PvE Feral Druid DPS Stat Priority – WoW Classic
Nevermore • Updated June 7, 2025
Find the optimal stat priority for dps Feral Druids in WoW Classic. The stats are listed in terms of importance and detailed in-depth, explaining why they are important and if there are any specific caps involved.
Feral Druids have a unique stat priority compared to other classes, requiring a mix of Strength, Agility, and Critical Strike Chance, among other stats, to achieve optimum performance. Feral Druids should avoid getting items with Spirit, Intellect, Spell Critical Strike Chance, Spell Power, or MP5, only picking those stats in case they don’t have access to any other stats.
Stat Priority
- Hit Chance
- Critical Strike Chance
- Agility
- Strength
- Attack Power
- Haste Rating (Attack Speed)
- Stamina
Hit Chance is the most important stat for most classes/specializations, including Feral Druid. To ensure that none of your attacks miss against a level 63 target (Raid Bosses), you will need a 9% Hit Chance. However, this is not achievable in the first 2 phases, meaning you should aim to reach around 5-7% Hit Chance. You will be able to get close to 9% Hit Chance in the later phases, especially during Ahn’Qiraj and Naxxramas.
Critical Strike Chance is the second most important stat for most classes/specializations, having a special interaction with Feral Druids. Thanks to the Blood Frenzy talent, Feral Druids benefit the most from large amounts of Critical Strike Chance. The talent allows them to build up Combo Points faster and use more Finishing Moves per fight, meaning that every bit of Critical Strike Chance greatly increases overall performance. The stat has a cap but it can’t be reached, even in the later stages of WoW Classic without severely dampening Attack Power. In addition, Critical Strike Chance can’t affect DoT abilities, meaning that only Claw, Shred, and Ferocious Bite will benefit from it.
Agility is a core primary stat for Feral Druids, granting them Armor, Critical Strike Chance, and increased Attack Power through Cat Form. Agility scales very similarly to Strength when it comes to Feral Druids, meaning that they should always aim to balance Strength and Agility. In overall performance, Agility wins due to the Critical Strike Chances it generates, but Strength is important almost in equal measure.
Strength is another core primary stat that Feral Druids want to acquire since it increases their Attack Power by 2 per point of Strength. This stat is almost equally important to Agility since it directly increases the damage of Auto-Attacks and Abilities. Feral Druids should aim to acquire Strength from their gear pieces and from enchants whenever possible, similar to Agility.
Attack Power increases the damage of Auto-Attacks and Abilities, with every ability scaling differently. Feral Druids can opt to acquire Attack Power from enchants or gear pieces only when the set amount value of Attack Power is higher than the combination of Strength + Agility on a specific item/enchant. Feral Druids should never prioritize raw Attack Power unless that condition is met!
Haste Rating (Attack Speed) is a special stat in WoW Classic, benefiting specific classes/specializations. This stat can only be acquired through special means, with only a few items/consumables offering it. For Feral Druids, this stat can be acquired through engineering and some specific consumables/enchants, with the most well-renowned item, the Manual Crowd Pummeler, acting as an extremely important item for their overall performance. The only reason why this stat is not higher on the list is that it’s considered more of a consumable during combat, not an itemization stat. You should always prioritize the other stats first, as having extra Attack Speed won’t enhance the overall Damage Output that much without the raw Attack Power to support it.
Stamina is a stat that Feral Druids should avoid as much as possible in case they don’t plan to Off-Tank! The stat increases the overall Health Pool of a player. While it is beneficial to have some Stamina to ensure that you don’t end up being a glass cannon, any item that provides more Stamina than Agility/Strength/Attack Power should be automatically avoided. The only scenario in which you want items with high Stamina is the case of Off-Tanking, however, you will most likely simply have a different set for Off-Tanking if you choose to pursue that role as well.
PvE Feral Druid DPS Stat Priority
Knowing which stats provide value to your class is an important part of understanding the class you play. It also allows you to make gearing decisions independently of gear lists, which is useful to assess whether an item you’ve received is an upgrade (even if it may not be best in slot!).
However, keep in mind that stat priorities do not mean that you should completely stack one stat over another; all the listed stats provide some value to Ferals, so an optimal set will provide a balance of these stats for the most overall value. For example, while 1 Strength may provide more value than 1 Critical Strike Rating, 2 Critical Strike Rating will provide more value than 1 Strength. Therefore, it is important not only to know which stats are the most valuable, but how each stat objectively compares to the others.
The relative value of each stat can be determined through the use of simulation tools. These tools take the optimal DPS rotation and simulate thousands of encounters to compare how much DPS is added by each stat. The values presented here as stat weights show the calculated DPS increase of one stat — i.e. 1 Strength = 1.85 DPS in a full BiS set-up. The most up-to-date simulation tool for Feral DPS is developed by Nerdegghead and is freely available on the Druid Classic Discord — the information presented here is derived from this.
Note that these values change based on your rotation, gear, buffs and debuffs, number of targets, duration of encounter, and other factors affecting your DPS. These particular values are calculated for a 3 minute, single target encounter in Phase 3 BiS gear and full raid buffs + target debuffs.
Stat Priority & Value
| 2.35 DPS | 1 Armor penetration rating not exceeding 1400 rating (or 649 rating with Mjolnirrunestone) |
| 2.19 DPS | 1 Hit rating not exceeding 263 rating / 8% (or 230 rating / 7% with HeroicPresence) |
| 2.19 DPS | 1 Expertise rating not exceeding 132 rating / 6.5% |
| 1.91 DPS | 1 Agility not exceeding 80.8% critical strike chance |
| 1.85 DPS | 1 Strength |
| 1.50 DPS | 1 Critical Strike Rating not exceeding 80.8% critical strike chance |
| 1.42 DPS | 1 Haste rating |
| 0.93 DPS | 1 Feral attack power |
| 0.78 DPS | 1 Attack power |
| 0.00 DPS | Stamina (adds survivability only) |
Stat Explanation
thank a lot for detailed and well developed guide
Wtf is 1400 armor pen? Game has much lower values
Should post the in-game percentage instead, like under Hit Rating it says I have armor pen rating 25, which is 1.79% enemy armor reduced
The in-game percentage is not fully representative of how Armor Penetration works and is kind of dishonest unfortunately.
1400 armor pen is 100% armor pen
Roughly 15 Armor Penetration is = to 1% reduction in boss armor
1400 Armor Penetration is the hard cap, meaning you will not gain anything past this point.
Reaching that is effectively impossible currently, but in later Phases there is a lot more Armor Penetration on gear, allowing you to potentially hit 1400, even if it is only temporarily.
PvE Feral Druid DPS Stat Priority
bobodingo • Updated June 2, 2025
- Hit (9%)
- Agility
- Strength
- Crit & Attack Power
- Haste
To hit almost every time on a boss, you will need 9% hit. With this, there is only a 1% chance for you to miss an attack.
In cat form, you get a bonus for the amount of agility you have. This will increase your Attack Power and Crit chance just by being in the form.
Strength is a great stat to increase your damage in general.
Crit & attack power allow for more damage but don’t get the same multiplayer as agility in cat form.
Haste is great to increase your attack speed but isn’t as good due to your already fast attack speed.