Essential Guide for Feral Druids in ICC (Including Score Preparation)

Feral Druids are a must-have class for every raid leader due to their powerful functionalities such as battle resurrection, mana regeneration, increased hit chance, and critical strike bonuses. Today, I will provide a detailed guide on how to maximize your Feral Druid’s score from scratch. I hope this offers a different perspective.1. Preparation Phase1. Talents: Start with TOC, as the gear upgrades have removed the mana limitations for Feral Druids, allowing a shift from a swarm build to a higher DPS lunar fire build. For talents, I recommend fully investing in Feral Swiftness for maximum output. However, be sure to select Clearcasting once ICC opens, or else the 2T10 effect will be wasted.2. Glyphs: The basics include Starfall, Moonfire, and Sunfire, but if you want to pursue maximum DPS, you should switch glyphs based on the boss. For Twins and small bosses, you can replace the Moonfire glyph with the Focus glyph.3. Stats: The base hit chance for Feral Druids needs to reach 263,and under full team buffs: Spell Power > 401, Haste > Critical Strike.Many say critical strike is secondary, but I believe that no matter how high the critical strike is, it still depends on luck; it’s better to stabilize the lower limit first. I think reaching the soft cap for critical strike, which is 35% without buffs, is sufficient to ensure that Sunfire will always crit during Eclipse.4. Professions: If you are pursuing maximum DPS, then Engineering and Tailoring are the best choices.5. Potions and Elixirs: For elixirs, just use Frost Wyrm, and prepare Wild Magic and Speed Potions. Start with the Wild Magic potion and save the Speed Potion for when the trinket triggers during the Eclipse phase.6. WA and Macros: For Feral Druids, you only need to prepare a WA to monitor the Eclipse cooldown. As for macros, I personally use a Cat Form sprint macro, an explosive macro, and a survival macro.

Cat Form Sprint

#showtooltip Sprint
/cancelform [noform:3] 
/cast [noform:3] Cat Form
/cast Sprint

Explosive Macro

#showtooltip Sunfire
/use 10
/use 13
/use Speed Potion
/cast Sunfire
/cqs

Survival Macro

#showtooltip Barkskin
/cast Barkskin
/use Fel Healing Stone

2. Damage Output Techniques and RotationThe DPS of a Feral Druid largely depends on luck. The output rotation is quite simple: start by using the Wild Magic potion about 2 seconds before engaging, pre-cast Wrath as you enter combat, then use Starfire → Moonfire → Nature’s Grasp → Starfall → Wrath until Eclipse triggers → use Starfire until Eclipse ends → continue with Wrath until you enter Eclipse.Be aware that Eclipse has a cooldown; do not cast Wrath immediately after entering Eclipse. Use Swarm only while moving, and after Moonfire and Eclipse, refresh as needed. If you are about to enter Eclipse, you can refresh at 6 seconds remaining to avoid losing the Spirit buff. If you are about to enter Solar Eclipse, wait until it finishes before refreshing to avoid overwriting it, as there is currently no dot compensation mechanism, and refreshing early is a loss.This version of Feral Druid lacks burst skills, so keep a close eye on the cooldowns of your gloves and potions. Activate your gloves and use potions as you enter Eclipse to avoid wasting them. Whether to use Starfall at the start depends on when the boss’s adds spawn; in most cases, it’s fine to use it at the start, but for TOC2, you should hold it until the adds appear.As for Hurricane, it is not needed in TOC; for small adds, just save Starfall and apply Moonfire to each add before throwing a bomb.3. Scoring in TOCTo score as a Feral Druid, you only need to consider pre-fight operations. First, know that the Druid’s Spirit is considered a weapon and can be swapped during combat. You can spend 25 tokens to buy a Gleaming Growth Spirit and swap it 5 to 10 seconds before the fight to trigger its spell power bonus. Similarly, you can do this with other triggering trinkets. You can create a macro to swap based on what triggering items you have.

Triggering Trinket

#showtooltip Rejuvenation
/equipslot 18 Gleaming Growth Spirit
/equipslot 13 Cursed Curse
/equipslot 13 Eye of the Dragon Mother
/cast [target=mouseover,help,exists][] Rejuvenation

Next, when the countdown reaches 2 seconds, use the Wild Magic potion to swap back to your normal gear; you should also create a macro for this, or else it could be awkward if your trinket or cloak doesn’t swap back.

Main Trinkets

#showtooltip Wild Magic Potion
/equipslot 18 Moon Fury Spirit
/equipslot 13 Flame of Heaven
/equipslot 13 Ruler of the Dead
/use Wild Magic Potion

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