A curious reader writes in to inquire:

I am trying to avoid deep Resto and still be a great healer because I like to see my character’s humanoid shape more often than not. I was either going to go a bit down Balance to get Lunar Guidance and Dreamstate or a bit down Feral to get Nurturing Instinct. I wouldn’t think to go Feral, but 70% of Ggility gear could be a lot of a healing, right?

I was wondering if you’ve done the math on these and could suggest one path over the other.

Prior to the release of Wrath, it used to be somewhat viable to skip over Tree of Life as a Restoration Druid. In fact, one of my guilty pleasures in TBC was to run Heroics as a Night Elf in all my S2 PvP gear just because I looked so darn cool (though I kept using the form for difficult raid content). You see, while the 20% spell cost reduction was great, you could get a weaker, non-Lifebloom-affecting version from Moonglow, a talent that was formerly much deeper in the Balance tree. There were also a number of TBC encounters where staying in Tree of Life was more a liability than a benefit due to its 20% slow-movement and inability to decurse.

However, with the release of Wrath of the Lich King, we get all of the (raid-important) benefits of the form with none of its limitations. Blizzard has removed the movement speed reduction, added both Abolish Poison and Remove Curse to its arsenal of available spells, and even allowed us to cast our class buff, Mark of the Wild without leaving form (and in Patch 3.1, we’ll finally be able to cast Thorns). Moonglow has also been made much more accessible, a talent whose effects stack with the mana reduction afforded by Tree of Life. Without Tree of Life, you also lose access to Master Shapeshifter, a Tree of Life-specific talent that grants you an additional 4% healing in the form. And this doesn’t even consider cases where you are the only Restoration Druid in a raid where no Paladin has 3/3 Improved Devotion Aura, making you the only potential source of the 6% to healing aura. To summarize:

As you can see, there is no justification for not having and using Tree of Life as a Restoration Druid in Wrath. It is a spec-defining form that you sacrifice too much to avoid. As such, I cannot in good conscience recommend any spec that doesn’t include the ability (and in Wrath, there are specs that include both the form and Dreamstate). Honestly, if you’re hung up on having to look at rotten broccoli, can’t wait for the upcoming revamp to Druid forums, or simply don’t have much faith in Blizzard meeting your aesthetic standards, I suggest rolling a Priest doll to dress up. They certainly get the best looking armor and aren’t restricted to using a special form to reach their full healing potential. Of course, Druids are still way more fun than Priests, in my opinion, even if we do look ridiculous.

P.S. Nurturing Instinct is a terrible talent for any healing Druid as there are no items that have spell power and Agility on them. You would never want to purposefully wear Feral items to boost your healing if healing is your intended role.

Related Posts

• Build 8885 and 8905 Changes
• Mailbag: Choosing a “Healing” Spec
• Balance Tree … Uprooted and Transplanted

Warning: This article is speculative (and maybe a little preparatory). It assumes that Wild Growth will be affected by Revitalize at the same rate (15% chance per tick) that Rejuvenation is. It is possible that Wild Growth will see a lower percent chance of proccing this effect, though I am excited at the possibility that it won’t.

As of Patch 3.1, the effects of Revitalize (simultaneously renamed from Replenish to avoid confusion with the Replenishment effect) will be able to proc from ticks of our 51-point group heal, Wild Growth. This substantially increases the effectiveness of the ability for a number of reasons:

• Wild Growth has seven ticks instead of the six of a talented Rejuvenation.
• These ticks occur every second instead of once every three seconds, making it less likely that they will go toward overheal and yielding a much higher rate of restoration.
• Wild Growth hits up to five targets at a time instead of one per spell cast.
• While justifying the use of Rejuvenation can sometimes be difficult, there are many cases where the use of Wild Growth makes sense.

In short, the returns go from looking rather shabby to looking OM-NOM-NOM-delectable. To update the values presented under the Rejuvenation discussion, we’ll look at the effects it can have on just one target, keeping in mind that it has the potential to hit five of assorted shapes and colors. We can use a modified 8.57 casts per target per minute (60/7-second duration) and 1.05 procs per cast (0.15 * 7) to arrive at an approximate average PPM of 9.0, three times that of Rejuvenation:

Mana cost per Wild Growth Cast = 643
Wild Growth Casts per Minute = 60 / 7 = 8.57
Avg. PPM per Target = 8.57 * 1.05 = 9.0
Mana Cost per Target per Minute = (643 * 8.57)/5 = 1102.102*

* Here I’ve divided the total cost by five targets to avoid overstating the mana cost per target.

We can then apply this new PPM value to our previous calculations by individual class:

Avg. Return per Minute _DK = 9 * 16 = 144 Runic Power/Minute
Avg. Return per Minute _Warrior = 9 * 4 = 36 Rage/Minute
Avg. Return per Minute _Rogue = 9 * 8 = 72 Energy/Minute

For mana users, the return is again based on total mana pool, using the higher PPM of 9 instead of 3.

Avg. Return per Minute _Paladin = 9 * 0.01 * MANA POOL

Keep in mind that the above returns are on a per mana-using target basis. Assuming you hit a group of well-geared spell casters with it, you could be looking at upwards of 600-700 MP5 for your raid, more than (indirectly) compensating you for the cost of casting the spell.

Summary

With such a potent regenerative tool in their arsenal, Restoration Druids may soon be counted among those players who can contribute significantly to the longevity (or throughput) of their raidmates (alongside Moonkin, Shamans of all flavors and Replenishment-providing Survival Hunters, Shadow Priests, and Retribution Paladins), and with the unique twist of restoring more than just mana. Such a change would go a long way toward accomplishing Blizzard’s stated intention to "offer [Replenishment] to additional classes, as well as make sure that existing sources of Replenishment are more equitable." And if you’re wondering if Blizzard would consider giving such a tool to a healing class, remember that Shamans provide Mana Tide Totem, and Paladins provide Blessing of Wisdom, each of which has the potential to overshadow Revitalize, given the number of targets they can effect and the relative ease with which they are maintained.

Dear Blizzard,

I promise not to (excessively) lord my Wild Growth over DPSers if you give it the same proc chance per tick as Rejuvenation.

All my love,
Phae

Related Posts

• Living Seed, Replenish, and Gift of the Earthmother
• Wild Growth … Grows a Pair *
• Ghostcrawler: Wild Growth May Receive 6-Second Cooldown

Phaelia: This week, I bring you another fabulous guest post from Graylo of the Balance blog, Gray Matter. While some of the talents discussed here are more typically found in a Balance-oriented build, the analysis of their value is also relevant to a Restoration Druid and will no doubt come in handy with the release of dual-specs.

If you played a Balance Druid in vanilla WoW, you are very familiar with the term “Oomkin.” Our mana issues were so pervasive that this term survived through most of the Burning Crusade, even after most of our mana issues were fixed. In Wrath of the Lich King, our “Oomkin” days are far behind us, and anyone that uses the term is either uninformed or joking.

However, I still regularly receive question asking: How much mana regen do I need? Which talents are best? Can I give up Talent X to get more DPS talents? With that in mind I wanted to provide this little guide for Moonkin mana regen.

Talents

How much regen do I need?

This depend a lot on your group make up, but as a general rule you will need more regen as your group gets smaller and the fights get longer.

In 25-mans, I have absolutely no mana issues, and I have seen some high-end raiding Moonkin drop all of their mana regen talents without issue. In 10-mans, I have issues on the longer fights like Sarth-2D because my group doesn’t have a Mage, Shadow Priest or Ret Pally. In 5-mans I don’t have any issues because the fights are too short, but my experience may not be relevant to you. My gear level makes up for my low mana regen.

If your playstyle focuses on 5-mans and you don’t have a lot of gear, then you’re probably going to want as much regen as you can get. If you raid 10-man’s regularly, it’s going to depend on your group composition. If you regularly raid 25-mans, you probably have most of the buffs covered and can sacrifice some mana regen for some DPS talents. However, the best way to tell if you need more regen is if you’re consistently running out of mana on boss fights.

Ok, I need some regen, but which talents do I choose?

If you’ve looked around the various moonkin forums then you have probably seen this equation.

Omen of Clarity > Intensity > Dreamstate > Moonglow

This equation was written with well-geared raiders in mind, but it is a pretty good guideline and fairly vague. Let’s see if I can put some numbers to it to explain it better.

The Numbers

Omen of Clarity

Numerically, this is a hard ability to nail down. It’s very random, you may get it but not use it, and it’s hard to determine which spell consumes it. To calculate its value I looked at several old WWS reports. Look at a couple of high-casting fights like Patchwerk and Razuvious, the proc rate does indeed seem to be about 2 times per minute but highly variable.

Next I tried to figure out what is the average mana cost of the spells I cast during a boss fight. Looking at the WWS report from the raid where I got the Undying achievement, I summed my total spell casts for a Naxx clear. (I know this is a 10-man instead of a 25-man. However, I don’t think my casting habits change much if at all from 10-mans to 25-mans.) I won’t give you the boring details but I cast a total of 1,326 during boss fights at an average mana cost of 458 per spell with one point in Moonglow.

Now, even though Omen of Clarity procs twice per minute on average, not all of those procs will be used and it is highly variable. So, to try and get a minimum value let’s assume that you only use Omen of Clarity one and a half times per minute.

We can get an MP5 equivalent by dividing the mana saved per minute by 12. Therefore the equivalent MP5 is equal to:

(458 * 1.5) / 12 = 57.40 MP5 equivalent (assuming one point in Moonglow)

This may not seem like much, but since it costs only one talent point, it is far ahead of what you would get by investing that point in Dreamstate or Intensity. Just for reference, if you invest a full 3 points into Moonglow, Omen of Clarity would be worth 54.10 MP5 equivalent under these conditions.

Moonglow

This talent was much easier to quantify, but it is very easy to present misleading information. If you look around the web, you may find a person or two that will indicate one point in Moonglow is equivalent to 45 – 50 MP5. Their numbers may be theoretically accurate, but here not practical because they are evaluating the talent under ideal circumstances. For Moonglow to reach those levels of mana savings, you have to be constantly casting with no breaks and no latency. In real life that isn’t going to happen.

So to accurately quantify the value of Moonglow, I will have to look at WWS reports again.

Looking at just the boss fights in my latest Naxx run I cast Starfire 488 times, Wrath 525 times, Moonfire 113 times, and Starfall ~10 times. All 15 boss fights took a total of 46 minutes and 6 seconds (2766 total seconds). For each spell cast I saved the following amount of mana:

Starfire: (3496 * 0.16) * 0.03 = 16.78
Wrath: (3496 * 0.11) * 0.03 = 11.54
Moonfire: (3496 * 0.24) * 0.03 = 25.17
Starfall: (3496 * 0.35) * 0.03 = 36.71

So, to get MP5 equivalent for the raid, you take the total mana saved and divide it by the time spent in combat times five.

MP5 Equivalent = (((488 * 16.78) + (525 * 11.54) + (113 + 25.17) + (10 * 36.71)) / 2766) * 5
MP5 Equivalent = ((8,189.03 + 6056.82 + 2844.35 + 367.08) / 2766) * 5
MP5 Equivalent = (17457.28 / 2766) * 5
MP5 Equivalent = 6.31 * 5 = 31.56 MP5

These numbers will vary from person to person and night to night, but I doubt it will vary much. In fact, I think my estimation of Moonglow’s value is a little high because I used Wrath a little too much.

Dreamstate

This one is really easy to quantify. All you need is your total Intellect fully raid-buffed. To calculate it, look at your armory and get your unbuffed Int. Then add 60 for Arcane Intellect and 51 for Improved Mark of the Wild. Then multiply that value by 1.1 for Blessing of Kings, and by 1.1 again for Furor. For me the equation works out like this:

Total Intellect = (889 + 60 + 51) * 1.1 * 1.1 = 1210 Intellect

When you have your fully raid-buffed Intellect, you multiply that value by 0.04 to find the value of the first point, and 0.03 to find the value of the second and third point. So, for me Dreamstate is worth:

Dreamstate _{Point 1} = 1210 * 0.04 = 48.4 MP5
Dreamstate_{Point 2 & 3} = 1210 * 0.03 = 36.3 MP5

Intensity

This one is a little more complicated to calculate. First, we need to find our out of combat mana regen. To do that we use this formula at level 80:

MP5 = 5 * (0.001 + sqrt(Int) * Spirit * 0.005575 )

I’ve already showed you how to find your raid-buffed total Intellect. Finding your raid buffed Spirit is very similar. Look at your armory and get your unbuffed Spirit. Then add 80 for Divine Spirit and 51 for Improved Mark of the Wild. Then multiply that value by 1.1 for Blessing of Kings. For me the equation works out like this:

Total Spirit = (371 + 80 + 51) * 1.1 = 552 Spirit

So my out of combat mana regen is:

MP5 = 5 * (0.001 + sqrt(1210) * 552 * 0.005575)
MP5 = 5 * (0.001 + 34.79 * 552 * 0.005575)
MP5 = 5 * (0.001 + 34.79 * 552 * 0.005575) = 535 MP5

Therefore, to get the value of each talent point, we just multiply this by 10%. So for me, each point I put in Intensity is worth:

Intensity(1pt) = 535 * 0.10 = 53.5 MP5

The TL:DR Version

As a general rule you can currently use this priority when evaluating mana regen talents:

Omen of Clarity > Intensity > Dreamstate > Moonglow

Please remember though that Omen of Clarity and Moonglow are very static since they are based primarily upon the spell’s mana cost. This means that they favor relatively low levels of gear, but will be outpaced by Intensity and Dreamstate as your gear improves.

That said, Omen of Clarity is still the best mana regen talent currently because it only costs one talent point. I do not expect this to persist until the end of Wrath of the Lich King because Intensity and Dreamstate will improve significantly in Tier 8 and Tier 9.

Related Posts

• Intensity to Become 30% Regen while Casting
• Blessing of Kings vs. Blessing of Wisdom
• Revaluing Spirit

According to the most recent patch notes, a couple of improvements to the oft-derided spell Nourish will go live with the next patch:

• Moonglow: This talent now also benefits Nourish.
• Nourish: Wild Growth applied to a target now increases the healing done by this spell by 20% like other heal over time effects.

This means that instead of spamming Regrowth as a raid heal, you’ll cast Wild Growth on the five raid members at lowest health (hopefully) and then apply Nourish to supplement the healing (WG will now grant a 20% throughput bonus). This not only gives Nourish a special niche (high HPM raid heal) but lessens the sting of the 6-second cooldown simultaneously being applied to Wild Growth. Also, it’s worth noting that, while Nourish remains the lowest option in terms of HPS, you’ll be using it on targets who are already getting healed over time by Wild Growth. A Regrowth bomb would likely just waste that HoT. I’m especially pleased about this new synergy and the idea that a Druid will “nourish” a “wild growth.”

Here are the revised HPM/HPS graphs for the new variations of Nourish. I’ll update the Direct Healing in Wrath article with these graphs (and updated observations) when these changes go live:

And, in case you missed them, here are all the other announced Druid-related changes in the upcoming patch:

• Aquatic Form is now available from druid trainers at level 16.
• Feral Attack Power: All weapons now have the potential to grant feral attack power based on their dps (as compared to the best superior-quality weapons available at level 60). Players will see their existing feral weapons grant roughly the same attack power as they did before (+/- 2 or so), but many new weapons will be options for the feral druid. Some feral weapons have had strength converted to attack power to be more appealing to other classes able to equip them. All druids will see the amount of feral attack power granted by an item in the item tooltip, if it grants any, but other players will not see that information.
• Remove Curse and Abolish Poison can now be used in Moonkin form.
• Genesis: Now works with Tranquility and Hurricane.
• Growl: Range increased to 30 yards.
• King of the Jungle – The Bear effect is now physical, and thus cannot be dispelled.
• Moonglow: This talent now also benefits Nourish.
• Nature’s Grace – Now also effects Revive.
• Nourish: Wild Growth applied to a target now increases the healing done by this spell by 20% like other heal over time effects.
• Polearms: Now trainable by Druids.
• Primal Tenacity: Now reduces the cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 17/33/50% in addition to its previous effects.
• Protector of the Pack: No longer changes value based on party size.
• Savage Roar: The buff now persists outside of Cat Form but only provides its benefits while in Cat Form.
• Starfall: Instead of canceling shapeshifting, now cancels on shapeshifting into an animal form.
• Survival of the Fittest: This talent now grants 22/44/66% bonus armor in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form in addition to all of its previous effects.
• Swipe: Swipe (Cat) has now been added at level 71, dealing 260% weapon damage, costs 50 energy with no cooldown. All talents affecting the Bear Form version affect the Cat Form one as well.
• Wild Growth now has a 6 second cooldown.
• Bear Form: This ability will now grant the correct attack power per level for levels 71-80.
• Entangling Roots: When determining if a new Entangling Roots should overwrite an old one, and will now calculate the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
• Maim: Tooltip adjusted to match the duration the ability has always had.
• Opening: Opening doors and objects should no longer cause shapeshifted forms to be cancelled.
• Rake: The initial damage from this ability is now properly considered bleed damage, and will be increased by Mangle and Trauma.
• Savage Fury – Mangle (Bear) damage was being increased by a higher percentage than intended. This has been fixed, and in result Mangle (Bear) should see roughly a 16% damage reduction. Also fixed a bug with Savage Fury where the Rake bleed effect was not being increased.
• Starfall will no longer cause nearby creatures to become hostile for no apparent reason while the Druid is affected by fear effects. In addition, it will no longer pick ambient creatures as targets.
• Survival Instincts: The extra health from this ability now persists in all forms, but the ability can only be activated in Cat Form, Bear Form, or Dire Bear Form. This prevents the health gain from occurring multiple times if constantly shapeshifting.
• Swiftmend: Riptide will no longer cause this ability to light up, and this ability will no longer sometimes consume Earthliving off the target.
• Idol of the Emerald Queen: This idol was providing greater healing than implied by its tooltip. It has been reduced to correct value.
• Glyph of Rejuvenation: The heal from this glyph is now properly considered a periodic heal.
• Soul Preserver: This item will now interact correctly with Desperate Prayer, Lay on Hands, Riptide, and Wild Growth.

Boo at no longer being able to Swiftmend Bobo the Shaman’s Riptide!

Blue Tidbits

Responding to concerns from Priests that they’re not strong enough in PvE or PvP, Ghostcrawler made the following (much abbreviated) statement:

If your raid is stacked with Paladin healers your group healing will suffer. If your raid is stacked with Druid healers, your tank healing will suffer. If your raid is stacked with Priests, you won’t have any problems.

Um … what? Am I the only one who finds it alarming that developer opinion is that Druids aren’t good tank healers? Especially given that three (arguably four) out of five of our healing spells are designed for use on tanks? Lifebloom is too inefficient to use single-stacked, Rejuvenation generally heals too slowly to use as a raid heal and better serves as a buffer, Nourish works best on a target with one or more HoTs (and don’t even get me started on the 4-piece T7 set bonus), and Regrowth gets a 20% throughput bonus when used on a target who already has Regrowth (assuming the [Glyph of Regrowth], of course). With a 6-second cooldown on Wild Growth and 4-minute cooldown on Tranquility, we are definitely not specialized as raid healers. The changes to Nourish above will certainly help counteract the Wild Growth nerf, but I find it worrisome that a developer would make a statement that seemingly flies in the face of the spells and tools we’ve been given.

On a separate topic entitled It’s time for the silence mechanic to change, Ghostcrawler shared this bit of PvP-specific but encouraging news:

We are considering DR for silence effects.

Praise Elune! Am I the only one who’s tried trinketing out of a silence? Silence is nothing but a form of caster-specific crowd control and should have been subject to diminishing returns from the beginning.

Related Posts

• PTR Changes: 6-Second Cooldown on Wild Growth
• Blue: Nourish may be Affected by Wild Growth
• Speculation: Revitalize and Wild Growth

Wrath of the Lich King included many changes to the Druid class, including some very positive changes to the Restoration and Balance trees. Talents such as Nature’s Focus and Improved Mark of the Wild were reduced from a cost of 5-points to 3 and 2 points respectively, and fun abilities such as Omen of Clarity, Nature’s Grace, and Nature’s Grasp were made a lot more accessible. In particular, I consider the 14 points in Balance for Genesis, Moonglow, Nature’s Majesty, Nature’s Grace, and Nature’s Splendor to be staples of the healing Druid’s specialization.

In addition to the obvious care and attention that was given to “pruning” our early talent trees, we were given 4 new abilities at the bottom of the Restoration tree to give us something to spend points on leading up to our 51-point talent, Wild Growth. Today, I’d like to take a look at three of these abilities: Living Seed, Revitalize, and Gift of the Earthmother.

Continue reading ‘Living Seed, Replenish, and Gift of the Earthmother’…

Related Posts

• Speculation: Revitalize and Wild Growth
• Gift of the Nerfmother
• Direct Healing in Wrath