Thanks to the generosity of a reader who asked to remain anonymous, I’m now the ecstatic owner of a beta account for Wrath of the Lich King! The reader in question e-mailed me yesterday afternoon, surprised that I hadn’t yet gotten my hands on a beta key and generously offering me the one he had. Once Valenna pried me off the ceiling over my cubicle, I accepted his offer. I tried to send my benefactor a Tree-Shirt to say “thank you,” but he graciously declined.

By the time I got home from work yesterday and got the beta client installed and patched, it was 11 o’clock, so I didn’t have as much time to play as I would have liked. I managed to convince myself not to call in sick to work today, but I’m watching the clock for 5 PM! In my so far limited time in Northrend, I did discover a few things I thought worth sharing:

• Playing with the default UI is painful. Most addons aren’t WotLK-ready, yet, including any of the mainstream action bars. Luckily, WoWInterface.com has created a whole new category for those addons that are working in the WotLK beta, including a new action bar addon called N52Bar that’s modeled after the layout of my Nostromo game pad. That’s all I’ve installed so far, but I’m going to add a few more tonight, including agUnitframes, Outfitter, and hopefully Baggins.
• There are a lot of monsters in Northrend. A lot. And they all want to eat me. Also, much like fiery ground effects, floating ziggurats = bad.
• Phaelia looks much better with no marks on her face. I’m so happy that they’re allowing us to remove/change them. I ended up picking the Dwarven hairstyle with the hair pulled loosely back to the nape of your neck with a single braid. Very Gaelic chic. I’ll probably change again tonight. At 12 gold a haircut, it’s a good thing I brought a bunch of money with me!
• Respecs only cost a copper on Beta. That made the accidental misclick of 2 points in Natural Perfection a LOT less frustrating. It also means that I’ll get to play with lots of different talent specs.
• I love the new learned pets and mounts system. It was really nice to be able to clear out so much bank space, though a bit disconcerting when my Frost saber POOFED on me when I went to mount for the first time! (I seriously freaked out before I remembered that he had been added to my mounts list.)

If you also happen to have a beta key and have an active character on the PvE server, please say hello! My character name there is THAELIA (the name “Phaelia” was taken /shakes fist at her impersonator). Maybe if there are enough of us that are as-yet-unattached, we could form an all-Druid, all-the-time guild. If we do, we’re totally getting a rabbit tabard to symbolize our ongoing dedication to acquiring Critter Form! We could even call the guild, “Critter Form or Bust” I’m soooo not getting tells now, am I?

Related Posts

• Druid News from the Worldwide Invitational
• Dire Cat Form … Extinct?
• Flourish Preview

After wimping out last week, I have lots of neat things to share with you this week, including a Resto-oriented update to Rawr, a new Boomkin forum, and mobile-phone versions of the Armory!

Recommended Reading

• Starfire vs. Wrath by Graylo of Gray Matter
  Like Lincoln vs. Douglas, Sampson vs. Delilah, and Beatrix vs. Bill, so too do these two spells do battle. Graylo takes a detailed look at the dynamics affecting these two spells in live right now with a portion of analysis devoted to the changes coming in Wrath of the Lich King.
• Out of Dates by Megan of Out of Mana
  An interesting and entertaining take on the “life” cycle of a Warlock’s soul shards.
• Recruit a Friend (or Yourself) by Runycat of Unbearably HoT
  Runy reveals the best way to exploit make use of as intended the new Recruit-a-Friend program to powerlevel two brand-new level 70 characters for the low, low price of $243.89! Who said corporate America was dead? (No one, that’s who.)
• Viable DPS by Razorbax of Three Druid Noob
  Razorbax explores the additional utility afforded a raid when bringing along along a Feral Druid. (Two Innervates? SWEET!)
• The Time is Now by Bellwether of 4Haelz
  Many players may find themselves adrift as their raiding guilds crumble from the apathy garnered by WotLK’s impending release. In this 5-Part series, Bellwether shows you the way to find a new home.

Seiunchin by Liodain

PEW PEW! Goes the Chicken

Balance Druids will enjoy the Moonkin Repository, a new message forum community for Laser Chicanery. From the forum’s administrator:

This forum is a open repository for all things Moonkin. It’s purpose is to provide a centralized source of information, links, and focused discussion to assist and entertain Moonkin Druids.

Thanks to Graylo of Gray Matter for originally sharing it!

RAWR! Goes the Tree

The formerly Feral- and Balance-specific application, Rawr!, has been updated to include data and analysis for the Tree of Life spec! Reader and Rawr-enthusiast Adremma of Sentinels (US) asked me to pass on the following issues that exist with its Resto model so far:

• The various options (the tab, not Tools > Options…) require that particular attention be paid to them; this is particularly true of the rotation options, which are set up by default to assume a single tank.
• Many of the default gemmings may be inaccurate and are due to be tweaked. In the meantime, it may leave apparent item rankings somewhat incorrect. Fortunately, when using the optimizer, it can be told to pick from the gems of your choice.
• [The Resto developer] went to all the trouble of implementing things like the Bangle of Endless Blessings and Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon… and then didn’t actually manage to get them added to the default item list. Thankfully, they can be added manually (Tools > Edit Items… > the Add… button in the lower left; the item numbers for those two are 28370 and 19288 respectively), and any character imported from the Armory wearing one will also cause it to be added.

I admittedly haven’t taken the time to play much with it, yet, but if it follows the pattern of previous Rawr modules, it will be a wonderful resource for theorycraft. You can read more about it here or download it here.

New World Tree Additions

There are six new Druid-oriented blogs to share this week! Read one a day and on the seventh day you can come back here and rest. ^_^

• Bullshifter
  A Tauren Druid bullshifting about all things WoW. We don’t make these things up, people (well usually we do, but this byline was awesome enough on its own to serve as the site description).

Druid by Tryn

• Dazed and Confused
  From reader Rusco comes Dazed and Confused, a blog featuring an eclectic mix of Druid- guild- and generally game-related topics!
• The Druid Team
  TDT is the first blog of which I’m aware with an author from each of the three Druid talent specs: Feral, Balance, and Restoration. All three appear to be still leveling up, and so far posts have focused on their adventures (and misadventures) in doing so.
• Feral Tenacity
  Annderia of Arathor (US) brings us a brand new blog about a Feral Druid on a quest to acquire her own Nether Drake! How a cat is going to ride a dragon, though, I have no idea.
• Leader of the Pack
  Myze of Sisters of Elune (US) brings us the currently unique perspective as the guild leader of a guild focused solely on 10-man raiding.
• What Now, Kow?
  Miztickow of Azgalor (US) shares several great guides on much of TBC’s content, all written from a Moonkin’s point of view!

Also, a special “WELCOME BACK” message goes out to Karthis of the blog Of Teeth and Claws. So far, he’s said that he’s considering returning, but once the bug bites you on your big bear bottom, there’s no avoiding it. I’m sure he’ll be back and sharing more great Feral theorycraft soon!

Tree of Life Stores

Kalfurion, sometimes mentioned by Saresa of Destructive Reach wrote in to share the photograph at right he snapped at a local mall (click to enlarge). Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to dig up any more information on the type of merchandise sold by this clothing store (there are a number of shops by that name, but none whose logo appeared to be a match), although the scarf on the left side looks pretty epic to me!

Armory-on-the-Go

Picture this: You pull up to a stoplight on your way home from work. Ten seconds later, you feel a “love tap” from another, less thoughtful motorist. Both of you hop out of your cars and the subject of World of Warcraft inevitably comes up (maybe they notice your Resto4Life license plate). Immediately you abandon your discussion of liability and insurance and start comparing gear. But what if you can’t remember the name of that item you picked up from Archimonde last week? That’s where WoWIArmory or MicroArmory come in to save the day!

• WoWIArmory is developed by SaladFork of Omen of Clarity and is an IPhone-specific version of the official armory site we’ve all come to know and love find faster alternatives to. It’s got the typically sexy Mac-style interface and is quite fast. Highly recommended to any lucky owners of an IPhone (like Mr. Phae /glare). WoWIArmory is still considered in beta so if you’d like more information, visit the WoWIArmory category over at OOC or contact SaladFork!
• For the rest of us non-IPhone users (we’re the ones who get rear-ended in a ‘99 Ford Escort), there’s MicroArmory.com, a sleek and simple character lookup perfectly suited to mobile phone users. According to the author, Greyhammer of Hydraxis (US), “You can view your character profiles, reputations, skills, talents, gear, stats, even PVP and Arena stats! It will keep track of your character searches so you can hit them later with one click.” As a bonus, it includes images of the items when available from WoWHead. So even if you’re still wearing Kara gear, you can show the person who hit your car how chic your gnome looks in his [Ruby Slippers].

Resto4Life Mousepads

You can now purchase your very own Resto4Life mousepad through the Tree-Shirts store, featuring the beautiful artworks of Andrige (the Tree of Life shown on the left side of the page) and Valenna (who created the site’s logo)! At just $12.90, these would make a fun desk addition. Available in lavender with flowers and a darker blue-violet with no flowers.

Related Posts

• Community Spotlight
• Community Spotlight: Art from Andrige and More Blogs
• 15 Bloggers Blogging …

More follow-up from Blizzard Poster Ghostcrawler on Feral itemization concerns:

Armor is one of the most important stats a tank can have. We aren’t trying to keep bears from getting it.

The change to itemization was done solely to avoid having so much diversity in the items we could drop. It’s lame when you’re leveling up to keep seeing quest rewards that are itemized for your spec (which TBH is still a problem we haven’t solved for Feral weapons and idols). It’s lame when your raid kills a boss and he drops say elemental mail, healing leather, and a spellpower mace, none of which your group can use. Having bears, cats and rogues all desire the same leather drops isn’t a panacea — it helps some problems, but it creates others. Having bears run around with as much armor as a rogue would be a big, big problem.

Fortunately there are plenty of ways to give bears the armor they need — through talents (like the crit resistance one) or through Dire Bear form itself for example. Even if another tanking class ends up having slightly more armor than a druid, the differences should be so minor that neither of you is at a significant disadvantage on a boss.

I am glad someone mentioned the hunter example. I am really hoping you guys have the same reaction when you see the next pass on druid talents.

Further confirmation that we won’t see any leather items with green armor on them in WotLK. Which is odd because Druids have been forced to pick up less than optimal pieces of what would have previously been considered Rogue armor in the past. Why shouldn’t Rogues conversely see a couple hundred extra armor in “wasted” stats on occasion? They seem to imply that Dire Bear Form may get an armor boost, which I imagine would likely be talented to avoid giving it to Restos, too (which means it would need to be deeper than Thick Hide is currently).

Finally, it sounds like we’ll see another iteration to our talents – possibly Restoration and Balance included. I’m guessing we’ll see those changes “soon” otherwise Ghostcrawler might not be so optimistic about how he thinks we’ll feel.

Developer Koraa responded to concerns that the downranking change would unfairly prevent Shamans from using a cheap, Rank 1 Earthshock:

We’re working on a rank-1 Earth Shock equivalent spell. Not sure when it will be in, though.

Okay, but where is my Rank 1 Moonfire equivalent? I use that in PvP to knock people off the flag, keep people in combat so they can’t drink in Arenas, and kill Shaman totems. Priests, Mages, and Warlocks can use a Wand; Druids cannot. Wands don’t put their users back into the 5SR; Moonfire does. What is the point of the downranking nerf if not to stop people from using Rank 1 spells – like Earthshock – to accomplish something significant without a significant mana investment? Was the whole point just to buff Shamans relative to everyone else? We should all have access to a cheap, Rank 1 version of our abilities.

Related Posts

• Armor Values on PvP Gear
• Berries and Cream: Tasty Tidbits
• Wrath Recap

This post was inspired by Megan from Out of Mana, whose unique sense of style and humor makes me smile every time I see that she’s posted something new. Have you visited, subscribed to, and stalked her lately?

Related Posts

• New Blog Title: AAA Resto(Druid)4Life
• My Trunk
• Cheaterpants in Arenas

One of the most fun things about the impending release of Wrath of the Lich King — aside from planning my new hairstyle, fluffy achievements, vanity pets, and super dance party, of course — is daydreaming about all the different possible healing specs that will be available with the additions and adjustments to our talent trees. As previously mentioned, the Druid style of healing may be changing in Wrath, and all bets are off in terms of what the best investment of talents might be. Today I’d like to look at three possible talent specs for a Restoration Druid and their respective direct heals:

1. Mixed Restoration/Balance Regrowth Build
   Focuses on healing through a synergy between Improved Regrowth, Empowered Rejuvenation, Living Seed, Moonglow, Nature’s Grace, and the [Glyph of Regrowth]. This is an adaptation of the current Improved Regrowth + Nature’s Grace talent spec, but without having to sacrifice Tree of Life or other HoTs-augmenting talents. « Example »
2. “Full” Resto Build
   A more traditional, deeper Restoration spec that gains Flourish and Gift of the Earthmother at the cost of the aforementioned Balance talents, Nature’s Grace and Moonglow.  « Example » This talent build could optionally choose to augment Healing Touch through the addition of Naturalist and Empowered Touch or forego Healing Touch altogether and free up those seven talent points for use in Balance. Worth noting is that unlike TBC, a “HT build” will forego the previously associated talents of Moonglow, Lunar Guidance, and Dreamstate to instead acquire Gift of the Earthmother, Flourish, Tree of Life, and the beneficial talents associated with Tree of Life. « Example »

Both of these builds would maintain Lifebloom rotations. They generally have equally powerful HoTs, though the HT version of the deep Resto build won’t elect to pick up 5/5 Improved Regrowth, and the first build would include a 9% mana cost reduction on Rejuvenation (on top of the mana cost reduction of ToL). The second build would include a 1.0 second Global Cooldown for both Lifebloom and Rejuvenation. The primary difference between these builds, however, is which direct heal is the primary one. The first build would use Regrowth, the second Nourish and optionally an unglyphed Healing Touch. To compare these builds, I’m going to look at the strength and efficiency of their direct heals.

Table of Contents

• Base Coefficients, Base Amount Healed
• Average Amount Healed
• HPS Comparisons
• HPM (HP1%M) Comparisons
• Significant Observations
• +Healing vs. Spell Crit
• Final Notes

Base Coefficients, Base Amount Healed

The following are calculated in terms of current +Healing and do not take into account the changes coming with spell power:

Coefficient_Regrowth = Base Coefficient * Gift of Nature * Empowered Rejuvenation * [Glyph of Regrowth] * Master Shapeshifter
= 0.36 * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.5 * 1.04 = 0.74

Coefficient_Nourish = Base Coefficient * Gift of Nature * Bonus from Active HoT * Master Shapeshifter
= 0.43 * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.04 = 0.59

Coefficient_{Healing Touch} = Base Coefficient * Gift of Nature * Empowered Touch * Master Shapeshifter
= 1.0 * 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.04 = 1.3728

And the formulas for determining the base amount healed by each are:

Base Healed_Regrowth = (2494 + 2234) / 2 * 1.1 * 1.5 = 3900.6

Base Healed_Nourish = (2187 + 1883) / 2 * 1.1 * 1.2 = 2686.2

Base Healed_HT = (5165 + 4375) / 2 * 1.1 = 5247

* Note that the 1.2 from Empowered Touch and 1.04 from Master Shapeshifter only affects the +Healing coefficient, not the base amount healed. Empowered Rejuvenation only affects HoTs.

The formulas for Regrowth and Nourish make an important assumption: they are being used as a “tank heal.” For Regrowth that means we’re assuming that the target already has a Regrowth effect and so will benefit from the 50% up front bonus from the [Glyph of Regrowth]. For Nourish, we’re assuming that the target already has one of your heal over time effects, be it Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, Regrowth (Flourish doesn’t count). We’ll also want to compare the two as “raid heals” where neither would get the aforementioned benefits. Factoring those two bonuses out, we get the following modified coefficients and base amounts healed:

Notice right away how much stronger our tank healing will be than our raid healing. More on this later.

Average Amount Healed

These Base Healed formulas can be used to determine the average amount healed at different levels of +Healing (or the equivalent spell power) and spell crit.

Avg Healed = ((Coefficient * +Healing) + Base Healed) * (1 + (Crit Chance * 0.5))

For our Regrowth build, we’ll want to factor in the value of Improved Regrowth and Living Seed. Improved Regrowth adds another 50% to your chance to crit. Living Seed modifies the 0.5 at the end of the formula, which represents the bonus amount healed when you crit. It looks like this:

Crit Bonus_{Living Seed} = Normal Bonus from Spell Crit + (Living Seed Proc Chance * (1 + Normal Bonus from Spell Crit))
= 0.5 + (0.3 * (1 + 0.5)) = 0.95

Therefore, our average healed formula for Regrowth will look like this:

Avg Healed_Regrowth = ((Coefficient * +Healing) + Base Healed) * (1 + ((0.5 + Crit Chance) * 0.95))

Nourish doesn’t have a talent equivalent to Improved Regrowth but is affected by Living Seed. It’s formula for average healed will look like this:

Avg Healed_Nourish = ((Coefficient * +Healing) + Base Healed) * (1 + (Crit Chance * 0.95))

Healing Touch is also affected by Living Seed. It’s formula looks just like that of Nourish:

Avg Healed_HT = ((Coefficient * +Healing) + Base Healed) * (1 + (Crit Chance * 0.95))

HPS Comparisons

HPS is a measure of throughput. A spell with a high throughput is preferred in a situation where a target takes sudden, unexpected bursts of damage. These spells are typically more expensive and require a focus on mana regeneration to sustain. The formula for finding the HPS of a spell is simply:

HPS = Amount Healed / Time to Heal

The “Amount Healed” value can be found using the formulas for Average Amount Healed and will change based on our +Healing and spell crit values. The time to heal for Nourish is simply 1.5. The time to heal for Healing Touch is 3.0 with 5/5 Naturalist. However, the time to heal is a little more complicated with the introduction of Nature’s Grace in our talent build that focuses on Regrowth (a talent we’d opt to forego in the Nourish build):

Time to Cast_Regrowth = % NG Proc * 1.5 + (1 - %NG Proc) * 2.0

Nature’s Grace procs off spell crits so its chance to proc would simply be your crit chance plus 0.5 from Improved Regrowth:

Time to Cast_Regrowth = (0.5 + Spell Crit) * 1.5 + (1 – (0.5 + Spell Crit)) * 2.0

Applying our “Average Amount Healed” formulas at values of +Healing ranging from 2000 to 4000 and with a base spell crit chance of 10%, we can create the following HPS comparisons:

HPM (HP1%M) Comparisons

HPM is a measure of efficiency. A spell with a high efficiency is preferred in a situation where one or more targets take steady, predictable damage for long periods of time. These spells are typically less expensive and often benefit from increased HPS from adding +Healing. The formula for finding the HPM of a spell is simply:

HPM = Amount Healed / Cost to Heal

With the change where all spell ranks will cost the same percentage of base mana, the cost to heal can be expressed as amount healed per 1% base mana or HP1%M. The base mana cost of Nourish is 0.09. It benefits from 5/5 Tranquil Spirit which represents a 10% cost reduction. When used as a raid heal, we’re going to assume that the recipient doesn’t have any HoTs at the time it’s cast. If, however, used on a tank, both Nourish and Healing Touch benefit from a 5% cost reduction (in the form of mana refunded) for every HoT on the target. For my purposes, I’m going to assume the tank has three heals over time in any combination of Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Regrowth, or Flourish. I’m assuming that this spell will change so that it only benefits from my own HoTs, but if I’m MT healing, I’m going to want to have at least 3/4 of these heals running whenever possible. Therefore, the mana cost of Nourish and Healing Touch can be expressed as:

Mana Cost_{Nourish (Raid)} = Base Mana Cost * (1 – Tranquil Spirit Reduction)
= 0.09 * (1 – 0.1) = 0.081
Mana Cost_{Nourish (Tank)} = Base Mana Cost * (1 – Tranquil Spirit Reduction) * (1 – (Number of HoTs * HoT Reduction))
= 0.09 * (1 – (3 * 0.15)) = 0.06885

Mana Cost_{HT (Raid)} = Base Mana Cost * (1 – Tranquil Spirit Reduction)
= 0.39 * (1 – 0.1) = 0.351
Mana Cost_{HT (Tank)} = Base Mana Cost * (1 – Tranquil Spirit Reduction) * (1 – (Number of HoTs * HoT Reduction))
= 0.39 * (1 – (3 * 0.15)) = 0.29835

Regrowth’s mana cost benefits both from Tree of Life and the 9% discount from Moonglow:

Mana Cost_Regrowth = Base Mana Cost * (1 - ToL Reduction) * (1 - Moonglow Reduction)
= 0.29 * 0.8 * 0.91 = 0.21112

Applying our “Average Amount Healed” formulas at values of +Healing ranging from 2000 to 4000 and with a base spell crit chance of 10%, we can create the following HP1%M comparisons:

Significant Observations

From the above analysis and assuming the conditions outlined, observe the following:

• There is no reason to ever use Healing Touch unless it is paired with a Nature’s Swiftness. In fact, HT is now so unremarkable that I’d like to say “Thanks, Blizzard! You rock for finally giving us access to this terribad spell in Tree of Life!” Of course, it’s only “terribad” because of the addition of Nourish, so I guess I really do owe them thanks!
• Spell haste would affect the cast time of both Regrowth and Nourish proportionately (before considering Nature’s Grace).
• The Regrowth build loses out on Flourish and has less flexibility for raid healing, but its probably among the highest single-target HPS spells in the game right now. It might be desirable to have one Druid of this spec as a tank healer in all raids if mana regeneration is sufficient to support the approximate 33% loss in efficiency.
• The Regrowth build has the flexibility to have both respectable DPS and healing and could be a “switch hitter” on encounters that need less healing. It will likely excel in a 10-man raiding guild where flexibility is at a premium.
• It’s fairly obvious to me from the above that Druids are going to excel at tank healing. We simply have too many talents that provide excellent benefits when concentrating on the same 1-2 targets over time.
• Neither build has a particularly good single-target raid heal. Your choice is between a more efficient Nourish or a stronger Regrowth, but both are significantly eclipsed by their tank heal equivalents. However, the Nourish build picks up Flourish, and while it may be difficult to quantify the value of this spell at this point, Flourish looks to be a staple of Druid raid healing and may become the new Brain Heal (except you know, with a less condescending moniker since it would be ours).
• On the other hand, given the prevalence of raid-based healing from other healers (including a new raid heal from Paladins), it may be worth dropping Flourish to excel at high throughput tank-healing, a role where we have the potential to shine.
• I haven’t included an analysis of the [Glyph of Healing Touch] version of Healing Touch because my initial impression is that it’s pretty horrible, but I will write a follow-up that explores this direct healing option in greater detail.
• Currently, Lifebloom is sometimes used as a raid heal. It’s situational,and you have to have healers that for one reason or another, will allow your Lifebloom to bloom without overwriting it (WTB these type of healers!!). Under this scenario, a Lifebloom + Nourish combo would be a very effective raid heal. I personally have my doubts that this will be something we can use often, but a Tree can dream.

+Healing vs. Spell Crit

The above analysis assumes a constant level of 10% spell crit. Intuitively, all direct heals will benefit from additional spell crit. Prior to WotLK, spell crit for Druids has been heavily derided. With the introduction of Living Seed, however, our effective benefit from crit when direct healing increases from 50% to 95%. This will make the hybridized spell power/spell crit/Tree/Boomkin leather we find in WotLK more palatable than it would have been otherwise, but I don’t think many will gear specifically for +crit. Given the current formulas, you will always be better off going for more +Healing.

By looking at the TBC-level epic gems and assuming that relative item values will remain the same, we find that Blizzard currently values 1% spell crit as equal to 101.2 +Healing. We can use these values to determine the marginal value of adding an additional 1% spell crit or an additional 101.2 +Healing to show which increases our output by a larger amount. The math behind these calculations is included as part of the spreadsheet available for download at the bottom of this article.

As you can see, the marginal value of the equivalent amount of +Healing is greater than the value of spell crit at all values of +Healing less than 4000. In fact, you would have to have more than 10,000 +Healing before the two would come close to being equal. None of which takes into the account the fact that none of our heals over time benefit from the addition of spell crit.

Final Notes

Thanks to reader Tildir of Moonglade (EU) for writing in on this topic, giving me the kick in the pants I needed to take the time to perform a detailed analysis!

Related Posts

• Method: Coefficient Testing
• Nordrassil Raiment and Regrowth
• 2.4 Mana Regen: Regrowth as the New Raid Heal?