Feral Druid

Levelling

ForeverDB's levelling guide has you level in Bear Form from 10 to 20, with Maul on one mob and Swipe on two or three. Cat Form arrives at 20 with only Claw and Rip. Once Shred and Rake arrive (22 to 24), Cat kills single mobs well while Bear handles packs. Wowhead's level 20 tank guide warns that before 20 most of your damage comes from auto-attacks and Thorns. It adds that Thorns snapshots your spell power, so a spell power set is worth carrying. Icy Veins' levelling guide rates Feral among the best levelling specs and looks ahead to 40, when Berserk lets a Dire Bear bite three mobs at once.

Talents

Primal Bite needs Savage Fury at 2/2, and Shifting Power needs Shredding Attacks at 3/3. ForeverDB's solo "cat and bear" build at 30 skips both, because Shred needs you behind the mob. Wowhead suggests Improved Shifting Power in place of Leader of the Pack. WoWSims also offers a 9/42/0 "Hybrid" preset for both forms; see the hybrid builds page.

Cat Form: guides against WoWSims

At 20 to 30 the guides agree on the shape:

• Wowhead (level 30 DPS): Shifting Power below 50 Energy without Clearcasting. Rip at 4 or 5 combo points on a target that lives 6 seconds or more, never refreshing an active one. Then Rake, Faerie Fire if missing, Shred, or Claw from the front, and Faerie Fire again to fish for Clearcasting. Dungeon trash dies fast, so Rake early and Rip rarely.
• Icy Veins: Shred to build and Rip on targets that will live. Shifting Power on cooldown below 60 Energy, and Clearcasting on Shred. Rake matters less because it may not beat Shred.
• ForeverDB: solo, Rake, Claw to 4 or 5 points, then Rip. In a group, Rake, Shred to 5, then Rip.

WoWSims' default "Monocat" APL at 60:

1. Stay in Cat Form.
2. Use Berserk together with the next Rake, or with a Shred if Rake is up.
3. Night Elf Elune's Light when Berserk is more than 15 seconds away; Thistle Tea at 20 Energy or less; a mana potion when it won't overfill.
4. With Clearcasting, Shred (Claw if you can't).
5. Rip at 5 combo points if it's missing and at least 10 seconds of fight remain.
6. Rake if it's missing and at least 6 seconds remain.
7. Ferocious Bite only at the end of the fight.
8. Shifting Power below 50 Energy (below 40 with Clearcasting).
9. Shred (Claw from the front), unless you're saving Energy for a bleed about to drop.
10. Innervate yourself when mana runs short.
11. Faerie Fire to fish for Omen of Clarity when starved of Energy.

The other WoWSims lists change one thing each:

• Pounce and Ravage: Prowl before the pull and open with Pounce or Ravage.
• Shadowmeld (Night Elf): Shadowmeld into Ravage mid-fight whenever it's ready.
• Energized (High Order Skyborne): Read Leyline for mana in place of Elune's Light. The preset notes this is worth only 0 to 4 damage per second.
• Bearweave: when Energy is 20 or less and Primal Bite is ready, drop into Dire Bear Form for Primal Bite and Maul, then shift back, as long as spare mana allows. It needs the Primal Bite talent, and the preset pairs it with 45-second fights.
• "Adaptive racials and Sapper": opens with Berserk and Ravage from Prowl, pools 60 Energy for later Berserks and fits Sapper Charges, grenades and racials into idle moments.

Where they differ: the Shifting Power ceiling (50 for Wowhead and WoWSims, 60 for Icy Veins; Blizzard says it grants 40 Energy), Rake (low priority for Icy Veins, kept up by everyone else) and Rip (4 or 5 points in guides, 5 in the simulator). Blizzard reworked Furor to stop banking Energy in Bear Form. WoWSims' bearweave instead fills Energy-starved moments with bear attacks, at a mana cost.

Bear Form: guides against WoWSims

• Wowhead (level 30 tank): pull with Faerie Fire. Keep Demoralizing Roar up, use Primal Bite whenever it's ready, Swipe for packs and Maul as the single-target Rage dump.
• ForeverDB (PvE guide): Enrage before the hits land, since it cuts base armour by 27%, then Feral Charge a caster, Demoralizing Roar and Swipe, with Maul on the main target. Blizzard roughly doubled Primal Bite's threat on 1 October.
• Icy Veins: Primal Bite is your main spender and Swipe your pack tool. Maul replaces an auto-attack, so it costs more than it looks. Spend Clearcasting on Primal Bite.

WoWSims' Bear APL at 60:

1. Berserk when Demoralizing Roar is up and Primal Bite is at least 4 seconds from ready (Elune's Light alongside).
2. Frenzied Regeneration below 20% health.
3. Refresh a five-stack Lacerate with 1.5 seconds or less left.
4. Demoralizing Roar if it's missing.
5. Primal Bite.
6. Lacerate.
7. Maul whenever you have 20 Rage.

The single-target list has no Swipe: at 60, Lacerate takes over as the filler, as Icy Veins' levelling guide expects. Nobody could test it in the level 30 beta.

Stats, gear and consumables

• Weapon: both forms swing at fixed speeds with your weapon's damage per second, so weapon speed doesn't matter (Blizzard, Icy Veins). Wowhead and Icy Veins both name the Manual Crowd Pummeler from Gnomeregan at 30.
• Cat weights: ForeverDB's level 30 simulator values Strength at 2.2, Agility 1.71 and hit 0.77 per point of attack power. WoWSims' level 60 weights put Agility and Strength level (about 0.58), then hit, expertise, crit and haste ratings (0.42 to 0.48).
• Bear weights: ForeverDB lists Stamina, armour, Agility, defense, Strength, hit and dodge. WoWSims' survival weights rank Stamina, then defense (0.85), expertise, Agility, dodge and armour. Its threat weights favour expertise, hit and Strength.
• Gear: Leatherworking's Brawler's pieces for Cat and Defender's pieces for Bear. Wowhead notes that the Embrace of the Viper set from Wailing Caverns turns your Cat Form into a serpent. ForeverDB says the level 40 Wolfshead Helm now adds 20 Energy to Shifting Power.
• Consumables: weightstones and sharpening stones now work in form. Icy Veins lists Elixir of Agility, Elixir of Ogre Strength and Elixir of Defense. WoWSims' level 60 Cat uses Elixir of the Mongoose, Juju Power and Might, Thistle Tea and Mighty Rage Potion. Its Bear adds Greater Stoneshield Potion, Gift of Arthas and Dense Weightstone.

Where the guides disagree or are unsure

• Out of date: Wowhead's Feral DPS overview still describes Tiger's Fury and King of the Jungle, and its level 30 tank page still mentions Tiger's Fury. Blizzard's deep dive removed Tiger's Fury, and ForeverDB records King of the Jungle's removal in the 1 October build.
• Names: Icy Veins and some posts say "Predatory Instincts" or "Primal Fury". The client calls them Natural Instinct and Blood Frenzy. Blizzard's deep dive adds to the muddle by calling the crit damage talent Predatory Strikes, the client's name for an attack power talent.
• Shred: Blizzard says its damage went up "significantly". ForeverDB's client check found rank 5 lower than Classic, while Claw and Rake rose. ForeverDB also lists Shred at 20 in its spell table but at 22 in its text.
• Above 30: Lacerate's numbers differ between ForeverDB's own write-ups (50 and 75 damage over 15 seconds). Berserk, Dire Bear Form, Ravage and the WoWSims results are projections.