This is not a full guide of "how to duel as Feral Druid" but if you're constantly losing every duel you make while playing feral then this is for you.
In this topic I'm gonna talk about some mistakes that you're probably doing while dueling that could have something to do with your losses. I will also point a few tips that will help you getting better agaisnt every class/spec. I wanted to post this in the Neltharion subform since this thread will only make sense here, the only cata realm at the moment.
First of all I should tell you the reasons why I'm making this thread, which they're 3:
1. Many people have been asking me how do I duel agaisnt certain classes, and since I've nothing better to do I decided to post it in the forum :D;
2. Increase Forum's activity;
3. I'm bored as hell.
I have nothing agaisnt people who disagrees with me, so if you have a different opinion about something I'm about to say here, just go ahead and let me know. There is no problem if you want to add something else either. Take in consideration that this is just tips that goes pretty well with my playstyle, even tho I know there is a lot of other different playstyles.
I'm going to order the classes/specs from the easiest to the hardest:
WARRIOR:
I'm not sure why would someone have troubles agaisnt warriors, but I do know that they can pull out some crazy damage and spwan a lot of tentacles. Keep in mind that you don't need to go full tryhard on him, you can easily full bleed him and kite between his range and the charge's range. Root/clone everytime you need to take some heals and use survival instincts in his burst. DO NOT TRINKET HIS FEAR.
ARCANE MAGE:
Arcane Mage has one of the greatest bursts in the game but it also dies pretty fast. Don't be afraid to use Survival Instincts if you know they will be able to hit 4 Arcane Blasts in a row on you and always save your Feral Charge for when you get knockbacked. Just burst him off since the very beginning and try to kill him as soon as possible. Use Feral Charge (Bear) to force a blink so you can stun him after that.
FROST DK:
Any Frost Dk is going to be able to burst your HP BAR in few seconds, their damage its insane and you must be careful. Just play super agressive with yours burst and defensive cds on. Its not really smart to try to kite them since they can outdamage you in range dps. Even tho they wear Plate, it looks like they're made of paper, so its not really a problem.
SHADOW PRIEST:
Most of the Ferals who lose agaisnt Shadow priest don't really know when to trinket, and end up trinketing the first fear. Why is it not good to trinket at first? Well, what you really want to avoid agaisnt shadows its their OP sustain with OP Casting heals and they will never heal themselves at the first fear. its also important to know when to Burst, and probably the best time for it its when you came out of fear so you will have a few seconds to burst him after he fears you again, at this point if priests decides to use dispersion you've won since you saved your trinket for the right time so you can just remove his next fear and finish him. You can also cyclone him while he's under dispersion's effect and root shadowfiend so he won't take mana back. DO NOT INTERRUPT HIS SHADOW ABILITIES WHEN HE'S ABOUT TO DIE unless you wan't him to get all his HP back.
AFFLI/DESTRO LOCK:
Just kill him before he kills you, easy as that. Burst him right after your trinket. Do not use caster form if he's playing with succubus.
ELEMENTAL SHAMAN:
Elemental Shaman can be pretty dangerous if played by the right hands. Crazy damage and giant heals its what make them so painful, also, the fact that they use 3 different types of casts make them very ******ed to interrupt (Interrupting their heals is going to be your main focus). Do not charge at the open and let him use his knockback first, after that you can just burst him and if you don't fall for any of his fakecasts you will probably win. Use survival instincts during his Burst (pay attention to his Elemental Mastery).
BALANCE DRUID:
Since Dash got fixed, Boomkin can now be a problem for Ferals by abusing their roots on us. Do not burst untill you're Immune to roots and you should Dash the first one since it lasts 8 ****ing seconds. You must kill him very fast because Boomkin can pretty much knockout you while you're trying to reach him (which its harder than it looks because of the mushrooms, roots and clones). Use your clones to negate his Lifeblooms to explode.
Pro tip: When you see the boomkin going at you in bear form, just kite him away, as long as he's in bear form you're fine :D.
ENHANCEMENT SHAMAN:
Most of the times you're going to be able to kill a Enha Shaman pretty fast, but some of them can last for a really long time, and that is a problem since they can melt you like if you were butter. Do a normal open but before you starting to stack your combo points try to basic attack his searing totem, that will piss him off and slow down his damage. Pay all your attention to his stacks and when you see that you have 5 searings on you then its time to make a defensive move because most of them will burst you at this time, so just use your survival instintics before his Lava Lash, but if uses wolves first to stun you, use Barkskin. You should root his wolves by using your nature's grasp. DO NOT BURST ON HIS SHAMANISTIC RAGE.
Pro tip: Use Moonfire to remove his grounding totem if you pretend to clone.
UNHOLY DK:
Even tho we're supposed to counter Unholy DK, its pretty common for us to lose agaisnt good UhDKs. Why can this happen? Simple, in this duel both players will try to kill the opponent as soon as possible by bursting from the beginning. There is 3 phases in a Feral vs UnhDK match: Burst, Recover and finish off. Both will start by bursting each other, Recover all their HP when they're about to die, and finish off the opponent, the one who does this more perfectly is the winner. Most of the times the Dk will have to move to the Recover phase first because Feral's Burst is superior, but DK wins most of the time in the recovery game, why? They will have no problems to use lich born and spend their runic power to get all their HP back, and they will still have their pet to sacrifice and get an extra HP. Now you're thinking "yea, but what about our Frenzied Regen?", well you're probably forgetting about Dk's Necrotic Strike, which makes it way harder for you to recover, BUT there is a way to counter it, since Dks usually trinket your first stun, you will have a free clone when you know its time to use frenzied regen, so this is what you gonna do: Clone Dk > Kite and Stack Lifeblooms on you > Cast Frenzied Regen when you're no longer under the necrotic effect (just pay attention to not waste your insta clone on the AMS).
Pro tip: Root his ghoul everytime it gets improved and clone the gargoyle. You can also purge Dk's Unholy Frenzy with Soothe.
SUB ROGUE:
Some time ago I had a lot of troubles fighting Sub rogues, but I've learned how to fight them. They're not that hard to beat if you're extremely focused, but every single mistake you make agaisnt them will get you hardly punished. You will play in Bear Form 70% of the duel, 20% in Cat Form and 10% in Caster Form to heal yourself since rogues can basically 1shot you if they catch you in Cat Form in a full stun (Save Barkskin for this situation). Attack him with your Bear abilities and use Feral Charge (Bear) and root/clone him everytime you need to take some heals, you can also use this time where he's rooted or cloned to try a restealth>pounce and burst him off, if he trinkets you've basically won since you will probably kill him in the next stun. Try to bait him to stun you in your Bear form (this way you can go full tryhard in Cat Form during his Stun's DR), how can you do that? Imagine that you were kitting the rogue in Bear Form and he has Shadowstep, you can start to cast a root or a clone (rogue will have to decided between jump on you with shadowstep or to use a CoS/Smoke Bomb which is really good for you), if he shadowsteps you he will probably try to stun and if you're fast enough, you can change to bear form just in time.
Pro tips: Everytime you know he has Shadowstep in CD just slow him down and start kitting while using your lifeblooms/roots/clones. When rogue uses Evasion you have to options: Play defensive by staying in Bear Form, or go agressive with a Shadowmeld>Pounce (this stun does never get dodged).
RETRI PALADIN:
The main problem of fighting Retri Paladins its their INSANE OP sustain. I don't think I need to mention that they hit like trucks but anyway... They're not that hard to beat. Probably you're losing agaisnt them because you don't have in mind that you must kill them under 1 minute after the scared shield is down. The open is very important for the whole duel, so you must make your decisions according to what your oppenent does. If he trinkets your first stun, you kinda won already, just keep stuning him, cloning him and heal yourself, when he's about half HP burst him off, proc his sacred shield and destroy it before he comes out of the stun (you can do it just by using a berserk, you don't really need to go full burst), after that you have 1 minute to kill him (counting with Bubble as well). If he does not trinket your first stun, try to force his trinket as soon as possible so you can full stun him in the right time. Sometimes you're going to deal with some skumbag Retris who will use Hand of Protection in your first stun just to save a trinket, in this case you just need to apply "Karma" to them and burst them off since they're unable to use bubble for the next 1 minute, force his trinket so you can CC the retri under the sacred shield to destroy it.
Pro tips: At the opening, change to Bear Form when he's about to come out of your stun, most of them are spamming Stun and will catch you on Bear form, which is great. There is a trick to keep a good sustain while still doing a great damage: Use your 5 combo points to Maim him, use 2 shreds, 1 lifebloom, clone him, + 2 lifeblooms +1 reju (Don't abuse on this ability or you can say goodbye to your mana).
HUNTER:
It doesn't matter if it is BM or MM, they both counter you hard. If the hunter is good enough then you will probably lose, they can easily control you and when you finally reach them you're basically dead already. There is some things that you can do that will still increase your chances to win agaisnt them. Try to root/clone their pets its you're dueling a BM and interrupt Bad Manner if its a MM, this will make you more sustainable. Cast Lifeblooms everytime the hunter uses Deterrence and look if he's dismissing his pet, in this case you should cyclone the pet, that will make him unable to proceed with his evil plan and will prevent you from taking more CC. If you full bleed him while you're bursting then he's mostly dead.
FIRE MAGE:
Yap, every Feral's nightmare... Mage, who doesn't hate them right? Root after root, stuns, rings and Dragon's breath, its actually so painful and there is not much you can do agaisnt them. Try to make him miss his DBs by moving around him and use your Feral Charge (Bear) everytime possible to force his blink.
Use shadowmeld when you're rooted and he's casting a Pyroblast and interrupts his fire abilities everytime you can. You must burst him when he has DRs so it will be hard for him to stop you.
FROST MAGE:
If you want to stop losing agaisnt Frost Mage as Feral Druid, just DON'T ****ING DUEL IT!
The weapon you choose can also increase your chances to win. Use Kiril when you're going to fight something that you know you need to Burst at the start so you can enjoy the agility bonus. If you're about to duel a Rogue or a Retri, you will have to turtle a lot, so Kiril is really not that good for that, in this case swap to Cata's Weap for the extra Resil + Mastery.
I apologize if there is anything that is misspelled, I started writing this at 6AM and I was already sleepy af. Anyway I hope I've helped you.
If there is still anything you would like to know I have absolutly no problem to reply to you here. Again, if you disagree with me in anything just let me know, we can discuss about it :D
