In an odd coincidence, Mr. Phae and I are taking a cruise similar to (but not the same as, unfortunately) Kestrel. We leave from the same port, visit the same ports (in a different order), and will be gone the same amount of time. Valenna and Mrs. Valenna are travelling with us. We’ll be back on the third, hopefully to good news about the Lifebloom nerf being reversed or somesuch! (I’ll be bringing my laptop but connectivity is likely to be at a minimum.) Have a great week, everyone!
Great news for those disheartened by the PTR change to drinking whereby the first few seconds suffered much-decreased mana regeneration. Community Manager Kalgan (US) has just announced that this mechanic will now only be active in Arenas:
You haven’t read it wrong, but we’ve decided to have that rule only apply inside arenas. It’s an inconsistency, but one we’re ok with to prevent water from feeling unnecessarily weird everywhere else.
This change — or rather, lack of one — should make instances like Heroic Black Morass much more manageable.
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Phaelia already provided the links below, so I won’t regurgitate them, but the Thunderheart belt, boots, and bracers have been posted and none of them have Stamina on them. In fact, the only Tier 6 sets that retain Stamina at all are the Protection Warrior set and the Protection Paladin set.
Druid tanks are particularly hard-hit by this. While you can argue that most sets don’t need Stamina as they shouldn’t be getting hit as it is, most encounters include damage you cannot avoid (we used to call this stupidity “wandering damage” in the old tabletop days — a sure sign of lazy design) and sometimes, situations being what they are, people draw aggro, make mistakes… you know the drill. Gear needs Stamina on it. After all, Blizzard made it clear how important Stamina is when they reduced its item budget cost to enable more of it to go on all gear for all classes. Survivability is paramount.
But let’s run with the idea that if you’re healing or doing damage, you can get by with less, which is generally true in spite of certain mechanics designed to ensure we all place at least some value on Stamina.
In this case, a lack of Stamina on DPS and healing gear isn’t game-breaking and, by many measures, for some pieces this is desirable in order to make more room in the budget for healing and damaging statistics.
For tanks, though, Stamina is more important than for any other class in the game. Granted, we use avoidance and mitigation statistics such as armor and dodge (and block and parry for Warrior and Paladin tanks), but Stamina and the resulting health pool is a critical factor that gives a healer the cushion they need to keep us alive.
So why is it that Druid tanks are the only ones with a Tier set that neglects Stamina?
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| ME! Sketch and share your own over at Bellwether’s 4 Haelz! |
To help take your mind of some of the recent … unpleasantness affecting the Restoration spec, I’d like to draw your attention to several new Druid blogs just joining the community. As always, you can view the latest additions under the Recent Additions section of my sidebar. And don’t forget to update your World Tree subscriptions every now and again! From what I can tell, it shouldn’t duplicate any subscriptions but will simply add the ones you’re missing.
- Angus Meat-Shield
Mmmm … steak. Some of which turns into a Tree and casts Lifebloom! - Bitter Roots
Eledith of Argent Dawn (US) shares a unique perspective on the game as a Tree Druid, sprinkling in some RP with her blog posts. - Mama Druid
Azeroth from the point of view of a mother of two who also happens to play a Druid! - Omen of Clarity
Qz of Aerie Peak (US) writes a Druid blog with a strong technical emphasis, focusing on theorycrafting, UI addons, and number crunching. - One Hot NElf
Althura of Aman’Thul (US) is a Feral-come-Resto Druid who professes a love — and a talent — for healing. - Part Time Druid
Azeroth and Resto Druiding from the perspective of a self-professed “casual” player. - Tauren Army
With four Tauren characters, one HAD to be a Druid or risk overlap. This one happens to be Restoration. - The Young and the Noobish
Vishero of Agamaggan (US) is a relative newcomer to the game, giving him a fresh perspective on the game and the Druid class. - Three Druid Noob
Razorbax of Medivh (US) plays multiple trios of characters, three of which happen to be Druids. He uses his blog to detail his various exploits as a multi-boxer.
I’d also like to point out a new and fun utility that’s been released by Breanni of Scarlet Crusade (US) from Warcraft Pets. If you create an account with the site, you can track your current non-combat pets listing, including those pets you want and those you don’t have any intention of pursuing. Here’s my profile for an example: Phae’s Menagerie. Nifty!
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The latest changes to Lifebloom (the coefficient nerf and the changes to Empowered Rejuvenation) went live on the Public Test Realm this afternoon. After some testing, at 1500 +Healing, you can expect to see an 8% nerf to the amount healed per tick by Lifebloom. You can expect a further 0.2% reduction for every 250 +Healing beyond 1500. This is due to a flat 10% nerf to the +Healing coefficient to the HoT portion of Lifebloom.
For those interested, here is the math used to find these values:
At 1617 +Healing and all relevant talents (Gift of Nature and Empowered Rejuvenation), Lifebloom currently ticks for 201 on Live and 185 on Test. To determine the portion of Lifebloom from +Healing, subtract the base tick amount of 43 from the total tick amount on both Live and Test (158 and 142, respectively). Multiply these values by 7 for the number of ticks (you could instead multiply it by 6, but the number of ticks will eventually be divided out again). This comes out to 1108 on Live and 994 on Test. Dividing by the 1617 +Healing, the coefficients are 0.685 and 0.615 respectively. This translates to a 10.3% nerf to the Lifebloom +Healing coefficient for ticks.
Contrary to what many suspected, the nerf was applied to the HoT portion of Lifebloom rather than to its generally more PvP-appropriate direct heal, calling into question why this change is being made to begin with. All other changes to Restoration (increasing returns from drinking, Natural Perfection’s change from 15% to 12% damage reduction, and the set bonus change to 0.2 sec off Regrowth).
Without considering the contributions from Gift of Nature and Empowered Rejuvenation (unlikely to be had by many Balance and Feral-specced Druids) the base coefficient is now 0.468 down from 0.521, representing the same 10.3% reduction to the coefficient. Without the corresponding increases from these two talents, the nerf is slightly more severe: 0.082 at 1500 +Healing vs. 0.080 with talents.
Sioban of Lifebloomer has an analysis of how this change may affect multi-tank healing here.
Falx: how is PTR? is it cool?
Phaelia: Right now it’s a bunch of Druids flying up in the air so they can take fall damage and test how bad our heals were nerfed
For those curious, this nerf does not affect the 88 +Healing bonus to Lifebloom afforded by the [Idol of the Emerald Queen]. We still get the same 7 HP per tick. So if you’re a "glass half full" type of person, the idol actually got a buff. It’s now worth 80 +Healing instead of 72. >.<
Continue reading ‘~8% Nerf to Lifebloom, Thunderheart Changes’…
