Utolsó módosítás programmer, ekkor: 2014.06.23.
In this article, we list your Feral Druid (WoW 4.3) core abilities and how they should
be used together (rotation). We also explain when to use your various
cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that playing
a Feral Druid will face you with.
The other articles of our Feral Druid guide can be accessed
from the table of contents on the left.
1. Basic Single Target Rotation↑top
The Feral Druid DPS rotation revolves around keeping up various buffs and
debuffs, while generating Combo Points and using them on Finishing Moves.
- Combo Point builders (by order of priority)
- Use
Mangle
- only to keep up the bleed damage increasing debuff (if no one else is providing
it).
- Use
Rake
- only to keep 100% uptime on the bleed effect that it applies (every 15 seconds).
- Use
Feral Charge+
Ravage
- so that you cast Ravage under the effect of a
Stampede proc.
- Use
Shred as your default Combo Point builder.
- If you cannot attack the boss from behind,
Mangle becomes your default Combo Point builder.
- Finishing Moves (by order of priority)
- Apply and maintain
Rip (with 5 Combo Points).
- When the target is below 25% health (or 60% health, if you have the
2-part Tier 13 set bonus),
use
Ferocious Bite to refresh
Rip. Use Ferocious Bite with 5
Combo Points preferably, unless Rip is about to wear off.
- Apply and maintain
Savage Roar (preferably with 5 Combo Points).
While this rotation is correct and, for the most part, complete, it is hard
to understand how to put it in practice. For this, we strongly suggest that you
read our detailed section.
2. Multiple Target Rotation↑top
When you are facing 2 targets, try to maintain
Rip and
Rake up
on both of them. If you are facing 3 or more targets, simply use
Swipe.
3. Faerie Fire↑top
If no one else is providing the armor debuff granted by
Faerie Fire,
then you should keep this debuff up yourself.
4. Cooldowns↑top
You have two DPS cooldown:
Tiger's Fury, which increases your physical damage done by 15% for 6
seconds, on a 30 second cooldown. It also grants you 60 Energy when used.
Additionally, it increases your Energy pool by 20 for its duration, if you have
taken the
Primal Madness talent. It should be used on cooldown.
Berserk, which reduces the cost of your abilities by 50% for 25
seconds, on a 3 minute cooldown. It also grants you 12 Energy when used.
Additionally, it increases your Energy pool by 20 for its duration, if you have
taken the
Primal Madness talent. It should be used as many times as
possible during the encounter.
Proper timing and usage of these cooldowns is very important to Feral DPS.
You can read more details about this in a subsequent section.
5. Optional Read: Mastering Your Feral Druid↑top
The above information tells you everything you need to know in order to have
highly competitive DPS as a Feral Druid. However, in order for you to truly
master the spec, there are more things that you need to understand in
detail.
5.1. Combo Points and Energy
As a DPS Feral Druid, most of your abilities need Energy to be used. Your
Energy bar has a capacity of 100 Energy and refills at a rate of 10 Energy per
second. Your energy regeneration is increased by your melee haste (Haste Rating
+ haste-enhancing buffs).
Some abilities add one or several Combo Points on your target, up to a maximum
of 5 Combo Points. Other abilities, called Finishing Moves, consume the Combo Points
on your target. The more Combo Points a Finishing Move consumes, the more powerful
its effect is. Your Combo Point generation is increased by
Primal Fury,
which causes your Combo Point generating abilities to generate two Combo Points
any time they are critical strikes.
5.2. Single Target Rotation in Detail
The DPS Feral Druid rotation is a balance of keeping up several debuffs and
bleeds on the target as well as keeping up
Savage Roar on yourself, while
continuously generating Combo Points.
5.2.1. Debuffs and Bleeds
The first two debuffs you must keep up on the target are
Faerie Fire
and
Mangle. Note that these debuffs have equivalents from other classes,
so if they are already being provided, you do not need to worry about them.
An equivalent of Faerie Fire is provided by any other Druids, Warriors,
Rogues and Hunters. Note that Feral Druids' Faerie Fire is slightly better
than other classes' because it is instantly applied at full strength
(normally, it needs to stack up to 3 times), but this benefit is very minor
and hardly worth considering.
An equivalent of Mangle is provided by Tank Feral Druids, Arms Warriors,
Subtlety Rogues and Hunters.
Once these two debuffs are taken care of, you have two other bleed effects
that you must try to have 100% uptime on the target with. They are
Rake
and
Rip.
Rake only costs Energy to apply, making it quite simple to manage.
Rip costs Energy but its strength is also dependant on how many Combo Points
it is applied with. You must always make sure that you are applying Rip with 5
Combo Points.
5.2.2. Savage Roar
Savage Roar is a self-buff that greatly increases the damage done by
your auto attacks. It costs Energy to apply, and its duration (but not its
strength) depends on how many Combo Points it is applied with. Essentially,
it makes no difference how many Combo Points you use it with, but if you can
apply it with a high number of Combo Points, it will ease the pressure on
maintaining your rotation.
You must always have this buff active on yourself.
5.2.3. What to do the Rest of the Time
When your debuffs, bleeds and self-buff are all up and do not need to be
refreshed, you will essentially be filling the time with casts of
Shred, generating Combo Points.
In addition to Shred, some Combo Points will also be generated by your casts
of
Mangle,
Rake and
Ravage, although this number is much
smaller.
5.2.4. Stampede and Ravage
Thanks to your
Stampede talent, each time you use
Feral Charge, you get an Energy-free cast of
Ravage that
also does not require stealth or for you to be behind the target.
There are two ways to utilise this mechanic:
- Always start the fight with
Feral Charge and make sure to use the
Ravage before the 10 seconds run out. Similarly, use Feral Charge (and the free
Ravage that it provides) when moving to a new target.
- Throughout the course of the fight, every time
Feral Charge comes
off cooldown, run out of melee range and charge back in. Then, make use of the
Ravage before the 10 seconds run out. This is only a DPS increase if:
- you are not out of melee range for more than 2 seconds;
- being out of melee range does not cause you to become Energy capped or to
have one of your bleeds expire.
For players still familiarising themselves with the Feral Druid rotation, we
do not advise making use of the second tactic, since it will complicate your
playstyle greatly.
If you have the
4-part Tier 13 set bonus,
each time you use
Tiger's Fury, you will receive an Energy-free
Ravage that has no stealth or positional requirement, just as if you
had used
Feral Charge. When this happens, make sure to use your free
Ravage before the buff runs out. Before using Feral Charge, make sure that the
free Ravage from a recent Tiger's Fury has been consumed.
5.2.5. When to Refresh DoTs and Savage Roar
You should try to refresh
Rip when there are 2 or fewer seconds
remaining on the current Rip. When the existing Rip is stronger than the
Rip you are trying to apply (for example, it had been cast while under the
effects of
Tiger's Fury), you will get an error message and you will not
be allowed to refresh it. In this case, simply wait until it expires fully
before reapplying it.
In a similar fashion, you should try to refresh
Rake when there are 3
or fewer seconds remaining on the current Rake. The exception to this is
mentioned in the Tiger's Fury section.
The timing for refreshing
Savage Roar is not very strict, but you
should still try to refresh it right as it is about to expire.
5.2.6. Ferocious Bite and 2-Part Tier 13 Set Bonus
Ferocious Bite is a finishing move that costs 25 Energy and deals
damage based on how many Combo Points you use it with. Its damage is
increased, by up to 100%, at the cost of extra Energy, up to 35. That is
to say, if you use Ferocious Bite with 25 Energy, it will deal its base
damage (based on how many Combo Points you have). If you use it with 60
Energy, then its damage will be increased by 100%.
Thanks to the
Blood in the Water talent, whenever you use Ferocious Bite
on a target that is below 25% health, your
Rip on the target will be
refreshed. This makes it a much more efficient way of maintaining Rip on the
target, since you are dealing damage while also refreshing Rip, for the same
amount of Combo Points. A Rip that is refreshed in this manner will have the
same power as its original application (determined by how many Combo Points you
applied it with).
The 2-part Tier 13 set bonus
allows Ferocious Bite to refresh Rip when the target is below 60% health.
Therefore, if the target is below 60% health and you have the set bonus, you
should always use Ferocious Bite to refresh Rip.
You should use Ferocious Bite with 5 Combo Points, unless
Rip will
expire before you have time to reach 5. In this case, you should just use it
with however many Combo Points you have, in order to refresh Rip.
It will prove to be a DPS gain to pool Energy to 60 before using
Ferocious Bite (provided that it does not cause your Rip to fall off), boosting
its damage.
5.2.7. Bosses That Cannot Be Attacked From Behind
In case the target you are fighting cannot be attacked from behind and,
thus, you cannot use
Shred to generate Combo Points, you should use
Mangle instead.
5.3. Detailed Cooldown Usage
How you use your two DPS cooldowns is very important to your performance
as a Feral Druid.
5.3.1. Tiger's Fury
There are several things to consider when using
Tiger's Fury:
- It should always be used on cooldown.
- Before using Tiger's Fury, make sure you have 35 or less Energy (to avoid
becoming capped thanks to the 60 Energy it provides you with).
- Use any other damage-increasing spells or abilities at the same time as
Tiger's Fury (Potion of the Tol'vir, Synapse Springs, on-use trinkets,
etc.).
- Bleed effects cast while Tiger's Fury is active will benefit from the
damage increase for their entire duration (even if Tiger's Fury runs out in
the meanwhile). As a result, you should refresh
Rake while Tiger's Fury
is active, unless the current Rake has more than 9 seconds left on its
duration. It is a DPS increase to refresh
Rip while Tiger's Fury is
active, but do not go out of your way to do this and simply refresh it
before it is about to expire.
Keep in mind that Tiger's Fury cannot be used while
Berserk is active,
but Berserk can be used while Tiger's Fury is active. In most cases, you will
want to use Berserk immediately after using Tiger's Fury.
5.3.2. Berserk
Berserk reduces the Energy cost of all your abilities by 50% while it
is active. It is a very strong DPS cooldown, allowing you to cast your
abilities more often.
You will want to use
Berserk as many times as possible during the
fight. Ideally, you should have relatively low Energy before using Berserk,
so that you do not end up capping your Energy.
Whenever possible, you should use Berserk immediately after using
Tiger's Fury.
5.3.3. Canceling Primal Madness
When the temporary increase to your Energy pool from
Primal Madness
runs out, not only will your Energy pool return to 100, but you will also lose
20 Energy.
To avoid losing Energy this way, it is essential that you use a macro to
cancel the Primal Madness buff when you are low on Energy (ideally at 0, but
this is hard to achieve so anywhere under 20 is fine).
The following macro works well:
- /cancelaura Primal Madness