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.

Related Posts

• Natural Imperfection vs. Blessed Resilience
• Natural Perfection No Longer Triggers from Crits while Sitting
• Patch 2.4.2: Natural Perfection "Fixed"

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?

Related Posts

• Method: Coefficient Testing
• Mystery No More: +Healing Explained
• Tier 5 Set Bonus and Saving for Season 3

One of the limitations about which Moonkins clamor squawk most loudly is their lack of viable indoor crowd control. Many claim that it causes them to be excluded from Heroic instances where CC is often more important than damage (and when you can get both in a complete package, they say, why consider a Moonkin?). Wisperella of Lllane recently broached this topic on the official Druid Forums:

I used to be feral and specced for Moonkin. While i do love the spec, i feel we could be way more popular if we have a sort of Indoors reliable CC.

Of course no one wants more CC spells/skills in game, so why not remove the old indoor restriction for roots? If not the core skill, maybe changing the Brambles talent (the no one picks anyway) to allow the indoor use.

Surprisingly enough, Community Manager Eyonix — long ago thought to have given up on his Moonkin due to inactivity in the Druid forums — responded to her inquiry, stating that this indeed is a possibility under consideration for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion:

It’s something that is possible for Wrath of the Lich King, but it’s difficult to say for certain at this point.

While it’s not guaranteed to happen or certain whether it would be a talented ability (most likely in the Balance tree), this is great news.

Related Posts

• Eyonix: MotW Possibly Updated for WotLK
• Leather Is Yummy
• Forum Watch: Class Feedback for WotLK Solicited

With the recent announcement that the mana regeneration while casting talents — Meditation, Arcane Meditation, and Intensity — will be changing in Patch 2.3 to restore an additional 15% of mana while casting (up to 30% from 15%), I knew I’d have to revisit my previous article, Mystery No More: Spirit and MP5, since much of it is based around the idea that Intensity gives a 15% return. Unfortunately, I lost the original spreadsheet used to crunch the numbers and spent a number of days looking for it before finally resigning myself to recreating it from scratch.

Rather than only evaluating mana regeneration from Spirit at the new 30% Intensity, I also recalculated it at 15% for comparison’s sake. Once again, I’ve graphed it over the % time spent within the Five Second Rule and according to the use of the following talents and abilities:

• Intensity (both 2.2 and 2.3 versions)
• Innervate
• Living Spirit
• Possible combinations of the above

Here’s the graph of the new Intensity vs. the old Intensity. Future values are shown in a darker shade of the plots of their current values (eg. Red for “2.3 Living Spirit + Innervate“, pink for the current value.

From this graph, note the following:

• With 2.2 Intensity, you would need to be inside the 5SR (considered casting) no more than 32.5% of the time for the value of Spirit relative to MP5 to match that which is currently budgeted by Blizzard. With 2.3 Intensity, that number is increased to 40%. With Living Spirit, the number increases from 45% to 53%. With Intensity and Innervate, the number increases from 62.5% to 78%. With Living Spirit, Intensity, and Innervate, the number goes from 75% to 92.5%.
• Assuming a Druid has both Intensity and is using her Innervate at every opportunity, the changes to Intensity with Patch 2.3 will make the value of Spirit much more closely match that currently being assigned in Item Values, especially if she is able to remain outside the 5SR 22% or more of the time.
• Even if you were always within the 5SR (Lifebloom maintenance) and assuming you are using Innervate at every opportunity, 1 MP5 will be approximately worth 3.1 Spirit (down from 4.3 prior to Patch 2.3). With Living Spirit, 1MP5 is worth approximately 2.8 Spirit (down from 3.7 prior to Patch 2.3). That’s an increase of value in Spirit by 28%, 24% if you factor in Living Spirit (the additional mana regenerated with Living Spirit is outweighed by the mana regenerated by Innervate so even though you will get a substantial increase, the rate of increase is not as high).

Factoring in Blessing of Kings

By popular request, I’ve added a graph that compares the valuation of Spirit relative to MP5 with Blessing of Kings, using the 2.3 value for Intensity (30% mana regeneration while casting). Non-BoK values are graphed in a lighter color than their BoK values and, as one might expect, the 1.1 factor on total Spirit causes each plot to shift slightly down:

---

For information behind the calculation of these values, please see my previous article Mystery No More: Spirit and MP5.

Download the Spreadsheet used to calculate these values.

Related Posts

• Spirit vs. MP5, Blessing of Kings Version
• MP5 vs. Spirit
• Blessing of Kings vs. Blessing of Wisdom

I just had to plug this because it cracked me up:

Valenna the Rogue Tank!

I’m going to have to whip up a Rogue tanking talent spec soon.

In the meantime, what are the mandatory talents for a Bear?

It is often said that Druids are overpowered due to our Feral tree combining our Cat DPS options with our Bear tanking options. Disregarding two mostly separate gearsets and competition for the DPS one, what ARE the differences between a Cat and Bear spec?

Maybe rather than do a spec comparison, I’ll outline the baseline talents any good Bear should have and why, before discussing some of the optional talents.

First of all, let’s cover the counter-intuitive: the Restoration Tree.

For any serious Feral Druid, this part of their spec will look extremely similar. There are only 3 requirements, though.

First is Furor. Valuable for both specs, it grants a much needed resource immediately upon shifting. You cannot — I repeat: cannot — skip this one. If you do, you will find yourself lacking in situations where you need that resource, be it Rage or Energy.

Next is Naturalist. I cannot count the number of new Druids that stop reading at “Reduces the cast time of your Healing Touch…” The critical part is the 10% damage boost you can get from this talent when specced 5/5. Damage is what Cats are all about, and Bears use it to generate threat. Critical talent.

Finally there’s Omen of Clarity. Regardless of its proc-rate, any clear-casting effect is a good one, and that this applies specifically to melee attacks makes it a vital tool for holding aggro and dishing pain.

Now, this isn’t all you’ll find here of value for the Feral. Two other choices present themselves but both are purely optional.

Some Ferals like picking up Intensity to further the Hybrid nature of the Druid class. After all, Naturalist boosts healing power and Intensity provides that all-valuable mana regeneration, further boosting healing power.

Personally, I like to Power-Shift. What’s that? Well, it’s popping into caster and back into Cat or Bear for the Rage or Energy. When I’m scratching things with wild abandon, sometimes it’s faster to shift out and back for Energy than to wait for the ticks. In Bear it’s trickier. Still, it’s doable with macros and more practically, between pulls. Both of these habits make Natural Shapeshifter a happy target for my talent points. I can also state with no apologies that many times I’ve only been able to shift at a critical point due to this talent. Maybe Intensity works just as well, though.

So on to Feral.

At Tier 1, Feral Aggression is crap. No druid interested in DPS will be using Ferocious Bite over Rip… maybe a PvP Feral but we aren’t dealing with masochists in this post. The Demoralizing Roar boost looks impressive, but when you realize that it only boosts the AP reduction from 240 to 336, it becomes an obvious waste for Bears.

The obvious choice then is Ferocity. Reductions in costs are always nice to have.

In Tier 2, the critical choices are Feral Instinct and Thick Hide. Feral Instinct gives us the threat modifiers we need to stay competitive with Protection Warriors. This is a talent you cannot skip.

Thick Hide may not look like much, but as Druids cannot mitigate Crushing Blows in any practical way, high armor is the only avenue we have to minimize the impact when we take one. Someday, when your armor gets to insane totals, you can spec out of this, but most of us reap significant benefit from armor increases. Don’t forget, if you have 4000 armor from items in caster form, when you shift to Dire Bear this talent will net you over 2000 more total armor. That’s big.

Tier 3 is all mandatory for a serious Bear Tank. Feral Swiftness adds mitigation through dodge (critical since we cannot parry or block). Feral Charge emulates a Warrior’s Charge and Intercept abilities in one beautiful talent. This talent alone is what made me a viable off-tank for Gruul.

Sharpened Claws, like Naturalist, may appear to be more of a dps talent than one for tanking. Remember, damage=threat. While our reliance on damage for threat has gone down, it hasn’t gone away, but most importantly for this talent is how we use it with the subsequently available Tier 4 talent, Primal Fury.

Primal Fury gives a 50/100% chance to gain 5 rage on a critical strike. So yeah, you guessed it, Bears want Agility not just for the mitigation. Bears want to be crit monkeys for the Rage generation, too.

Predatory Strikes has value not just for opening later talents, but because added AP is added dps is added threat. Savage Fury is valuable for the same reason*.

Feral Faerie Fire is one that might be contested, but here’s why I think it’s valuable: If you have a significant rage bar (i.e. ,more than 10 Rage) it can be advantageous to pull from Dire Bear Form. Feral Faerie Fire allows this option to be practiced at range. While pulling with Moonfire or Starfire/Moonfire and then switching to Bear will usually offer more inital threat, having a viable pool to work with can make a FFF pull from Dire Bear more feasible. The lowered armor on the target is gravy.

Now we get to the juicy stuff.

First is Heart of the Wild. In Dire Bear this is a 20% Stamina buff. Coupled with the natural 25% boost, this talent is what gives Bears their reputation for crazy health totals. The bigger cushion you can provide your healers, the better off everyone is.

Next is the talent that enables us to stare a raid boss in the face: Survival of the Fittest. 3% to all attributes is nice, and can’t be overlooked, but the real reason we all take this is for the Crit reduction. This provides 3% to our ability to avoid critical hits, meaning we only have to make up another 2.6% crit reduction through gear in order to stand toe to toe with a Level 73 Big Bad. Given the horrific Defense itemization in leather, this talent is not optional.

I’ve seen a few Druids that skip it and go full Resilience, but I have no idea how it works in practice to do that. I wouldn’t recommend it, offhand.

Leader of the Pack. Crit, crit, crit. Not only does this help your rage generation, but it helps dpsers in your groups dish more damage. Coupled with Improved Leader of the Pack and you even show up on the healing meters! It isn’t much, but sometimes that little bit of healing is all the cushion your Healer needs to keep up or avoid catastrophe.

Predatory Instincts offers two bonuses. One is to damage and threat. Like the other talents of this nature, it doesn’t seem like much by itself, but look at all the other things we’ve done to increase our damage on the way up this ladder and you can see that the additive benefit is impressive. The secondary benefit is in the avoidance of AoE effects. It isn’t much, but given the damage potential of some AoE effects, PI can be a life saver.

Last, but certainly not least, is Mangle. In Cat this replaces Claw. For that alone, it’s worth having. But in Dire Bear, when tanking, it becomes even more fun. First, it’s instant. On a 6 second cooldown, the instant nature of it offsets the percieved drawbacks because unlike Maul, it won’t be spending rage on a swing you could be generating it. It’s cost can be additionally mitigated by the significant chance that it will crit, resulting in an effectively reduced rage cost for significantly more damage and threat. It also has the relatively minimal benefit of boosting Lacerate damage.

Rogues, however, will love you. Those that pay attention will throw bleeds on any target sporting a Mangle debuff… and EVERY Bear Tank’s target sports this debuff… or should.

Bleeds already ignore armor, and this adds 30% to their damage potential. The magnitude of that benefit cannot be understated.

So after all this, you’ll still have 8 unspent talent points. What do you do with them? Well, ideally, you should have some ideas and it will depend on how much time you forsee either healing or spending in Cat Form.

If you’re like me, you might decide that tanking really IS what you want and will work to maximize that with talents like Natural Shapeshifter for power-shifting, or Primal Tenacity for Stun and Fear resistance. Brutal Impact is also popular.

If you are looking for more Cat time, Brutal Impact is still good, and some PvPers find value in Nurturing Instinct. But if you’re going to spend a lot of time in Cat, you’ll want Shredding Attacks. Certainly there is some Bear benefit there, but the advantages it provides to a Feral dpsing in raids is measurable. Smarter people than I have done the math on it, but if you’re a serious Cat, don’t skip this one**.

So for the record, this is what I think the baseline Bear spec should look like, leaving 8 points for customization: BEAR TANK MINIMUM SPEC

As always, feel free to pick and choose, and not every talent will work for every person dependent on skill level, gearing, and situation, but this seems to be the best baseline I can find, the most universal and utilitarian.

* Savage Fury used to add to Bear talents as well as Cat and I wrote this with that still in my head, even though it’s been quite some time since that was true. One of my readers pointed out that it’s a Cat-only talent. So it is!

** The same reader that caught my Savage Fury error pointed out that in that light, Shredding Attacks becomes a more baseline talent for a Bear. Any and all Rage adjustments are valued to a tank, and since we use Lacerate as one of our staple moves (even on non-bleeding mobs), this shouldn’t be overlooked. In fact, I need to go respec.

Related Posts

• Scritch, Scratch, Drip, Drop
• PTR Changes: 6-Second Cooldown on Wild Growth
• Currant: Not One of the Cool Kids