.
After I put my gear list together, I got this comment from Aertimus:
"Okay now the only thing that isn't sitting right... Why isn't Guiding Star on your list as a weapon? Even though it lacks the spirit of Plasma Foil and Stormtip, it has (raw) 15mp5 and 63 spellpower which TOTALLY make up for the 40ish loss in spirit."
To which I responded:
"Taking a weapon with no spirit is a HUGE hit for resto druids. Personally I don't think it's worth it. You really, really need that spirit for regen and healing power in tree form." Amirite?!
To which SHE responded:
"If you factor in spellpower from spirit on Plasma Foil in ToL form (and we will even throw in Kings), Guiding Star has 54 MORE healing power in tree form. So we don't need the spirit for that. The mana regen from the spirit is nice. It gives me about 20mp5 from spi/int. But Guiding Star has 15mp5, so Plasma Foil only gives 5mp5 more.
5mp5 vs 54 healing power? I wouldn't have given that a second thought. If I'm missing something major, could you show me your math?"
Well, hot damn. Don't I feel dumb.
And with this, I'm thrown into a conundrum - what's the deal with spirit? So I think to myself, well, obviously there are going to be weapons that *don't* have spirit in 25 mans that are better than weapons *with* spirit in 10 mans (note that Plasma Foil and Stormtip are 10 man drops, and Guiding Star is from 25s) - but surely there are better 25 man one handers that are more itemized towards trees, i.e, have spirit! Right?
Wrong. There are NO one handers with spirit in 25 man Ulduar.
Is this on purpose, or an oversight? Does Blizzard want us to take one handers without spirit, or do they want us to exclusively go to two handers? Is this an issue that's isolated to one handed weaps, or is it more rampant? Even if there WERE 25 man one handers with spirit, would they be better than the ones without spirit?
And then more pressing question: How good is spirit for us now, really? It used to be the golden standard for resto druids. If it had spirit and no hit, it was all ours. If it didn't have spirit, well, it wasn't itemized for you, and if you rolled on it, you were 1. a noob, and 2. probably stealing loot from a paladin.
But, now, with the changes to Innervate going live soon, and our out-of-combat mana regen nerfed, I'm starting to question what gear is best for me.
Let's take this hypothetical situation:
Which imaginary weapon is better for resto druids?
Weapon 1
+120 stamina
+120 intellect
+120 spirit
+80 haste
+550 spell power
Weapon 2
+120 stamina
+120 intellect
+80 haste
+15 mp5
+575 spell power
Look over the stats reeeal carefully.
Obviously weapon 1, right? Look at all that spirit! It's gotta make up for the little loss in spell power! And mp5 is that weird stuff that shaman use!
Nope. Weapon 2 is better for us. Weapon 1 and weapon 2 are exactly the same except weapon 2 will give us 5 extra raw mp5 while casting, and 2 extra spell power. The 120 spirit on the first weapon will actually grant us 150 spirit, if you've got Blessing of Kings and Living Spirit. So that's an extra 23 spell power in tree form (15% of 150) and about 10+ mp5 while casting, assuming you have all the necessary talents. Granted, it'll give us around 20+ mp5 while not casting, whereas in weapon 2, it stays at a flat rate of 15 mp5 - but how often are we not casting in Ulduar? In Naxx, I'd be out of the five second rule quite often - I'd hot up the tank and wait, and wait. And wait some more. Then refresh a couple hots, and then wait again. In Ulduar, there's very little down time. So I wouldn't say that the out of combat regen benefit is really worth taking into account.
Now, if Innervate was staying spirit-based, I'd be inclined to say that the big chunk of spirit there IS worth it, despite all the above talk, because it'll boost your Innervate regen, and I use Innervate quite a lot in Ulduar. But soon that won't be the case.
Funny, ain't it, cause weapon 2 certainly doesn't LOOK like a resto druid weapon....
So, what's this mean for us?
Well, it means that I should go through my entire loot list and do some math on the 'higher-spell-power-no-spirit' loot that I didn't include and see if it's better...../weep. =P
It also means that we might find ourselves rolling on mp5 loot. This *really* makes me cranky, because I do NOT want to be stealing loot from other classes. Mp5 is for shammies, not druids! Right? >.> Sigh.
Now, this is probably a simple case of one handed weapons, rather than a full blown "AMIGOD ALL OUR GEAR IS MP5 NOW AMIGOD". I'll look into *all* of our gear options today - not just spirit ones - and update the loot list as needed.
What are your thoughts on spirit? Good? Not so good? Still necessary?
.
Showing posts with label mana regen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mana regen. Show all posts
Monday, May 18, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Ways to deal with the 3.1 mana regen nerf.
.
So we all know by now about the mana regen nerfs in 3.1. Aside from the players who did extensive raiding on the PTR, we don't really know how intensive the Ulduar fights will be, or how scarce mana will be.
It's best to be prepared for every scenario going into Ulduar - you want various food buffs, flasks, trinkets, etc. so that you can switch things around if a certain flask of food buff isn't working out. There are a lot of different combinations of buffs you can use, and the trick is finding what's best for you. As always, spell power is pretty much king, but we may a couple more mana buffs here and there.
So what should you have in your bags?
Food buffs
Right now I use Tender Shoveltusk Steak. It's the best spell power food out there. There's also a fish version, Firecracker Salmon, but I don't make those because my fishing is abysmal, and plus, AoEing those shoveltusks is really, really satisfying. Barkskin, Hurricane, ???, profit. So good.
There are two other options you can use: Cuttlesteak, which is the best boost to spirit you'll get from a food buff (there's no meat equivalent for this, unfortunately). There's also Mighty Rhino Dogs and the fish equivalent, Spicy Fried Herring, which both boost your mp5. If you're going to use one of these, I'd skip the mp5 food and go with the spirit.
There's nothing yet in WotLK which will boost your spell power *and* your spirit. However, if you want the best of both worlds, you could go with the TBC food Golden Fish Sticks. However, don't disregard the loss of stamina if you take this buff - you might end up needing a little extra in Ulduar.
Flasks
You have two that you should be looking at: Flask of the Frost Wyrm, or Flask of Pure Mojo. If at ALL possible, you want to keep the Frost Wyrm flask. This is your biggest, baddest spell power buff: 125 spell power (162 spell power for alchemists). If you're going to give up some sort of spell power buff in favor of a mana regen buff, try not to give up this one! It's too good to replace.
Trinkets
There are a multitude of spell power and mana regen trinkets. Let's look at the spell power ones first.
There are also a good number of mana regen trinkets out there (I'll focus on the spirit ones):
Glyphs
You could technically get the Glyph of Innervate and use it on yourself to really boost your mana regen. You can check out how much mana you'd potentially get back here (I checked it out on the PTR).
Gems and Enchants
You may want to shift out some Runed Scarlet Rubies for Luminous Monarch Topaz or Purified Twilight Opal. This way you keep some of your spell power throughput, but buff your mana regen at the same time. As for enchants, make sure you have the +18 spirit to boots.
My point of this post is that there are many, many ways to make sure you don't run out of mana come 3.1. The trick is choosing buffs that will keep your mana regen in the green, while also maintaining your spell power and overall raw healing.
So what will I be doing? When we first step foot into Ulduar, I'm keeping all of my spell power buffs. Shoveltusk food buff, Flask of the Frost Wyrm, spell power gems. However, I'll have a Flask of Pure Mojo and a bunch of Cuttlesteak in my bags. If I find I'm running out of mana, I'll switch out to the Cuttlesteak food buff - and then if I'm STILL running out of mana, I'll take the Mojo flask.
After that first run, we should all have a better idea of where we're at in terms of our mana. I'm hoping that I'll be able to just regem a couple pieces of gear and use a spirit food buff to get my mana back in working condition. Changing out glyphs, trinkets, and flasks all devoted to straight spell power can really make your throughput plummet.
So what's your plan? Have any specific mana regen items you're planning on using? I'd love to hear ideas!
.
So we all know by now about the mana regen nerfs in 3.1. Aside from the players who did extensive raiding on the PTR, we don't really know how intensive the Ulduar fights will be, or how scarce mana will be.
It's best to be prepared for every scenario going into Ulduar - you want various food buffs, flasks, trinkets, etc. so that you can switch things around if a certain flask of food buff isn't working out. There are a lot of different combinations of buffs you can use, and the trick is finding what's best for you. As always, spell power is pretty much king, but we may a couple more mana buffs here and there.
So what should you have in your bags?
Food buffs
Right now I use Tender Shoveltusk Steak. It's the best spell power food out there. There's also a fish version, Firecracker Salmon, but I don't make those because my fishing is abysmal, and plus, AoEing those shoveltusks is really, really satisfying. Barkskin, Hurricane, ???, profit. So good.
There are two other options you can use: Cuttlesteak, which is the best boost to spirit you'll get from a food buff (there's no meat equivalent for this, unfortunately). There's also Mighty Rhino Dogs and the fish equivalent, Spicy Fried Herring, which both boost your mp5. If you're going to use one of these, I'd skip the mp5 food and go with the spirit.
There's nothing yet in WotLK which will boost your spell power *and* your spirit. However, if you want the best of both worlds, you could go with the TBC food Golden Fish Sticks. However, don't disregard the loss of stamina if you take this buff - you might end up needing a little extra in Ulduar.
Flasks
You have two that you should be looking at: Flask of the Frost Wyrm, or Flask of Pure Mojo. If at ALL possible, you want to keep the Frost Wyrm flask. This is your biggest, baddest spell power buff: 125 spell power (162 spell power for alchemists). If you're going to give up some sort of spell power buff in favor of a mana regen buff, try not to give up this one! It's too good to replace.
Trinkets
There are a multitude of spell power and mana regen trinkets. Let's look at the spell power ones first.
- The Egg of Mortal Essence: Purchasable with 40 emblems of heroism.
- Embrace of the Spider: Essentially the same exact trinket as the Egg. Drops from either Maexxna or Gluth in 10 man Naxx.
- Darkmoon Card: Illusion: Made from the Darkmoon Prisms deck.
- Forethought Talisman: Drops off of various bosses in 25 man Naxx. The HoT procs only from direct heals, so it may be better suited for a Paladin healer - however, if you can get your hands on this, it's a good chunk of spell power, and after 3.1 we'll be casting more direct heals anyway.
- Illustration of the Dragon Soul: The best spell power trinket out there. Essentially it gives you +200 spell power. Drops off of 25 man Sarth.
There are also a good number of mana regen trinkets out there (I'll focus on the spirit ones):
- Darkmoon Card: Greatness (the spirit one): Made from the Darkmoon Nobles deck.
- Majestic Dragon Figurine: Essentially a +180 spirit trinket. Drops from 10 man Sarth.
- Spirit-World Glass: drops from Gothik in 10 man Naxx. This trinket would be fantastic to macro with your Innervate.
/use Spirit-World Glass
I tested it out on the PTR and it works like a charm. An Innervate alone gave me 9.5k mana back (without casting anything). Hitting the SWG right before the Innervate gave me 14.5k mana. Sweet!
/use Innervate - Je'Tze's Bell: The best of both worlds. It's a random BoE, so look for it on the AH!
Glyphs
You could technically get the Glyph of Innervate and use it on yourself to really boost your mana regen. You can check out how much mana you'd potentially get back here (I checked it out on the PTR).
Gems and Enchants
You may want to shift out some Runed Scarlet Rubies for Luminous Monarch Topaz or Purified Twilight Opal. This way you keep some of your spell power throughput, but buff your mana regen at the same time. As for enchants, make sure you have the +18 spirit to boots.
My point of this post is that there are many, many ways to make sure you don't run out of mana come 3.1. The trick is choosing buffs that will keep your mana regen in the green, while also maintaining your spell power and overall raw healing.
So what will I be doing? When we first step foot into Ulduar, I'm keeping all of my spell power buffs. Shoveltusk food buff, Flask of the Frost Wyrm, spell power gems. However, I'll have a Flask of Pure Mojo and a bunch of Cuttlesteak in my bags. If I find I'm running out of mana, I'll switch out to the Cuttlesteak food buff - and then if I'm STILL running out of mana, I'll take the Mojo flask.
After that first run, we should all have a better idea of where we're at in terms of our mana. I'm hoping that I'll be able to just regem a couple pieces of gear and use a spirit food buff to get my mana back in working condition. Changing out glyphs, trinkets, and flasks all devoted to straight spell power can really make your throughput plummet.
So what's your plan? Have any specific mana regen items you're planning on using? I'd love to hear ideas!
.
Monday, April 6, 2009
E-mail post: Trinket talk
.
(I want to thank the people who commented for alerting me to several issues regarding these trinkets and this post - I've edited the post a few times, and I think I've got all the info right. Let me know if there's anything I missed - thanks!)
I recently got an e-mail from a reader regarding a few different trinkets.
The Darkmoon card has a 2% chance to proc. This means that out of 50 spell casts, it will proc once. Or, it might not. It might proc twice, towards the end of 100 casts. Or, maybe four times at the end of 200 casts. But let's take a best case scenario: you're spam casting spells, so every 1.2 seconds (global cooldown), you're casting something. That means at best, you're casting 50 spells per minute. This estimate is really on the high end, because you're not *just* going to be casting hots... you've got nourishes and regrowths to consider, and those have cast times. So let's say you're casting 40 spells per minute.
That means that each minute, this will proc .8 times.
I know, I hate those kinds of decimals too. It's like that statistic, "The average household has 2.4 children!" Cause you KNOW there's .4 of a kid in every household. That closet your mom would never let you into? Yeah. Four-tenths of a kid in there. Mmmhmm.
So let's even it out: This trinket will proc once every 1.25 minutes. There we go, slightly easier to comprehend =D
And what's the reward? 100% mana regen for 15 seconds while casting. Right now, pre-3.1, most people are sitting on an average of 850 mp5 while not casting and 300 mp5 while casting (give or take some, depending on gear).
So you're going to be getting, on average, 3 ticks of 850 rather than 3 ticks of 300. That's 1650 extra mana to play with. It might not seem like a lot, but when you consider it's +110 mp5 on average, it doesn't seem too shabby, eh?
Edit: After 3.1, however, you'll only be getting 3 ticks of about, say, 550 rather than 850. That's only an extra 1150 mana, which is 77 mp5 on average - obviously less awesome than 110 mp5.
The Majestic Dragon Figurine, on the other hand, adds 180 spirit to your current stats, hands down. All you need to do to keep the stack going is cast something every 10 seconds. I can't think of a single fight mechanic that would put you out of commission for longer than 10 seconds. And if you're chain stunned for some reason, somewhere, or something, for more than 10 seconds (I don't see that happening, but who knows in Ulduar?) you can pop barkskin to make it proc again. This thing procs everywhere. I've heard that summoning a non-combat pet would set it off.
So what does 180 spirit mean? It means an extra 30 spell power in tree form, first of all. That's pretty sweet. It also means that you're gaining a lot of of mp5. How much mp5? It depends on your intellect (contrary to popular belief, you can't actually set a hard fast rule that says "you'll get x mp5 from y spirit" - it scales with intellect.) It also makes your innervate super awesome. Lots of spirit = more mana regened from innervate. After 3.1, with the MDF equipped, you'll have an extra 1800 mana (give or take) to play with when you innervate yourself. Considering that Innervate is being nerfed to the ground, this will be reeeally helpful.
Let's use Raaff's mana regen calculator to check this out.
I put in my stats: 910 intellect, 1030 spirit, and 35 mp5 from enchants and equip bonuses, etc.
This comes out to be 901 mp5 while not casting, and 294 while casting.
With the +180 spirit trinket, we'd have: 910 int, 1210 spirit, and 35 mp5.
This comes out to be 1052 mp5 while not casting, and 340 while casting.
Edit: Now, CH kindly pointed out in the comments section that if the DMC:BD procs every 1.25 minutes like I said it would, that would actually be an average of +110 mp5. The MDF will only give you +46 mp5. BD is more than double the mana! It should be the obvious choice, right? Especially with all the mana nerf bats coming at us in 3.1!
If the DMC:BD procs every 1.25 minutes like it's supposed to, you will gain 6,600 mana every 5 minutes.
The MDF, on the other hand, will give you 2,760. If you use an innervate, you'll also get another 1,800 to play with, bringing the total extra mana up to 4,560.
So take the DMC:BD, right?
Here's my problem with it - you don't know if it's going to proc. You could be casting, casting, casting and wondering when you're going to get that mana regen. It might never happen. A 2% chance does not guarantee that it will even proc once during a 10 minute fight. It *probably* will - but it might not. I hate leaving those things up to chance.
TL;DR: The DMC:BD will potentially give you an average of +110 mp5, but only if it procs frequently. It does nothing for your spell power or Innervate. After 3.1, it will only give you about +77 mp5 on average, depending on gear.
The MDF will give you constant, reliable +46 mp5, give or take your stats. It will also give you +30 spell power, and increase the mana regened by your Innervate, which will be very important come 3.1. A clear winner, in my book!
However, if you don't care about spell power (perhaps you have boat loads) and want to risk the proc rate, the DMC:BD *may* in fact provide you with more mana regen in the long run.
Depending on the proc.
Cause it might not proc, at all.
Can you tell that I hate leaving things up to chance? =P
So, gentle reader, personally, I'd use the Egg and the MDF. Happy raiding!
If you have any questions that you'd like to have answered in an upcoming post, e-mail me at nerfthisdruid@gmail.com!
.
(I want to thank the people who commented for alerting me to several issues regarding these trinkets and this post - I've edited the post a few times, and I think I've got all the info right. Let me know if there's anything I missed - thanks!)
I recently got an e-mail from a reader regarding a few different trinkets.
"I currently have The Egg of Mortal Essence, Majestic Dragon Figurine, and Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon for raiding purposes. What is my best bet for longevity while keeping a decent spellpower? Should I be running with the egg and figurine or would I be better off with the egg and blue dragon?"The Egg has straight up spell power, so I would keep that one. The other two have to do with mana regen, so let's compare them.
The Darkmoon card has a 2% chance to proc. This means that out of 50 spell casts, it will proc once. Or, it might not. It might proc twice, towards the end of 100 casts. Or, maybe four times at the end of 200 casts. But let's take a best case scenario: you're spam casting spells, so every 1.2 seconds (global cooldown), you're casting something. That means at best, you're casting 50 spells per minute. This estimate is really on the high end, because you're not *just* going to be casting hots... you've got nourishes and regrowths to consider, and those have cast times. So let's say you're casting 40 spells per minute.
That means that each minute, this will proc .8 times.
I know, I hate those kinds of decimals too. It's like that statistic, "The average household has 2.4 children!" Cause you KNOW there's .4 of a kid in every household. That closet your mom would never let you into? Yeah. Four-tenths of a kid in there. Mmmhmm.
So let's even it out: This trinket will proc once every 1.25 minutes. There we go, slightly easier to comprehend =D
And what's the reward? 100% mana regen for 15 seconds while casting. Right now, pre-3.1, most people are sitting on an average of 850 mp5 while not casting and 300 mp5 while casting (give or take some, depending on gear).
So you're going to be getting, on average, 3 ticks of 850 rather than 3 ticks of 300. That's 1650 extra mana to play with. It might not seem like a lot, but when you consider it's +110 mp5 on average, it doesn't seem too shabby, eh?
Edit: After 3.1, however, you'll only be getting 3 ticks of about, say, 550 rather than 850. That's only an extra 1150 mana, which is 77 mp5 on average - obviously less awesome than 110 mp5.
The Majestic Dragon Figurine, on the other hand, adds 180 spirit to your current stats, hands down. All you need to do to keep the stack going is cast something every 10 seconds. I can't think of a single fight mechanic that would put you out of commission for longer than 10 seconds. And if you're chain stunned for some reason, somewhere, or something, for more than 10 seconds (I don't see that happening, but who knows in Ulduar?) you can pop barkskin to make it proc again. This thing procs everywhere. I've heard that summoning a non-combat pet would set it off.
So what does 180 spirit mean? It means an extra 30 spell power in tree form, first of all. That's pretty sweet. It also means that you're gaining a lot of of mp5. How much mp5? It depends on your intellect (contrary to popular belief, you can't actually set a hard fast rule that says "you'll get x mp5 from y spirit" - it scales with intellect.) It also makes your innervate super awesome. Lots of spirit = more mana regened from innervate. After 3.1, with the MDF equipped, you'll have an extra 1800 mana (give or take) to play with when you innervate yourself. Considering that Innervate is being nerfed to the ground, this will be reeeally helpful.
Let's use Raaff's mana regen calculator to check this out.
I put in my stats: 910 intellect, 1030 spirit, and 35 mp5 from enchants and equip bonuses, etc.
This comes out to be 901 mp5 while not casting, and 294 while casting.
With the +180 spirit trinket, we'd have: 910 int, 1210 spirit, and 35 mp5.
This comes out to be 1052 mp5 while not casting, and 340 while casting.
Edit: Now, CH kindly pointed out in the comments section that if the DMC:BD procs every 1.25 minutes like I said it would, that would actually be an average of +110 mp5. The MDF will only give you +46 mp5. BD is more than double the mana! It should be the obvious choice, right? Especially with all the mana nerf bats coming at us in 3.1!
If the DMC:BD procs every 1.25 minutes like it's supposed to, you will gain 6,600 mana every 5 minutes.
The MDF, on the other hand, will give you 2,760. If you use an innervate, you'll also get another 1,800 to play with, bringing the total extra mana up to 4,560.
So take the DMC:BD, right?
Here's my problem with it - you don't know if it's going to proc. You could be casting, casting, casting and wondering when you're going to get that mana regen. It might never happen. A 2% chance does not guarantee that it will even proc once during a 10 minute fight. It *probably* will - but it might not. I hate leaving those things up to chance.
TL;DR: The DMC:BD will potentially give you an average of +110 mp5, but only if it procs frequently. It does nothing for your spell power or Innervate. After 3.1, it will only give you about +77 mp5 on average, depending on gear.
The MDF will give you constant, reliable +46 mp5, give or take your stats. It will also give you +30 spell power, and increase the mana regened by your Innervate, which will be very important come 3.1. A clear winner, in my book!
However, if you don't care about spell power (perhaps you have boat loads) and want to risk the proc rate, the DMC:BD *may* in fact provide you with more mana regen in the long run.
Depending on the proc.
Cause it might not proc, at all.
Can you tell that I hate leaving things up to chance? =P
So, gentle reader, personally, I'd use the Egg and the MDF. Happy raiding!
If you have any questions that you'd like to have answered in an upcoming post, e-mail me at nerfthisdruid@gmail.com!
.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The new lifebloom is now on the PTR
.
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
.
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
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)