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

Continue reading ’2.4 Mana Regen: Regrowth as the New Raid Heal?’…

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Excited about the upcoming changes to Regrowth‘s mana cost, I have been working on a comparative analysis of Regrowth‘s HPM value to that of Lifebloom. Part of any analysis of this nature is factoring in the +Healing coefficient for each spell — no small task when you consider the number of talents that can affect your final numbers! Usually, I’ll check WoWWiki to look for the relevant numbers. When I pulled up the numbers for Regrowth, however, I noticed something odd: WoWWiki lists the +Healing coefficient for the direct heal of Regrowth as 16.6%. That’s really low, even for a spell that takes 2.0 seconds to cast and even considering that the spell includes a HoT component with a coefficient of its own. It also didn’t seem consistent with the numbers I experience when using Regrowth. So I loaded up the game and tried it out for myself. I discovered a coefficient of 0.4582. I’m going to describe how I performed these tests in the hopes that some readers can do the same and let me know what results they get.

Because the direct heal component of Regrowth exists as a range of numbers, it’s more difficult to determine its coefficient than for something simple like a HoT tick or the bloom of Lifebloom. Therefore, I cast Regrowth on myself about 100 times to find a maximum, non-crit value of 2140 and minimum of 1989. These numbers were generated at 1617 +Healing. I don’t have 5/5 Improved Regrowth which made testing easier since I didn’t have to worry as much about critical heals (I excluded the few that did crit). If you decide to perform this test on your own (and I hope that you will), you should disregard any critical heals that you get; we can factor the crit rating and bonus in later. For the sake of clarity, I performed my calculations with Gift of Nature (+10% to all heals) and Empowered Rejuvenation (+20% to +Healing effects on Heals over Time), two talents that most non-Dreamstate, healing Druids are likely to have.

Continue reading ‘Method: Coefficient Testing’…

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A new build was released on the PTR today and includes the removal of the earlier nerf to the Lifebloom Heal over Time coefficient! Instead, a 20% nerf is being applied to the final bloom effect. This is exactly what (PvE) players have been clamoring for: a reduction to PvP viability acceptable due to its lessened affect on PvE. And if that weren’t exciting enough, the mana cost of Regrowth is being reduced by 20%!

• Lifebloom: the healing coefficient has been reduced. This spell will no longer cause error messages when interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of a Mind Control.
• Lifebloom: The bonus coefficient on the final bloom effect has been reduced by 20%. This spell will no longer cause error messages when interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of Mind Control.
• Regrowth: The mana cost of this spell has been reduced by approximately 20%.

The change to Regrowth will reduce its mana cost from 845 to 676 in caster form and from 676 to 540 in Tree of Life (611/488 with the updated [Idol of the Crescent Goddess]), essentially making it as cheap in caster form as it once was in Tree Form. With a 25% increase to its overall HPM, it’s become a much more efficient spell than before. With its reduced mana cost, the much increased mana regen in 2.4, and the availability of spell haste itemization, Regrowth may quickly find itself part of healing Druids’ regular rotation. As a front-loaded spell with a HoT component, it may be the fast raid heal many Druids have been wanting. And while the +Healing coefficient for the direct portion is only 16.6%, it sets up the possibility for Swiftmend on its recipient for the next 21 seconds, giving us the potential to instantly heal a raid member every 15 seconds should he take a sudden spike of damage. All around great news!

Obviously, while I’m not celebrating the nerf to the direct portion of Lifebloom, I’m ecstatic that the HoT portion will remain unaffected. And with the change to Empowered Rejuvenation so that it now affects the final bloom of Lifebloom, we should see little to no change (to give you an idea, on the live server my Lifebloom blooms for 1423; on the PTR, it bloomed for 1393).

Thank you for listening, Blizzard. It’s been a tumultuous last couple of weeks, and although I’m not 100% on board with the severity of the PvP nerfs, I’m more than content with your revision to the Lifebloom change. And I’m ecstatic to no longer have to cringe when using Regrowth. Thank you.

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Bears are about to see a boost for tanking.

What’s that mean? Well, we have no numbers, but I can tell you that threat is not something I have an issue with. I tank for people that far outgear me: the iLevel totals of their gear makes mine look anemic.

At first glance one might think that means I have problems holding aggro, but that’s not really the case. My GM is an amazing tank, and is about as well-geared as an early-T5 Warrior can be. When we race for aggro on the same mob such as for Gruul, he’s always asking the Hunters for misdirects while I stop using abilities and just auto-attack for long periods.

My aggro is continually through the roof. On a single target, no one in my guild can match what I put out (at least according to MY meter, and discounting the crit-happy dps at the beginning of a fight).

So… what’s the point?

Well, first of all, it isn’t a change I NEED as a Bear. As I said above, my threat is nothing shy of awe-inspiring so long as the dps isn’t retarded. With that said, anything that gives me threat independent of a hit roll is still a nice addition. So…maybe I’m wrong? Bleeds are already a staple of Druids both as Bears and as Cats, and this gives us a source of armor-ignoring damage that scales with our AP, hence also increasing our threat by default.

Thing is, the bleed damage from this ability is so minimal as it is that any increase from AP is likely to be equally unnoticable. From a PvE perspective, I just don’t see the point unless this is a really big increase.

Secondly, this should have been in place since day one. Rip scales with AP, why hasn’t Lacerate? Oversight? I don’t know but it’s silly that it’s taken this long to do it.

Third, could this be — as stated by several posters in the thread linked above — a PvP change intended to help Ferals in BGs and Arenas? Well that’s going to depend entirely on how well it scales.

If it scales like the [Idol of Ursoc] helps threat, we can safely pretend no change was made at all. On the other hand, if it scales well, perhaps the bleed will be significant and notable… perhaps a further change to the Idol is coming, but I doubt that. Mine is still in the bank collecting dust on the off chance something DOES change.

As a tank, I’m doubting I’ll see much of a change. Perhaps when I hit the arenas and spend more time trying to kill another player in Bear form this will become a staple of my arsenal rather than something I use only desperately to get a Rogue to waste Vanish. After all, PvP gear carries more AP with it than tanking gear typically does(blame Primal Fury for part of why we like AGI so much as bears).

On the bright side, at least some attention is being paid to Ferals, and even if it isn’t the right kind of buff, I seriously doubt this change will do any sort of harm in spite of some of the proclamations. Then again, maybe I’m wrong and maybe… just maybe… there’s more to this than we know.

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I used to be so die-hard Resto4Life (haha) that I refused to even map my shapeshifting abilities. If I turned into a Bear, it was only to /dance. Fortunately however, PvP has opened my eyes to a whole host of advantages to our various forms, and I’m happy to say that I’m now never more than a thumb movement away from turning into a happy woodland — or underwater — creature. Here are a few of the tricks I’ve learned for each form:

Cat Form

• Prowl + Dash past groups of enemies the rest of your group or raid has to carefully avoid.
• Bravely leap from ledge to ledge on the ramps in Karazhan.
• Dash back to your raid after being the victim of an ability that signficantly displaces you (ex. waterfalls on Morogrim).
• Dash back to your raid (wait for a straightaway like that of Curator’s hall in Karazhan) after a wipe so you can blog — I mean, buff — after a wipe.

Bear Form

• Mob out of control and running to bash your skull in? Turn into a bear and Bash his skull in instead, giving your tank 3 seconds to mosey over and give you a hand. PvP-specced Druids often have the Brutal Impact skill, making this a 4-second stun instead of 3.
• Impending doom from a Gruul Shatter? Pop Barskin and turn into a Bear. You’ll get more hit points and take 20% less damage than you would otherwise.

Aquatic Form

Turning into a seal lets you travel through water faster than everyone else. This is great for getting back to the circular platform that surrounds The Lurker Below in SSC after a Whirl, Geyser, or ill-timed Spout. And does anyone else get really annoyed by the fact that a few random AIR bubbles knock us out of Aquatic Form on our way through the drainpipe to Coilfang Reservoir?

Tree of Life

Use Tree of Life form on Blackheart the Inciter (possibly any mob that charms; I’m not sure) and during the phases where he charms your whole group, you’ll wander around ineffectually slapping your groupmates with your branches.

Flight Form

• Die in an unsafe spot? Click the “Resurrect” button and hit your Flight Form button for a quick getaway!
• One of my favorite things to do in game is to leap off Aldor Terrace, drop halfway down, turn into a bird, glide into the bank, and shift out so that I’m thrown across the room and land beside the mailbox. Sometimes, I even /bow. Not exactly combat-focused, but tremendously entertaining.

All-Terrain Travel Form Macro

Rather than creating and using multiple buttons for your various forms, consider creating a macro that will use Travel Form, Flight Form, Aquatic Form, or your mount based upon your current conditions:

/cast [swimming] Aquatic Form; [flyable,nocombat,noswimming] Swift Flight Form; [noswimming,outdoors,combat] Travel Form;
/use [noswimming,outdoors,nocombat,noflyable] Reins of the Swift Frostsaber

So what special form-based tricks do you use?

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