Feral Druid in Shadowlands - DPS Strengths, Best Covenants, Soulbinds and Legendaries

Shadowlands Posted 2020/11/16 at 10:38 PM by Guiltyas

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Blood Death Knight

Vengeance Demon Hunter

Demonology Warlock

Recent Changes to Feral Druidstate of articleSabertoothSabertoothRipRipSabertoothRipBerserkBerserkBerserkBerserkShredBerserkBloodtalonsRakeShredThrashLeveling PerksImproved Shred

Level 54 - Improved Shred is a perk that causes your Shred to grant an additional combo point when cast from stealth. This combined with the Berserk change that refunds up to 2 combo points when you cast a finisher will reduces finishers with a crit Shred to a single GCD in between finishers.

Berserk

Level 58 - Berserk is a perk that causes your Berserk to refund an additional combo point (2 total, up from 1) when you cast a finisher (20% chance per combo point)

Entangling Roots

Level 56 - Entangling Roots is a perk that causes your Entangling Roots to withstand 20% more damage3 before breaking, this likely won't have significant impact on gameplay, but may make it more useful for controlling mobs in certain encounters.

Improved Regrowth

Level 52 - Improved Regrowth is a perk that gives Regrowth an additional 40% increased chance of critting when the target is already affected by Regrowth, a little extra healing is always nice but this likely doesn't change too much in terms of gameplay.

Covenant Abilities

Kyrian:

Kindred Spirits - This covenant has changed a little since the initial article, in the same vein as the initial design. You still link with another member but now both members receive a "pool" of damage, containing 20% of damage dealt by each person, this pool is then spent as additional damage on each ability, or healing, or as a shield when taking damage. It's still pretty boring, but now it's complicated and boring. This ability still doesn't attribute all damage to the druid so it will appear worse on logs than it is actually performing.
Summon Steward - To add onto an exceedingly boring class ability comes an exceedingly boring Covenant ability. The main combat part of this is a flask that will heal you for a portion of your health and remove bleeds, poisons, and diseases. It also gives you access to a talent changing station and a repair bot. I think the ability is fine and it looks to be reasonably useful on a variety of fights in Nathria. It's not very interesting or fun though.
Deep Allegiance - This is Kyrian Potency conduit, it reduces the cooldown of Kindred Spirits for each rank, this is actually a downgrade from the default cooldown of Kindred Spirits as it de-syncs it from Tiger's Fury.

Venthyr:

Ravenous Frenzy - Stacking damage boost on a 3 minute CD, the Idle period can also be stacked by non combat abilities such as Soothe and Remove Corruption, also has some extremely nice quality of life, if you are CCed while the buff is ticking down it will not trigger the negative effects from being Idle.
Door of Shadows - There's been a LOT of talk about this particular covenant ability and how "gamebreaking" it is. I definitely don't agree. I think it's super overrated and has super limited combat value, especially on a spec like Feral with such high baseline mobility. There's no such thing as too much mobility but there certainly is such a thing as diminishing returns on your mobility, the more mobility you have the less you need more, and I think this lands solidly in that category (especially with a cast time attached).
Endless Thirst - This is the Venthyr Potency conduit, it causes Ravenous Frenzy to grant crit in addition to it's other bonuses for each stack you have. This is actually a pretty significant increase on the default bonus from Ravenous Frenzy.

Necrolord:

Adaptive Swarm - Fairly short CD dot/hot that also empowers your own dots/hots. Due to the way the CD and duration line up you can have 2 of these out for some multi-target value. I have the least strong feelings about this particular ability. it feels fine to play, and anything that boosts our DOT value is kind of A-okay in my book.
Fleshcraft - I actually think that this is the best covenant ability for feral. The shield is pretty large baseline and you can make it even larger. The channel time is a bit annoying but it has a really long duration. It's not super flashy but it's more interesting than Kyrian
Evolved Swarm - This is the Necrolord Potency conduit, it increases the dot damage increase from Adaptive Swarm, while this isn't bad it's not a significant increase especially compared to some of the feral specific conduits.

Night Fae:

Convoke the Spirits - This ability casts 12 spells, 8 of which are form specific spells, it has been much improved since the initial version and now plays reasonably well, it can be cast while moving which is a huge upgrade from the initial version and now feels reasonably okay to play, There is still a level of variance that can be frustrating but it is much improved, especially with the most recent change that causes convoke to cast Lunar Inspiration moonfire rather than default moonfire.
Soulshape - Much like Door of Shadows this lands in the "do we really need this much mobility" category, and we kind of don't but this particular ability is a lot more interesting (who doesn't love a collection minigame). I actually also think this has more potential combat value than door of shadows due to it's Instant nature. Baseline however the form is about as fast as Travel form, so on outside fights we won't gain that much value from the movement speed.
Conflux of Elements - This is the Night Fae Potency conduit, it increases all damage dealt during Convoke the Spirits. Again this isn't bad but it's not a significant increase compared to the feral specific conduits.

Picking a CovenantFeral Druid Soulbinds and ConduitsSoulbindsLet Go of the PastFocusing MantraPointed CourageConduitsPotency Conduits

Carnivorous Instinct - Increases the damage bonus of Tiger's Fury by a percentage depending on the rank. This is one of the better Potency conduits, though it does not really impact your playstyle.

Incessant Hunter - Grants you a chance per tick of Rip to earn additional energy with the chance scaling per rank of the conduit. This is not one of the best conduits even on AOE, and it won't really impact playstyle outside of having slightly more energy.

Sudden Ambush - With this Conduit your finishing moves have a chance per combo point spent to make your next Shred or Rake act as if cast from stealth. This gives you a proc to track that ideally you'll want to spend on Rake to maintain stealth snapshots on Rake. This is one of the best conduits for feral.

Taste for Blood - This conduit increases the damage dealt by Ferocious Bite for each bleed on the target. This is one of the best Conduits for feral, and encourages you to maintain more bleeds on the target to maximize Ferocious Bite damage.

Sudden AmbushTaste for BloodCarnivorous InstinctEndless ThirstWell-Honed InstinctsFront of the PackTaste for BloodSudden AmbushLegendariesFeral Specific Legendaries

Apex Predator's Craving - Apex predator's craving gives a chance on each Rip tick to grant a free use of Ferocious Bite. This use of Ferocious Bite will behave as if it was cast with 5 combo points and 50 energy for the maximum output. This is a pretty fun legendary to play and when combined with Primal Wrath allows you to funnel damage into targets very effectively on multi target scenarios.

Cat-Eye Curio - This legendary increases your maximum energy by 60 and refunds 25% of the cost of abilities cast with Clearcasting. This is one of the best general legendaries for feral, It's one of the best Single target choices and it's a solid Multi target choice. It's not a significant change in play, it primarily means you'll have slightly more energy to play with.

Eye of Fearful Symmetry - This causes your next 2 finishing moves after you Tiger's Fury to refund 2 combo points. This is an interesting and strong option, particularly on AOE where you get constant Predator resets, and much like Apex Predator's it allows you to funnel damage effectively.

Frenzyband - Frenzyband causes your Generators during Berserk to apply a bleed for 100% of their damage and also reduces the cooldown of your Berserk (or Incarnation). While not the most powerful legendary by itself when combined with Incarnation it can be very competitive!

General Legendaries

Circle of Life and Death - This is the legendary that you might have seen referred to as "JW" or "Jagged Wounds" this is because it's designed around a Feral talent removed during BFA that functioned in the same way. This is both an interesting and a strong option, competitive on single target and with some covenant selections the best on multi target. It changes your rotation a decent amount, and is particularly interesting with Sabertooth where it really fullfills the fantasy of racing the clock on your bleed durations.

Draught of Deep Focus - is the other general legendary option that may see use. While not as interesting as Circle it's a powerful option on pure single target, with the disadvantage of course being that it only works on single target.

Picking a LegendaryMythic+: Cat-Eye CurioCircle of Life and DeathRaid: Cat-Eye CurioDraught of Deep FocusConclusion - State of Feral in Shadowlands?SabertoothBerserkBerserkFerocious BiteFerocious BiteSabertoothSabertoothRipRipFerocious BiteFerocious BiteRipSabertoothRipSabertoothRipSabertooth

Comment by StoneLegionCool I will go through this once I hit 50+, I'm finding feral druid not so snappy like other classes when soloing and leveling.Comment by akaRavenIncrease Rip by 60 seconds ey? I'll take that!Comment by AilwufulI'm sure anyone following the discourse around Shadowlands will be aware of some of the issues that people have raised with the wide system so i'll avoid harping on about it past this one statement, not being able to swap covenants at all is an awful system that actively punishes anyone who wants to participate in multiple aspects of the game with almost no redeeming benefit. It is awful and it should change.Comment by KryptariaFeral is the one spec I haven’t really touched since Vanilla. I’m glad to hear the early problems have been addressed, for the most part. Sounds like it could be a good time to give it a try. Thank you!Comment by BrawmYou know I think this is a great snap shot of the state of Feral's in WoW. I like to joke that there are ONLY 4 people who still play Feral. I check Wowhead and see this post.......4 comments. Now while this tickles my funny bone. It also kinda reinforces my thinking that Feral's have been so mistreated and ignored for so many expansions that really only the most diehard of the diehard still play the spec seriously. I know there are honestly allot of people who would love to play Feral as their mains. But the honest truth is any time the spec starts to succeed and really do well, it's not long before it gets nerfed into the dirt. Feral's share a similar roller coaster with Ret paladins and DPS shamans. Any time a hybrid DPS starts to top pure DPS specs "Tuning" happens and once again the usual top dogs regain their spots. But Feral's just constantly get jerked around so much that its now got this stigma among players. I would love to see real development and effort put into Feral's but all I have to do is look back at the history of the spec and know that things really aren't likely to be different. And the arguments of why bring a Feral when you can bring a ranged Boomkin with the same tool kits is another thing hurting Feral's. Especially when Blizzard is in a phase of making some really punishing mechanics for melee DPS the last few expac's. I used to main a Feral back in MoP and I loved the spec. And if it ever gets proper tuning and love like other DPS specs then I would happily pick it up again. But the roller coaster of nerfs and buffs isn't worth the investment.Comment by IncandioA 60 second increase on Rip? Feral is viable again!Comment by AnubishamanAfter Draenor Feral is simply dirt, only because all the "pure" dps cried so much also Blizz is afraid of letting dots class be powerfull because I believe they cannot predict the level of power they can reach like affliction in Legion. But that is a lame excuse...Comment by PalewindOne thing I'm enjoying is the way that Bloodtalons actively encourages you to pool energy to make sure you you can get your three unique builders every other finisher cycle. I'm guilty of sometimes just jamming buttons and then not having pooled energy when I want it. This helps me combat one 16 years of bad muscle memory.Comment by Setsuna665still doest give a reason to bring a feral druid over a boomie. there is also no real burst dps cooldown like every other dps spec has. feral is the only spec i have played where your dps gets to a point and then it doesnt go up or down it just sits there as a consistent number. i wish blizzard didnt treat feral like $%^& but i accepted the fact it will never happen long agoComment by kaleestrazaToo right on the lack of utility. Crazy problem for a hybrid to have but here we are. The difference between playing your cat and then swapping to a rogue must be experienced to be believed. I struggled with feral feeling lackluster for years, and then rolled a rogue on a whim when I had a boost lying around, never really intending to play it much, and never looked back. It's sad. They even seem to have better self healing than us. You'd think the hybrid tax could at least make us difficult to kill.

It's like the same rotation we've had for 5,000 years is load bearing code and Blizzard just can't change it or the whole game comes crashing down.Comment by ZtinktoofDefinitely looks to have a lot more interesting legendaries compared to hunters, I'm a little jealous. 😒Comment by ZilvestramI dont see any reason to be jealous. Hunters has a class that works at core levels, whil feral/guardian doesnt work in your preferred content before you got the right legendary for that content.Comment by FarkesEven when I'm main Restoration Druid, feral is my second fave spec to play, even when it lack lot of things right now I still found it very nice to play. It would need proper tuning that I would gladly see bring feral back into better spot. People say feral is on bottom of ranking, I honestly think putting ranks on classes is very bad idea. Since it is not feral spec problem, but people who is playing the class that make feral. I'm sure there is even in BfA lot of people who played feral and are doing good. But overall anything can be good when people play it and try make best of their spec and class.Comment by KondeyCan't wait to be forced to live with the radicalized blue people and their Swedish named leader for the entire xpack with all my characters :) Apparently starting with both of my mains
Seriously who comes up with the names. Thrall's son is Durak, the angel thingy is Arbieter. If they need name suggestions I'm sure there are people who can help.Comment by WanwankoFeral : Give us Utility or DPS!
Blizzard : OK! No Utility and Low DPS! 😆
Feral : 🤔Comment by decree72Gonna play my feral again no matter its dps, and its going to be night fae, just because.Comment by DrexxauI would not consider Feral (or any druid spec) to lack utility. The toolkit is very versatile and extremely strong. Feral also has a 15s interrupt. The toolkit he brings is quite huge imho.

- Combat Res
- Melee Interrupt
- 20s Stun
- 1 Minute Stun / Mass Root
- Can Taunt / go bear (necrotic / mechanics) and actually tank for a while
- Huge defensive CDs
- Can res outside of combat
- Group speed buff
- Enrage Dispel
- Curse + Poison Dispel
- Typhoon / Tankiness / Vortext
- Single Root
- Cyclone
- Uncapped AoE potential for very big pulls
- Stealth

I don't know how this can be considered a lack of utility. Yes, other classes share some of those, but there are also a lot of specs that don't have such a versatile and big toolkit.Comment by GLCFrankyAfter Draenor Feral is simply dirt, only because all the "pure" dps cried so much also Blizz is afraid of letting dots class be powerfull because I believe they cannot predict the level of power they can reach like affliction in Legion. But that is a lame excuse...Comment by DeadprincessXTYou're right most people just play feral wrong. I'm always #1 oder 2 in terms of damage since Draenor no matter if in my own raid or pug and the people are really surprised, when they see you're NOT a boomie. :PComment by EploarI would not consider Feral (or any druid spec) to lack utility.