Feral Druid Midnight Talents Guide

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Section 1

The first (or top) section of the class tree really offers two choices after you pick up your core damage talents: Remove Corruption or Maim. You can take the latter in M+ when you don’t need to dispel anything. In some niche scenarios you could also talent Moonkin Form for if you need to leap backwards in a fight with Wild Charge, but it remains quite niche.

Section 2

You can take Nurturing Instinct in raid as a very small gain when playing Lunar Inspiration or Convoke, but for M+ take extra utility or defensives over this. You should typically have a free point in the middle for this, however if you want both points you would typically drop Natural Recovery. That being said, I think running just 1 point in Nurturing Instinct and keeping Natural Recovery is best.

You should swap between Wild Charge and Tiger Dash based on the fight.

Section 3

I recommend always taking Well-Honed Instinct’s as our mini cheat death.

Highly recommend taking Innervate (in raid), Forestwalk, Nature’s Vigil, and Lycara’s Inspiration.

Once all throughput (damage) nodes are picked, you can freely choose between:

• Fluid Form (can even be a small throughput gain).
• Incap Roar (good for M+).
• Perfectly-Honed Instincts (extra survivability).
• 1-min Stampeding Roar (especially for certain raid fights).
• Ursine Vigor (if using Bear Form a lot).

You should never spend more than the minimum amount of talent points required in each bracket of the talent tree, for example the first section requires 8 talent points to progress, so you should only spend 8 in this section, never anymore, as talents in subsequent sections offer more damage / value.

Section 1

There are a few mandatory nodes you should always grab such as Predator, and your options for this section largely come down to whether you want more single-target or more AOE. The nodes you can swap around are:

• Tireless Energy
• Merciless Claws
• Primal Wrath
• Double-Clawed Rake

Comes down to single-target or AOE, it doesn’t cost you much single-target DPS to pick up Primal Wrath.

If you are grabbing Double-Clawed Rake, then you should definitely drop Merciless Claws, as you won’t be casting Shred or Swipe much if you intend to Rake more.

Section 2

There’s a number of nodes you can swap around here.

Infected Wounds: play this in single-target or with Double-Clawed Rake.

Sudden Ambush: play this in single-target, you can drop it in AOE / M+.

Panther’s Guile: always play in single-target or low-target count raid fights, and may have some niche value in M+ if you want to prioritize single-target more (as it’s not completely useless on AOE - see rotation section).

Wild Slashes: is an AOE option if you are playing a Swipe-focused build (no Double-Clawed Rake).

Rampant Ferocity: a must in AOE / M+.

Blood Spattered: decent option in M+ and raid if you want funnel damage.

Savage Fury: is good in single-target and M+ (particularly for Wildstalker).

Tiger’s Tenacity: is generally better than Raging Fury, though the latter can have some niche uses, such as with Incarnation.

You should always play Moment of Clarity with the new tier-set.

Section 3

The final section offers the most choices, though you should always aim to play either Convoke or Incarnation (likely Convoke is better for the first patch).

You’ll basically always want to take Feral Frenzy, as not only is it good in single-target, but the extension node Frantic Frenzy offers very strong AOE burst.

Saber Jaws: exclusively a Druid of the Claw single-target talent.

Apex: intended to be an AOE / funnel talent, it is still quite good in single-target for Wildstalker. An absolute must for M+.

Chomp for more single-target as Druid of the Claw, and Lunar Inspiration for more single-target as Wildstalker.

Circle of Life and Death: should always be played in AOE / M+, and also in single-target as Wildstalker.

Carnivorous Instinct: good talent for more burst and quite good in AOE as well, can come in handy for specific fights, though generally there are stronger options for single-target especially.

Hunger for Battle: can be a good M+ option, though very weak in single-target - will really depend on the dungeon (big pulls / chain pulls).

Unseen Predator is our Apex talent, and simply you can think of it as just another passive effect that plays itself, giving us free damage without any real consideration. It will automatically swap between Unseen Slash and Unseen Swipe based on target count.

Wildstalker (WS) is the more bleed / DOT focused hero tree, while Druid of the Claw (DOTC) is more Bite / Claw focused. However, that doesn’t mean bleeds are neglected as DOTC, nor Bite as WS, you will feel differences when swapping between them, including notable shifts in damage profile.

Additionally, they both vary in terms of defensives, with DOTC we share the tree with Guardian, thus it enhances Bear form and Frenzied Regeneration via talents such as Empowered Shapeshifting and Wildshape Mastery, allowing us to cast Frenzied Regeneration in Cat form. Conversely, WS is more focused on the Resto side of things, enhancing our self-healing and Regrowth through talents such as Thriving Growth, Vigorous Creepers, and Harmonious Constitution.

In terms of gameplay, Druid of the Claw revolves heavily around the Ravage proc, with additional little bits of gameplay sprinkled in via Berserk through Claw Rampage, where maximizing uses of the builder's Shred and Swipe equates to more Ravage procs. There’s also the Dreadful Wound extension, where spending energy after using Ravage extends this bleed, although this is largely passive and you won’t think about it.

Wildstalker puts a bit more emphasis on our base kit, but puts more emphasis on spreading Rake in AOE and multidotting to proc more Bloodseeker Vines, and using Ferocious Bite targets with Vines on them to trigger Bursting Growth. There is also Implant that creates opportunities for you to choose targets to Vine, which goes nicely with Vigorous Creepers, as well as many Feral talents. WS also benefits active talents such as Lunar Inspiration a little bit more, which themselves can add a lot to the rotation.

In terms of when to play either, Wildstalker has traditionally been more single-target focused and Druid of the Claw is generally always best in M+ or for burst situations.

Hero Talent Choice

DOTC is very much the burst Hero tree, with Ravage being a very bursty Ferocious Bite replacement as a proc, and a capstone that enhances our Berserk, and even other optional nodes that can increase Shred and Swipe damage, which notably increases Berserk damage through things like Berserk: Frenzy, and even Killing Strikes making Ravage uses grant Agility, which while not specific to Berserk, you get the most Ravage procs inside of it so you get more uptime of this Agi in Berserk - where you benefit from it the most.

It’s also a little bit more AOE-focused in general than Wildstalker too, but both can do great AOE, just different AOE damage profiles. DOTC feels stronger the bigger the pulls get and it’s less affected by mobs dying too quickly as well, whereas Wildstalker benefits a lot from spreading Rakes.

Both trees do good priority or funnel damage in AOE, but DOTC has the edge not only due to Ravage itself but the way you optimize talents and stats more around Biting as well.

Wildstalker on the other hand, is generally a little bit stronger in pure single-target (update: not necessarily true for 11.2 anymore, see start of this section), as well as stronger in sustained AOE or cleave scenarios, notably situations where Rake gets value (where you can reliably spread them, and they won’t die too quickly with Rake on them).

In terms of defensives, Druid of the Claw has a slight edge here, although it is partly dependent on utilising Bearform. Wildstalkers self-healing is definitely underrated if you can regularly weave in Regrowth on yourself, not only through the talent Harmonious Constitution, but also each Symbiotic Bloom that procs from Regrowth increases all your other self-healing by 20% (per stack of Bloom) via the capstone Vigorous Creepers - this means Wildstalker can also buff Frenzied Regeneration, as well as subsequent Regrowths, and even your health pot!