Feral Rotation HelpFollow

Well, this information IS readily available on this forum if you just look around a little bit. But being as it's the birthday of America I'm feeling nice, so here it is. My explanation of feral DPS rotation as I wrote on my guild's website, copied and pasted word for word.

"Feral is not like any other DPS class in that it is both a burst and sustained DPS class and being good at it requires a careful balance between the two. Trying to DPS only with burst or only with DoTs will ultimately amount to a big, delicious helping of FAIL. Your standard rotation will involve the following abilities: Mangle, Shred, Tiger's Fury, Rake, Rip, Maim, Savage Roar, Ferocious Bite, Berserk and Swipe. The situation will determine what abilities are used and when.

Your most basic, standard DPS rotation should be roughly as follows:

Mangle > Shred x3 or x4 > Rake > Rip

Mangle of course puts a debuff on your target improving the damage of your Shred, Rake and Rip and should never be allowed to fall off. Having an Arms warrior in your group or raid makes Mangle obsolete though, as Arms warriors apply Trauma which overrides Mangle and does the same thing, improves bleed effects and Shred damage.

In any situation where you find yourself running out of energy too quickly, you should always supplement with Tiger's Fury as, when fully talented, grants 60 energy on use. Use it generously in the above listed rotation at any point you want but ideally only use it when you have less than 40 energy (because you know, 40+60 = 100).

Savage Roar should also be mixed into that rotation whenever needed and the sooner the better. The base ability grants 30% increase to physical damage and when glyphed that goes up to 33%. This ability should never be allowed to drop off and even one single combo point will give you a window of 15 seconds or so before requiring refreshing. Tier 8 four piece bonus increases the duration of Savage Roar too so with a 4-piece bonus and 5 combo points Savage Roar lasts about 40-45 seconds (I cannot remember precisely).

Mangle, while it does good damage, should only be used when it is required to refresh the debuff on your target. At all other times, Shred should be your primary damage ability. Requiring a position roughly from behind the target it is the highest burst non-combo point attack we have and when fully talented costs 42 energy instead of the base 60 (not getting the talent to reduce energy costs will make Shred useless).

Your sustained damage will always come from your two bleed attacks, Rake and Rip. It is important to not let them fall off the target for too long but at the same time you do not want to constantly be clipping them, A.K.A. applying a new bleed before the old one expires. Rip becomes exponentially useful with the 1 point talent Primal Gore. Ignoring this talent will, IMO, gimp your damage output as a feral DPS. Also, Rip should only be used when you have a minimum of 4 combo points, 5 if you're feeling frisky (after all, you "are" a cat).

Ferocious Bite is an interesting ability. It is both awesome and weak at the same time, if that's even possible. Relying on FB as your primary damage ability will amount to FAIL, but it should not be entirely ignored. It is good as a supplement attack in the middle of your rotation when your bleeds, Mangle and Savage Roar are all fresh. Like all other abilities, the more combo points the better. This ability can easily crit for me 12,000-15,000 with 5 combo points. Lastly, the tier 1 talent, Feral Aggression, if you're thinking it'll help your FB, trust me...it won't.

Maim, simply put, is a stun/interrupt. while now on diminishing returns it is still quite useful and entirely on par with the interrupting abilities of rogues, warriors and DKs. Use when necessary but don't count on it to do a lot of damage (you know, I don't even think it does damage but I never watch).

Swipe is your only AOE attack as a feral DPS, and it is AMAZING. On any pull that has 2 or more mobs, your rotation should be as follows:

Get some combo points > Swipe x infinity.

Swipe will hit anywhere from 1.5k to 5k on each target and should absolutely be talented to increase its damage. At the point where the AOE pull is down to one target, switch to your usual single target rotation.

Berserk is godly, no other way to put it. Use it early on boss fights and use it often as its energy reducing aspect will allow you to get your bleeds and savage roar up that much quicker. You can use it on trash too, anywhere you want really as it is just a 3 minute cooldown. AOE trash pulls + Berserk + Swipe = anywhere from 10k to 20k DPS for me over a short period of time. Of course, duration of fight and number of mobs will ultimately determine the end DPS value but it will be impressive and a great way to stroke your e-peen."

Hope that helps.

Edited, Jul 4th 2009 8:19pm by Tavarde

Trash: Rip -> SR, Swipe. Use TF and Berserk as needed.

Boss: FFF, Mangle, Rake, SR, TF, Berserk, Shred to 5 CP, Rip. Is the starter. Don't let SR, Mangle, Rip, Rake or FFF fall off.

Don't overwrite Rake or Rip.

Pooling energy is ok.

Berserk when at high energy.

TF when <35 energy.

Download BadKitty. It helps. Will let you know if the Mangle is effect is up via Trauma and other peoples Mangle. Same goes for FFF.

Practice. It isn't easy.

While Tiger's Fury will refill your energy, to let you get the most out of Berserk, be careful about using Berserk immediately after using Tiger's Fury.

Tiger's Fury has its own buff component, which lasts for six seconds, and is removed by activating Berserk.

FFF to pull, Mangle spam til mobs is almost dead or 5 CP, SR

Next mob Rake, Mangle till mob is dead, SR before it dies.

Again using TF when below 35 energy.

Mobs die to fast while soloing to have a rotation. Just try and keep SR running at all times if grinding in the same area. Use SR as your finisher if it will run out. Really though stuff dies fast.