1. #1

    Learning feral druid?

    How would you learn to play feral druid?

    I have been wanting to play feral druid for a long time. I can see all the guides, ect. but when I try to perform the stuff, I just fail at it. I just cant keep everything in control. This is with easier but suboptimal talents. With the optimal talents I have even more problems.

    So how would you teach someone to play feral druid?

  2. #2
    Deleted
    I'd teach someone to use any class by making them roll from lvl 1. (Or 20, if possible)
    You read the guides, that's a good first step, but it looks like you're having trouble implementing that knowledge. While leveling from scratch seems like an arduous journey, it allows you to break down a spec and really get familiar with each of the skills and how they interact... one ability at a time, all the while keeping the guides in mind. Furthermore, there is no pressure to perform in leveling dungeons. For the most part. You can easily experiment with subpar talents to understand how the guide-writers reached their conclusions.

    One step at a time, that's the best way to learn. The alternative would be to bash your head against the wall until it yields because even if a skilled feral were to coach you, he'd probably just regurgitate what's written in the guides.

  3. #3
    Old God -aiko-'s Avatar
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    For Feral specifically you need to get out of the habit of spamming abilities. Most damage specs teach you that you need to be pressing something every single global cooldown. Feral does not play this way and I cannot stress this enough. So the first thing I would do is just whack on a dummy for a while to get used to the idea of pooling resources.

    Second, Feral is a maintenance spec. You need to manage your bleeds properly, making sure they are not only up on the target but also buffed as high as they can be, which means you need to understand the snapshotting system. Both the wowhead and Icy-Veins guides cover this concept. Depending on talent choices you might also have additional things to watch and maintain, like Savage Roar or Brutal Slash charges.

    Third, find a UI setup that you like. Obviously you can play Feral right out of the box using the default UI but the spec is...kind of all over the place. You need to watch your buffs, certain buff timers, your target's debuffs, your cooldowns, etc so it's super handy to put this information all in one place so it's easy to absorb.

    I highly recommend building your own UI, and built mine using only a few addons: TellMeWhen, Z-Perl and WeakAuras (only so I could use MoonBunnie's fantastic bleed strength tracker).

    Click for big



    Everybody has their own preference when it comes to UI so definitely play around with making your own, so it's suited towards you. I personally prefer having a 'clean' UI that leaves the middle of the screen almost entirely clear so I can see my character and surroundings. Other people like plopping everything in the middle of their screen. Find what you like

  4. #4
    That weakaura for bleed strength might be useful. My biggest problem is that I lose control of things. Stuff pops up and ui flashes that something is ready. Right, what should I do with it? One of my dots is about to run out! What should I do, I dont have enough combo points! ect. ect. while I think about this, I think my energy gets capped, dots fall off, in combat I often choose wrong (i might use bite instead of refreshing a dot). And while I'm thinking and tracking several dots and energy and combo points, I forget to use cooldowns optimally.

    Feral druid is one of the last few class+spec that I cannot play in wow. There is so much going on and I cant get my mind to multitask all that. :I

  5. #5
    Old God -aiko-'s Avatar
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    Yeah it just comes down to practice. Eventually it becomes second nature though, like...if I look at that picture of my UI I can pretty easily tell what my next move will be.
    My Tiger's Fury is active and I have one charge of Bloodtalons. Rip is fully buffed and is in no danger of dropping off. Rake has a decent time left but isn't currently buffed by TF. Shadowmeld is up. I don't have any combo points.

    Sooooo I'll Shadowmeld into a fully buffed Rake, Moonfire up to 5 combo points (because I'm playing PotM), Regrowth, Ferocious Bite, and dump my second BT charge into either a Shred or Thrash if I get a Clearcasting proc, since I want to let that stealthed Rake play out its full duration. After that I'll Moonfire up to 4 combo points (or possibly less if Rake falls off first), Regrowth, Rake, and Ferocious Bite.

    That sequence probably didn't make much sense but it comes with time. The great part is that, since I've already planned so many stages ahead, I don't need to pay as close attention to the timers and can focus on positioning and mechanics. This is why I play and enjoy Feral.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Morae View Post
    Feral druid is one of the last few class+spec that I cannot play in wow. There is so much going on and I cant get my mind to multitask all that. :I
    Feral is definitely one of the more complicated specs but it's not so intimidating once you understand how it works. A lot of it is muscle memory and remembering all your spec-specific mechanics. In that sense it's the same as playing any new spec, even an "easy" one takes time and you will mess up as you memorize your hotkeys and abilities. So just give it time.
    Last edited by -aiko-; 2018-11-23 at 08:40 PM.

  6. #6
    JOHN FUCKING MADDEN of course!
    They always told me I would miss my family... but I never miss from close range.

  7. #7
    I have been trying to learn bloodtalons properly. If I'm very careful it tends to work at least while i beat dummies. Rotation goes correctly and i manage to use bloodtalon stacks for correct abilities.

    But then sometimes the timers just go wrong. Just as I'm about to trigger blood talons trough regrowth, the instant cast just drops and I swap out of catform and begin hardcasting it. I have tried weakaura to show me timer, but nothing seems to help. How do you people deal with this shit or do I have to settle for less optimal talent such as moment of clarity which I can already deal with perfectly. It just sims ~5% less than bloodtalons. It might still be roughly as good since I cant perform rotation well enough without it.

  8. #8
    But then sometimes the timers just go wrong. Just as I'm about to trigger blood talons trough regrowth, the instant cast just drops and I swap out of catform and begin hardcasting it.
    If you are hardcasting Regrowht it is because you don't have Predatory Swiftness up any more. You want to pool energy before your finishers so that you have enough time to gather 5 CP before Swiftness runs out to prevent wasting it or having to use it early.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Justpassing View Post
    JOHN FUCKING MADDEN of course!
    Good times, came here for that. Happy it was already said!

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Morae View Post
    I have been trying to learn bloodtalons properly. If I'm very careful it tends to work at least while i beat dummies. Rotation goes correctly and i manage to use bloodtalon stacks for correct abilities.

    But then sometimes the timers just go wrong. Just as I'm about to trigger blood talons trough regrowth, the instant cast just drops and I swap out of catform and begin hardcasting it. I have tried weakaura to show me timer, but nothing seems to help. How do you people deal with this shit or do I have to settle for less optimal talent such as moment of clarity which I can already deal with perfectly. It just sims ~5% less than bloodtalons. It might still be roughly as good since I cant perform rotation well enough without it.
    This is what Aiko wrote before - pooling energy is very important.
    U need to forget about what u've learned with other classes, no more "press when it flashes"
    In the periods of time when u have your bleeds up on target, and everything is just fine u want to wait and watch your energy. The goal is to let energy to regenerate and continue just when its about to cap (or if u play with BS and 3rd charge is up and ready - u want to use it, so it again refresh another charge )
    In that way u avoid situation when suddenly u have to refresh something and u find yourself energy starved.

    Getting back to what u wrote. U find yourself instant cast droping. U said u use some weakauras, i prefer using raven addon and create my own buff /debuff timers with sound reminders or indicators when needed. If u are able to track it and still failing it means u didnt manage to get your 5 combo in the predatory swiftness window, and that means u had just e n o u g h energy to cast finishing move , but didnt pool energy before that so after u casted it... 0 energy and the time on the PS is ticking.
    Apart from pooling energy u can of course use PS proc on 4 cp and use one of the charges on rake if its about to drop soon, then u are sitting with 5 cp and one charge of BT and u can use it on finisher.
    When BT was introduced to our toolkit (years ago) i also had trouble to getting used to it, but only practice and more practice will help. U just need to sit and hit dummy untill u get proper habits and muscle memory.

  11. #11
    Keep bleeds up, pool energy efficiently, learn when to regrowth/bloodtalons, voila. You can learn the rotation over 5minutes on a dummy then practise in heroics or +0s. Energy pooling really is the biggest thing though and i learned that the hard way..

  12. #12
    sorry if this comes a bit late, but one thing that helped me a lot with bloodtalons was this macro:

    #showtooltip Regrowth
    /console autounshift 0
    /cast [@mouseover, exists] Regrowth
    /cast Regrowth
    /console autounshift 1

    it makes it so you are unable to cast regrowth unless you have a swiftness procc.
    it also makes it a mouseover, so you can heal a party member without selecting them. if you don't want to use it like that it defaults to healing you.

  13. #13
    Mechagnome Piesor's Avatar
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    I would just start with a more simple spec like:
    https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/game/talent-calculator#druid/feral/talents=2111121

    Always think about that performing well with a "weaker" spec is always better than performing worse with a stronger spec.
    You are got more energy through Soul of the Forest Moment of Clarity and only have to manage your two bleeds and spam shred & ferocious bite for the remaining time.
    When you are feeling comfortable you may add Bloodtalons and savage roar at a later point. However this just pushes the difficulty of the spec to another level.

    I personally do not like to play savage roar anymore since they removed the glyph back in the days. Imo the damage just needs way too much rampup time when using it.
    Bloodtalons can be fun, however I just sometimes use both talents in raids.

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