wotlk pve feral druid stat priority
  • Author: Oxykitten
  • Date: November 9, 2022
  • Expansion: WotLK Classic
wow classic feral druid dps guide

Feral Druid DPS

Talents & Builds

Talents, Builds & Glyphs

spell nature unyeildingstamina

Stat Priority

world of warcraft races

Best Races

Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Gems, Enchants & Consumables

ability druid mangle2

Rotation & Cooldowns

world of warcraft professions

Best Professions

Gear & Best In Slot (bis)

Best in Slot (BiS) & Pre-Raid Gear

world of warcraft addons & macros

Addons & Macros

Knowing which stats provide value to your class is an important part of understanding the class you play. It also allows you to make gearing decisions independently of gear lists, which is useful to assess whether an item you’ve received is an upgrade (even if it may not be best in slot!).

However, keep in mind that stat priorities do not mean that you should completely stack one stat over another; all the listed stats provide some value to Ferals, so an optimal set will provide a balance of these stats for the most overall value. For example, while 1 Strength may provide more value than 1 Critical Strike Rating, 2 Critical Strike Rating will provide more value than 1 Strength. Therefore, it is important not only to know which stats are the most valuable, but how each stat objectively compares to the others.

The relative value of each stat can be determined through the use of simulation tools. These tools take the optimal DPS rotation and simulate thousands of encounters to compare how much DPS is added by each stat. The most up-to-date simulation tool for Feral DPS is developed by Nerdegghead and is freely available on the Druid Classic Discord — the information presented here is derived from this. The numbers from this tool demonstrate a stat’s value relative to Attack Power. For example, if 1 Strength increases your DPS by the same amount as 2.379 attack power, we give strength the value of 2.379 “Equivalency Points” (EP).

Note that these values change based on your rotation, gear, buffs and debuffs, number of targets, duration of encounter, and other factors affecting your DPS. These particular values are calculated for a “Mangle-weave” rotation on a single-target, 3 minute encounter with full raid buffs/debuffs and Phase 1 BiS gear.

Stat Priority & Value

  1. Strength (2.379 EP)
  2. Agility (2.2 EP)
  3. Hit rating (2.16 EP) not exceeding 263 rating (or 230 with HeroicPresence)
  4. Armor penetration (1.98 EP) not exceeding 1400 rating
  5. Expertise rating (1.96 EP) not exceeding 132 rating with PrimalPrecision
  6. Critical strike rating (1.87 EP)
  7. Feral attack power (1.2 EP)
  8. Attack power (1 EP)
  9. Stamina (no DPS value, but adds survivability)

Stat Explanation

Each point of strength provides 2 attack power. However, kings, sotf, and impgotw all increase your strength but not your attack power, making each point of strength as valuable as ~2.38 attack power. Overall, it’s the strongest DPS stat when bearweaving. In cat form, the DPS contribution of Strength and Agility are extremely close, and Strength provides considerably more damage than Agility when in bear form.

Each point of agility provides 1 attack power in Cat form. Additionally, it provides a small amount of critical strike chance. Overall, it is a very strong DPS stat when in cat form. In bear form, however, it does not provide any attack power, making agility weaker than strength for your overall DPS if you incorporate bearweaving into your rotation.

Hit rating reduces your chance to miss attacks and abilities by 1% per ~32.8 hit rating. This makes it quite a strong DPS stat. Players have a base miss chance of 8% against bosses, meaning that hit rating has a hard cap at which it no longer provides any value. This cap is at 8% (263 rating) — you do not need to reach this cap, but you should definitely not exceed it.

Armor penetration increases the damage of your physical attacks. It is a strong stat that gets more powerful the more of it you have. This means that at pre-raid gear levels, its value is considerably lower than later in the game. Still, it is not something that needs to be prioritised over all other stats.

Armor penetration is capped at 1400 rating, after which it no longer provides any value.

Expertise reduces the chance that your attacks are dodged or parried. When attacking from behind (as all melee DPS players should), your attacks cannot be parried. Therefore, expertise only reduces your chance to be dodged. Bosses have a 6.5% dodge chance, making the expertise cap for DPS players 26 expertise. As Ferals receive 10 expertise from the talent primalprec, 16 expertise (132 rating) will bring you to this cap, after which expertise provides no value. Expertise is slightly less valuable than hit rating because auto attacks in Bear Form (when bearweaving) do not generate rage if you miss, but do generate rage if you get dodged.

Critical strike rating is a decent DPS stat which increases the damage of your attacks as well as increasing your combo point generation through PrimalFury.

Haste rating is a decent DPS stat which increases your attack speed. It is generally weaker than other similarly-budgeted stat options for Ferals.

Attack power is the “basic” DPS stat which use to compare other stats’ values. It increases the damage dealt by all your attacks. While it is low on the list, this is mostly because attack power takes less “stat budget” than other stats. For example, if an item with 40 strength were to have Attack power instead of strength, it would likely be allocated 80 attack power. Therefore, while attack power is point-for-point low in value, it is still a good stat to have on gear.

Note that Feral attack power (the type of attack power found on weapons) is worth 20% more than attack power found on armor due to the talent PredatoryStrikes.

Stamina does not provide any raw DPS value. However, it is not worthless; having more health can allow you to survive certain mechanics, and is always a nice bonus. While it should not be prioritised over DPS stats, it is worth giving some thought to.

 

About the Author

Oxykitten

I've been an avid WoW player since Vanilla. At 6 years old, I was slowly progressing through Blackfathom Deeps and levelling up with my brothers. Since Classic Wow launched, I've found a new way to enjoy the game; participating in Feral Druid theorycrafting communities and performing well in an underdog class has been a fun challenge. I hope to be able to share all I've learned with anyone who shares that interest!
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Drog The Bog
Drog The Bog
#7812
4 months ago

Wtf is 1400 armor pen? Game has much lower values

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Drog The Bog
Drog The Bog
#7813
Reply to  Drog The Bog
4 months ago

Should post the in-game percentage instead, like under Hit Rating it says I have armor pen rating 25, which is 1.79% enemy armor reduced

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Passion
Passion(@passion)
Editor
#8522
Reply to  Drog The Bog
2 months ago

The in-game percentage is not fully representative of how Armor Penetration works and is kind of dishonest unfortunately.

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Mathelgar
Mathelgar
#8502
Reply to  Drog The Bog
2 months ago

1400 armor pen is 100% armor pen

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Passion
Passion(@passion)
Editor
#8521
Reply to  Drog The Bog
2 months ago

Roughly 15 Armor Penetration is = to 1% reduction in boss armor
1400 Armor Penetration is the hard cap, meaning you will not gain anything past this point.
Reaching that is effectively impossible currently, but in later Phases there is a lot more Armor Penetration on gear, allowing you to potentially hit 1400, even if it is only temporarily.

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