PVE Feral Druid DPS Guide

Welcome to the Feral Druid DPS guide for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King 3.3.5a. In this guide, you will learn about playing a Feral Druid (Cat) in a raid. The guide includes Talents, Glyphs, Gems, Enchantments, Add-ons, Gameplay & Skill rotation tips.

Talent Tree

This is a build designed to do maximum DPS for a single target.

You have 3 points left. Spend them as wish, here are a few suggestions.
Survival Instincts & Nurturing Instinctare not a top priority in your build but can save your life on encounters where you have to absorb damage. They also make the job of your healer easier.
Improved Mangle is used only when you have to constantly swap between targets.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Savage Roar
• Glyph of Shred
• Glyph of Rip

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth
• Glyph of the Wild
• Glyph of Thorns or Glyph of Dash

Gems

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond
• Red: Delicate Cardinal Ruby or Fractured Cardinal Ruby
• Yellow:  Glinting Ametrine, Rigid King’s Amber or Deadly Ametrine
• Blue: Nightmare Tear x1

This meta gem requires 1 of each color to activate. Fill the rest of the Blue and Yellow slots with Red Gems (more info in Stat Priority section to choose between Agility and Armor Penetration).

Enchants

• Head – Arcanum of Torment
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Axe
• Cloak – Major Agility
• Chest – Powerful Stats
• Bracers – Greater Assault
• Gloves – Major Agility, Precision or Expertise
• Waist – Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs – Icescale Leg Armor
• Boots – Icewalker or Superior Agility
• Weapon – Berserking

Rotation

• Maintain Savage Roar at all times. If needed, refresh with 1 Combo Point
• Maintain Mangle (Cat). (Other Arms warriors or druids may do it)
• Maintain Rake
• Combo Points are made with Shred (but № 2, 3 are more important)
• At 5 Combo Points use Rip, if not used already
• Tiger’s Fury is used when below 30 energy. Used on cooldown
• Clearcast procs are used for Shred
• If at 5 Combo Points Savage Roar and Rip have more than 8 secs, then use Ferocious Bite
• Berserk is used when you have about 85 energy or less. Don’t use it if you don’t have energy

Stat Priority

Hit -> Expertise -> Agility & Armor Penetration -> Crit

Ferals have a standard hit cap of 8% (263 rating). It’s fine to add more gems for hit rating in the beginning, as it will have a large impact on your damage. The expertise cap is 26 (213 rating) – Primal Precision helps us to reduce the requirement by 10.

In the beginning, stacking Agility (including gems) is the best way to go and is our main stat, as it gives you Critical strike rating, Attack Power and Armor. After you have acquired better gear, and have at least a passive value of 500 Armor Penetration – it becomes the better stat. At this point, you can focus on Armor Penetration and replace Gems. The hard cap for it is 1400 rating.

Critical Strikes are important for this spec as it gives an extra Combo Point for crits, but we don’t need a 100%. A 60% Critical strike chance while being self-buffed is enough since even if we have 100%, we still need 3 crits for 5 Combo Points. This stat is gained through gear and stacking Agility, no need to focus on it.