Ghostcrawler gives specifics for patch 3.1 mana regen changes
by Alex Ziebart 
Feb 18th 2009 at 7:00PM
One of the big changes coming in patch 3.1 is the change to mana regen, and it has a lot of people pretty frantic. The last thing healers want is for their life to become harder, right? Well, Ghostcrawler hit the forums today with some clarification on the subject.Base regen (which is an equation that factors in both Intellect and Spirit) will be nerfed by about 40%. This means the mana you would regen while just standing around doing nothing will be quite a bit lower than it currently is. However, in exchange, regen-while-casting talents such as Meditation, Intensity, Spirit Tap and many others, whille be buffed so your in-combat mana regen shouldn't be harmed very much. It'll essentially prevent you from trying to wiggle in and out of the 5 second rule for big regen ticks, while not terribly bothering your mana regen while you're actually doing things.
Since Paladins are hardly affected by these changes at all, they're getting hit in a different way. We have the Divine Plea change which brought the healing debuff to 50%, and they'll be nerfing Spiritual Attunement for all but Protection Paladins. Hopefully that doesn't hit our Retribution friends too badly, but we will see.
Ghostcrawler has a lot of other details in the thread (which you should read through, at least his posts), but I'm pretty skeptical. I'm not so sure these changes will really fix much, which means that they'll need to look for other ways to make Mana Regen something you worry about. I'm admittedly pessimistic since I have a Shadow Priest, but I have no doubt that Replenishment will need to be nerfed again. There's such a massive difference in mana regen between when you have it and when you don't that I'm pretty sure it'll get brought down again in the future. Sure, it's supposed to be as important as a tank, but if your Tank was completely impenetrable that would be nerfed, too.
We'll see what happens, hm?
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Patches, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Nea Feb 18th 2009 7:08PM
All we pallies need is more tweaking at this point...
Shnissigah Feb 18th 2009 9:21PM
All you pallies need is *nerfing* at this point
Max Feb 18th 2009 11:03PM
^ nerf plz.
Eternauta Feb 19th 2009 6:32AM
We don't need no stinkin nerfs!
The problem with infinite mana is on replenishment. That's what should be nerfed, not base regen or spiritual attunement.
SteveV Feb 19th 2009 8:25AM
Spiritual attunement is situational. At patchwerk, for instance, we dont get damaged, so we get no mana from spiritual attunement, whereas, at sapphiron, everybody gets hit, so pallies get a fair bit of mana from spiritual attunement (if they dont heal themselves).
Not sure this is going to be enough for Blizzard.
Oh and if you're an arena player saying nerf holy pallies, spiritual attunement is virtually unused in arena.
Stevo Feb 18th 2009 7:15PM
I expect a flurry of QQ over the 40% nerf, but I don't think it will be so bad. They're buffing the talents, but we'll have to wait and see if it will be close to making up for it. I'm just thinking that this is just making replenishment more of a necessity than it already is, which isn't needed. Sure 3 classes can bring it to the raid, but even then I feel as if this could reinforce the "bring the class nomatterwhat, but try to get a good player behind it too" idea that was BC. We'll just have to wait and see..
B Feb 20th 2009 3:29PM
I will have to stop to drink. it IS bad.
ibuprophen Feb 18th 2009 7:17PM
I understand Blizzard's idea and i support them on this one. On my priest i do have almost infinite mana, xept when im spamming big heals, wich honestly never happens.
I think the idea is that the want to make encounters that arent as taxing in terms of numbers to heal through, but are more interesting as in having to play it smart.
I like smart encounters. In today's WOW, thats what sets apart bad groups from good. The good/smart groups can get through it, the others cant.
Ib
moar nerfs plox Feb 18th 2009 7:21PM
Sigh...more nerfs for ret pallies...who have nothing to do with the whole healer/mana issue. God damit Blizzard.
kalatash Feb 19th 2009 1:08AM
I think the main problem is "How is it possible to nerf Holy mana regen without also hitting the two other specs?" Which is pretty damn difficult.
Ikarus Feb 19th 2009 12:43PM
I've never played a holy pally so this may be off, but why not just nerf illumination?
Manatank Feb 18th 2009 7:22PM
So, looks like my resto-shaman will not be impacted at all? Nice.
Firestride Feb 18th 2009 7:22PM
I'm glad I'm not leveling a caster right now. I was never one to carry food and drink, but it looks like AFKing for a minute isn't going to cut it on mana regen anymore.
Daniel Feb 18th 2009 8:04PM
This is my big concern too. I am really worried about the way Blizzard is letting the needs of raiding dominate the game.
I don't raid and there is a definite timing pattern that I uses when leveling my mage to make my experience gain per hour the highest. If this has a significant impact on the amount of XP per hour that I can gain in PvE I am going to be a most unhappy camper.
Damon Feb 19th 2009 3:24AM
This.
My level 14 priest that i'm leveling on and off currently completely empties her mana bar downing a mob that's yellow to her. She'll probably be into her thirties by the time the patch comes out, but if these changes hit immediatly then her ability to face enemies solo will be beyond crippled.
Knaz Feb 19th 2009 11:07AM
@Damon
First three talent points go to spirit tap - currently if you finish the mob with a wand so that you are O5SR when the spirit tap procs it should get you at least half of your mana back.
The regen nerf in 3.1 would hurt this however blizz said they will buff (among other things) spirit tap.
So i would first wait and see.
turtlehead Feb 19th 2009 12:28PM
If you're leveling a character that can equip one, get a wand ASAP. There are always cheap starter ones for lvl 5 & 10 on AH (side effect of people leveling enchanting). These are competitive on damage with the spells and use no mana.
Spell, maybe second spell, wand while regen, go to next mob near full mana.
To Firestride:
"I'm glad I'm not leveling a caster right now. I was never one to carry food and drink, but it looks like AFKing for a minute isn't going to cut it on mana regen anymore."
Just did the math. It'd take 7+ minutes for my current raid mage unbuffed to AFK zero-to-full on live. My enhance shaman (52, junk quest gear) would take 3.6 minutes w/o orbs up.
Play your own way--more power to you!--but Blizzard can't worry about how something effects the one person who highly values AFK as a game experience.
Blizzard to Naked Warrior: we're not adding a talent named Naturism Empowerment so you're competitive in BGs.
jaynitan Feb 19th 2009 9:37PM
This will hurt solo play the most, raiding next, and Lowbie instance running the most. If the regen outside of the 5sec rule is what gets nerfed . . . . .then casters with NO regen while casting will get hurt the most, they will recieve a nerf and no reciprocal buff to counter it.
Imagine you are healing an all lvl 20-lvl 30 run to Van Cleef. . . you are OOM, and when you go OOM today you have 100 mp5, so cast, wait 5 secs start regening and then after a few seconds throw a heal out. If it is critical, use a potion. Then you have lost the ability to use a potion so you are screwed if you can't jump out of 5 sec rule to regen a bit and cast around it. Smart healers might be able to regen a little extra each time by throwing mana efficient large or DOT heals to carry through the 5 seconds. Maybe use a bandage or get the tank t use a health pot.
when 3.1 hits now your MP5 will be 40 out of 5sec, which means it will take more than twice as long out of 5 sec to build mana to cast those same spells. Prob you will have a dead tank and a wiped run.
Flash to my lvl 80 balance Druid, while lvling I was a beast, I would go for exteneded times without drinking or potting. I would go up to 15 minutes without every stopping to drink.
My mp5 @ lvl 75 was about 600 outside of 5sec, and 200 while casting. I was able (with clearcasting etc) to go for a really long time without stopping, meaning lotsa kills with 0 downtime = faster lvling. I would use the time of traveling between mobs or groups of mobs to regen mana, and usually have enough to kill that group and have only slightly less mana than when i started killing them. So every 4 or 5 mobs I would ultimaltey have maybe 200 - 300 less mana per group. Every time innervate was up I would use it and I was able to go for 10- 15 minuteswithoutevery drinking. And usually after 10-15 minutes I would go back and turnin quests, so I didn't drink then either.
I remember a long time ago in vanilla wow, I was specced and geared for max longevity and mana efficiency, my girlfriend had a mage with a lot of spell damage gear (hard to find in those days) and back then you paid dearly for spell mg, with loss of stats. so er stam and int were low but her DPS was high, for a few seconds at time. I remember her getting frustrated in PVP while trying for Grand Marshall, she would kill an enemy and sit and drink, and die, and kil an enemy and sit and drink and die.
On my druid I would kill an enemy, kill an enemy or two, run away a little and kill another then die or drink and die.
Thanks Blizz, now everyone will be slaves to water. Time to dust off my rogue and reinvest in my DK.
Firestride Feb 19th 2009 2:40PM
Wands are great unless you're a Druid. I used to love Wand Specialization on my Priest, but that doesn't exist anymore.
To: Turtlehead - Why do you interpret my initial statement as telling Blizzard how they should do things, or elevating my playstyle over other peoples? I just said that it wouldn't work as well anymore. You weren't rude, or anything, but neither was I.
SaintStryfe Feb 18th 2009 7:24PM
I feel thousands of Resto Shaman crying out in the night, before the nerfbat sliences them.