Introduction
Hello I am Cheesey, and I played Feral druid in Honestly, the top Oceanic guild. I’ve played Feral on and off for a long time, but largely came to prominence in Shadowlands showcasing how other covenants were situationally stronger than Night Fae, particularly Necrolord and my ‘beekeeping’ M+ guide which included a vast amount of theorycrafting based on numerous hours of playtesting. I managed to get rank 1 logs in raid as all four covenants, when it was previously assumed only one was viable, and that kind of sums up my approach: think outside the box and get creative! It’s a video game, after all.
I enjoy both M+ and raid and will equally cover both here. You can also find me on YouTube, Twitch, and in the Druid discord.
What has changed
Midnight Pre-Patch Feral Druid Changes
Going into Midnight, Blizzard plans to heavily restrict what addons can do (particularly in combat), and naturally this was always going to have a significant impact on Feral as one of our core mechanics of snapshotting (buffing the strength on our bleed damage over time effects at the time of casting) was quite addon-reliant in order to track properly. Beyond this, Blizzard wants to simplify specs across the board, and with Feral being one of the more complex specs, we have been hit quite hard with many core abilities removed.
A few notable ones include the removal of Brutal Slash, Thrash, and Bloodtalons, which are some of the more controversial, but even then barely scratches the surface on what has been pruned for Feral, you can find the full list of changes in the official patch notes.
Notably we press fewer builders (combo point generators) than before, instead largely Shred and Swipe spamming depending on single-target or AOE, with less DOTs to track, and fewer snapshots for these DOTs. On top of this, we’ve lost a lot of customization in our class tree, with little variance in the way the spec plays based on what talents you choose.
The damage profile of the spec has been adjusted on top, with the spec a little less bursty than before as Berserk Frenzy has been removed, and Claw Rampage nerfed on AOE to now only proc per cast rather than per target hit.
Some notable additions to the spec include the optional talent Chomp, which is pretty simple but adds a little bit of engagement to the rotation (see rotation section), and we also have an AOE version of Feral Frenzy through the talent Frantic Frenzy.
It will take time to adjust to the changes, and while it may appeal to some, overall the changes are quite extreme with some of the fun gameplay loops of the spec gone or diminished. However, the spec will still have a similar ‘feel’ where you continue to maintain Rip and Rake (and snapshot these with Tiger's Fury) while weaving in Ferocious Bite, it's just a lot more barebones now with not too much more to consider.