Introduction
Hello, I am Cheesey and I am taking over the guide from Maymays now in season 4 while the legend takes a break and enjoys other challenges after kicking ass with Feral for so long.
I’ve played Feral and other Druid specs on and off for over a decade at this point, and currently raid in Honestly, the top Australian guild. I enjoy raiding and M+, and you can find me easily in the Druid Discord if you want to chat.
What has changed
Season 4 Changes
Patch 10.2.6 brings the return of Fated where we revisit all Dragonflight raids and dungeons, offering us a breadth of choice with items, however there are no specific changes to Feral Druid. We will be running the same tier set from Season 3, as voted by the community.
This means for now we can expect Feral to be largely the same: great single-target and burst in raid, but weaker on AoE fights, and rather mid (at best) in M+. However we can hope there may be tuning early into the season that addresses M+ viability, as that’s generally what people play Fated for.
Make sure to check out the gear section for what gear to spend your Bullions (Dinars) on!
Patch 10.2.0 Feral Druid Changes
Patch 10.2 brings a few interesting changes specific to Feral Druid, as well as the expected addition of a new Tier Set that comes along with the new Raid.
Firstly, Apex Predator’s Craving now has a 7.2% chance to proc on each tick of Rip, up from 4%. The chance now also gets reduced as the number of targets with Rip on them increases, effectively increasing its value on Single Target scenarios, reducing its value on mass AoE scenarios (where you’d currently be drowning in procs) and staying roughly equal in value in smaller AoE scenarios. The proc rate breaks even at 4 targets compared to the previous iteration.
Secondly, Ashamane’s Guidance(Incarnation) has been reworked and now makes Rip and Rake cause enemies to take 3% additional damage during Incarnation and for 30 seconds afterwards. This stacks and can go up to 6% if they have both bleeds on them.
Thirdly, Cat's Curiosity has been replaced with Saber Jaws. Saber Jaws is a fairly straightforward talent that buffs the bonus damage of Ferocious Bite when you spend more than 25 Energy on it. This Talent is reasonably strong and will see use, partly because of its synergy with our Tier Set which will be discussed later. It’s important to note that Saber Jaws does not buff the Ferocious Bites from Convoke the Spirits.
Last (but certainly not least), Innervate is now castable in Cat Form, saving us an ever-so-precious GCD whenever our healer friends decide they need it.
This time around the Set Bonus is actually rather impactful on the gameplay front and will affect the value of certain talents, as well as how you’re meant to play to maximise the output you get from it. This will be discussed in further detail in the Tier Set section. Following the 10.1.5 changes, Feral is in a very strong spot tuning-wise, so Season 3 should be a great time to be playing Feral Druid!