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.

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.

@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.

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.

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.

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.