Good news for Restoration spec in Arenas. Community Manager Eyonix has announced that our lackluster PvP talent, Natural Perfection, will be seeing an additional effect with the next PTR update:

The Restoration talent, Natural Perfection, will now also (upon the next data push to the Public Test Realms), grant the Natural Perfection effect after being critically hit, reducing all damage taken by 1/2/3% for 6 seconds. This will stacks up to 5 times.

While this is obviously a buff, its overall value is questionable. 3% damage reduction from being crit the first time, 6% the second, 9% the third, 12% the fourth … and if it isn’t a Rogue hitting me, I’m dead already. This likely won’t be a significant survivability increase.

Edit: Wow! Within a single day’s worth of feedback, Eyonix has responded to concerns that the damage reduction would accrue too slowly to be helpful. They’re buffing the damage reduction to 1%/3%/5% per rank, stacking up to 3 times. That’s 15% benefit with a little over half the number of crits to max it out!

We’ve read through a great deal of feedback and are making another adjustment to the Natural Perfection talent which you’ll see in the next PTR data push.

“Now also grants the Natural Perfection effect after being critically hit, reducing all damage taken by 1/3/5% for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.”

While I’m very excited for this change, I still really like my idea of the following addition:

Natural Perfection Rank 3 Your critical strike chance with all spells is increased by 3% and melee and ranged critical strikes against you cause 10% less damage. Causes Stormherald to shatter into a beellion itty-bitty fragments on contact.

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Users from the Public Test Realm are reporting that the recent change of MP5 to Spirit on the Vengeful Gladiator’s Refuge (S3 Restoration) that was reported last week has since been reversed. Whether or not this is direct response to the outcry of several high profile Druid Gladiators like Mookysolo or Blizzard independently recognizing that such a change would be an unwanted nerf to Druid longevity in Arenas, many Druids (including me) are joyful at this recent news. While I generally have no objections to Spirit as a viable PvE stat, I find the idea of stacking Spirit on Arena gear to be of questionable merit, especially given the upcoming change to make our Innervate more visible and thus much more likely to be dispelled.

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What would you get if you crossed Batman the Animated Series with World of Warcraft? You’d probably get something along the lines of “Druidia”, a drawing by artist PieceBy10. Its smooth lines and simple but expressive facial features are strongly reminiscent of the style of Bruce Timm, producer of BTAS. It’s a style that seems strangely appropriate for a game whose avatars and models convey beauty and grace, despite a polygon count that’s much lower relative to its competitors (EverQuest 2, LOTRO).

According to the author’s description, “Druidia” is a depiction of his Night Elf Druid, Klaal of Durotan.

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From the makers of the Chickenhead Helm of Stats too Uber to be Ignored comes an entire armor set of similar ridiculousness. You can preview the much larger version over at MMO Champion. I particularly like the little green panties worn over furry brown pants. It looks like something from G.I. Joe. And to think I have been complaining how bored I am with Primal Mooncloth …

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Don’t hate me because I represent only a minor efficiency increase to an already marginalized spell.

Because apparently some of you care if the math I present is accurate, I’ve been forced to delve a little deeper into the effects of the Nordrassil Raiment on the efficiency of Regrowth. (Although it was much easier when I just pulled numbers at random out of my boot.) To set it up, I’m making the following assumptions:

• 1750 +Healing (not unrealistic when considering access to Tier 5)
• 60% crit chance on Regrowth from 5/5 Improved Regrowth and an additional 10% from Intellect
• Caster has Empowered Rejuvenation (+20% to +Healing on HoTs) and Gift of Nature (+10% to all heals)

I’m using the scaling values listed for Regrowth on WoWWiki’s article on Spell Damage Coefficients which shows that the direct portion scales at 16.6% (ouch) and the HoT portion scales at a rate of 99.4% or 14.2% per tick. I’ll break down the HoT portion into ticks since that will make it easier to find the value of adding two more. Here are the base stats for Rank 10 of Regrowth:

Regrowth Rank 10 845 Mana 40 yd range 2 sec cast Heals a friendly target for 1215 to 1355 and another 1274 over 21 sec.

Click here for the TLDWTRTM version. (too long, didn’t want to read the math)

Direct Heal

To find the average value of the up front heal without factoring in any talents, crit chance, or scaling from +Healing, we simply average the low and high values listed for the spell:

Avg. Heal_{direct, no crit} = (1215 + 1355)/2 = 1285

With a 60% crit rating, we’ll be getting a bonus 150% healed 60% of the time and our usual 100% healed 40% of the time:

Avg. Heal_{direct, crit} = (0.60 * 1.5 * 1285) + (0.40 * 1.0 * 1285) = 1670.5

The direct portion doesn’t benefit from Empowered Rejuvenation since it’s not a heal over time so calculating the bonus from +Healing is just a matter of factoring in the stated scaling value of 16.6%:

Bonus +Healing_{direct, crit} = 1750 * 16.6% = 290.5

Avg. Direct Heal_{direct, crit, scaling} = 290.5 + 1670.5 = 1961

Now we can apply the 10% to Heal bonus from Gift of Nature (which applies to both HoTs and direct heals):

Avg. Direct Heal_{direct, crit, scaling, GoN} = 1961 * 1.1 = 2157.1

Heal over Time

Since the set bonus of the Nordrassil Raiment increases the number of ticks on Regrowth from 7 to 9, I’ll calculate the healing per tick and then find the value of adding two more. First, we divide the total listed HoT by 7 to determine the base value per tick:

Tick = 1274 / 7 = 182

Heals over time can’t crit, so we don’t need to factor our 60% crit rate in. Each tick scales at a rate of 14.2% so we apply this value to our 1750 +Healing. To factor in the benefit from Empowered Rejuvenation, we multiply this value by 20%:

Bonus +Healing per Tick = 1750 * 14.2% * 1.2 = 298.2

Add this value to our base value per tick:

Tick_scaling = 298.2 + 182 = 480.2

Factor in the 10% boost from Gift of Nature:

Tick _{scaling, GoN} = 480.2 * 1.1 = 528.22

Multiplying this tick value by 7, we find the total amount healed by the HoT portion of Regrowth is 3697.54. Wearing two pieces of the Nordrassil Raiment gives us two extra ticks for a value of 4753.98.

HoT_{No Set Bonus} = 7 * 528.22 = 3697.54

HoT_{Set Bonus} = 9 * 528.22 = 4753.98

Total Heal

Now we sum these individual totals with the total average of the direct heal to get the total average heal from a talented Regrowth with 1750 +Healing, both with and without the Nordrassil Raiment set bonus:

Avg. Regrowth_{No Set Bonus} = 3697.54 + 2157.1 = 5854.64

Avg. Regrowth_{Set Bonus} = 4753.98 + 2157.1 = 6911.08

Efficiency

Now we divide these average total healed values by the mana cost of Regrowth (845) to find the spell’s efficiency (HPM):

HPM_{No Set Bonus} = 5854.64 / 854 = 6.93

HPM_{Set Bonus} = 6911.08 / 854 = 8.11

For fun, let’s use the discounted mana value provided by Tree of Life (although I’m not factoring in any +Healing bonus from SPI; we’ll just assume you’re healing someone outside your group):

HPM_{No Set Bonus, ToL} = 5854.64 / (0.8 * 854) = 8.57

HPM_{Set Bonus, ToL} = 6911.08 / (0.8 * 854) = 10.12

Efficiency Increase

And finally, to find the average efficiency increase of having the set bonus…

HPM Increase_{No ToL} = (8.11 – 6.93) / 6.93 = 17%

HPM Increase_ToL = (10.12 – 8.57) / 8.57 = 18%

Well that was a decidedly lengthy calculation. Does anyone see any corrections that should be made?

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