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First off: as of right now, there still is no Resto druid relic on the PTR. Didn't mean to get your hopes up.... I know, I'm a very mean tree. Sorry =( See, I've been on the look out for any kind of new druid relics that might be out there, dropping from bosses in Ulduar, but so far, no luck. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like there is a total of four that have been reported: Libram of the Sacred Shield, Idol of the Corrupter, Idol of the Crying Wind, and Steamcaller's Totem. But none yet for us trees.
Depending on how you choose to heal after The Great Lifebloom Nerf of 2009, the current relic we've been using, Idol of Lush Moss, might not be all that viable anymore.
So what should we use after 3.1? Last I heard, the Idol of the Raven Goddess doesn't work with our ToL aura anymore, so that's out the window. The Idol of Awakening, which drops from Gothik in Naxx25 might work well, especially with the Great Mana Regen Nerf of 2009 - we may need all the mana we can get our little barky hands on. There's also the Idol of Pure Thoughts to consider, which you can buy from the Grizzly Hills vendors using Venture Coins.
Although, hey, if we're going to let Lifebloom run out and bloom everywhere and on everything (kinda sounds kinky, don't it), perhaps we should start looking at the Deadly Gladiator's Idol of Tenacity, which is (obviously) the PvP relic for healing pvp druids.
Or perhaps most people will just keep their Idol of Lush Moss... regardless of whether you let LB bloom or not, it's always going to tick first.
What do you guys think?
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Showing posts with label lifebloom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lifebloom. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The new lifebloom is now on the PTR
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EDIT: Originally botched some numbers, because I forgot about ToL aura reducing the cost of LB by 20%. I went back through this post and fixed them all =)
On the PTR, this is what one lifebloom costs:
With 2-piece bonus and in tree form: 733 mana
With 2-piece bonus and not in tree form: 929 mana
Without 2-piece bonus and in tree form: 782 mana
Without 2-piece bonus and not in tree form: 978 mana
/end edit
The Lifebloom change is finally live on the PTR. Unfortunately, it looks to be bugged. When you put Lifeblooms on someone else and they bloom, the 50% mana return is given to the *target*, not you. So it's not quite working as intended.
Regardless, here's a bit of a general update from Ghostcrawler:
As much as I want to QQ about the lifebloom change, I read this and surprisingly found myself agreeing with Ghostcrawler. We *can* roll LBs on 3 tanks, and rejuv and regrowth people, and absolutely have enough mana left to raid heal. Blizzard is saying that we shouldn't. I think that we *should* have to watch our mana pool more. We should have tighter rotations. We should feel challenged.
However, they say they're cool with us rolling LBs on two tanks, right? Let's do some math and figure out where that leaves us. The mana cost of one Lifebloom right now without the 2 piece bonus is 14% of base mana, which is 489 mana. Let's assume, however, that you have at least 2 pieces of tier gear. The bonus makes one LB = 465 mana. And assuming you're in tree form, it costs 20% less, bringing it down to 367 mana. So on the PTR, one LB will cost 734 mana. Let's say you put three on one tank, as fast as your global cooldowns will let you. That's 2202 mana eaten. You turn to the next tank, and do the same. That's now 4404 mana used. If I have a mana pool of, say, 19k, raid buffed, then I just used over 23% of my total mana pool.
How much mana would it cost to continue to roll these LBs on two tanks?
Let's assume that our GCD is 1.2 seconds. So you start right off the bat with 6 lifeblooms and 4404 mana gone. But you've been regening mana for (6 LBs at 1.2sec each) 7.2 seconds. Personally, I regen 306 mp5 while casting on the PTR. So I've regened 440 mana. Hence, after 7.2 seconds of casting LBs, I have a net loss of (4404 - 440) 3964 mana.
Let's say I cast some other spells around, hence keeping my mana regen in the 306 mp5 stage. Not necessarily full on spam healing, but a rejuv here and there, maybe one regrowth on the tank, or a WG on the melee. Just enough to keep me in my "while casting" mana regen. And every 8 or 9 seconds, I refresh both of those LB stacks. That's two LBs every 9 seconds, so, about 13 total in a minute. Keep in mind that we're not letting them bloom, so we're not getting the 50% mana back. 13 LBs in one minute is a loss of 9529 mana. But we're regening 306 mp5 for 60 seconds, so we've regened a total of 3672 mana in that minute.
That's a net loss of (9529 - 3672) 5857 mana. In one minute. Plus the 3964 mana in the 7.2 seconds before that.
If we roll lifeblooms on two tanks, we will have lost (5857 + 3964) 9821 mana in 67.2 seconds.
That means we'd have just about 49% of a 19k mana pool LEFT for other heals, just from casting Lifeblooms. And I didn't even count the other heals that I was casting around in between the stack refreshers, which would absolutely eat into that 49%.
A Patchwerk fight is typically close to, or over 3 minutes long, depending on how kick-ass your DPS is. If druids roll 3 LBs on each tank and cast any other type of heal, we'll be out of mana WELL before it's done. Plus, our Innervate now only regens us 30-40% of our mana pool.
And even in fights where we have a break in the action - Malygos in between phases, Gothik the Harvester, hell, even the web wrap in Meaxxna - our out of combat mana regen is nerfed through the ground, so that won't help us either.
Conclusion: We're not really going to be able to roll Lifeblooms anymore. It's simply too mana intensive. I think that Blizzard was much too heavy-handed with this change, especially with it being on top of the out of combat mana regen nerf. It's one thing to want druids to be aware of their mana, but it's another to have them run out of mana in 1.5 minutes regardless of how attentive they are in timing their heals.
/sad panda
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EDIT: Originally botched some numbers, because I forgot about ToL aura reducing the cost of LB by 20%. I went back through this post and fixed them all =)
On the PTR, this is what one lifebloom costs:
With 2-piece bonus and in tree form: 733 mana
With 2-piece bonus and not in tree form: 929 mana
Without 2-piece bonus and in tree form: 782 mana
Without 2-piece bonus and not in tree form: 978 mana
/end edit
The Lifebloom change is finally live on the PTR. Unfortunately, it looks to be bugged. When you put Lifeblooms on someone else and they bloom, the 50% mana return is given to the *target*, not you. So it's not quite working as intended.
Regardless, here's a bit of a general update from Ghostcrawler:
In PvE the goal was to make rolling Lifeblooms on tanks more expensive. We didn't nerf the amount healed by the spell. Currently, rolling LBs + Rejuv on a tank can be as much healing as a priest or paladin who is just spamming all of their heals on the tank. That is a totally fine thing for a druid to be able to do. But currently the druid can do all of that on more than one tank AND also add in some raid healing. That is just too good. We're cool with rolling LBs on a tank and raid healing. We're cool rolling LBs on two tanks. But once you are rolling LBs on 2 (or 3!) tanks and have enough mana left over for a lot of other raid heals, then you are just too efficient a healer. I understand not all of you were able to do that. But many players were.
As much as I want to QQ about the lifebloom change, I read this and surprisingly found myself agreeing with Ghostcrawler. We *can* roll LBs on 3 tanks, and rejuv and regrowth people, and absolutely have enough mana left to raid heal. Blizzard is saying that we shouldn't. I think that we *should* have to watch our mana pool more. We should have tighter rotations. We should feel challenged.
However, they say they're cool with us rolling LBs on two tanks, right? Let's do some math and figure out where that leaves us. The mana cost of one Lifebloom right now without the 2 piece bonus is 14% of base mana, which is 489 mana. Let's assume, however, that you have at least 2 pieces of tier gear. The bonus makes one LB = 465 mana. And assuming you're in tree form, it costs 20% less, bringing it down to 367 mana. So on the PTR, one LB will cost 734 mana. Let's say you put three on one tank, as fast as your global cooldowns will let you. That's 2202 mana eaten. You turn to the next tank, and do the same. That's now 4404 mana used. If I have a mana pool of, say, 19k, raid buffed, then I just used over 23% of my total mana pool.
How much mana would it cost to continue to roll these LBs on two tanks?
Let's assume that our GCD is 1.2 seconds. So you start right off the bat with 6 lifeblooms and 4404 mana gone. But you've been regening mana for (6 LBs at 1.2sec each) 7.2 seconds. Personally, I regen 306 mp5 while casting on the PTR. So I've regened 440 mana. Hence, after 7.2 seconds of casting LBs, I have a net loss of (4404 - 440) 3964 mana.
Let's say I cast some other spells around, hence keeping my mana regen in the 306 mp5 stage. Not necessarily full on spam healing, but a rejuv here and there, maybe one regrowth on the tank, or a WG on the melee. Just enough to keep me in my "while casting" mana regen. And every 8 or 9 seconds, I refresh both of those LB stacks. That's two LBs every 9 seconds, so, about 13 total in a minute. Keep in mind that we're not letting them bloom, so we're not getting the 50% mana back. 13 LBs in one minute is a loss of 9529 mana. But we're regening 306 mp5 for 60 seconds, so we've regened a total of 3672 mana in that minute.
That's a net loss of (9529 - 3672) 5857 mana. In one minute. Plus the 3964 mana in the 7.2 seconds before that.
If we roll lifeblooms on two tanks, we will have lost (5857 + 3964) 9821 mana in 67.2 seconds.
That means we'd have just about 49% of a 19k mana pool LEFT for other heals, just from casting Lifeblooms. And I didn't even count the other heals that I was casting around in between the stack refreshers, which would absolutely eat into that 49%.
A Patchwerk fight is typically close to, or over 3 minutes long, depending on how kick-ass your DPS is. If druids roll 3 LBs on each tank and cast any other type of heal, we'll be out of mana WELL before it's done. Plus, our Innervate now only regens us 30-40% of our mana pool.
And even in fights where we have a break in the action - Malygos in between phases, Gothik the Harvester, hell, even the web wrap in Meaxxna - our out of combat mana regen is nerfed through the ground, so that won't help us either.
Conclusion: We're not really going to be able to roll Lifeblooms anymore. It's simply too mana intensive. I think that Blizzard was much too heavy-handed with this change, especially with it being on top of the out of combat mana regen nerf. It's one thing to want druids to be aware of their mana, but it's another to have them run out of mana in 1.5 minutes regardless of how attentive they are in timing their heals.
/sad panda
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Saturday, February 28, 2009
3.1 Lifebloom nerf
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It looks like there's a BIG change to Lifebloom coming in the 3.1 patch. Uh, wut? This kind of came out of nowhere, in my opinion - check out this tool tip:
Lifebloom: Mana cost of all ranks doubled. When Lifebloom blooms or is dispelled, it now refunds half the base mana cost of the spell per application of Lifebloom, and the heal effect is multiplied by the number of applications.
Let's break this down.
Mana cost of all ranks doubled. Holy mana drain, batman. /wince That is a heavy duty mana cost.
However....
When Lifebloom blooms, it now refunds half the base mana cost of the spell for each Lifebloom you have on the target. So essentially, you get half of the mana that you just spent on LBs back IF you let it bloom and not refresh it.
Heal effect is multiplied by the number of applications. So you have two lifeblooms on the target, and the bloom will heal for more than usual. With three, it will bloom for even more.
A quote from Ghostcrawler from this source:
Lifebloom is too efficient? I use Lifebloom far less than I used to because they upped the mana cost. Putting a three stack on someone costs 42% base mana. With the 2 piece T7 bonus, that's reduced by 5%, sure, but that's not a huge decrease. Now they're going to DOUBLE that? Bah.
If you let a 3 stack bloom, LB is technically buffed - you've spent the same mana as you would have pre-3.1 (because you gain back half of the doubled mana you just spent), but you get a heftier bloom than you would have pre-3.1. But if you keep LBs rolling, *each* LB you put on the person is going to be 28% base mana.
I realize that mana is going to be an issue come 3.1, especially with the nerf to out of combat mana regen, but instead of looking at mana issues, what about the basic healing done?
Let's pretend that all these spells costs no mana. Just go with me here. Because the heal of the bloom with a three stack will be bigger come 3.1, is it now actually better (in terms of raw healing numbers) to let the LBs fall off and bloom, and then spend 3 GCDs restarting another stack? It's widespread knowledge that as of right now, pre 3.1, letting LBs fall of the tank and having to restart another stack is bad news, because the overall healing that it does, even with the bloom, is slightly less than keeping them rolling (plus all the mana you "waste" putting another 3 quick LBs on the target). But with a bigger bloom, will this not be the case? I'm going to try to log onto the PTR tonight and test this out myself based on numbers I get from letting LB bloom.
Overall, this is going to force healers to pay attention more. Instead of just focusing on timing a refresh to a stack of LBs, you're now going to have to maintain those stacks, and also know when to let them bloom - "when" meaning 1. in what general situations, and 2. an exact time (think Loatheb).
I am 100% for making healers pay attention. I don't like healing on auto-pilot; it gets boring to me. I was actually kind of excited when they announced the the out of combat mana regen nerf, because I knew it would make my healing rotation tighter and more challenging.
But the mana regen nerf paired with this Lifebloom change? I'm not sure how I feel about it.
What do you guys think?
Next post (hopefully): some LB healing numbers from the PTR!
.
It looks like there's a BIG change to Lifebloom coming in the 3.1 patch. Uh, wut? This kind of came out of nowhere, in my opinion - check out this tool tip:
Lifebloom: Mana cost of all ranks doubled. When Lifebloom blooms or is dispelled, it now refunds half the base mana cost of the spell per application of Lifebloom, and the heal effect is multiplied by the number of applications.
Let's break this down.
Mana cost of all ranks doubled. Holy mana drain, batman. /wince That is a heavy duty mana cost.
However....
When Lifebloom blooms, it now refunds half the base mana cost of the spell for each Lifebloom you have on the target. So essentially, you get half of the mana that you just spent on LBs back IF you let it bloom and not refresh it.
Heal effect is multiplied by the number of applications. So you have two lifeblooms on the target, and the bloom will heal for more than usual. With three, it will bloom for even more.
A quote from Ghostcrawler from this source:
"We think rolling is a fun part of the spell. It's just too efficient and makes Lifebloom the best heal per second and heal per mana. We don't want you to change the way you use the spell, at least in terms of single tank healing. The bonus on a bloom or dispel is just supposed to be a bonus."
Lifebloom is too efficient? I use Lifebloom far less than I used to because they upped the mana cost. Putting a three stack on someone costs 42% base mana. With the 2 piece T7 bonus, that's reduced by 5%, sure, but that's not a huge decrease. Now they're going to DOUBLE that? Bah.
If you let a 3 stack bloom, LB is technically buffed - you've spent the same mana as you would have pre-3.1 (because you gain back half of the doubled mana you just spent), but you get a heftier bloom than you would have pre-3.1. But if you keep LBs rolling, *each* LB you put on the person is going to be 28% base mana.
I realize that mana is going to be an issue come 3.1, especially with the nerf to out of combat mana regen, but instead of looking at mana issues, what about the basic healing done?
Let's pretend that all these spells costs no mana. Just go with me here. Because the heal of the bloom with a three stack will be bigger come 3.1, is it now actually better (in terms of raw healing numbers) to let the LBs fall off and bloom, and then spend 3 GCDs restarting another stack? It's widespread knowledge that as of right now, pre 3.1, letting LBs fall of the tank and having to restart another stack is bad news, because the overall healing that it does, even with the bloom, is slightly less than keeping them rolling (plus all the mana you "waste" putting another 3 quick LBs on the target). But with a bigger bloom, will this not be the case? I'm going to try to log onto the PTR tonight and test this out myself based on numbers I get from letting LB bloom.
Overall, this is going to force healers to pay attention more. Instead of just focusing on timing a refresh to a stack of LBs, you're now going to have to maintain those stacks, and also know when to let them bloom - "when" meaning 1. in what general situations, and 2. an exact time (think Loatheb).
I am 100% for making healers pay attention. I don't like healing on auto-pilot; it gets boring to me. I was actually kind of excited when they announced the the out of combat mana regen nerf, because I knew it would make my healing rotation tighter and more challenging.
But the mana regen nerf paired with this Lifebloom change? I'm not sure how I feel about it.
What do you guys think?
Next post (hopefully): some LB healing numbers from the PTR!
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Saturday, January 24, 2009
Naxxramas
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Damn, I've let this blog fall to the wayside, haven't I. I've been too busy leveling to 80, leveling my abysmal fishing (yeah, it's at 250 something right now - and that's after hours of working at it... no Dalaran coins for me for a while), running countless heroics (at this point, there are literally no more upgrades that I can get through heroic badge loot - I've bought them all), trying to sadly, slowly, painstakingly get my Sons of Hodir rep up, and finally, finally! starting some Naxx 25s with my guild =D Which is exciting. Raiding and instances are one of the main reasons I play the game. I really, really enjoy healing people in pve. Pvp never really stuck with me, and solo leveling was fun only because at level, like, 42, I hadn't yet experienced a real 25 man raid; leveling was all I knew.
Which brings us here, now, to Naxx 25. HAI NAXX 25
Naxx 25 is easy. Yeah. It is. It saddens me to say this. I used to read the forums on elitist jerks and I'd hate the people who'd be all like "You only need like 3 or 4 healers, it's so easy, it's boring, anyone could do it." And now that I'm in there.. le sigh. There are no wipe fests! I actually ENJOY wipefests. It makes finally downing a boss all that more delicious. Maybe we'll have a couple wipes here and there due to stupid reasons, but overall, it's not. hard.
Now don't get me wrong - it's not like we've plowed through the instance in one night. We couldn't even get to Sapph and KT in two nights (granted, that was because of the MASSIVE LAG BOSS. God I hate that boss). It's just that you go through trash, doo do dooo, bah kill the shade! come across a boss, ok this is what she does, kill the adds, MC this guy, heal the MT, watch for the web wrap, don't stand in the void zones, don't get silenced, decimate! kill the zombies, and boom. Boss down. Moving on. Meh. Each boss can be done in one try. There are a crapload of bosses in there, sure, so overall, it can take a while. But rarely have we come across a boss in one of the wings that we've had major trouble on.
I guess this makes sense. If each boss was THAT difficult, people wouldn't be able to get to Sapph and KT unless they raided like 5 times a week. Very few people would get to see that end game content. O WAIT HAI BLIZZ I SEE WUT U DID THUR U NERFED STUF SO PPL COULD SEE IT sigh.
It's not at the point where it's so easy, I don't enjoy running it. I have a lot of fun healing the group, and I certainly do have to pay attention on each fight to make sure I'm doing my part. I guess I wish it was *slightly* more challenging. Then again, we still have to get through Maly25 and OS 3D 25, so that's something to look forward to :P
Oh, BY THE WAY. On Loatheb (healbot scrambled, cute, huh?) I've been a total IDIOT at healing. Put LBs on the raid, timing it right so that they bloom during the three seconds! Duh! /facepalm. Granted in 10 man, you just have to precast a HT, try for a quick swiftmend on someone else, and then quick WG on one group, and everything ends up fine and dandy. Haven't tried it on 25. But I'll be rocking the blooms.
EDIT: Loatheb is easy sauce with 7 healers. I think I put one HT precasted on one person the entire fight. I did put up some LBs and tried to time them right, but it didn't really seem to make a big difference. WG was also FTW. There was just so much healing going on, each person's individual heals were just a drop in the water. I guess overall that's good, because we were able to get him down on the first try. Sigh. wtb challenge.
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Damn, I've let this blog fall to the wayside, haven't I. I've been too busy leveling to 80, leveling my abysmal fishing (yeah, it's at 250 something right now - and that's after hours of working at it... no Dalaran coins for me for a while), running countless heroics (at this point, there are literally no more upgrades that I can get through heroic badge loot - I've bought them all), trying to sadly, slowly, painstakingly get my Sons of Hodir rep up, and finally, finally! starting some Naxx 25s with my guild =D Which is exciting. Raiding and instances are one of the main reasons I play the game. I really, really enjoy healing people in pve. Pvp never really stuck with me, and solo leveling was fun only because at level, like, 42, I hadn't yet experienced a real 25 man raid; leveling was all I knew.
Which brings us here, now, to Naxx 25. HAI NAXX 25
Naxx 25 is easy. Yeah. It is. It saddens me to say this. I used to read the forums on elitist jerks and I'd hate the people who'd be all like "You only need like 3 or 4 healers, it's so easy, it's boring, anyone could do it." And now that I'm in there.. le sigh. There are no wipe fests! I actually ENJOY wipefests. It makes finally downing a boss all that more delicious. Maybe we'll have a couple wipes here and there due to stupid reasons, but overall, it's not. hard.
Now don't get me wrong - it's not like we've plowed through the instance in one night. We couldn't even get to Sapph and KT in two nights (granted, that was because of the MASSIVE LAG BOSS. God I hate that boss). It's just that you go through trash, doo do dooo, bah kill the shade! come across a boss, ok this is what she does, kill the adds, MC this guy, heal the MT, watch for the web wrap, don't stand in the void zones, don't get silenced, decimate! kill the zombies, and boom. Boss down. Moving on. Meh. Each boss can be done in one try. There are a crapload of bosses in there, sure, so overall, it can take a while. But rarely have we come across a boss in one of the wings that we've had major trouble on.
I guess this makes sense. If each boss was THAT difficult, people wouldn't be able to get to Sapph and KT unless they raided like 5 times a week. Very few people would get to see that end game content. O WAIT HAI BLIZZ I SEE WUT U DID THUR U NERFED STUF SO PPL COULD SEE IT sigh.
It's not at the point where it's so easy, I don't enjoy running it. I have a lot of fun healing the group, and I certainly do have to pay attention on each fight to make sure I'm doing my part. I guess I wish it was *slightly* more challenging. Then again, we still have to get through Maly25 and OS 3D 25, so that's something to look forward to :P
Oh, BY THE WAY. On Loatheb (healbot scrambled, cute, huh?) I've been a total IDIOT at healing. Put LBs on the raid, timing it right so that they bloom during the three seconds! Duh! /facepalm. Granted in 10 man, you just have to precast a HT, try for a quick swiftmend on someone else, and then quick WG on one group, and everything ends up fine and dandy. Haven't tried it on 25. But I'll be rocking the blooms.
EDIT: Loatheb is easy sauce with 7 healers. I think I put one HT precasted on one person the entire fight. I did put up some LBs and tried to time them right, but it didn't really seem to make a big difference. WG was also FTW. There was just so much healing going on, each person's individual heals were just a drop in the water. I guess overall that's good, because we were able to get him down on the first try. Sigh. wtb challenge.
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