As briefly mentioned and discussed in my previous post, Blue: Changes to Buffs and Debuffs, a significant change is being made to the way that Tree of Life aura will function in Wrath of the Lich King. It will no longer afford benefit based on the Druid’s total Spirit but instead will function in the same was as a Paladin’s Improved Devotion Aura, providing a flat 3% increased healing to the raid. Although it was stated that the values listed were considered maximally-talented, it remains unclear whether 3/3 Improved Tree of Life will be required to meet the 3% bonus or whether it will afford an additional .45% bonus. Either way, this change will affect all spells based on their +Healing coefficient (or their corresponding spell power coefficients).

The TBC Tree of Life aura was a flat +Healing bonus that scaled with Spirit. It’s value decreased as +Healing increased, assuming Spirit stayed constant. Assuming they increased at the same rate, the value stayed the same. The WotLK aura is a multiplicative bonus that will instead scale with +Healing.

To help better explain the significance of this change, let’s consider two spells called DirectHealage and Hawtness. At your current +healing, DirectHealage derives 25% of its total amount healed from +Healing while Hawtness derives 75%. If you were to boost your +Healing by 8%, DirectHealage would get a 25%*8% = 2% total boost. Hawtness, on the other hand, would get a 75%*8%=6% total boost. With the new aura, both spells would simply get 3%.

This means that spells with high coefficients (Lifebloom, Chain Heal) will be nerfed by this change while spells with lower coefficients (Nourish, Regrowth) will be buffed. We can use the following formula to determine how much Spirit would be required under the current Tree of Life aura  (25% of Spirit converted to +Healing) to match the new aura’s bonus:

Spirit = 4 *(((+Healing * +Healing coefficient) + base healed) * aura bonus) / +Healing coefficient

By applying this formula to the 3% and possibly 3.45% auras and using numbers previously determined in Direct Heals in Wrath, we can graph these values of Spirit at increasing values of +Healing.

Assuming you have somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 Spirit and 2000 +Healing at the conclusion of TBC, this change represents a nerf to triple-stacked Lifebloom and Chain Heal – two spells with the highest +Healing coefficients – and a buff to both Nourish and Regrowth. Although the base amount healed is also a determining factor, you can generally expect heals with higher coefficients to have been reduced in effectiveness by this change while those with lower coefficients to have been increased.

See, I think that many of us manage impressive primary roles with our mains, those Druids whose spec is most familiar to us and in which we’ve invested so much time, loot, and interest. Additionally, our guilds often rely on us to continue with what we’ve made our main focus.

Phae Phae is one of our best healers. As such, there is vested interest in her remaining Restoration. When she logs on, we all know what to expect with her. The same goes for me: when I log on, people know I’m going to be able to tank for them. Additionally, the dearth of roles seems to have fallen from healers to tanks over the last year or more (ironic given that Druids and Paladins are MUCH better tanks than they used to be, thus our tanking pool includes far more people than it once did), meaning that though i wanted to try Restoration desperately the last few months, I’ve not had the opportunity to do so…I’m needed doing what I do.

You’re probably thinking, "Don’t be a dumbass, go do dailies. Spend 50 gold per respec. Collect multiple sets." Well that’s great in theory, but for those of us that really focus on our primary role, there’s often some factor locking us in, even if it’s just peer pressure or guild expectations. Alts can be a way to break away from that and give something else a shot. Besides, there’s little like leveling a spec to help show you the ins and outs of it. I won’t whine about playtime. Or did I do just that? Ah well.

After all that incoherent rambling, I bet you expect this post to go somewhere, right? Right? Well, I suppose I owe you that at least. Phaelia has asked what talents she should be taking and in what order and making a general pest of herself. Thus, here’s a little leveling talent primer that’s certainly open to discussion.

We all know we get our first point at 10. Like most other classes your initial expenditures will feel underwhelming but are still crucial to your progression.

So there you have it, a self-important list of things to pick up while questing as a Cat and instancing as a Bear. It isn’t the Dire Cat thing I mentioned last time. Sue me. I think better minds are at work on it already.

Arcane Blast is unique in that it applies a debuff to the caster that simultaneously increases its casting speed and mana cost. At three applications, the base casting speed is reduced to 1.5 seconds (from 2.5) and its mana cost is increased by 225%. With a full stack of Arcane Blast, an Arcane Mage is capable of spending more than 2000 MP5. Obviously, this isn’t sustainable over the course of an entire boss fight and, at some point, Mages end up having to scale back the use of Arcane Blast in favor of a less expensive, lower output spell (such as Frostbolt or Arcane Missiles). However, Innervate can be used to postpone a Mage’s “burnout” point, increasing his DPS dramatically.

With the changes to mana regeneration in Patch 2.4, all casting classes use the same formula for determining their base mana regen. But while Druids and Shamans share the same formula, Shamans don’t possess a talent like Intensity, making Intellect- and Spirit-based mana regeneration less attractive. At 60% regeneration while casting via Mage Armor and Arcane Meditation, an Arcane Mage effectively derives even greater benefit from increasing his Intellect and Spirit values. In fact, you will often find Arcane Mages sacrificing +spell damage and +spell crit in favor of more Spirit or Intellect. Taken together, these factors make the Arcane-specced Mage an ideal candidate for receiving Innervate. And if you still happen to have any doubt about Blizzard’s intentions for the Mage as a Spirit-driven spellcaster, take a look at these two talents rumored to be in the WotLK alpha:

Potent Spirit: Increases your spell critical strike rating by an amount equal to 15% of your total Spirit.
Student of the Mind: Increases your total spirit by 10%.

Mages: Asking for (and Receiving) an Innervate

It’s important to coordinate the use of Innervate to avoid two people giving it to the same person simultaneously. Not only does the effect not stack, but even if it did, it might actually be overkill (restoring more Mana than can be consumed in twenty seconds). Ideally, a Feral Druid should be assigned to give her Innervate to each Arcane Mage. Many encounters provide this opportunity, even to a Feral who is tanking or off-tanking, though it may be necessary to be aware of transitions and aggro changes .

If a Feral Druid isn’t available to give away her Innervate, you can instead call upon a Restoration or Balance Druid. However, in this case, the Arcane Mage should try to burn through as much of her mana as possible so that Innervate can be used early, giving the Restoration or Balance Druid the opportunity to use her own Innervate six minutes later in the fight if it proves to be necessary. On fights where it’s valuable to really pour out the DPS, a Restoration or Balance Druid can bestow an early Innervate, and a Feral Druid can give hers later.

Whether a Feral, Restoration, or Balance-specced Innervate, it’s a good idea to create a macro that whispers your assigned Druid, politely letting her know that you’re ready for an Innervate when it’s convenient to do so. For example:

/tell Currant ** When possible, I could use an Innervate. Thank you. **

Try not to allow your mana reserves to run dry before asking, just in case it’s not possible for the Druid to stop what she’s doing immediately to Innervate you; this is particularly likely if your Feral Druid is off-tanking and won’t be free until a transition or if the Restoration Druid is maintaining Lifebloom stacks on multiple tanks. Remember to be understanding if a Restoration or Balance Druid refuses you her Innervate, particularly if she’s died early and needs it to replenish her own mana stores or if the fight is known to be especially mana intensive for healers (though the latter case should be discussed prior to an encounter).

One thing to keep in mind as an Arcane Mage is that, unlike a healer, you can burn through a lot more mana in twenty seconds if you make a concerted effort to do so. If you’re spending mana at a rate of 2000 MP5 or more, it’s generally possible to get the full value of an Innervate as early as 80% mana. Watch your typical mana expense when you’re really pushing yourself and adjust accordingly.

If you are lucky enough to be the recipient of Innervate, be a responsible consumer and do all you can to maximize its benefits. Use the techniques described in Mana Regen 2.4: Getting the Most out of Innervate to determine what your gear-appropriate weapon swap should be and swap to it automatically.

Druids: Giving away Your Innervate

To avoid two Druids giving an Innervate to the same person simultaneously, announce when you’re giving your Innervate to someone else, both to your raid and to the lucky recipient (so that she can perform any necessary weapon swaps). Such a macro might look like this:

/cast Innervate
/rsay ** This Innervate brought to %t by Resto4Life.com! **
/script SendChatMessage(“Innervating you!”, “WHISPER”, nil, UnitName(“target”));

You can modify the above macro so that it casts Innervate on yourself by default but casts it on your target if you hold down CTRL:

/cast [mod:ctrl]Innervate;[target=player]Innervate;
/script if IsControlKeyDown() then SendChatMessage(“** Innervating you!”,”WHISPER”,nil,UnitName(“target”));SendChatMessage(“** Innervating %t!”,”RAID”,nil,nil);end;

Naturally, giving your Innervate away puts you at risk for needing it later yourself and not having it available. Do your best to be conscious of when you think you’ll need it, and work the details out ahead of time so that the Mages in your raid know whether they should conserve their Mana. But keep in mind that, even if giving away your Innervate forces you to use one or more mana potions, it’s probably worth it on DPS-sensitive encounters (assuming that the potions are enough to allow you to continue healing). And, should you need further convincing to pry an Innervate from your waggly little fingers, here is an (only partially self-motivated) example from Mr. Phae:

With 1200 spell damage and a 20% base spell crit, Frostbolt spam does about 810 DPS for an Arcane Mage, while Arcane Blast is about 1385 DPS. So every extra second an Arcane Mage can spend spamming AB will do about 576 extra damage. The base mana cost for Frostbolt is 246 after talents for a 2.5 second spell versus 612 for Arcane Blast for a 1.5 second spell (factoring in the value of Arcane Concentration), so each extra second of AB spam costs 310 extra mana, and every extra point of mana you give an Arcane Mage will cause 1.86 extra damage. For a typical Arcane Mage with 650 Intellect and 350 Spirit raid buffed, an Innervate would provide 8323 mana, so you can think of it as an insta-cast, zero threat nuke that does 15,485 damage.

And hey, at least you aren’t feeding a Holy Priest more mana with which to outheal you!

For a Mage’s point of view, check out Do you dare to ask for innervates? by Larisa of Larisa’s Corner!

Prior to Patch 2.4, Druids were best served by switching to a high Spirit weapon during Innervate, the idea being to boost Spirit-based mana regeneration as much as possible during that 20 second period (the [Bangle of Endless Blessings] was recommended for the same reason). Now that Intellect and Spirit both affect mana regeneration, however, Innervate frequently returns more mana than we have. In this case, use of the Bangle becomes overkill, and a high-Intellect weapon is preferable since it temporarily increases the size of our mana pool. Of course, which group you fall into depends on your current balance of stats, and you can use the Mana Regeneration Calculator to easily determine which option you should pursue: Bangle + High Spirit Weapon or No Bangle + High Intellect Weapon. For the sake of completeness, let’s look at both options.

Spirit-Based Swap

Under this strategy, you’re trying to temporarily boost your Spirit during Innervate so that your regeneration rate increases, bringing the amount of mana returned closer to your total mana pool. If you’re just starting out in your healing kit, you’ll probably end up in this group. The [Bangle of Endless Blessings] is among the best mana regeneration trinkets available to you due to it’s use granting an additional 130 Spirit for 20 seconds. Here are a few of the high Spirit weapons available at your likely level of progression:

• [Staff of the Ashtongue Deathsworn]: quest reward from Akama’s Promise in Shadowmoon Valley
• [Ameer's Judgement]: Quest reward from Nexus-King Salhadaar in Netherstorm
• [Ironstaff of Regeneration]: drops from Exarch Maladaar of Auchenai Crypts
• [Serpentcrest Life-Staff]: drops from Mekgineer Steamrigger of Steamvault.
• [Staff of Divine Infusion]: world drop, easily purchasable for around 50g on the Auction House
• [Nightstaff of the Everliving]: drops from Nightbane in Karazhan
• [Rod of the Blazing Light]: drops from Vexallus in Heroic Magister’s Terrace; 3 gem slots
• [Ethereum Life-Staff]: drops from High Astromancer Solarian in Tempest Keep; more than likely overkill at this level of gear
• [Dathrohand's Ceremonial Hammer]: Drops from Captain Skarloc in Heroic Old Hillsbrad. While the spirit on this item is lower than on the staves listed above, it frees your offhand for a [Draenei Crystal Rod of Spirit], a level 70 green item that has 32 additional Spirit.

Whether you choose a 1-hander or 2-hander, have it enchanted with [Mighty Spirit] and fill any available gem slots with [Sparkling Star of Elune]. Assuming you have the [Bangle of Endless Blessings], equip it before any fight where you think you might be pressed for mana. Including a weapon swap, your Innervate macro should look something like this:

/use Bangle of Endless Blessings
/cast [target=player] Innervate
/equip [High Spirit Weapon]
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

Note: A more convenient option for Spirit-based weapon swaps is the use of the now out-of-date Evocation2 addon. It will swap to your highest Spirit-based weapon or mainhand/offhand combination while you’re under the effects of Innervate then swap back once the effect expires. Users of the Outfitter addon can use the walkthrough provided by Walkere of Rolling Horde to set up a custom outfit that activates automatically during Innervate.

To give yourself the option to share your Innervate with another player without using the Bangle or swapping your weapon, you can add a required modifier. Your macro would then look something like this:

/use [nomodifier] Bangle of Endless Blessings
/cast [modifier:ctrl] Innervate; [target=player] Innervate
/equip [nomodifier] <High Spirit Weapon>
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

Assuming you don’t use an addon like Evocation2, you’ll also want to map your regular weapon or weapon and offhand to a separate key so that you can swap back once Innervate elapses. To determine how much additional mana you’ll gain from the above swap, check the Mana Return from Innervate field on the Mana Regen Calculator at your current values then again at the value of Spirit you’ll have once you’ve made the swap (be sure to include the effects of Living Spirit, if applicable).

Intellect-Based Swap

Under this strategy, you’re trying to temporarily boost the size of your mana pool to eke out as much mana as possible from your Innervate (note, however, that Intellect will also boost your rate of regeneration). It works differently than the Spirit-based swap since it isn’t necessary to have the Intellect weapon equipped during the effects of Innervate but between the time where your mana begins to approach full until you’ve spent all the additional mana gained. You can opt to tie a weapon swap to your Innervate macro or — to maximize efficiency — you can micro-manage the weapon swap yourself by performing the swap near the point where Innervate is about to completely fill your mana bar and keeping an eye on when it will be "safe" to switch back. The addon CasterWeaponSwapper can assist with this as it has a setting for "high mana" swapping.

There are a ton of high Intellect weapons available post-Karazhan (where you’re more likely to be needing an Intellect-based swap) so I won’t list them here. Instead, I’ve created a set of filters through WoWHead to generate a list of weapons to consider:

• High Intellect weapons

Whether you choose a 1-hander or 2-hander, have it enchanted with [Major Intellect] and fill any available gem slots with [Brilliant Dawnstone] or [Brilliant Lionseye]. If you opt to swap your weapon on the use of Innervate, your macro might look something like this:

/cast [target=player] Innervate
/equip <High Intellect Weapon>

To determine how much additional mana you should expect to get from performing an Intellect-based weapon swap, find the amount you expect your Intellect to increase by when you change weapons and multiply it by 15. So, for instance, if I were to swap from the [Ethereum Life-Staff] with 44 Intellect to a full-gemmed and enchanted [Staff of Dark Mending], I could expect an additional 57 Intellect or 855 Mana.

Leighbra of Sentinels (US) wrote in with this question:

At the moment, I have 494 Spirit unbuffed. I’m at about 675 fully raid buffed. I don’t have any idea how I ended up with so much Spirit and have been looking at what I can do with my enchants to play with that number, but I’m cheap and don’t like to re-enchant things… I have the [Idol of the Emerald Queen] equipped, and of course Lifebloom is my most commonly cast spell. So, from my Tree of Life aura, in raids, that means about 135ish additional +Healing for the people in my group.

I’m trying to figure out if it would be more beneficial to the guild/raid (not just my healing numbers) for me to be in a group with our tanks and to equip that often discarded [Idol of the Raven Goddess], especially after it gets buffed, than me having the [Idol of the Emerald Queen] equipped. Especially on Gruul, when after 8 growths we tell our DPS to heal themselves, and have all 8/9 healers focus on our two tanks.

Most people consider the [Idol of the Emerald Queen] to be one of the best healing idols available. This misperception is likely based on a misunderstanding of how its tooltip reads:

Idol of the Emerald Queen Binds when picked up Unique Relic Idol Requires Level 68 Equip: Increases the periodic healing of your Lifebloom by up to 88.

While the above tooltip seems to imply that we will get 88 +Healing from this idol, we can employ the technique outlined in Method: Coefficient Testing to determine its actual +Healing value. To start with, I parsed the values for the total +Healing to the HoT portion of Lifebloom under varying conditions:

• No Idol, Tree of Life: 1624
• Emerald Queen, Tree of Life: 1670
• Raven Goddess, Tree of Life: 1654
• Naked (0 +Healing): 316

To find the amount of +Healing actually afforded by each, we can use the following formula:

From the above formula, we can determine that the [Idol of the Emerald Queen] affords 67 +Healing and the [Idol of the Raven Goddess] affords 44 +Healing. Taken at face value, you might think the Emerald Queen superior, but remember that the Raven Goddess affects not only all your spells (Regrowth, Rejuvenation, Swiftmend) but all the spells of healers healing members within your group. With the exception of fights where you will roll Lifebloom stacks on 3-4 tanks you’re not grouped with, the [Idol of the Raven Goddess] is the superior choice. Outside of such a unique circumstance, you’re choosing between 24 +Healing to your Lifebloom vs. 44 +Healing to all of your other spells and the spells of other healers in your raid. Of course, if given the option and assuming you make frequent use of the spell Regrowth, the [Idol of the Crescent Goddess] is the one I would recommend as it affords nearly a 10% mana cost reduction to Regrowth.

With the changes to mana regeneration in Patch 2.4, it’s worth revisiting my earlier post on Blessing of Kings vs. Blessing of Wisdom. Just as before, the MP5 from Blessing of Wisdom is straightforward:

Paladins can also pick up a 2-point talent from their Holy tree called Improved Blessing of Wisdom. This talent increases the MP5 from Blessing of Wisdom by an additional 20%, from 41 MP5 to 49.2 MP5. Since this Blessing grants pure MP5 it is unaffected by Spirit, Intellect, or percent time inside the Five Second Rule.

While the effective contribution of Blessing of Wisdom is pretty cut and dry, Blessing of Kings is not so straightforward. It grants an additional 10% to both Intellect and Spirit which, in turn, affects your overall mana regeneration. The easiest and quickest way to determine its contribution to our mana regeneration is to use the Mana Regen Calculator to find our regeneration without Kings and then again with it. I’ll use myself as an example, but obviously you should do the same using your own stats:

Raid buffed but without Blessing of Kings, I have around 640 Spirit and 540 Intellect. With Kings, those numbers jump to 704  and 594. I can plug these values into the MRC as follows:

As you can see, my mana regeneration increases from 401 to 455, an increase of 54 MP5 from Blessing of Kings alone. This is in addition to the other benefits afforded me by Blessing of Kings such as 800 more mana, 16 +Healing to my Tree of Life aura, and some extra hit points from the Stamina increase. For me, at least, there is no question which of the two buffs I’d rather have if required to make the decision. In general, my order of preference for Blessing requests is as follows:

• Trash Fights: Salvation, Kings, Wisdom
• Boss Fights: Kings, Wisdom, Light *

* Of course if the boss fight is an aggro-sensitive one, you might interpose Salvation before or after Wisdom. Examples of such aggro-sensitivity can include needing to heal through an aggro wipe, adds that spawn throughout the fight that will need to be picked up by one or more tanks, or a threat-sensitive pull. (Thanks to commentor Treibh for these examples!)

Karom in Restoration by Orsolya Berecz

One big question that’s arisen time and time again since the initial discussion of mana regeneration post-2.4 has been how we should value +Healing relative to MP5. It’s a question that kept the [Staff of Dark Mending] and [Rod of the Blazing Light] gathering dust in my backpack because I initially didn’t know how I should best gem them. How you value +Healing relative to mana regeneration will not only be subject to the conditions of an encounter — fight length, assigned targets, intensity of healing necessary — but subject to your personal playstyle, as well. Rather than stating a rule about how much +Healing is equivalent to 1 MP5 — be it from the MP5 stat or the MP5 determined from your personal Spirit and Intellect values — I’m instead going to walk you through the steps to determine your own personal healing value, using an encounter that I parsed using Recount for just such a purpose.

Step 1: Reasoning

The comparison of MP5 to +Healing involves a less straightforward set of calculations than those used to determine the relative values of Spirit, Intellect, and MP5. Whereas the latter deal primarily with up front mana and mana return, +Healing can only be compared to mana return in terms of what you would do with the extra mana returned by MP5, be it in the form of pure MP5 or Spirit or Intellect contributing to your overall regeneration. As this blog is Resto4Life, I’m going to assume that we’re going to use that additional mana to cast more heals, although you could perform a very similar analysis for increasing your total damage (although, from what Mr. Phae tells me, for most DPS casters it’s pretty much DAMAGEDAMAGEDAMAGEDAMAGEheywhere’dmymanago?). For this example and as a personal choice, I’m going to assume that any additional mana — i.e., mana left over at the end of the fight or mana remaining while Potions and Innervate are on cooldown — will go toward increasing my healing output via converting single stack Lifebloom into a cast of Regrowth. For my reasoning on this conversion, please see Regrowth: the New Raid Heal? 

On the other hand, +Healing also allows you to do more healing, albeit by augmenting each spell as it’s cast rather than allowing you to cast more individual spells. To help quantify this, we first need to determine the marginal value 1 +Healing or, in other words, how much additional effective healing we could expect to do if we increase our +Healing by 1. Once we know the marginal value of +1 Healing, we can determine the additional mana needed to eke out the same amount of effective healing (through our conversion of Lifebloom to Regrowth) and have a good estimate of how the two compare.

Step 2: Data Collection

The first thing you will want to do is to select one or more encounters that your guild currently considers challenging. Parsing the Maiden of Virtue fight if your guild is currently farming Mount Hyjal will give you a number that’s greatly skewed toward +Healing, so be sure to select something that you find difficult. For this example, I choose the Morogrim Tidewalker encounter. Here was my Recount output for that fight:

Morogrim Tidewalker Parse

As you can see from the output above, Lifebloom is still my greatest source of effective healing, followed by Regrowth. I’ve selected each spell and taken a screenshot of their individual contributions as well as the breakdown of direct vs. HoT ticks. Due to an unfortunate limitation of the combat log, Recount is unable to determine the following:

• How many times your Lifebloom bloomed and for how much.
• How much of your Lifebloom heal over time healing was from a single stack vs. a triple stack.
• How many times Swiftmend affected Regrowth vs. Rejuvenation.

None of these values are included in the above breakdown so we’ll have to guesstimate them. Data items you should also record at the time of your healing parse(s) include your +Healing, Spell Crit %, and length of the fight. At the time I performed the above parse, I had 1749 +Healing and 8.49% spell crit with an additional 50% spell crit from 5/5 Improved Regrowth. The fight took somewhere around nine minutes.

Step 3: Math

While I eventually hope to add these calculations to the Mana Regen Calculator, I’m first going to walk you through setting up an Excel spreadsheet since it’s a great way to go through the math. From the Recount parse above, I’ve recorded the following values:

* These values were not available from the Recount parse and were therefore estimated.
** While these values are from Recount, they are not intuitively obvious. To determine them, you must sum the total healed from Hit (Count * Avg) and the total healed from Crit (Count * Avg) and divide this value by the total amount Regrowth Healed for (in my case, 56478). The amount healed by its HoT component is simply 1 minus this value.

In Table 1 above, I’ve included an Estimated Breakdown by Component that represents the percentage of the spell’s total healing that came from the various components of the spell. For instance, I’m estimating that 20% of my Lifebloom’s total HoT healing came from single stack while 80% was from triple stack on tanks. Using these breakdowns, we can determine the average amount healed by component (Avg. Amt Healed by Component = Estimated Breakdown by Component * Total Healed from Recount).

Full Heal Equivalents

The next step is to determine the value of Full Heal Equivalents for each spell and component. A Full Heal Equivalent is the number of times a spell would have to be cast and never been overwritten or overhealed. For instance, if 50% of my Rejuvenation HoT were wasted due to OP Brain Heal, the number of FHE for my Rejuvenation would be 1/2 the total number of times I cast Rejuvenation over the course of the fight. We can determine this number by dividing the total amount healed by each component by the average of what we would expect it to heal were none of the healing ineffective.

Full Heal Equivalent = Total Healed by Component / Average Healed

To determine the average of what we expect a spell to heal for, we must take into account its base heal (determined from tooltips and applicable talents like Gift of Nature), its +Healing Coefficient, and our value of +Healing. For spells which list a range (such as Healing Touch), we can average the minimum and maximum values. For all direct heals, we’ll also need to factor in our spell crit percentage.

Average Healed = Base Amount Healed + (+Healing Coefficient * +Healing)

Using the values in Table 1: Gathered Data and the formulas above, we can generate the following table:

* Assumes Gift of Nature, Improved Rejuvenation, Improved Regrowth, and Empowered Rejuvenation.
** No concrete values are available for the fields marked "???"

Marginal Value of 1 +Healing

To determine the marginal value of 1 +Healing for each component, simply multiply FHE by the component’s +Healing coefficient:

Marginal Value of 1 +Healing = FHE * +Healing Coefficient

Spell, Component	+Healing Coefficient*	Full Heal Equivalents	Marginal Value of 1 +Healing
Lifebloom, Single Stack HoT	0.6858	41.140	28.214
Lifebloom, Triple Stack HoT	2.0574	53.777	110.641
Rejuvenation	1.2610	14.174	17.873
Regrowth, Direct	0.5941	10.933	6.495
Regrowth, HoT	0.9716	7.916	7.691
Swiftmend, Rejuvenation	1.3145	9.125	11.994
Swiftmend, Regrowth	0.8682	2.043	1.773
Healing Touch	1.1467	1.737	1.992
Sum			186.674
Table 3: Marginal Value of 1 +Healing Calculations

Once again, the Marginal Value of 1 +Healing in the Table 3 above represents the additional amount of effective healing we could expect to do from that component over the course of the fight were we to increase our +Healing by 1. As a triple stacked Lifebloom not only has a high +Healing coefficient but comprises a large portion of my overall healing output, it’s understandable that it would have the highest marginal value. By summing these values together, we find an overall MV of 186.7 which is the total additional effective healing I would expect to derive from increasing my +Healing by 1.

Alternative Uses for Mana

We’re assuming that any additional mana we have left over can be used to convert a single-stack Lifebloom into Regrowth. But how much mana would we need to make that possible? Assuming Tree of Life and the [Idol of the Crescent Goddess], it costs 488 mana to cast Regrowth. Since Lifebloom under the same conditions costs 177 mana to cast, we’ll spend 312 additional mana to cast Regrowth instead. How much MP5 would be required to give me 312 additional mana? Our 9-minute fight has 108 ticks. 312 mana divided by 108 5-second ticks equals 2.89 MP5.

We know that an average Regrowth will heal for 3765.2 (summing the average healed for both direct and HoT portions). Because we’re looking at a single stack Lifebloom application, we’re going to have to guess at how much of the bloom we expect to be effective and how much of the HoT we expect to be effective (Recount can’t break down Lifebloom’s HoT portion by triple vs. single stack). I used two sets of values, one an optimistic 75% HoT/65% Bloom and the other a more conservative 40% HoT/20% Bloom. To determine the average effective amounts, we multiply these values by the average base heal for each component:

Avg. Healed Lifebloom_75/65 = 0.75 * 1499.8 + 0.65 * 1480.8 = 2087.4
Avg. Healed Lifebloom_40/20 = 0.4 * 1499.8 + 0.2 * 1480.8 = 896.1

These two values can be subtracted from the average amount healed by Regrowth (3665.2) to determine how much additional healing we’d expect to derive from converting a Lifebloom to a Regrowth. Under the 75/65 and 40/20 breakdowns, we get 1677.8 and 2869.1 HP respectively.

Now that we know how much extra mana it will cost to convert a Lifebloom to a Regrowth and the estimated amount of additional effective healing we’ll derive from doing so, we can determine the relative value of amount healed to MP5 like this:

Healing equal to 1 MP5 = Addtl. Amount Healed / Addtl. Mana Cost
Amt Healed vs. MP5_75/65 = 1667.8 / 2.89 = 580.8
Amt Healed vs. MP5_40/20 = 2869.1 / 2.89 = 993.2

Note that this is the amount healed and not +Healing. To convert these values to +Healing, we have to divide them by the total Marginal Value of 1 +Healing (186.7) we derived earlier, giving us values of 3.1 and 5.3. Therefore, from the above calculations, 1 MP5 is approximately worth between 3 and 5 +Healing. Conversely, 1 HEP equals between 0.19 and 0.32 MP5.

Final Thoughts

Unlike some previous articles, the purpose of this article was not to give you a concrete value for how you should personally value +Healing relative to MP5. These calculations were based upon a very specific fight under specific conditions but, if applied to your own circumstances, could help you determine your own value (alternatively, you could just wait until I’ve built the math into the Mana Regen Calculator). I wouldn’t consider these conditions ideal as I’m still learning to leverage Regrowth and would like to see a larger portion of my overall healing coming from that spell rather than Lifebloom. Nonetheless, I feel like this "educated estimate" is close enough to have made several gear decisions upon it, including which staff to use and how it should be gemmed.

Note: The Graph, decision tree, and calculator have been updated as of 3/17/2008 to correct a couple of logic errors and to add the marginal values for Spirit and Intellect vs. MP5.

To help you determine the value of your personal MRC and resulting base mana regeneration. I’ve created a JavaScript-based mana regeneration calculator. It determines how you can optimize your Intellect vs. Spirit ratio by taking into account the following variables:

• Current Intellect and Spirit (raid-buffed)
• %FSR
• Fight Length
• Number of times Innervate is used
• Cast Frequency (for determining proc rate on the two trinkets included)
• Intensity (or Meditation) and Dreamstate
• [Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon], [Bangle of Endless Blessings], and [Primal Mooncloth] set bonus

From these variables, we can determine the following:

• Mana Pool
• Spirit/Intellect-based Mana Regeneration (excluding the effects of additional MP5 from gear)
• Recommended Spirit if Intellect is held constant
• Recommended Intellect if Spirit is held constant
• Returned mana during Innervate and whether Innervate will completely refill the mana pool
• What type of weapon is recommended during Innervate

Table of Contents:

• Using the Calculator: An Example
• Sample Graph with Regions of Significance
• Behind the Scenes: Decision-Making
• Behind the Scenes: Formulas

Using the Calculator: An Example

As an example of how to use the calculator, I’ll use the hypothetical Restoration Druid, Thaelia:

Thaelia is a member of the questionably-Latin-named guild "Aegis Vesta." Ever the trendsetters, AV is currently working its way through Serpentshrine Caverns but is stalled out on the Morogrim Tidewalker encounter. Thaelia estimates that the fight — if ever successful — will last approximately eight minutes. Raid buffed, Thaelia has 450 Spirit and 575 Intellect. Naturally, she has Intensity and plans to use Innervate once in this time period (and to scowl at the Holy Paladins for asking for it). To boost her mana return during Innervate, she wears the Bangle but does not have the Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon. She thinks that she casts every 2.0 seconds. Using the RegenFu addon, she determines that she spends about 85% inside the Five Second Rule on this encounter.

Plugging these values into the Mana Regeneration Calculator, she sees that her current estimated mana regeneration is 321 MP5. She can also see that Innervate will return more mana than she has and that she should be using a High Intellect weapon during Innervate. From the optimization recommendations, she can see that she can either choose to optimize by decreasing her Spirit from 450 to 378 or by increasing her Intellect to 628. She opts for the latter option which will boost her overall mana regeneration under these conditions from 321 MP5 to 339 MP5.

In the above example, Thaelia chose to optimize by increasing her Intellect rather than decreasing her Spirit. This may seem like an intuitive choice, but keep in mind that had she opted to scale back her Spirit (and thus mana regen), she could have shifted those points more toward +Healing.

Sample Graph with Regions of Significance

Using the conditions described above (8 minute fight, 1 Innervate, Intensity, Bangle, 85% FSR, 2.0 sec cast frequency), we can generate a graph of the relative value of Intellect to Spirit and the resulting MP5 when these are optimized. Please keep in mind that this graph is under very specific conditions and should not be used to make gear decisions unless your conditions happen to match those described above. This graph is intended to help demonstrate significant trends among these stats.

I have color-coded three significant bands on the above graph, each of which represents a change in the way you optimize mana regeneration:

1. Yellow
   In the first band, Innervate does not yet completely fill your mana pool so Intellect is not especially valuable.
2. Purple
   At the start of the second band , Innervate has caught up to your mana pool. As you progress through this band, your best option is to increase Intellect so that Innervate will continue to max out your mana pool. During this band, Intellect is significantly more valuable than Spirit. In this example, 330 Spirit is worth 540 Intellect.
3. Orange
   Because Innervate essentially gives you a second (or third) mana bar when it’s used at these higher values, the value of Intellect is significantly higher than Spirit for most of this band. The value of Spirit does approach it at the uppermost values (900+), however, as the extra mana regeneration outside of Innervate begins to outweigh the contribution to mana regeneration from Intellect during Innervate. At this level of gear, if you continue to stack Intellect to maximize Innervate, you will actually hurt your mana regeneration outside of Innervate to such a degree that you will be disadvantaged overall. Should we increase the number of Innervates used during the same time period, this band will shift slightly to the right.

Note: You can build a personalized graph by specifying your own conditions and then graphing input Spirit as it increases vs. the recommended Intellect and resulting mana regeneration.

Behind the Scenes: Decision-Making

Thanks to insight from readers MK and Concillian, I discovered that Intellect was more valuable due to the fact that Innervate will eventually completely refill your mana pool. This required a significant rethinking of the way optimal values were calculated. The following is a decision diagram (gg, ISDS 3100) that will hopefully help you visualize some of the logic involved in optimizing Spirit (the same logic was used for optimizing Intellect):

Those with programming experience (or insatiable curiosity), are welcome to examine the JavaScript code itself to see how the many decisions interact with each other. I’ve tried to name functions and variables in a clear manner and to provide comments at important decision.

Behind the Scenes: Formulas

Building upon the math presented in 2.4 Mana Regen – Part 1: The Basics and with a few key adjustments in which the effects of Innervate were completely isolated from the calculation of MRC, here are the formulas used in the calculator. Heavy theorycrafters are encouraged to take a look and point out any perceived inaccuracies:

Let:

• c = 5 * 0.009327
• MRC = Mana Regeneration Coefficient, without Innervate
• m = MP5
• t = fight length in ticks
• S = Spirit
• I = Intellect
• d = Dreamstate (0 or 1)
• b = Bangle (0 or 1)
• n = number of Innervates

The last formula derived above is for determining the value of Spirit relative to Intellect, assuming Innervate doesn’t completely fill your mana bar. To determine the value of Spirit relative to Intellect when Innervate does completely refill your mana bar, the following formula is used:

I know that it may sound like blasphemy against Elune to suggest that Regrowth — or really any spell — might be a preferred choice over that holiest of holies (most restorative of restorations?), Lifebloom, in any capacity, but please bear with me.

What are the key components of a spell suitable for raid healing?

1. Must be quick enough to cast that we can heal more than one person in between refreshing Lifebloom.
2. It must not disrupt or prevent our role of rolling stack(s) of Lifebloom on the tank(s).
3. Ideally, should guard against being "overwritten" by heals such as Chain Heal, Flash of Light, or Prayer of Mending.

With the above characteristics in mind, I am going to perform an analysis of 7 seconds of Lifebloom (including its bloom since this is raid healing, not tank healing) vs. the direct heal of Regrowth. The +Healing coefficient values I will use are derived here and summarized below:

For the coefficients listed above I’m assuming the following:

• Empowered Rejuvenation (affects all four pieces unequally)
• Gift of Nature
• Improved Regrowth (+50% additional crit rate for the direct heal of Regrowth)
• 10% base spell crit (affecting the direct heal of Regrowth) for a total of 60% crit

Applying the coefficients listed above, we can determine the values for amount healed at increasing levels of +Healing:

Notice that the initial healing from Regrowth essentially does the same amount of healing as a full Lifebloom and in two seconds instead of seven. But which is better? Obviously, Regrowth costs more mana than does Lifebloom with HPM values summarized below:

Mana costs aside, Regrowth is superior to Lifebloom as a raid heal because it does in two seconds what it takes Lifebloom seven. This is nothing new and has been true since the release of TBC. The problem, however, has been that the mana cost was too high. With the release of Patch 2.4, the mana costs for Regrowth will be reduced by 20%. Additionally, the changes to Intellect affecting Spirit-based mana regeneration will result in a significant increase to the amount of regeneration you can expect within the 5SR (which was also boosted with the changes to Intensity in Patch 2.3).

Many players complained that they would be unable to compensate for the HPS nerf to Lifebloom‘s HoT because they are already having difficulty finding use for near bottomless mana pools. But imagine if you had another version of Lifebloom, meeting the following characteristics:

• Elapses for its full value in two seconds but takes 0.5 seconds longer to cast
• When it elapses, grants its recipient a 21- to 27-second heal over time for 2197 to 3119 points of damage
• Allows the use of a Swiftmend any time within 21-27 seconds (but with no greater frequency than once every 15 seconds)
• Costs around 300 extra mana

If you have the extra mana to spare, then you would have to use this "new" Lifebloom. And with the new mana regeneration, it looks like we’re all going to have a lot of extra mana.

Traditionally, the weakness of Druid raid healing has been a lack of fast-casting, affordable spells such as Flash Heal or set-it-and-forget-it type spells like Prayer of Mending or Chain Heal. Regrowth is both: it’s fast-casting and set-it-and-forget it. But until now, it hasn’t been affordable. We’ve all been in the situation where we’re frantically spamming Lifebloom 2-3 times in between refreshing stacks on the tank only to see a drunken Priest with the reaction time of an inebriated sloth cast a Flash Heal and ruin all that hard work a second later. The changes to Regrowth and mana regeneration may be just the boost we need to put Tharfor’s foot-in-mouth assertion to rest:

Resto Druids are still very strong at what they do. I notice when I’m raiding with mine that I don’t do very well on the healing meters, but that’s just because of the way that Druid healing works.

Regrowth by Dalmuln

Regrowth is still on the expensive side, and I seriously doubt it will completely replace Lifebloom for single-stack healing in all situations. Try to think of Regrowth as a Priest’s Flash Heal or Paladin’s Flash of Light, since its direct portion alone has a higher +Healing coefficient (adjusting for the 0.5 sec longer cast time, the coefficients are roughly equal). We pay a lot of extra mana for this capability, but it brings with it a 21- to 27-second HoT, the bread-and-butter of the Druid class. And maybe much of this heal over time will go to overhealing, but I’ve never heard a raid member complain about having a HoT on them! My sense is that we, as a Druid community, undervalue this component. Certainly, a raid frames display that indicates those raid members who currently have Regrowth on them (ex. Grid) will be a valuable tool, since we’ll have even greater use for Swiftmend.

We’re getting a lot of "free" mana with Patch 2.4. And like any good (Female) Druid, I’m immediately trying to think, "How am I going to spend this?" A few pairs of Regrowth (size 7.5) are looking awfully good to me!

Dear Drunken-Priest-who-was-Soulstoned,

Of all our fallen guildmates, thank you for rezzing me first. However, for future reference Druids still cannot cast out of combat resurrection. Therefore, you should rez someone else first. No, no … not the Warrior. How about that nice Paladin instead?

Your friend,
The Tree

Seriously, though. Those of you with the Resurrection spell, please take a moment to consider the order in which you help resurrect the raid. An efficient cycle can greatly help speed your raid’s recovery efforts and, when learning new content, can earn you an extra attempt over the course of the evening. If I were ever given an out of combat resurrection spell, this is the order I would prefer:

1. Other people who can help you rez. This includes Priests, Paladins, and Shamans. Yes, even the Retribution Paladin. He might be rezzing from his spellbook, but he can still rez.
2. Druids. We have to rebuff Mark of the Wild (only because people complain if we don’t). Our HoTs are cheap and can help raidmates get topped off, allowing you to focus on rezzing rather than healing. Plus, depending upon how soon she expects to need it, you might even get her Innervate.
3. Mages. These guys need to drink so they can rebuff Arcane Intellect.
4. Warlocks. Despite not having a group buff, Warlocks have a lot of preliminary maintenance to perform before they can click "ready." Pet summoning, Sacrifice or Soul Link, Fel Armor, a round or two of Healthstones, and sometimes even a fresh Soulstone.
5. Hunters. Not only do they have mana and health to regenerate, but they have to resurrect and feed their pet companion.
6. Warriors. These guys just swap stance and are ready to go. You may have to yell out over voice chat at any Fury Warriors as they tend to have the attention span of a gnat.  Whatever you do, don’t rez them first. If you do, they’ll probably be dead again by the time you’re done.
7. Rogues. Slightly higher priority than Warriors because they have to reapply poisons. Thanks to Aurik, I now know that poisons last through death. Rez these guys last. They’re just going to stealth up and wonder why they didn’t get group buffs.