Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsMana regeneration changing dramatically in 3.1
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 5th 2009 at 3:35PM
The devs have been telling us for some time that they're not happy with the current state of (most) healers having infinite mana, and it looks like the reckoning is going to come in 3.1. And make no mistake, we're getting hit hard.
- Outside-of-5-second-rule regeneration is decreasing. They think the combination of HoTs and clearcasting let us stay OO5SR too long and get too much mana back.
- Mana regenerated by Spirit is being decreased "across the board."
- However, talents that boost while-casting regen (specifically, Arcane Meditation, Improved Spirit Tap, Intensity, Mage Armor, Meditation, Pyromaniac, and Spirit Tap) are being buffed.
- Since Paladins don't really use Spirit for regen, they're getting a different nerf: the healing penalty on Divine Plea is getting raised from 20% to 50%. Spiritual Attunement is also going to be nerfed for Holy paladins somehow.
- They're "taking a close look" at clearcasting abilities. "One likely outcome" is changing them so they restore mana instead of making spells free to cast, which would still give you mana back, but would not kick you OO5SR.
- It has finally been spelled out that they balance around even 10-man raids having Replenishment. Although I think this is silly (why not just remove it from the game, if everyone should have it all the time), it makes me feel a bit better that they said they are "likely to offer this ability to additional classes" (it's already been announced for Destruction warlocks, for instance).
Overall, although this feels very "sky-is-falling," it's important to remember that Blizzard is not trying to make healers sad, or break the game, or ruin your class. As they spell out at the bottom of the post, this is for the purposes of giving encounter designers more room to play. If healers can't run out of mana, they only way to make the encounter hard for them is to throw huge amounts of raid damage around, which is not always the best choice for an encounter.
This will be going up on the PTR, of course, so we'll get a chance to see exactly how it plays out. But I know a certain Holy paladin who will probably want to stop completely avoiding gear with MP5 on it in the near future.
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.Filed under: Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Patches, News items
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 9)
dexo1123 Feb 5th 2009 3:43PM
Doesn't hit the Resto Shaman at all as we are currently the class with the worst Mana regen of the healing classes.
Kaeona Feb 5th 2009 3:48PM
This maybe true, but once you are really rolling around in good gear we don't go out of mana in current encounters either.
Outside of Patchwerk spam healfest, Sapphiron shorthanded with no frost resistance and Sartharion with drakes, a halfway decent geared restoration shaman should have zero mana problems.
Mathais Feb 17th 2009 7:55AM
As a holy paladin, this seems to me a very..very...big slap to the face.
As for never running out of mana, Gee. I regularly run out of mana all the time in raids. Get enough damage put in place and mana sucks up faster then I can eat it through MP5/Replenishment/whatever else giving me mana.
Azizrael Feb 5th 2009 3:45PM
"Hey guys I have an idea, let's put buttloads of Spirit on everything cloth!"
(3 months later)
"These clothies have a buttload of Spirit, and it's giving them infinite mana! To the nerfmobile!"
Kassu Feb 5th 2009 3:49PM
Pretty much summed up the way things work in the Blizzcave.
I think they need fire Alfred.
Johnzim Feb 5th 2009 3:50PM
LMAO
Osi Feb 5th 2009 4:29PM
If blizz really don't want to be activision's pet any more, they should nerf the devs.
Turtlehead Feb 5th 2009 5:42PM
""Hey guys I have an idea, let's put buttloads of Spirit on everything cloth!"
Mage1 to Mage2: what the heck am I supposed to do with all this spirit?
(3 months later)
Mage1 to Mage2: Oh. [long pause]
Mage2 to Mage1: Yeah. Well, they buffed arcane DPS. Might as well do that since got to spec meditation. Check for mage armor glyphs.
Mage1 to Mage2: Two on AH. Mailed. I feel ill.
Mage2 to Mage1: Wait! let's pool our mammoth funds and bribe Billy to reroll his rogue as a retadin for the Uld ten man group.
Mage1 to Mage2: Genius
Turtlehead Feb 5th 2009 5:47PM
Forgot to add where I was going with that--fire got the pyro change recently. Given Blizz won't do anything for frost PvE damage (recently said it's a very low priority) it's a perfect place to stick another replenishment. Better than nothing. Simply replace the cruddy regen on the WE now with full replenishment while it's up. It has limited up time and is fragile, but it'd be a much needed boost to the spec's value.
jtomlinson Feb 5th 2009 3:46PM
No worries if a few healers get upset by this, WoW has too many healers anyways, right? RIGHT???
akw Feb 5th 2009 3:57PM
If you need X healers for every tank, then no matter what X is, WoW has too many healers.
Myria Feb 5th 2009 3:52PM
Yeah, just what the game needs, make healing even more annoying to try and decrease that huge excess of healers running around.
What in god's name are they thinking?
Kassu Feb 5th 2009 4:04PM
@ Myria.
The right answer is likely something in between KFC and female breasts.
Trippy Feb 5th 2009 3:46PM
I have to agree with Eliah on his statement regarding replenishment. In the raids that I lead I have not had the chance to group with any friends that have this feature, so if Blizzard is planning to design raids around it, they better make it widely available. Yet if they do that, why not just remove it, like Eliah says?
Guess time will tell how this pans out.
Tiis Feb 5th 2009 3:47PM
So at what level are you finding infinite mana?
I am guessing its not in heroics?
hold up Feb 5th 2009 4:03PM
Infinite mana usually occurs when you have a replenishment buff in the group. It's more likely to occur in 25 mans though where you have several buffs + replenishment and your mana pool is high.
It seems like the best way going forward to handle mana regen is to always make sure you have the replenishment buff and stack int since the buff is based on a % of your mana pool. I'm only half joking on this.
It's funny how everyone is complaining that raids are too easy and instead of Blizzard making the raids harder they nerf the mana users. So when 3.1 is released people that have cleared all the content will have to go back to progression on Patchwerk because all the mana users (healers/dps) are OOM.
Again, I half joke on this one, I'm sure Blizz won't nerf us to the ground - but it kinda sucks to have to completely re-gear a toon because stat mechanics are changing.
AyaJulia Feb 5th 2009 4:08PM
Honestly, it's really strange. While I was gearing up, my fights--heroics, raids, whatever--were always a dps vs. mana race. The most important question was, would they kill it before I went OOM? But at some point, it just stopped mattering. I remember our third or so Sapphiron fight... where I had struggled endlessly before, that time I looked up at Saph's health and saw it at 40% while my mana was at 70%+. Huh? There was no in between. Mana went from being a problem to being infinite, with no comfortable zone of, say, the boss dying when my mana was at 20%.
I have mixed feelings about this. I remember how hard it was to keep mana up despite shadowfiend/mana pots and even the occasional hymn of hope, and I wonder how new healers are ever going to survive... but at my gear level, I can see why this is needed. Mana just isn't something I have to care about anymore. I MIGHT use one mana pot per Naxx run. Maybe.
The last thing I think of, though, is that healing seems to be the only job in the game that's still extremely stressful. Dps just hit buttons with more attention and fervor if they need to down something faster; maybe they'll change their music and be hunky-dory, and I say that as a healer with a fairly experience dps alt, so it's not a shot at their job; without them, the bosses wouldn't die. Tanks, well... they hold the mob's attention, but they have their set rotations and might blow some cooldowns if they see themselves getting low, but otherwise their lives are in our hands. Healing requires concentration, feverish button mashing and/or clicking, and attention to lots and lots of detail. It would be nice if they would let me relax once in a while and not have to worry about my mana.
Healing is the only thing that requires immense skill or attention anymore, and while I like that I can say I know what I'm doing, I sometimes wish I could sit back and listen to music/watch TV with the rest of the raid.
Xonate Feb 5th 2009 4:13PM
Healers certainly take skill, but at the same time, saying that tanking (and DPS-ing to some extent) require no skill is pushing it. Straight up tanking is easier than before, with increased AoE tanking capabilities and higher threat generation, but for any non tank-and-spank fight, the tank has to know what to do, where to move, when to use cooldowns, etc.
Bloodangels Feb 7th 2009 7:33AM
Yea this si really gonna hur tme as a holy pally. Our typical raid has 2 holy pallies and 1 resto shaman, 1 warrior tank and 1 dps warrior, 2-3 mages, 1 rogue and 1 dps dk. We have no replenimshent in core raiders and the closest we have isnt' even 80 yet. Blizz has quoted a dozen times to bring the player not the class but now making so we have to tell some of our raiders sorry but we have to bring this undergeared person so we can have replenishment, now this goes against blizz stated when they put the expansion and is going against what they market for months about their changes to classes just to go back to the old way of life.
AyaJulia Feb 5th 2009 4:31PM
I didn't say dps and tanking required NO skill. Just somewhat LESS. And I stressed attention span as an equal issue. Don't misquote me and start a thing about it, stay on topic. :)