III. Feral DPS-ing
Feral DPS-ing is performed in Cat Form, which, in many ways, is similar to rogues. As with other Druid forms, Cats are immune to any polymorph effects, which makes them useful in fights where bosses use such spells, but they are vulnerable to hibernate-like abilities, as Cats are classified as beasts.
Cat Form itself increases Attack Power by a value equal to twice your level, which should be 160 at level 80, plus Agility.

1. Talent Builds
There are several possibilities for spending DPS Talents, though all of them focus on gaining maximum possible damage on bosses. Most variations on Talent Builds occur on Feral Instinct, Feral Switness and Improved Leader of the Pack. Regardless of how points are distributed on these three Talents, all Cats should have physical damage increasing talents, Primal precision, Eneregy cost reducing or management Talents, as well as Talents that increase Stats, Critical Strike Chance or Critical Damage.

Examples of Talent Builds:
http://eu.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml ... 0000000000 – This Build provides maximum AOE damage, as 3/3 points have been spent in Feral Instinct. However, with no point spent in Improved Leader of the Pack, it is very risky to run out of mana on fights like Faction Champions, where you may be required to use mana-using crowd control abilities. Furthermore, having only 1/2 points spent in Feral Switness, moving between around certain fights, such as Icehowl, when he uses his Massive Crash ability, can be more difficult.
http://eu.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml ... 0000000000 – This Build provides neither maximum AOE-damage bonus, nor maximum movement speed in Cat Form, but it gives 2/2 Improved Leader of the Pack, which, as stated above, is useful in fights where you need to shapeshift a lot and use a lot of mana, not to mention the minor healing provided to the entire raid. Furthermore, this Talent Build is great when solo-ing or grinding.

The above-mentioned builds are just examples, there are other possible ways of spending talents on Feral Instinct, Feral Switness and Improved Leader of the Pack. The exact Point distribution on these Talents depends a lot on player preference or situation, but one should always choose Talents that increase damage done, Critical Strike Chance or reduce Energy cots.

2. Glyphs
The following major Glyphs should be used while DPS-ing:
- Glyph of Rip
- Glyph of Savage Roar or Glyph of Mangle
- Glyph of Shred

3. Abilities and Rotation
a) Cat Form abilities
Cat Form has the following abilities:
- Berserk: When activated, this ability causes your Mangle (Bear) ability to hit up to 3 targets and have no cooldown, and reduces the energy cost of all your Cat Form abilities by 50%. Lasts 15 sec. You cannot use Tiger's Fury while Berserk is active. The Cat Form version of this ability, which reduces Energy cost of all Cat abilities by 50%, is of great use at the start of DPS sequence. I usually use it right after i put my Faerie Fire (Feral) on target, but it’s also a good idea to use it once you’ve got all debuffs and buffs active, enabling you to be more efficient on Shred. Another option is to save it for Bloodlust or Heroism, but it can be difficult to gain decent DPS at the start of the fight and it’s not always a viable option.
- Claw: Claw the enemy, causing 118 to 168 damage. This ability is great when you are low level, but later, it gets completely replaced by Mangle. The Energy cost of Claw is high, it doesen’t scale with any debuffs, rendering it useless for any PvE rotation.
- Cower: Cower, causing no damage but lowering your threat a large amount, making the enemy less likely to attack you. This is Cat’s Threat reducing ability and it should be used whenever you are high on TPS, because, as melee, overaggro means instant death, you have no time to avoid death once you have boss attacking you. Therefore, always use this ability to prevent overaggro.
- Dash: Increases movement speed by 70% while in Cat Form for 15 sec. Does not break prowling. This ability is helpful in some fights as it allows speeding to targets, making you more effectiv in encounters that require you to move a lot between targets. It becomes particularly useful when doing Sartharion with all three Drakes up, using Speed Kil strategy, when the Feral Druid needs to Dash-kite Tenebron, to prevent the tank from dying from Sartharion’s.
- Faerie Fire (Feral): Decrease the armor of the target by 5% for 5 min. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible. Deals [AP * 0.15 + 1] damage and additional threat when used in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form. This ability has the same effect as in Bear Form, except for the fact that it doesen’t deal damage in Cat Form. As with the Bear Form version, it should be used at the start of the fight, to allow more physical damage output, providing benefits to all physical damage dealers.
- Feral Charge (Cat): Causes you to leap behind an enemy, dazing them for 3 sec. Feral Charge helps in fights where you have to move a lot, like Faction Champions in Crusader’s Colliseum, though its true usefulness is most obvious in PvP situations, rather than PvE.
- Ferocious Bite: Finishing move that causes damage per combo point and converts each extra point of energy (up to a maximum of 30 extra energy) into [9.4 + AP / 410] additional damage. Damage is increased by your attack power. This is Cat’s strongest instant damage ability, benefiting from many buffs or debuffs. Bleed damage increase its chance to critically hit by 25%, due to Rend and Tear Talent. As with other Cat form abilities, it gains 30% physical damage bonus from Savage Roar. It’s worth mentioning that Ferocious Bite is best used when you have almost 100% Energy, to gain maximum damage benefit from it.
- Maim: Finishing move that causes damage and stuns the target. Non-player victim spellcasting is also interrupted for 3 sec. Causes more damage and lasts longer per combo point. While bosses are immune to stuns, there are certain encounter that require interrupts and Maim is the ability that performs this task. It’s undesirable to have a Feral DPS performind interrupts though, because their Maim requires Combo Points, a large amount of Energy, like all other abilities. Furthermore, if Tiger’s Fury is on cooldown, it’s impossible to gain Energy fast enough. All of these factors combined together will result in Cat missing most interrupts. A Feral DPS needing to interrupt will have to sacrifice all damage dealing abilities, in order to effectively interrupt certain boss abilities.
- Mangle (Cat): Mangle the target for 200% normal damage plus 566 and causes the target to take 30% additional damage from bleed effects for 1 min. Awards 1 combo point. This is ability deals a decent amount of instant damage and can be used as main attack if you prefer Mangle-spam rotation. If you are using Shred-based rotation and if there is an Arms Warrior adding Trauma on the boss all the time, or if a Feral Tank performs this task, adding Mangle yourself is useless, as that energy can be saved for other abilities, that deal higher damage.
- Pounce: Pounce, stunning the target for 3 sec and causing 2100 damage over 18 sec. Must be prowling. Awards 1 combo point. This is mostly a PvP ability, because all bosses are immune to stun and Pounce requires you to be prowling, which is impossible during a boss fight. This ability, therefore, serves no purpose in boss fights.
- Prowl: Allows the Druid to prowl around, but reduces your movement speed by 30%. Lasts until cancelled. This is Cat’s version of stealth, allowing them to sneak past some trash groups, but it can’t be used during a boss fight, therefore, this ability is not of high priority in being on the taskbar.
- Rake: Rake the target for [AP / 100 + 176] bleed damage and an additional [1074 + AP * 0.18] damage over 9 sec. Awards 1 combo point. Rake itself doesen’t provide a very high amount of damage, but it helps rotation in other ways. If you are using Tier 8 two-piece Set Bonus, you will have a higher chance of getting Clearcasts, which helps on Energy management. Also, it should be used before you start Shred spamming, because it will take time until you have all necesary Combo Points up for adding Rip. Shred benefits from Rake due to Rend and Tear Talent, providing 20% damage bonus, and from Mangle, in a similar manner to Bear Form’s Maul ability, as stated in Shred’s tooltip (Effects that increase bleed damage also increase Shred damage).
- Ravage: Ravage the target, causing 385% damage plus 1771 to the target. Must be prowling and behind the target. Awards 1 combo point. In PvE this ability is not of any use, because it consumes a high amount of Energy. It can only be used once, because the ability requires you to Prowl and you can’t do it while in the middle of a fight. Also, this ability doesen’t benefit from other debuffs or Talents.
- Rip: Finishing move that causes damage over time. Damage increases per combo point and by your attack power. This is Cat Form’s strongest damage-over-time ability and it should always be used with 5 Combo points up, to get the maximum benefit from it. As with other bleed effects, it benefits from Mangle and, due to Rend and Tear Talent, it increases damage done by Shred by 20%. Along with Savage Roar, it should be kept active all the time.
- Savage Roar: Finishing move that increases physical damage done by 30%. Only useable while in Cat Form. Lasts longer per combo point. A crucial buff that has to be kept active all the time, due to the fact that all physical damage benefits from it. When having to choose between several buffs or debuffs to replenish, Savage Roar should always be priority number one.
- Shred: Shred the target, causing 225% damage plus 666 to the target. Must be behind the target. Awards 1 combo point. Effects which increase Bleed damage also increase Shred damage. This is the main attack for Feral DPS-ing, if you are using Shred-based rotation, the other one being Mangle. The advantage of Shred is that it can provide high damage output (as high as 10 000 Critical Hits with all buffs and debuffs active) and it scales with a large number of Talents and abilities. It benefits from Rake and Rip, as they are bleed effects, due to Rend and Tear, Savage Roar, like all other Cat Form abilities and Mangle or Warrior’s Trauma, since Shred damage is increased by abilities that increase bleed damage, in a similar manner to Bear Form’s Maul. As a result, Shred is best used when all of these buffs and debuffs are active, otherwise DPS will be too low and a lot of Energy will be wasted.
- Swipe (Cat): Swipe nearby enemies, inflicting 250% weapon damage. This is Cat’s form AOE ability. While it provides a high amount of damage per target, it uses a lot of Energy, so it’s a good idea to use it combined with Berserk and Tiger’s Fury. Before starting to actually AOE, it’s a good idea to use Rake on one random target to get 1-2 Combo Points up, then use Savage Roar and afterwards start using Swipe. If you have Tier 8 Two piece Set Bonus, it can be used in an even more effective manner, due to Clearcasts which become active quite often.
- Tiger’s Fury: Increases damage done by 80 for 6 sec. This ability should always be kept for moments when you are low on Energy. The damage bonus itself is not spectacular at all, but King of the Jungle Talent makes it of really great use, as it replenishes Energy, allowing you to continue DPS rotation.

b) Feral DPS-ing Rotations
As with all other classes, there are two main rotations, for single-target and multi-target situations.
Single-target DPS-ing rotation:
- Start with Faerie Fire (Feral) due to the 5% armor reduction. Once used, you don’t need to worry so much about it, as it lasts 5 minutes which, in most cases, is enough to cover an entire fight.
- Continue with Mangle because most other abilities benefit from it, being a crucial debuff, both for Shred and Bleed Effects, that’s why, it’s important to have it applied first, in order to get max benefit from the following abilities. Also awards 1 Combo Point, required for the following stages of the DPS-ing sequence.
- Use Rake next as it will help Shred, because Rip requires five Combo Points to apply and, in general, you need to have all types of debuffs active as soon as possible, so you can start Shredding.
- Use Savage Roar with 2-4 Combo Points (the exact number varies based on how often you critically hit) since they only affect duration of the ability and not bonus itself.
- Use Shred until you gain 5 Combo Points, but remember to make sure all the above-mentioned debuffs stay active.
- Use Rip with 5 Combo Points Up as it provides benefits to Shred, but since the duration is far greater for Rip than Rake, this debuff is far more reliable for helping Shred damage. Also the damage over time bonus provided is very high.

With all the above-mentioned abilities active, you can now fully DPS and, from now on, there is no strict rotation. Most of the time you need to Shred-spam, replenish Mangle and Rake and also get Combo Points active. When your Rip and/or Savage Roar are about to wear off, they should be reapplied, but Rip is usually better to use first, because you need 5 Combo Points for it, while Savage Roar can be used with one point too, for the short time at least.
Also, whenever possible, it’s important to use Ferocious Bite. This ability does most damage when used with over 80% Energy, as the more Energy you have, the more damage it deals. Additionally, bleed effects increase its critical strike chance by 25%.

Notices:
Due to the fact that Cat Form abilities have high Energy costs, Berserk needs to be used as well. There are various ways to do it. I tend to use it after Faerie Fire (Feral), so that i get enough Energy to place all debuffs. This enables me to save Tiger’s Fury for after Berserk wears off. Another way is to start rotation without Berserk and right before you start Shredding, use it, so that your Shred costs will be reduced for longer. However, this way will require you to use Tiger’s Fury before Berserking.
If, due to the nature of the encounter, you are required to stand at the front and are unable to spam Shred, this ability’s place is taken by Mangle. While it does not deal as much damage as Shred does, Mangle provides versatility and fairly low Energy costs.

Multi-target DPS-ing rotation:
- Select a target from the group and use Rake on it.
- Use Savage Roar (with 1-2 Combo Points up). This is required to do for the 30% physical damage bonus, which also applies to Swipe (Cat), since this doesen’t award Combo Points. Also Rake provides various bonuses, based on Idol and Tier Set Bonuses.
- Spam Swipe (Cat) and always use Tiger’s Fury when in need, as this uses a lot of Energy. A very good idea is to combine Swipe (Cat) with Berserk, for more Energy and multi-target DPS effectiveness.

4. Required gear, stats, socketing and enchanting
a) Required Gear
Feral DPS uses the same gear required by rogues. As a result they follow the same design pattern as the leather items used by Feral Tanks too. All Feral DPS items give Stamina and Agility as stats and three on-equip bonuses. One of them is always Attack Power while the other two can be a combination of Hit Rating, Expertise Rating, Haste Rating, Critical Strike Rating and Armor Penetration Rating. The design pattern is very important for all classes, because the more you have on one stat, the more you lose from the others and this may affect balance, so it’s important to always keep this aspect in mind.
Additionally Feral DPS Trinkets usually provide Critical Strike Chance bonuses, Attack Power or Armor Penetration Rating.

b) Required Stats
Here is a list with stats required while DPS-ing, ranked in order of importance.
- Attack Power: This stat is the most important for Cats because, while in this form, damage from weapon does not count. Instead, Cats get most of their attack power from weapon. A 264 item level weapon provides around 3300 Feral Attack Power. However, no gem should be invested in Attack Power, as this stat comes from Agility, due to the way Cat Form is designed and from gear, as an on-equip bonus.
- Hit Rating: As with all melee DPS-ers, 8% increased chance to hit is required in order to be capped, this means 263 Hit Rating. If not capped, you should socket Hit Rating to get you to cap, or at least close to it.
- Expertise Rating: Cat receives 10 Expertise from Primal Precision, reducing the amount required from gear from 26 to only 16. This means a total of 6.50% reduced chance of getting dodged or parried, which represents the dodge cap. As with other melee DPS-ers, Cat always stands at the back of mobs or bosses, which means that dodge cap needs to be reached only.
- Agility: One of the key stats for Cat Form, Agility provides two major benefits. The first one is Critical Strike Chance and the other one is Attack Power. If you find yourself in need on any of the two previously mentioned stats, Agility is the stat that should always be socketed, rather than pure Critical Strike Rating or Attack Power, as Agility always provides two bonuses instead of one.
- Critical Strike Rating: While, as stated above, it should not be gemmed for, Critical Strike Chance gear should always be chosen, along with Armor Penetration Rating, provided that you are Hit and Expertise capped. There are two reasons for needing high Critical Strike Chance: the first one is pretty obvious, for increased overall damage and the other one is Combo Points. Every Critical Strike provides an extra Combo Point which are required for many Cat Form abilities.
- Armor Penetration Rating: Although this stat ranks second lowest, it doesen’t mean it’s not of great importance. The ranking here was done based on what one should get first in order to be able to provide reliable DPS, but Armor Penetration is of great use for Cats, as with other melee classes, because it increases base damage dealt, not just Critical one. Additionally, one gem of Armor Penetration Rating provides a large amount of reduced Armor percentage, making it a reliable way of gemming. Actually, with trinkets, it’s important for Cats to be able to reach 100% Armor reduction, for massive damage boost.
- Haste Rating: This is the least important stat for Cat Form because it doesen’t provide any real bonuses as the above-mentioned stats do. In order to gain significant damage bonus from Haste, you would need it in large numbers, which would affect other stats, such as Critical Strike Chance or Armor Penetration.

c) Socketing
For any melee DPS, Hit Rating and Expertise Rating are top priorities, so you should gem for these two stats if you are undercapped.
When these are sorted, there are two main stats that become of importance when gemming. If you are low on Critical Strike Chance you should gem for Agility. This will also provide some Attack Power Bonus as well. Generally, it’s good to have at least 55% Critical Strike Chance in order to deal decent DPS in Icecrown Citadel, though, with very good gear, you should be able to reach 66% unbuffed, with 75% raid buffed, which is also the Critical Strike Chance cap. However, it’s important to add that most Critical Strike Chance comes directly from gear, rather than Agility gems, which makes it possible to completely ignore Agility gems and fully socket for Armor Penetration, but this is only possible with high level gear.
The other stat that should be gemmed for is Armor Penetration. Actually, it is better to fully socket Armor Penetration Rating, provided that your Critical Strike Chance is high enough to get Combo Points in due time, because Armor Penetration bonus provided by gems is a lot higher than the amount of Critical Strike Chance gained from Agility gems. As a result, a good Feral DPS should have at least 60% Armor Penetration.
While Critical Strike Rating and Attack Power are important for DPS-ing as well, do not gem for them at all, as they do not provide enough benefits as Agility and Armor Penetration would.
The Meta gem used by Feral DPS is called Relentless Earthsiege Diamond and it provides 21 Agility and 3% increased Critical Damage, requiring 1 red gem, 1 yellow gem and one blue gem.

d) Enchanting
Enchants used by Feral DPS provide either Attack Power, Critical Strike Rating or Agility.
For head, you should use the Knights of the Ebon Blade Enchant or the PvP one, which also provides Attack Power, if your reputation with them is not high enough.
Shoulders should receive Sons of Hodir Attack Power enchant or the PvP one, if reputation with them is low.
Use +75 Attack Power and +22 Critical Strike Rating Leatherworking enchant on legs and +50 Attack Power on bracers.
Weapon should be enchanted with Mongoose, which is great because it works for both Tanking and DPS-ing, making your weapon usable for both specs. For Feral DPS, Mongoose helps because it provides Agility, which applies to Attack Power and Critical Strike Chance, the activation chance on Mongoose is also pretty high. Another enchant that’s also great for Cat is Berserking. However, the fact that it reduces Armor makes it unusable, if the weapon you have is part of both of your Tanking and DPS-ing sets.
Rest items should receive highest available Agility enchant for the coresponding slot. Also, if you are low on Hit Rating, you may use Icewalker on feet, instead of Agility enchant.

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Updated, along with other sections.