So it’s tome to pick a main as I’ve been very casual lately and playing everything. I’m considering feral. It seems fun so far but I was curious about what actual feral players think. I’m speaking in mostly PvE sense. Some interest in PvP but mostly will be PvE. Any help would be appreciated ![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
In a casual sense, I think it’s a nice time to try Feral. The cats and bears just got re-rigged so their posture and movements are way better, and you have some nice skin variety regardless of faction with Legion’s artifacts mostly still being available!
They are very mobile, comparable to your shaman, though you can’t use travel form indoors. Ferals still move very fast and have stealth access when it comes to indoor content.
If you go to Vash’jir with swim form, you will shoot across the zones, it’s a bit disorienting to me so be careful!
Beyond that, I can’t say for sure what you’re looking for in casual content when it comes to druids! They look and operate very nicely right now, but for casual play, I think you should give them a good try for yourself and get a feel for them!
If you have any specific things in mind, feel free to ask, but as far as deciding if this is the main for you, I think playing and trying it out and getting a feel is always the best option!
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youll feel very very underwhelming for a while. you just lightly scratch things and pray they bleed out also. when doing dungeons dont be bummed you will never be top dps or maybe top 2.
but its cool being a cat. leveling is fun, aoe is perfect.
druid is entertaining no doubt.
i always stop leveling a feral around 50… i just cant handle the low dps enough to keep going, passion isnt there. so… im sure he gets even stronger and tops charts eventually. i just personally never experienced it… and went resto haha
If you are a druid you play resto. Maybe balance. Feral was fun to level but after that it is obsolete.
Don’t listen to this guy
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Well I was planning to get back into raiding. Raided mythic in past expansions but took a break for BFA. Now I’m looking to get back into it. That’s why I was curious if feral was any good.
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itll do the job. balanced is obv tons better for dungeons and mythic but for raids? you’ll be a worthwhile spot.
<—in a raiding guild
Feral is good end game. It is a bit of a struggle until you get the right gear and traits but then it is competitive. It is an unsung hero in M+ and holds its own in raids if you put in the time and effort. AOE or ST.
There will always be the melee versus ranged debate polluting these forums and ”relative” utility arguments… It looks like some of the latter is getting attention in 8.2.
Overall, in PVE content, feral is sturdy. The range of Balance affinity and regrowth procs keep my health above par in any group.
Great mobility, dps neutral self heals/off-heals, war stomp (Tauren), quasi ranged (balance affinity), brez, upcoming no shape shifting remove corruption, entangling roots, typhoon, stealth, among others. You simply can’t go wrong if you a). Put in the time and up your relevant scores to get you into groups or b). Have a good group to play with that will take you as a non-meta dps.
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I don’t often see people looking specifically for Ferals, Boomkins and restos are preferred for slots as far as I’ve seen. But I’m absolutely certain you can find a guild who will take a good Feral. Even moreso if you try the other specs and find that you enjoy them as well! Our strength as a druid has always been our versatility.
Best of luck to you, I hope you enjoy the spec and class!
Feral is good. Be prepared for a partial stigma on the class due to how undertuned we were at the start of the expansion and the fact that Balance is statistically a better choice, but play what you wanna play.
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Not sure why people are giving you misinformation.
Feral, damage wise, is in a fine spot. The issue is it is one of the least sought after specs for Mythic Raiding, and just as horrible for M+. If you have a medium-long term goal of getting back into mythic raiding and pushing tiers hard, then feral should not be your choice.
Balance is in a great spot in Raiding, and one of the top ranged specs for M+, it will also be a very good performer next patch. Resto is the Top healer for M+, and guardian is looking to be excellent next patch.
Melee is always a very limited role with guilds, and most decent guilds have an established melee core. Even if they didn’t, feral does not bring anything to the table. Warriors bring Bshout and great execute. Rogues have lot’s of immunities that can cheese mechanics and great damage as well. DH Brings the magic debuff and also does good damage, whereas vengence is not sought after. WW’s damage isn’t up to par with the others but does have the phys debuff, however, most of them go Brewmaster which also provides it.
You’re in the same boat as DK’s, Enhance, Survival. They do good damage, but bring nothing to the table for a limited role.
Most guilds will run 1-2 Warriors, 1-2 Rogues, and 1-2 DH For the majority of their melee, and might have a ret in there as well. There is no spot for a DPS that can “keep up” but doesn’t bring anything, especially when you have 2 specs that are very viable in the current meta.
In M+ feral is not going to compete with Rogues/WW due to very high cleave and very high utility.
If your goal is to play melee, you’d be wise to pick a class that has favorable choices. Fury Warrior, brought to raids, and it’s tank spec is one of the best choices in both raiding and M+. Rogue, outlaw is the most sought after class for M+, and most guilds will usually run at least 1 rogue, the downside is this spot is almost always already filled. Ret, two very decent offspecs for all content, and looking towards next patch will be one of the top performing, if not the top, melee dps spec.
For example, there are currently 154 ferals who have killed Mythic Jaina, this is the lowest represented melee class next to survival at 29.
Or just play ranged.
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I’m a super casual player and LOVE feral. You’ll enjoy it. Just get in with a good group of people and you’ll hopefully start seeing some end game content. Warning though, this spec is heavily dependent on gear and player skill. There’s still a lot of feral players out there that are helpful (and some not so much). If I was on more I would chat in game but I’m always on or off for an hour or so a day. Meow ![:smiley_cat:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/smiley_cat.png?v=6" ":smiley_cat:")
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Why do you say Ret will be so good next patch?
Ret is looking good for a few reasons. The Major essence gives them Crusade, which is their Big DPS CD, and crusade is argueably one of the best melee big dps CD’s in the game. Crusade helps fill the downside of ret in that there is a lot of waiting to be able to push buttons. They have a lot of utility in the form of interrupts, BoP, and immunity, LoH, Blessing of Wisdom, a stun (potential aoe stun). With the essence system as it currently stands, they are looking to get the biggest boost from the biggest essence in a melee perspective.
Their main downside right now is they do not provide a full-group benefit. Meaning that nothing they do affects everyone at once.
They already do very good snap aoe cleave also. Unless they completely revamp the new essences coming out, Ret’s DPS and utility will put it into a decent melee spot to have. You will see a decent number of top guilds having one of their 2nd of a melee roles (if they have 2 rogues/2warriors expect one to go ret) go ret. This is soley due to the fact that their damage will be very comparable and they at least have SOME utility for the raid.
I honestly think this is more misinformation than anything. A good Feral can do extremely well in all forms of content right now. They may not have the utility ala Treants like Balance provides but, they do more damage overall than Balance in Mythic+. Outside of Treants, Balance has nothing else. Feral has better AoE burst & does competitive ST dps for bosses.
The only reason at this point that Feral is not brought to much is because of stigma from earlier in the expansion. As 8.2 rolls in, Feral will only grow more and more powerful. Don’t forget that Feral was easily the top spec at the end of Legion. And yet, it still wasn’t brought much to content because of the negativity weighing it down from the rest of Legion.
If people want to play Feral & find a guild willing to give them a shot then there’s no reason to turn people away from the spec. As long as a Feral player is willing to learn Balance as well – they will be even more of an asset to a raid team. A Feral who is willing to swap for certain fights where melee is not as favored is a player that will be more welcome than someone who is rooted into one role.
I certainly agree they can compete, but I’m not going to lie to the guy. They do great damage, they outdps balance in M+. But there’s a strong reason why they aren’t brought and it’s Blizzards horrible balance around utility. You can CERTAINLY play feral in M+ and clear 20s-24s. But the odds of doing that without both having a solid group of players that will let you play feral on is VERY LOW. In fact, it’s not even reality. There’s maybe 20 feral druids in the world with a 2.7k+ Raider IO score. It’s the same boat for warlocks when it comes to M+. The only players of that spec actually pushing 19s+ are people who have a very solid group for a long period of time. Getting PUG’s for that as feral will be lucky if you can get in 1 group a day.
It’s unfortunately the same boat for Raiding. Yes, they can certainly clear the content. But if your goal, is to push high end, say US 200+ kills in Mythic Raiding, the vast, vast, vast majority of those guilds will not have room for a feral OR if they do, it will be a long-standing member who’s been wanting to play feral that will switch to it.
The point is, feral is not a sought after spec, not because of it’s damage, but because it does not bring as much utility as the other classes that ALSO bring the same, if not more damage, for M+, and for raiding there’s only ever 5-8 melee spots, and most guilds will just say “why not play balance/resto”.
If you want to play casual, that’s totally acceptable. But if you want to honestly push your character as far as possible, don’t hinder yourself from the start playing something that CURRENTLY is not anywhere near meta.
How are ferals in pvp atm anyone able to give some input on that?
Feral’s are fine in both PvE and PvP, the just take a bit more focus to play.
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The reason why only 154 or so ferals have killed Mythic jaina is due to the stigma of feral is the worst spec in pve, its not btw. Will I kill her no not realy I dont care for raiding but I still do M+ and im giving my 415 ilvl unhdk friend a run for his money on the meters during big aoe pulls feral does good dmg you just haven’t seen a good feral yet.
They can compete but vs some comps unless you have a god tier healer and you can peel like jesus you will simply lose to comps that have any form of a dk and if you dont know what traits you want or dont know how to pvp as a feral you’re journey will be fairly rough.