In WoD Blizzard introduced a mechanic into the game called 'Pandemic', what this mechanic essentially does is take 30% of your dot's remaining duration and add it onto your refreshed dot's TOTAL duration. This essentially allows you to safely refresh your dots without losing any valuable seconds.
The pandemic thresholds are as follows:
- Rip = 7 seconds, you can safely refresh your Rip if there is less than 7s remaining
- Rake = 4 seconds, you can safely refresh your Rake if there is less than 4s remaining, it is however worth noting that you get an extra tick at 3s, so if you can wait till then, even better.
- Savage Roar = 12 seconds, you can safely refresh Savage Roar if there is less that 12 seconds remaining.
When you refresh a dot outside of these pandemic thresholds it's called 'clipping' the dot. For example, I know I can safely refresh Rip if there is < 7seconds remaining, should I refresh it at say 10 seconds, I have clipped that bleed and lost 3 seconds of its damage; resulting in lower DPS.
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Right, so now that we've got that covered, we can talk about how to BEST refresh your dots.
Ok so now you should understand how pandemic works and how it is important for managing your dot durations, let's look at Tigers Fury + Blood Talons and how they come into the whole picture.
As previously mentioned, Tiger's Fury and Blood Talons BUFF the damage of your Rip/Rake/Ferocious Bite/Shred.
A big part of playing feral is making sure that you ALWAYS use your blood talons proc with your finisher, and when possible, your rake!
Using Blood Talons to buff your finisher is very easy, what you want to do is reduce the time in between your current finisher and your NEXT finisher, this means that your 'Predator's Swiftness' buff (The buff you use to apply healing touch, thus gaining Blood Talons) does not fall off. To do this you want to POOL your energy before you use your finishers (Pooling your energy means letting it recharge as much as possible), this allows you to use your finisher and quickly follow up with another combo point generating ability, reducing the time in between them.
There are 2 situations where you can use your Blood Talons proc, when you are at 4 combo points and when you are at 5 combo points.
If there is less than 10 seconds remaining on your rake, you want to use your blood talons proc at 4cp, wait until there is < 4 seconds remaining on your rake, and use it apply a BUFFED version of your dot. You now have a remaining charge of blood talons which you can use on your finisher.
If there is > 10s remaining on your buff, you use your blood talons to first buff your FINISHER and then you wait till there < 4seconds remaining on your rake and buff that again (this would be your first combo point in the new cycle)
Still with me? Hahaha sorry this stuff can be a little complicated.
Now let's talk about Tiger's Fury, the biggest mistake you can make as a feral druid is holding on to this ability, use it ON COOLDOWN, it is far to powerful to hold in your arsenal for even a few seconds, the only exception to this if you are at 2 cp , at this point you can afford to wait until you get your 3rd THEN use your tiger's fury as this will allow you to line it up with your finisher.
Next, do I refresh Rip OUTSIDE of pandemic when I have tiger's fury up... the answer? NO! NEVER! EVER! YOU NEVER CLIP RIP!
HOWEVER, you CAN CLIP RAKE if you have tiger's fury + blood talons. Generally speaking, if you are BUFFING your current version of rake (either with blood talons or tiger's fury) it is ok to clip it.
So long story short, NEVER CLIP RIP. Clip rake if you are buffing it!