PvE Feral DPS Druid Best Professions

PvE Feral DPS Druid

Gems, Enchants & Consumables

Stat Priority & Reforging

Best Professions

Pre-Raid Gear

Rotation & Cooldowns

Talents, Builds & Glyphs

Best in Slot (BiS)

Addons & Macros

Professions in Cataclysm aren’t just about gold making endeavors or some rare BoP recipe that might get replaced in no time. Each profession now has its own impacts on stats, specialized cooldowns, or other effects that can impact your DPS in a significant way! The buffs from said professions are fairly standardized, though, and so outside of the top or bottom few picks they’ll all be very similar in terms of output gained.

Best Professions

• Engineering is going to be the strongest option by a mile for impacts on your DPS as well as giving you certain utility options as well. Synapse Springs is going to be enormous for cats as we scale particularly well from raw agility and being able to control when this happens lets us amplify our damage output during Bloodlust or other burst windows. You’ll also have the ability to craft a killer set of goggles, the Agile Bio-Optic Killshades, which have “cogwheel” slots that also offer you a large bonus to secondary stats per slot.
• Tailoring is going to offer another strong option with their cloak enchantment procing a massive 1000 attack power buff for 15 seconds! Swordguard Embroidery is only able to be used by a tailor, and the downside is it isn’t a proc that can be controlled, sadly. That said, it is definitely a large amount of burst damage when it does proc, and it lasts awhile.
• Jewelcrafting definitely belongs in the top contenders for its sheer money-making capabilities as well as offering a quirky little bonus over other professions. You’ll be able to craft special gems for you own use called Delicate Chimera’s Eye, and have a total of 3 of these slotted into your gear at any one time. This gives you an advantage of +81 agility over your regular Delicate Inferno Ruby, which is +1 agility better than most other standard profession bonuses to primary stats!

Useful Professions

• Leatherworking is going to be a fairly rock solid option as you have the benefit of being able to craft some of your own gear as well as apply Draconic Embossment – Agility for an extra 80 agility.
• Blacksmithing is a notable entry as it gives us two extra gem slots with Socket Gloves and Socket Bracer. In terms of DPS this will offer us the standard +80 agility bonus for now, but when better gems are released later on in the expansion it might be worth revisiting as the bonus will be slightly larger. If you want to go with it for now that’s a perfectly fine decision as it’ll produce decent intro gear and items other players/crafters will find useful.
• Enchanting is usually a pretty safe bet early on in an expansion’s life as people are upgrading gear on a fairly regular basis. The downside being it can be a bit expensive or frustrating to level to the very top early on as it requires blue/purple items disenchanted to reach its peak. Enchant Ring – Agility x2 will equal out to a standard +80 agility.
• Alchemy is another good money-maker, as what’s going to produce more demand than consumable product that’s necessary for high-end content? It will also offer the standard +80 agility bonus with Mixology as well as an increase to the length of flasks – saving us money.
• Inscription got a big buff in Cataclysm that made it offer actual necessary power bonuses to classes/specs through their glyphs. This is basically the only time in the history of the game where the profession is somewhat relevant, sadly, so if you have a soft spot for the profession – now would be the time to try it. You’ll get a standard +80 agility bonus with Swiftsteel Inscription.

Sub-Par Professions

• Herbalism has the Lifeblood ability, which grants 80 haste when used. Sadly, haste is one of our worst stats, and it in no way compares to a raw +80 agility like the other professions offer as a basline.
• Mining offers a buff to survivability with Toughness. Of course, this gathering profession will still have its uses if you don’t feel like fielding the AH to level up any crafting professions that depend on it. That said, it offers no damage increase.
• Skinning is another one where it offers a secondary stat instead of primary, and it’s one we don’t particularly want to boot. Master of Anatomy gives us +80 crit rating, which is nothing to write home about. Plus, doesn’t it feel a bit rude to be skinning animals for profit when we’re Druids?