently and shouldn't be ignored.
Prowl - Your stealth ability, keep in mind that feral has a passive that gives them increased stealth. Although this doesn't make it impossible for most players to see you, it helps. Some pretty obvious ways to avoid being caught in stealth is to stay behind where a target is facing. You don't have to be directly behind him/her but as long as they aren't facing you at any time, they will not be able to see you
Rake - Another ability used to gain CPs, this ability is not affected by armor and should be kept on your main target as much as possible. Some times that you could let rake fall off without renewing it, is if your target is low HP or whenever you feel dealing more direct burst damage is more important (like when you have a few allies who are also using some direct damage abilities). An important note to understand is that on any Guardian Druid / Prot War rake will do more damage than mangle at the same cost of energy and against geared players of those specs, rake will do more damage than even shred
Bear Form - While it seems like a simple ability that has obvious benefits, there are a lot of underlying effects bear form can really have because of its mechanics. To start with the obvious, going into this form will increase your stamina and armor by a noticeable amount, allowing you to take a lot more damage. But a side effect that many people don't think about is that when swapping forms your hp is increased through %. Too show how this % conversion is so useful for any non-guardian spec druid is simple. Well take 2k out of bear form druid, and say in bear form he has 2.5k hp (simple numbers for sake of understanding). So he goes bear form and takes 1k damage, leaving him at 1.5k hp or 60%% hp. If he goes back out of bear form he then will have 60% of 2k, which is 1200 hp, meaning he effectively took 800 damage from start to finish. So not even counting the damage mitigation bear form placed on the incoming damage, there was a 20% reduction of the incoming damage compared to if you were staying in non bear form the whole time. Now the % is based on the difference in hp by your bear form and non bear form. To find out how much damage reduction % you personally would have, go into bear form and divide it by your non bear form hp. However a side effect is that heals on you will be that % lower once you go back to non bear form. So, staying in bear form outside of times where incoming heals > incoming damage is actually pointless (of course you have to consider the physical damage mitigation difference). Generally I stay in bear form to mitigate the initial burst of incoming damage, as most healers in this bracket do not pre-heal (healing a target because you see he / she is about to take some damage), but if i judge that the incoming heals are equal or greater than the incoming damage ill just go cat form to continue doing dps. Important times not to stay bear form is after any incoming damage has ended and your healers are trying to top you. Unless you are going to take more damage immediately or soon after, your gimping your healers and making them work harder to top you off
Growl - This spell can be used to stay in combat and keep an enemy in combat, however it requires to be in bear form which would take a gcd and isn't always the best thing to do for kiting. Also used to taunt hunter pets off targets like your rogues, healers or someone who is about to die from that hunter pet. However, a taunt on a hunter pet only works for as long as the hunter doesn't "tell" it to attack the target again, or a different target. Also if you taunt it and the target it was orginially attacking stealths or dies, the pet AI ( artificial intelligence) will automatically attack you next. This could be overridden if the hunter "tells" the pet to attack a different target meanwhile or if you stealth / die or gain enough distance compared to where the pet is located. That is just something to keep in mind, sometimes you will taunt a hunter pet and it'll come back to bite you in the butt and annoy you for a few seconds even after it has left from the initial taunt. Growl cannot miss, so while you should already have spell hit cap, you don't have to worry about growl missing if you don't
Entangling Roots - An essential spell for any feral, especially if you are not using wild charge. This spell can be used offensively as well as defensively. To use it offensively you would use it to root targets fleeing quickly (like a paladin who used Speed of Light, or a mounted target). It has a 35 yard range and because it is casted, there is certain margin past the maximum distance a target can pass within the last milliseconds of the cast and it will still go off instead of being "out of range". Getting used to this margin and using it can really give you an edge on catching mounted / fast moving targets, that many other people do not have. If timed correctly this spell can be used to stop a charging target. For example, a warrior's charge range is 5-25 yards, which means you can start casting roots before he /she is even in range to charge you. If timed right, you can root him / her mid-charge, you will get stunned immediately but he / she will be rooted and not in melee range of you. This tactic could also be done with any spell that makes the person "lose control" of their movement for a certain time (examples would be a goblin's Rocket Jump, a monk's Roll or Flying Serpent Kick, a hunter's Disengage, a lock's Demonic Leap). With an addon that tracks how far your target is from you could make doing this a lot easier. To use roots defensively, it would be used on a melee on you / your teammates, or to stop a priest from getting in range for fear if he/she is running in.
Tiger's Fury - The go-to ability for bursting. It restores 60 energy so a common use is to use it once you get 5 CPs to immediately FB after. While that may be necessary some times, most cases you should actually wait till you hit ~35 energy before using Tiger's Fury. This way you can fit in exactly 2 mangles / shreds and still have 50 energy for a bite after. So waiting nearly 3-4 more seconds will give your burst damage a significant increase in overall damage. This is important so you are not relying on FB to crit in order to do major burst. As I've mentioned before, FB should only be used if it's necessary to kill that target. Many encounters I will save my CPs and kill off the target using shred or mangle. Since it is only on a 30sec CD, generally i will use it at the start of a game just to land 5 CPs on a target, by the time i will actually need to use it again i will have 5 CPs ready and it will be off CD. Do not be afraid to use this spell on your CP builders like shred. Rip burst is similar to how FB, i like to have some starting energy so after i use rip i can mangle or shred afterwards with the 15% damage increase. All your abilities damages are increased by 15%, so re-applying rake is beneficial if you think your target will outlast the tiger's fury uptime. It is off GCD, so you can use any ability at the exact same time as it and it will gain the benefit.
Shred - Use on target's with bleeds on that you want to burst or kill.
Savage Roar -
Rip -
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