WoW Gruid Terentius' Guide to Feral Talents

Terentius' Guide to Feral Talents

By Terentius



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Tier 1

Ferocity

Reduces the cost of your Maul, Swipe, Claw, Rake and Mangle abilities by 5 Rage or Energy (rank 5)

The basic tool of a feral druid is also a good choice for balance or resto: it requires a little investment (as a tier 1 talent) and boosts your main feral weapons.

TANKING: ***** DMGDEALING:***** PVP: *****

Feral Aggression

Increases the Attack Power reduction of your Demoralizing Roar by 40% and the damage caused by your Ferocious Bite by 15% (rank 5)

A good talent, but Ferocity wins hands down. If you are going to be full feral is a good choice, but not as an alternative. + 40% on Demo Roar is a nice thing, especially when you fight multiple mobs: on long fights you are going to save a lot of hit points by which you can outlast your enemy.

+ 15% on FB is a good addition, but you usually will prefer RIP as finishing move, because FB is affected by armor reduction (nonetheless is very valuable against casters).

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING:*** PVP: ***

Tier 2

Feral Instinct (requires 5 points in Feral Combat) Increases threat caused in Bear and Dire Bear Form by 15% and reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while Prowling (rank 3)

If you are going to be the main tank in a group you will love this talent: Your normal attacks now generate a lot of hate and in combination with your special ones you can steal aggro even from warriors (at least fury warriors)!

As well, with Feral Instinct maxed, you?ll prowl like if you were 3 level higher (the bonus is greater if you are a Night Elf): you will be able even to touch your equal level enemies without being seen.

An improved stealth ability combined with track humanoids is pretty useful in PVP. From patch 2.01 this talent is cheaper: now costs 3 talent points instead of 5.

TANKING: ***** DMGDEALING:*** PVP: ****

Brutal Impact (requires 5 points in Feral Combat) Increases the stun duration of your Bash and Pounce abilities by 1 sec (rank2)

Excluding Tauren War Stomp, we have only a life-saver stun: Bash. With only 2 points you will earn a 5 seconds stun (with Bash rank 6), that is enough to shift out and cast an Healing Touch. At lower levels is a survival talent! In addiction, you can improve Pounce too: with BI and Imp Shred you can stack 2 shreds and earn 3 or more combo points before your target hits you once. Definitely a recommended talent.

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: **** PVP: ****

Thick Hide (requires 5 points in Feral Combat) Increases your Armor contribution from items by 10% (rank 3)

With this talent your dire bear form (or Moonkin form) will have a 506% armor instead of ?only? 460%. But also your caster form and your squishy cat will get more survivabilty: Thick Hide adds a flat +10% to your current armor value, in all forms.

Recommended for tanking. From patch 2.01 this talent is cheaper: now costs 3 talent points instead of 5.

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: ** PVP: ***

Tier 3 Feral swiftness (requires 10 points in Feral Combat) Increases your movement speed by 30% while outdoors in Cat Form and increases your chance to dodge while in Cat Form by 4%.

Excellent to shred runners, it will allow you to move through Azeroth a lot faster and 9 level before you gain your travel form: you will love it in Battlegrounds. In addition your cat will dodge more (in TBC also bear is expected to do so), increasing damage reduction. It is worth the 2 points required.

TANKING: * DMGDEALING: **** PVP: ****

Feral Charge (requires 10 points in Feral Combat) 5 Rage 8-25 yd range Instant 15 sec cooldown Requires Bear Form, Dire Bear Form Causes you to charge an enemy, immobilizing and interrupting any spell being cast for 4 sec.

Would you like to stop fleeing mobs, flag runners, healing/nuking casters far away from you, with only a click? Useful also when you need to heal yourself: charge, gain some distance and shift out for healing. Here it is, with only 15 sec cooldown: a must have for all druids that costs only a talent point. It is an instant ability almost free, but it requires 5 rage to work: if combined with Furor becomes really instant.

TANKING: ***** DMGDEALING: *** PVP: *****

Sharpened Claw (requires 10 points in Feral Combat) Increases your critical strike chance while in Bear, Dire Bear or Cat Form by 6% (rank 3)

An essential tool for both the damage dealer and the tank: boosts your damage (and your threat) with a lot of crit %. In combination with LotP and +agi + crit equip you can generate an insane amount of crits (about + 30%)

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: **** PVP: ****

Tier 4

Shredding Attacks (requires 15 points in Feral Combat) Reduces the energy cost of your Shred ability by 12 and the rage cost of your Lacerate ability by 2 (rank 2)

Atm we haven?t yet lacerate and this talent is not as good as it could be: in TBC the energy cost reduction should be 18. Furthermore shred is not yet buffed by Mangle and has a worse cost per energy unit, so you won?t use it many times. For all those reasons this atm talent doesn?t deserve the 2 points required.

TANKING: * DMGDEALING: * PVP: *

Predatory Strikes (requires 15 points in Feral Combat) Increases your Attack Power in Cat, Bear and Dire Bear Forms by 150% of your level (rank 3)

Not as good as at fist glance, it will add 90 AP to your 60th level druid: 6,4 dps are not that good, but you need this talent if you want Hearth of the Wild and you surely want it.

TANKING: ** DMGDEALING: *** PVP: ***

Blood Frenzy (requires 5 points in Sharpened Claws - 15 points in Feral Combat) Your critical strikes from Cat Form abilities that add combo points have a 100% chance to add an additional combo point (rank 2) Ideal for a dps build, it won?t exist anymore in TBC, as it will be merged with Primal Fury. As it is, you can pass over it if you don?t pvp or you are not interested to max your cat dps.

TANKING: * DMGDEALING: **** PVP: ***

Primal Fury (requires 5 points in Sharpened Claws - 15 points in Feral Combat) Gives you a 100% chance to gain an additional 5 Rage anytime you get a critical strike while in Bear and Dire Bear Form (rank 2)

In actual form only buff bear, making its rage bar almost always full. Recommended for all uses: tanking, pvp and dmgdealing if you have mangle. Will be even better in TBC, when will include also blood frenzy features.

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: **** PVP: ****

Tier 5

Savage Fury (requires 20 points in Feral Combat) Increases the damage caused by your Claw, Rake, Maul, Swipe and Mangle abilities by 20% (rank 2)

+ 20% on your main feral weapons is a consistent extra damage for only 2 points: you can?t miss it.

PVE: **** DMGDEALING: **** PVP: ****

Feral Faerie Fire (requires 20 points in Feral Combat) 30 yd range Instant 6 sec cooldown Requires Cat Form, Bear Form, Dire Bear Form Decrease the armor of the target by 175 for 40 sec. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible.

Armor reduction is a nice addiction (you can train further ranks), useful to bring down cloth wearers faster, even if it?s not as effective as warrior sunder armor, that can stack up to 5 times. However FF shines for another reason: it is very annoying for rogues, because they can?t restealth while are faerie fired. Furthermore this talent is absolutely free and you can spamm it at your wish. Do you want another reason to love this talent? It is an excellent way to pull enemies: we can?t equip ranged weapons, but FF has the same effect, in terms of pulling single mobs. Another one? It generates hate, not a lot, but enough and if you are the main tank, spamming FF can help you to keep aggro.

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: **** PVP: ****

Nurturing Instinct (requires 20 points in Feral Combat) For 6 seconds after coming out from a feral form, your healing spells are increased by an amount equal to 100% of your Strength (rank 2)

A true hybrid talent, that is supposed to make feral druids better healers. Considering the time needed to shift out and eventually some lag, 6 seconds are only enough for cast an instant hot: in upcoming TBC the talent should be passive, but also halved in terms of effectivness (2 ranks will grant a healing bonus equal to 50% of strenght). Anyway is not so useful as it could seem at first glance, because feral druids need faster healing spells, more than larger one.

TANKING: * DMGDEALING: ** PVP: ***

Tier 6

Hearth of the Wild (requires 3 points in Predatory Strike - 25 points in Feral Combat) Increases your Intellect by 20%. In addition, while in Bear or Dire Bear Form your Stamina is increased by 20% and while in Cat Form your Strength is increased by 20% (rank 5)

One of best druid talents. this talent deserves all the points spent to gain it (30) without any doubt: it makes feral druid a more effective healer (helping him not to be banned from all raids), a tougher bear and a more deadly cat. The good news is that strength and stamina bonus apply on your final stats (already enhanced with potions and equipment) and not only on your base stats: it means that for every single strenght in caster form your cat will have 1,2 points (that is 2,4 AP) and the same happens with stamina for bear.

Survival of the fittest (requires 25 points in Feral Combat) Increases all attributes by 3% and reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee attacks by 3% (rank 3)

3% is really a little number in attributes increase but not so negligible in reduction of chance to be critically hit: it equals a defense value of 75. Good for a hybrid profile, Sotf is recommended for tanking. Feral looking for great numbers can pass over.

TANKING: ***** DMGDEALING: ** PVP: **

Tier 7

Primal Tenacity (requires 30 points in Feral Combat) Increases your chance to resist Stun and Fear mechanics by 15%. (rank 3)

Would you like to interrupt those annoying fearlock and stunlock that let you die without any possibility to counterstrike? This talent is for you! Recommended for pvpers and tanks, this talent grants a valid support against frustration while you face enemies who largely use crowd control tools.

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: *** PVP: ****

Leader of the Pack (requires 30 points in Feral Combat) While in Cat, Bear or Dire Bear Form, the Leader of the Pack increases ranged and melee critical chance of all party members within 45 yards by 5%.

+ 5% crit on you and all your party members is a pretty nice aura: hunters, rogues and warriors will love your feral forms. A must have for true feral druids and, in addition, you need it in order to have Mangle.

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: **** PVP: ****

Improved Leader of the Pack (requires 1 point in Leader of the Pack - 30 points in Feral Combat) Your Leader of the Pack ability also causes affected targets to have a 100% chance to heal themselves for 6% of their total health when they critically hit with a melee or ranged attack. The healing effect cannot occur more than once every 6 sec (rank 3)

The wet dream of every feral druid is healing without need to shift out. This talent makes more: allows you to heal while you are melting faces! It is not a zomg healing and in addition it will be lacking of the last rank in TBC, but nevertheless it is a invaluable talent that greatly reduces downtime while you grind, make your bear last longer and grants more survivability in pvp both to you and your party. You should not pass over it.

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: *** PVP: ****

Predatory Instincts (requires 35 points in Feral Combat) Increases your critical strike damage bonus with melee attacks by 15% and your chance to avoid area effect attacks by 15% (rank 5)

First of all it affects ?only? crit damage bonus and not all your crit damage: if you deal damage for 100 and you crit for 200, thx to Predatory Instinct you will have:100+(100+15%)= 215. In addition it is an expensive talent: it costs 5 talent points. However it will also allow you to resist 15% of AoE: a great feature both in pvp and pve. Furthermore you can?t miss it if you want to max your damage.

TANKING: *** DMGDEALING: **** PVP: ****

Mangle (requires 1 point in Leader of the Pack - 40 points in Feral Combat) Mangle the target, inflicting damage and causing the target to take additional damage from bleed effects for 10 sec. This ability can be used in Cat Form or Dire Bear Form.

When you Mangle the others recognize you as a true feral, because only real feral druids have this skill. Cat Mangle will replace Claw in your hot bar, both increasing you direct damage and that from bleed effect (+25%). In TBC should be even better, increasing bleed damage by 30% and buffing in addition shred of the same amount. Bear Mangle is an instant attack (6 sec cooldown) that you can chain with Maul, making your bear more lethal than ever. If you are a feral druid you mangle: no need to say anything else.

TANKING: ***** DMGDEALING: ***** PVP: *****

BALANCE FERAL TALENTS

Tier 1

Nature?s Grasp 50 Mana Instant cast -1 min cooldown While active, any time an enemy strikes the caster they have a 35% chance to become afflicted by Entangling Roots. Only useable outdoors. 1 charge. Lasts 45 sec

For a single point in Balance tree this talent is a must have for a great variety of talent builds (feral or not). It is a valuable crowd control tool (unfortunately works only outdoor) that really increases druid survival?s chances when attacked by 2 or more melee fighters. From patch 2.01 is even better, because you can cast it while shapeshifted. Essential in PVP

TANKING: * DMGDEALING: *** PVP: ****

Improved Nature?s Grasp (requires 1 point in Nature?s Grasp) Increases the chance for your Nature's Grasp to entangle an enemy by 65% (rank 4)

Investing 4 points in this talent you have a 100% chance to root at least one enemy as soon as he hits you. A good complement to Nature?s Grasp, but subtracts precious points from more useful feral and resto talents.

TANKING: * DMGDEALING : *** PVP: ***

RESTORATION FERAL TALENTS

Tier 1

Improved Mark of The Wild Increases the effects of your Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild spells by 35% (rank 5)

At MotW rank 7 this talent grants you + 100 AC + 4 on all stats, + 10 on all resistances: not bad, but very expensive. It is better for feral druids investing that points in Furor, which is an excellent talent.

TANKING: *** DMGDEALING: *** PVP: ***

Furor Gives you 100% chance to gain 10 Rage when you shapeshift into Bear and Dire Bear Form or 40 Energy when you shapeshift into Cat Form (rank 5)

A wonderful resto-feral talent that makes your shapeshifting ready for an instant maul or mangle (if you have ferocity) a brilliant feral charge or a timed demoralizing roar. Absolutely excellent in PVP: better have it and have it soon!

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: **** PVP: *****

Tier 2

Naturalist (requires 5 points in Restoration) Reduces the cast time of your Healing Touch spell by 0.5 sec and increases the damage you deal with physical attacks in all forms by 10% (rank 5)

This amazing talent merges 2 features that, before 2.01 patch, were in 2 different talents in 2 different trees: improved healing touch and natural weapons. Naturalist makes feral druids better healers and resto druids more effective fighters at the same time. It is a must have that could be even better if the casting time reduction would include regrowth...

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: **** PVP: ****

Natural Shapeshifter (requires 5 points in Restoration) Reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifting by 30% (rank 3)

Shapeshifting, shifting out, heal ourselves (or others) and shapeshift again drain a lot of mana. A druid OOM is a dead druid, so this is a good way to live longer. Very useful in PVP.

TANKING: ** DMGDEALING: *** PVP: ****

Tier 3

Intensity (requires 10 points in Restoration) Allows 15% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting and causes your Enrage ability to instantly generate 10 rage (rank 3)

Another successful blend between 2 talents: Reflection and Improved Enrage. You can now have both instant rage and better mana conservation in one talent. Absolutely recommended for a hybrid build that includes Nature?s Swiftness, it is only an option for true feral, which has few talents to spend in resto tree.

TANKING: **** DMGDEALING: *** PVP: ****

Omen of Clarity (requires 10 points in Restoration) 120 Mana Instant cast Imbues the Druid with natural energy. Each of the druid's melee attacks has a chance of causing the caster to enter a Clearcasting state. The Clearcasting state reduces the Mana, Rage or Energy cost of your next damage or healing spell or offensive ability by 100%. Lasts 30 min

Thx to OoC, feral druids can perform rage/energy free attack, that doubles yellow damage and then overall damage. The 15? duration of clearcasting state, allows in addition to shift out easily and cast a mana free healing or an offensive spell. From 2.01 patch the buff duration has been extended to 30 min. Another must have talent for a pure dps build in TBC: too bad that you can't have both Mangle and OoC for now.