MMO Champion is reporting that the latest build of the PTR includes a change to the PvP stat, Resilience, that will cause it to mitigate mana drains by the same percentage as it currently reduces the chance for critical strikes. This means that at maximum effective Resilience, mana drains will be mitigated by 25%. In conjunction with this change, the Warlock Mana Drain spell is increasing from a base of 200 damage every second to a base of 300 damage every second. Of course, one of the strengths of the Druid class is our protection against mana drains through shapeshifting into Bear Form and using Abolish Poison against Viper Sting. It remains to be seen how this change will play itself out.

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Edit on 2/21: Community Manager Kalgan (US) has announced that this change will now only be active in Arenas.

Players on the 2.4 PTR are reporting that the method by which drinking restores mana has been adjusted so that the amount returned starts off low and increases each tick. It was originally reported by Matthan of Endor (EU) and later confirmed by Community Manager Hortus to be an intentional change:

This is an intentional change to how drinking works. The amount of mana regenerated now ramps up, so you will see little or no mana regen the first few seconds and then it will increase as the duration continues.

It appears this change did not make it into these patch notes, I’ll see about getting it added to future notes.

Community Manager Vaneras later responded to the resulting outcry from this change on another thread:

It is true that a change in 2.4 in regards to drinking. The intention is to offset some of the mana regeneration from drinking so that the mana gained from drinking will be less in the beginning of the duration, but it will ramp up and increase towards the middle and end of the duration.

It should be noted that we specifically made sure that there would be little to no change in the amount of mana regenerated by players, who drink between pulls or during gauntlet runs. There should be almost no difference in the amount of mana yielded if you sit to drink for at least 6 seconds, which most players do.

Many players accurately assumed that this change was made in response to complaints about casters — and especially Druids — drinking [Star's Tears] to restore mana in Arenas. This supposition was later confirmed by Vaneras:

The change is being made to have as little impact to PvE players as possible, but it has to affect all water as this fix applies to Arenas, battlegrounds, and world PvP, which will have specific emphasis in the upcoming expansion.

For those wondering about the nitty gritty math behind how this currently works on the PTR, Vaneras explains:

After the change you will gain little to no mana after first tick(~2 seconds), the second tick(~4 seconds) will give you the normal amount of mana+66% extra and the third tick(~6 seconds) will give you the normal amount of mana+33% extra, and then it levels out after that. This means that you will still gain mana before the ~6 second mark (before the third tick), however it will be less than what you are used to now. At the ~6 second mark you will have gained as much as you would have before the change.

Ironically, Druids will likely be the class least punished by this change since running HoTs allow us to stay away from combat longer and at least half of us have the racial ability, Shadowmeld, to protect us while drinking. And as other healers derive less benefit from drinking, our relative longevity will actually improve.

Thanks to Currant of Druid Tank and reader Bullar for clueing me into this change!

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• Tastes Great and Just as Filling
• Trinketed Lifebloom Nerfed on PTR
• Vaneras: Druid PvP Viability Under Review

For those who avoid the official forums like the plague, here are three great topics worth reading:

• What the ‘pure’ classes don’t understand
  Psuemno of Cenarious (US) explains why, while other “pure” classes may be forced to spec differently for PvE and PvP, it isn’t the same thing as expecting a Feral to spec Restoration to participate in competitive PvP. He also seeks to disprove the “Prot Warriors can’t PvP” argument for Feral remaining unviable in Arenas. (Credit to Currant of Druid Tank for sharing this with me. For his personal perspective on the definition of “hybrid” as applied to Druids, click here.)
• Druids Overpowered? A trip down memory lane
  Faxmonkey of Blackrock (US) concludes that the main factor contributing to the impressive performance of Restoration Druids in 2v2 Arenas was the addition of [Star's Tears]. (Credit to Zackoria for posting this in the comments of “In the Shadow of the Nerf Bat”.)
• 2v2 Druid/Warrior Arena Matchups Guide
  Darkalpha of Gorgonnash (US) breaks down strategies to counter just about every well-known 2v2 pairing. While this post is a little older than the others here, I consider it a must-have reference when analyzing what you could have done differently in a lost match.

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• Vaneras: Druid PvP Viability Under Review
• Resto4PvP: What I learned from Gronzy
• PTR Report: 4-Piece Set Bonus Changes

Visiting the Druid forums today is a lot like visiting the Warlock forums used to be. There are a surprising number of posts calling for nerfs to the viability of Restoration in 2v2 and 3v3 Arenas. The most acerbic outcries seem to come from Mages, Paladins, and even Warlocks (who seem all too happy to see another class be subject to so much player complaint). On the first page of the official U.S. forums, you will find the following posts:

• “Time to man up druids.”
• “Every class worse then resto druid.”
• “Nerf Druids”
• “NERF THESE NOOBS”
• “Nerf duridz”

Even worse, the nerf-callers are monopolizing already limited Blue attention. Here are the post titles from 5 of the last 10 Blue-tagged posts in the official Druid forums:

1. “Improve/nerf different druids.”
   Improvements are requested for Feral spec. You can guess which spec he wants nerfed.
2. “Ending the 2v2/3v3 dominance of Druids”
3. “Cooldown on Cyclone is needed”
4. “Blizz nerf TRAVEL form”
5. “IDIOTIC IDEA!”
   Goes on to explain that Druids shouldn’t have access to so much crowd control.

Crowd control (primarily in the form of Cyclone) isn’t the only complaint. Players complain that it’s too easy for us to shift out of snares, too hard for them to spell interrupt us due to insta-cast HoTs, and that it’s too easy for us to get away and drink, increasing our longevity beyond that of many other healers. Of course, all of these complaints are null and void in 5v5 Arena where there are too many opponents to avoid anyone for long. But really, how “overpowered” are we? From Arena Class Breakdown data from Realm History, we see:

• At 16%, Druids are the second most populous class in 1850+ rated 2v2 (following Warriors).
• At 31%, Druids are the most populous class in 2200+ rated 2v2.
• At 11%, Druids are the fifth most populous class in 1850+ rated 3v3 (preceded by Priests in 3rd place).
• At 13%, Druids are the third most populous class in 2200+ rated 3v3 (preceded by Priests in 1st place).
• At 6%, Druids are the 8th most populous class in 1850+ rated 5v5 (preceding only Hunters in last place).
• At 4%, Druids are the 8th most populous class in 2200+ rated 5v5 (preceding only Rogues in last place).

Really the only problematic bracket I see is upper-end 2v2 (2200+). Even in the 1850+ range of 2v2, four out of the five top contenders exist within 1 percentage point of one another. This isn’t to say that I don’t feel that we Druids are very strong contenders in smallscale Arenas. I’m even willing to concede a very strong indication of overpoweredness in upper-end 2v2. But even in 3v3, we’re usurped by Priests (we also exist within 1 percentage point of those in 3rd, 4th, and 5th places). And our 5v5 ratings are simply abysmal.

Some players (usually Paladins and Priests) have suggested making Cyclone dispellable. This is, unfortunately, one of the only reasons Druids are brought to 5v5 Arenas. Another suggestion is to move Feral Charge further down the Feral tree, making it inaccessible to Restoration-specced Druids. This change wouldn’t be too horrible/nonsensical, but I also don’t think it would have a tremendous effect. (thoughts? opinions? Megan?) Some have asked that a cooldown be applied to shapeshifting, greatly reducing our ability to escape snares and put distance between ourselves and our opponents. While I think this would be a devastating change in smallscale Arenas, it would have likely have limited effect on 5v5 where our kiting abilities are already mitigated by the number of opponents we face. One of the most devastating suggestions is to make some or all Arenas considered indoors. Unfortunately, any Arena considered “indoors” is virtually a guaranteed loss for the Druid and her teammate(s). Thankfully Blizzard doesn’t typically like to enforce such binary game balance.

I really have a hard time thinking of anything that could be changed about the way our class/spec works that would reduce our effectiveness in 2v2 Arenas without completely destroying our performance in 5v5 (or, even worse, PvE). And any compensatory buff made to the class/spec in 5v5 would inevitably be too powerful in smaller brackets. Short of a complete class overhaul (no, thank you) in which we’re made to fit the mold of another healer like the Priest, Paladin, or Shaman, I don’t see how Blizzard could adjust the Restoration Druid. Nor do I think that doing so is a real necessity. A game in which populations are evenly distributed among all classes and bracket sizes would feel too homogenized. Having classes have one or two areas in which they shine is an enjoyable part of Arena competition.

Personally, I think we should all make Waffles and call it good.

Related Posts

• 2v2 and 3v3 Points Increased, Cyclone Buffed (Sorta)
• Population of Top-Rated Arena Teams by Class
• Forum Spotlight: Druid PvP

Community Manager Hortus points out:

Abilities should not trigger from crits on sitting players; this is in the 2.3.2 patch notes but doesn’t seem to be very clearly explained.

Technically, it isn’t explained at all as the patch notes read:

Effects triggered from being critically hit: Many abilities and talents were changed in 2.3.0 to allow them to trigger from critical strikes that occurred while the player benefitting from them was sitting.

What’s the significance? Prior to patch 2.3.2, a Restoration Druid with the Natural Perfection talents could go behind a pillar and sit three times while a low melee DPS assailant (such as a Warlock’s Felhunter) was beating on them to guarantee a 3-stacked proc and 15% damage reduction for 8 seconds. I’m not surprised that this was changed as it definitely does seem exploitive. Keep in mind that this does not mean that you will not be critted while sitting (for instance, when you drink); it just means that these crits will not activate abilities that normally activate upon being crit.

Among the known issues with Patch 2.3.2 is that:

Shapeshifting does not remove the movement impairing debuff Frost Breath.

Since I don’t recognize this ability from the Mage retinue, I’m guessing this is an effect from one or more NPCs.

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• Hortus: Lifebloom Cannot Trigger Nature’s Grace
• Guest Post: Leveraging Shadowmeld
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