Feral Druid DPS Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. What has changed in Patch 7.2.5?
  • 3. What has Changed in Patch 7.2?
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Artifact Ability
  • 4. Basic Abilities
    • 4.1. Bleeds
    • 4.2. Other Abilities
    • 4.3. Offensive Cooldowns
    • 4.4. Additional Utility
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheet
    • 2.1. Open World, Levelling and Questing
    • 2.2. Dungeons and Raids
      • 2.2.1. Single Target
      • 2.2.2. AoE
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
    • 1.1. Early Progression
    • 1.2. Patch 7.2 Progression
  • 2. Artifact Ability
  • 3. Relic Choice
    • 3.1. 1: Tear the Flesh/Razor Fangs
    • 3.2. 2: Razor Fangs/Ashamanes Energy/Feral Power
    • 3.3. 3: Feral Instinct
    • 3.4. 4: AoE Relics
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
    • 1.1. Opening Sequence
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
    • 2.1. Ashamane's Frenzy
    • 2.2. Long Duration Adds
      • 2.2.1. 2-3 Targets
      • 2.2.2. 4-8 Targets
      • 2.2.3. 9+ Targets
    • 2.3. Short Duration Adds
    • 2.4. Priority Targets
  • 3. Cooldowns
  • 4. Optional Read: Mastering Your Feral Druid
    • 4.1. Mastery: Razor Claws
    • 4.2. Combo Points and Energy
    • 4.3. Single Target Rotation in Detail
      • 4.3.1. Bleeds & DoTs
      • 4.3.2. What to do the Rest of the Time
      • 4.3.3. Energy Management
      • 4.3.4. When to Refresh Bleeds
      • 4.3.5. When to Refresh Savage Roar
      • 4.3.6. Ferocious Bite
    • 4.4. Detailed Cooldown Usage
      • 4.4.1. Tiger's Fury
      • 4.4.2. Fury of Ashamane
      • 4.4.3. Berserk
      • 4.4.4. Tier 1 Talents
      • 4.4.5. Tier 5 Talents
      • 4.4.6. Tier 6 Talents
      • 4.4.7. Tier 7 Talents
  • 5. Tier 19 Set Bonuses
  • 6. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. Advanced Stats
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Druids
      • 1.1.1. Rebirth
      • 1.1.2. Remove Corruption
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Feral Druids
      • 1.2.1. Regrowth Macro
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Druids
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Omen Threat Meter
      • 2.1.5. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.6. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.7. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.8. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
      • 2.1.9. TellMeWhen
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Feral Druids
      • 2.2.1. DotFocus
  • 3. ChangeLog
• ×Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List
    • 1.1. Trinkets
    • 1.2. Tier 19 & 20 Bonus Combinations
    • 1.3. Evaluating Upgrades with dynamic Item Levels
  • 2. Racial Bonuses
  • 3. Legendary Items
    • 3.1. 7.1.5 Legendaries
    • 3.2. 7.2 Legendaries
    • 3.3. 7.2.5 Legendaries
    • 3.4. Recommended Choices
  • 4. Loot Competition
  • 5. ChangeLog

General Information

This page is a gear reference for Feral Druids. It lists your best items and Legendaries, gives you gearing advice, and shows you how you will be competing for loot with other classes.

The other pages of our Feral Druid guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Wordup, a frequent theorycrafter involved in a number of class communities. He is also an experienced player who has been in the world top 100 since the days of Sunwell, currently raiding in Echoes. You can also follow him on Twitter.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Xanzara, a top-ranking Feral Druid, who sometimes streams on YouTube.

1. Best in Slot List

Bear in mind that all of this is subject to change based on Warforging and Titanforging happening on gear, so this is absolutely a guideline and not a rule. Note that it is also just dealing with gear from raid environments, so this could change if you are spending a large amount of time in Mythic+ and gaining different, rarer pieces.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Shadow-Scarred Headcover	Kil'Jaeden
Neck	Locket of Splintered Souls	The Desolate Host
Shoulders	Stormheart Mantle	Fallen Avatar
Cloak	Shroud of the Drowned Adherent	Mistress Sassz'ine
Chest	Stormheart Tunic	Maiden of Vigilance
Wrists	Sinew-Stitched Wristguards	Demonic Inquisition
Gloves	Stormheart Gloves	Harjatan
Belt	Cinch of Sizzling Flesh	Goroth
Legs	Stormheart Legguards	Mistress Sassz'ine
Boots	Felscape Pathfinders	Fallen Avatar
Ring #1	Band of Rescinded Truths	Maiden of Vigilance
Ring #2	Yathae's Thumb Ring	Sisters of the Moon
Trinket #1	Specter of Betrayal	Kil'Jaeden
Trinket #2	Engine of Eradication	Maiden of Vigilance

1.1. Trinkets

With the trinkets listed, this assumes that you are comparing against equal item level pieces, therefore in some cases due to the scaling effect, this list can be inaccurate. This also assumes Tomb of Sargeras Heroic level gear with the Tier 20 4-piece factored in. Due to that, there is a simulation of all trinkets against each other listed here:

There are some solid new trinkets added in Tomb of Sargeras so your choices from the new raid are quite varied. Specter of Betrayal is great, assuming the fight allows you to play into the positioning requirement, otherwise pick up Vial of Ceaseless Toxins. Alongside that Umbral Moonglaives is a fantastic burst AoE trinket if you would rather have that option, as the other two are single-target oriented. For an accompanying trinket Engine of Eradication serves perfectly and is relatively reliable with its uptime.

Convergence of Fates will still have uses if it allows you to pick up an extra use of Berserk and assuming you have one of equivalent item level too, so do not rule it out.

This was all simulated with a balanced profile weighted toward Mastery, so should be universally applicable, but as always you should sim yourself to be sure.

1.2. Tier 19 & 20 Bonus Combinations

The Feral Tier 19 2-piece bonus heavily relied on the accompanying 4-piece bonus to gain any value, and as such given how strong the Tomb of Sargeras bonus is, should not be actively maintained if you have a choice. The Tier 19 4-piece also can compete with the Tier 20 4-piece assuming high Titanforging, but due to how difficult this is to achieve makes it relatively unreliable. This makes the Nighthold 2-piece relatively unimportant to consider in gearing, especially due to it clashing with powerful legendary options (Head/Gloves).

1.3. Evaluating Upgrades with dynamic Item Levels

Due to the Warforging/Titanforging system, having a full comprehensive list of gear ranked against each other would be far too elaborate and confusing to compile, and as such it is recommended instead to evaluate upscaled items using rough stat weights. As always with weights, they can change depending on your gear and to get them perfectly accurate for your character, it is always advised to simulate it yourself, however for the purpose of this I will use example Feral stat weights:

These were calculated using the standard talent build, the Tier 20 4-piece bonus and a 52 point Artifact:

• Agility: 1
• Mastery: 0.95
• Critical Strike: 0.90
• Versatility: 0.86
• Haste: 0.55

If we then compare two gloves, we can get a rough evaluation of which to use. Starting with Gloves of Synchronus Elements, comes with 1705 Agility, 523 Critical Strike, and 740 Mastery, so we can use this to calculate a relative value:

Then comparing to Temporally Displaced Gloves, this comes with 1705 Agility, 460 Haste, and 779 Mastery, which can be evaluated in a similar way:

Through this we can see that the value of Gloves of Synchronus Elements is higher than Temporally Displaced Gloves, and is the better choice to use. As said though, these weights can differ depending on the content you are doing, your talent selections, and the other gear you are currently wearing, as many stats synergise with others and scale exponentially, increasing their value. This is especially true for Feral given that stats are so close in value.

2. Racial Bonuses

Racial bonuses are quite minimal for most classes currently, for Feral however if Alliance, Night Elf has a strong showing if you capitalise correctly on extra stealth uses through Shadowmeld. Whilst this image shows rough estimations for each Race, there are always extra factors that can push some Races above the more passive ones, so I would recommend playing whichever you like the most as the difference can be so minor. Note this is done with a full set of 915 item level Tomb of Sargeras gear.

3. Legendary Items

Legendary items have a high item level of 970, which makes them extremely strong. They are so strong, in fact, that a legendary item is always going to be worth equipping over any other item you might have in that slot.

However, there is a limitation on the number of legendary items you can have equipped at any one time (by default 1, but by now most players should be able to equip 2). Since some legendary items are better than others, if you have more items than the limit, you will have to choose which ones to equip.

Below, we will do our best to guide you through this process, as well as provide any other relevant information.

Chatoyant Signet increases your Energy by 100 and Energy generation by 5%, allowing for more flexibility in resource management. This allows for more pooling and management over when you expend your Energy, along with a small boost to resource regeneration. Whilst using it you want to maintain a bank of Energy of around 150 until you need to burst a target, or gain additional on demand Combo points such as needing to refresh Savage Roar or Rip in starved situations.

The Wildshaper's Clutch has a lot of power in multiple target situations as it can trigger from Rake, Rip and Thrash, so has a lot of benefits in Mythic+ Dungeons, whilst being a modest boost in single target. Whilst using this, you will want to alter your Combo Point management, opting instead to pool energy at 3 following a finisher instead of 5, so as to prevent any wasted from your DoT ticks generating them. You will then expend energy either when you need to refresh bleeds, or cap out your Combo Points from procs.

Luffa Wrappings has benefits in large scale AoE when you are maintaning Thrash on a large amount of targets. However, both The Wildshaper's Clutch and Ailuro Pouncers do a better job of enhancing this, so it should not be a targeted item to equip.

Ailuro Pouncers only has a direct impact on your DPS if using Bloodtalons (which is recommended). It not only increases the frequency of Predatory Swiftness by granting free charges every 15 seconds, but allows it to stack up to 3. With this equipped, you should alter your rotation to always aim to cast Finishing Moves with Bloodtalons active, and also refreshing Rake with it active. It is also advised to burn off some charges if you are about to reach the cap, usually with buffed Shred casts.

Ekowraith, Creator of Worlds has some fringe uses when coupled with the three affinity talents, increasing your range, flat damage reduction or passive healing output. With additional secondaries on its budget, it is a solid and versatile choice but not something to aim for.

Cinidaria, the Symbiote can be reduced down to a passive damage increase averaging out at around 3% increase over the course of a fight. It has some circumstances where bosses do not go through the entire Health pool (such as Odyn or Helya) where it shines even brighter. Note that the bonus damage it deals, whilst Physical, bypasses the targets armor and directly replicates 30% of the damage the triggering attack dealt. Its benefit however is limited to the first 10% on targets, so in some fights it can be a very minimal bonus.

Sephuz's Secret has some fringe bonuses for extra mobility and an extra Haste proc activating after crowd control effects, such as Maim, unfortunately this has a long cooldown and requires targets vulnerable to Stuns. 7.1.5 has also extended this to interrupts, opening up the use much wider. There are also talent options that can improve the uptime, so in situations where you can actively trigger this it serves as a short Bloodlust effect and can be quite strong.

Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus could have some powerful survivability uses to survive large bursts of raid damage if it syncs up with the recharge time and avoiding damage is possible, but it is too specific to recommend until more is known about the texture of the upcoming raids.

3.1. 7.1.5 Legendaries

7.1.5 introduces a new pair of legendary legs for Feral, Fiery Red Maimers. These have since had their issue fixed and work on stun immune targets, and are a strong single target and low cleave choice. The 7.2 change to remove the Energy cost however is largely inconsequential, as the investment is mostly in the Combo Points.

Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish is a newly added trinket, providing significant passive Agility and secondary stats, alongside a powerful on use AoE effect on a 1.15-minute cooldown. This can be very useful for timed AoE burst that Feral can sometimes be lacking, but as it scales with no secondaries may be relegated to specific situations rather than an auto-equip given how powerful alternative trinkets are.

3.2. 7.2 Legendaries

7.2 only adds one new legendary in the form of the crafted item The Sentinel's Eternal Refuge. These boots come with ideal stats and 3 sockets to add additional items in, but mostly serve as a utility item for the out of combat speed increase, so is not an ideal choice for raiding and group content.

3.3. 7.2.5 Legendaries

Behemoth Headdress is a new headpiece that causes finishing moves cast during Tiger's Fury to extend its duration by 0.5 seconds per combo point spent. Is currently a very powerful choice for single target, and also keeping up in multiple target situations too. You do not need to play around the effect very much, just make sure to aim for having 5 combo points ready when you activate Tiger's Fury to immediately capitalise on extending it.

Soul of the Archdruid grants you the Soul of the Forest talent when equipped, allowing you to take another option alongside it on the Level 75 talent tier - usually Savage Roar. This is a great legendary in all situations, and synergises well with most other choices so is very desirable, whilst also making the rotation much smoother and forgiving. When using this you will need to pool Energy much less, and find much more room to cast Ferocious Bite with the extra Energy and Combo Points you will be generating.

3.4. Recommended Choices

Generally, you cannot choose which legendary you get but now, as the expansion moves on, people have a much wider choice of items to choose from. If you find yourself wondering what to use, some good choices are as follows (in no particular order):

Single Target:

• Soul of the Archdruid
• Behemoth Headdress
• Cinidaria, the Symbiote

Multiple Target:

• The Wildshaper's Clutch
• Soul of the Archdruid
• Behemoth Headdress
• Luffa Wrappings in high target AoE situations.

4. Loot Competition

Regarding the loot you will get from raid or dungeon bosses, you will compete with other classes in the following cases:

Item Type	Competing Classes
Tier Tokens	Death Knights, Balance/Guardian/Restoration Druids, Mages, and Rogues
Leather Armor	Demon Hunters, Balance/Guardian/Restoration Druids, Monks, and Rogues
Amulets Cloaks Rings	Everyone
Trinkets	Havoc Demon Hunters, Windwalker Monks, Hunters, Rogues, and Enhancement Shamans

5. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 16 Jun. 2017: Updated 4pc/2pc combinations following Tier 20 set bonus nerfs.
• 14 Jun. 2017: Added note regarding Tier 19/20 2/4pc combinations.
• 12 Jun. 2017: Updated with Tomb of Sargeras gear and 7.2.5 Legendaries.
• 27 Mar. 2017: Updated for 7.2 with new Legendary changes.
• 05 Mar. 2017: Updated note on Fiery Red Maimers to indicate they are no longer bugged.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Added trinkets.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated gearlist for Nighthold - Trinkets pending.
• 25 Nov. 2016: Updated trinket simulations.
• 25 Oct. 2016: Added Karazhan trinket to the trinket simulations.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.