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Feral Combat Druid Guide for WoW Forever

Feral Druid in WoW Forever: Cat leveling to 30, plus Bear tank and Cat DPS builds at 60 with Primal Bite, Lacerate and Berserk rotations.

DruidFeral CombatLevelingPvEPvPTankDPSDungeonsRaidsSolo

By stillsixty staffUpdated

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Variants

Overview

Feral Combat is two specs in one tree. In Cat Form you are a combo-point melee damage dealer who lives behind the target, keeps a bleed running and cashes in with Rip. In Bear Form and later Dire Bear Form you are a tank with a huge health pool, more armor than anyone in leather has a right to, and a new rage toolkit built around Primal Bite and Lacerate. Bear Form comes from the level 10 class quest Body and Heart, so do it the day you ding. Cat Form is trained at 20.

Forever gives Feral the talents it never had in Classic. King of the Jungle turns Tiger's Fury into a 60-Energy refill every 30 seconds. Blood Frenzy gives Cat generators that crit an extra combo point and Bear crits extra rage. Rend and Tear adds 10% to every melee ability against a bleeding target, and Berserk at the bottom of the tree works in both forms.

The same 32 points at the core of the tree serve both roles. At 60 you pick one: the Bear build for tanking dungeons and raids, or the Cat build for raid damage. Switching between them costs a respec.

Strengths

  • The Druid's leveling spec: no mana in Cat Form, self-healing between pulls, stealth openers and 30% faster Cat Form movement.
  • One tree, two roles. A respec at 60 turns a Cat into a Bear tank and back.
  • Enormous Bear survivability: Heart of the Wild, Thick Hide, Natural Reaction and a Frenzied Regeneration that turns every point of Rage into 1% of your health.
  • Leader of the Pack gives your whole party 3% critical strike chance. It does not stack with Moonkin Aura.
  • Battle resurrection, Innervate and dispels in the same kit when you step out of form.

Weaknesses

  • Shifting costs mana and a global cooldown. Healing yourself mid-fight means leaving your form.
  • Cat damage depends on being behind the target. Shred can't be cast from the front.
  • Forever has no separate Faerie Fire (Feral), but regular Faerie Fire now works in Cat and Bear Form. The armor debuff costs a little mana.
  • No shield and no block. A Bear tanks with health, armor and dodge, so spiky damage hurts.
  • Cat Form gets only 12 Attack Power from the form itself, down from 40 in Classic. Your gear carries the damage early on.

What's new in Forever

New in Forever
  • Primal Bite replaces Mangle: a tier 4 Bear attack for weapon damage plus a bonus, 20 Rage, 6-second cooldown. New ranks arrive at 36, 48 and 60.
  • Lacerate is a trained Bear bleed from 42. It stacks five times, causes high threat and each stack adds 10% weapon damage.
  • Feral Charge (tier 3) teaches both halves: Bear charges in, immobilizes and interrupts for 4 seconds (15-second cooldown), and Cat leaps behind the target (30-second cooldown).
  • Berserk (tier 7, 3-minute cooldown, 15 seconds): Primal Bite hits up to 3 targets with no cooldown, Cat combo-point generators gain 100% critical strike chance, and you're immune to Fear.
  • Blood Frenzy (renamed from Primal Fury): Bear crits give 5 extra Rage, and Cat generator crits add an extra combo point.
  • King of the Jungle: Tiger's Fury instantly grants 60 Energy. Tiger's Fury itself is now +15% Physical damage for 6 seconds on a 30-second cooldown.
  • Predatory Instincts (+20% melee crit damage bonus), Rend and Tear (+10% melee ability damage against bleeding targets) and Natural Reaction (+5% dodge, 5 Rage on every dodge) are new.
  • Heart of the Wild gives +20% Stamina in Bear Form and +10% Strength in Cat Form. Thick Hide now adds base armor per level and per point of Defense above five times your level.
  • Frenzied Regeneration converts each point of Rage into 1% of your health. Enrage grants 10 Rage instantly and 20 more over 10 seconds.
  • Shred deals 155% weapon damage, down from 225%. Claw now scales with your weapon at 110%.
  • Omen of Clarity is baseline at 20. Furor at 5/5 now returns 100% of the Energy you had when you left Cat Form, plus 10 Energy for every second you spent out of your feral forms, up to 100 Energy. That matches what you'd have regenerated anyway, so shifting for Energy is gone.

Talents

The Cat leveling build. Ferocity makes every generator cheaper, Feral Swiftness gets you between mobs fast, and from 25 Predatory Strikes and Blood Frenzy turn Cat Form into a combo-point machine. You level in Bear Form from 10 to 19 and switch to Cat Form the moment you train it at 20.

Split 0/21/0 · 21 points at level 30 · Open in calculator

Balance

0 points

Feral Combat

21 points

Restoration

0 points

Talent order

  1. Levels 10–14: 5/5 Ferocity. At 5/5 Maul costs 5 Rage less. Claw costs 5 Energy less from 20, and Rake from 24.
  2. Levels 15–16: 2/2 Feral Swiftness. +4% dodge and, from 20, 30% faster Cat Form movement. Less time walking is more time killing.
  3. Levels 17–19: 3/5 Heart of the Wild. +12% Stamina in Bear Form, and +6% Strength in Cat Form when you get it.
  4. Levels 20–21: 2/2 Sharpened Claws. +6% critical strike chance in Cat and Bear Form. It also unlocks Blood Frenzy.
  5. Levels 22–23: 2/2 Savage Fury. +10% damage on Claw, Rake, Shred, Maul and Swipe.
  6. Level 24: 1/1 Feral Charge. The Cat leap puts you behind the mob for a Shred (30-second cooldown), and the Bear charge interrupts and immobilizes a caster for 4 seconds (15-second cooldown).
  7. Levels 25–27: 3/3 Predatory Strikes. Attack Power equal to 150% of your level in every feral form: 45 Attack Power at 30.
  8. Levels 28–29: 2/2 Blood Frenzy. Every generator crit adds a second combo point, and every Bear crit adds 5 Rage.
  9. Level 30: 4/5 Heart of the Wild. +8% Strength in Cat Form.

Flexible points

  • Doing a lot of dungeons as a tank? Take 3/3 Thick Hide instead of the three Heart of the Wild points at 17–19. It raises your Bear armor at every level.
  • If you never use Feral Charge, spend that point on the fifth rank of Heart of the Wild and take Feral Charge back when you start grouping.

Races

Best races

Alliance: Night Elf. Elune's Light gives +10% critical strike chance for 15 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown. In Cat Form, use it between Berserks: Berserk already makes every generator crit, so Elune's Light adds little to your generators there (it still helps Ferocious Bite), while outside it the extra crit turns more Shreds into two combo points and lands more Ferocious Bite crits. In Bear Form, save it for a big pull: every crit is 5 more Rage through Blood Frenzy. Quickness adds 1% dodge and makes you harder to spot while you Prowl, and Shadowmeld discourages enemies from attacking you in combat (2-minute cooldown in combat).

Horde: Tauren. Endurance gives 5% more health on top of Heart of the Wild's Stamina, and +1% hit for Cat and Bear alike. War Stomp stuns up to five enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds, an emergency button for any dungeon pull that goes wrong.

Skyborne on either faction. They need a Heroic or higher Forever pack. Wind Blessed gives 1% Haste, and Elemental Insight adds 5% damage against Elementals. Solid for Cat, but Night Elf and Tauren bring more to both roles.

All playable races

  • Night Elf: Elune's Light, Quickness, Shadowmeld, Wisp Spirit.
  • High Order Skyborne (Alliance, new): Wind Blessed, Elemental Insight, Read Ley Line for double health and mana regeneration, and Walk on Air to glide for 10 seconds.
  • Tauren: Endurance, War Stomp, Cultivation to grow a duplicate of an herb once per herb, and Plainsrunning for up to 30% more movement speed while you keep moving.
  • Windshaper Skyborne (Horde, new): Wind Blessed, Elemental Insight, Walk on Air and Skysight for 10% more movement and mounted speed.

Rotation

Levels 10–19: Bear Form

Bear Form, Maul and Growl come from the level 10 class quest Body and Heart (Alliance) or Body and Heart (Horde), not the trainer. See the Druid leveling guide for the full chain.

  1. Pull with Wrath or Moonfire from range, then shift into Bear Form as the mob runs in.
  2. Cast Demoralizing Roar on every pull with two or more mobs. It cuts their Attack Power for 30 seconds.
  3. Spend Rage on Maul. It costs 10 Rage once Ferocity reaches 5/5 at 14.
  4. From 12, use Enrage on the pull to start with Rage. It lowers your armor, so skip it when you pull three mobs.

Levels 20–30: Cat Form

  1. Approach in Prowl. From 24, use Feral Charge to leap behind the mob.
  2. From 22, open with Shred from behind. From 24, open with Rake when you can't get there. Before 22, open with Claw.
  3. Build combo points with Claw (40 Energy with Ferocity). Train Claw at 28.
  4. Finish with Rip (rank 2 at 28) at 3 or more combo points on a mob with most of its health left. On a mob that's almost dead, keep Clawing: Rip deals its damage over 12 seconds.
  5. From 24, use Tiger's Fury whenever it's ready. It's +15% Physical damage for 6 seconds and costs nothing.
  6. Clearcasting from Omen of Clarity makes your next ability free. Spend it on Shred or Claw.

Healing and downtime

  • Heal between pulls, not during them. Shift out, cast Rejuvenation and Regrowth (Rejuvenation and Regrowth at 30), and eat while they tick.
  • A pull gone wrong: shift into Bear Form for the armor and health, and Bash the mob to buy a second. Bash at 30 stuns for longer.
  • Keep Mark of the Wild and Thorns on yourself (Mark of the Wild and Thorns at 30). Thorns damages every mob that hits you (11 Nature damage per hit at rank 3), and mobs hit you in melee all day.
  • Dash at 26 and Travel Form at 30 get you between quest objectives.

Stat priority

Cat leveling

  1. Agility
  2. Strength
  3. Stamina
  4. Critical Strike

Cat Form gives you Attack Power equal to your Agility, and Agility also adds crit chance and dodge. Strength adds Attack Power in every feral form and gains 8% from Heart of the Wild at 30. Stamina keeps long pulls safe, and crit feeds Blood Frenzy from 28.

Gear

Armor and weapons

Take leather with Agility and Strength first, then Stamina. Druids use staves, maces, daggers and fist weapons. A two-handed staff or mace with Strength and Agility is your best leveling weapon, and quest rewards replace it every few levels.

What to skip

Skip caster gear once you're in Cat Form. A Spirit or Intellect piece only helps the heals between pulls, and a better food buff does that job for free.

Professions

Leatherworking and Skinning is the Feral pair. You kill beasts all the way to 60, and Skinning turns every one of them into leather. Leatherworking crafts the Wolfshead Helm, a level 40 helm that adds 20 Energy to Tiger's Fury and 5 Rage to Enrage.

Herbalism and Alchemy is the raid pair: Alchemy makes your Mongoose elixirs, Flasks of the Titans and healing potions. Tauren can also Cultivate a duplicate of an herb, once per herb.

For gold, keep Skinning and add Herbalism or Mining. Cat Form and Prowl let you reach nodes past mobs other classes have to fight.

Group play and dungeons

As a tank

  • Pull with Feral Charge on the caster. The charge carries you to it, and the 4-second interrupt and immobilize keep it from casting or running while the rest of the pack comes to you.
  • Mark your kill order. Primal Bite and Lacerate hold one target hard. Swipe holds the rest, three at a time.
  • Bash stops a dangerous cast. Tauren War Stomp stops five mobs at once.
  • Keep Demoralizing Roar up. Every pack hits you for less.

As a Cat

  • Leader of the Pack raises your party's crit chance by 3%, and it does not stack with Moonkin Aura. Stand in the melee group.
  • Stay behind the target. Shred and Ravage only work from behind.
  • Cower when you pass 80% of the tank's threat.

In either form

  • Rebirth the healer or tank mid-fight. It's a 30-minute cooldown and needs a seed reagent (Ironwood Seed at 60).
  • Innervate your healer when they run low on a long fight.
  • Remove Curse clears one Curse or Bane, and Abolish Poison cures poisons over 8 seconds.
  • Mark of the Wild lasts an hour now. Buff everyone at the start of the run.

PvP

Cat Form is a strong duelist. Open with Pounce from Prowl, Shred during the stun, and leap back behind the target with Feral Charge when it turns and the 30-second cooldown is ready. Every shapeshift frees you from Polymorph and snares, so a Cat that shifts to Bear and back walks out of every root and snare. Save Dash to close the gap on a runner or to escape one you can't win.

Tips

Frenzied Regeneration is a full heal

Frenzied Regeneration turns each point of Rage into 1% of your health. Pool Rage before a big hit, then press it: 100 Rage spent is your whole health bar back over 10 seconds.

No more powershifting

Furor at 5/5 returns 100% of the Energy you had when you left Cat Form, plus 10 Energy for every second out of your feral forms, up to 100. That's what you'd have regenerated anyway, so shifting out and back gains nothing and costs mana and global cooldowns. Tiger's Fury is your Energy cooldown.

Rend and Tear needs a bleed. Keep Rip or Rake on the target as a Cat, and Lacerate as a Bear. It adds 10% damage to every melee ability.

Train Lacerate at 42. Primal Bite gets new ranks at 36, 48 and 60. These are your threat as a Bear.

Berserk is a threat cooldown too. On a big dungeon pull, Berserk in Bear Form makes Primal Bite hit three mobs every global cooldown.

Heal before the pull, not during it. A Rejuvenation between mobs costs one global cooldown. A Healing Touch in the middle of a fight costs your form, your Rage and the tank's patience.

Macros

One button for your stealth opener and your main generator: Ravage from Prowl, Shred once you're in combat.

Ravage or Shred
#showtooltip
/cast [stealth] Ravage; Shred

Growl your mouseover target, or your current target if you have none. Pick up loose mobs without losing your kill target.

Mouseover Growl
#showtooltip Growl
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Growl

Maul that also starts your auto-attack, so a Maul is never queued on a swing that isn't coming.

Maul
#showtooltip Maul
/startattack
/cast Maul

Shift out of any form and Regrowth your mouseover target, or yourself if you have none.

Emergency Regrowth
#showtooltip Regrowth
/cancelform [form]
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][@player] Regrowth

Innervate your focus target, or yourself. Set the healer as focus before a long fight.

Focus Innervate
#showtooltip Innervate
/cancelform [form]
/cast [@focus,help,nodead][@player] Innervate

Changelog

  • Guide published with Level 30 Cat leveling, Level 60 Bear Tank and Level 60 Cat DPS builds.

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