Innervate changed to a flat number
by Eliah Hecht 
May 2nd 2009 at 6:00PM
As we had been warned previously, Innervate is being changed in patch 3.1.2 to restore a flat amount of mana. At the moment, it restores mana based on the spirit of the target. After the patch, it gives "450% of the casting Druid's base mana pool to the target over 20 seconds," which works out to a bit under 16,000 mana over the course of the effect.
So the effect of Innervate is no longer based on the target's spirit, or indeed any attribute of the target. Paladins won't laugh at you any more when you innervate them. It's also a big buff in PvP, since spirit is rare on PvP gear. On the down side, as many people have pointed out, this doesn't scale at all - it will always return the same amount of mana, no matter what the casting druid or the target is wearing. This is also a slight reduction from what a holy priest or a resto druid receives from Innervate right now, which is more along the lines of 20,000 mana.
Blizzard isn't too worried about the scaling issue; Ghostcrawler says "We don't think the lack of scaling at level 80 is going to be any kind of problem unless we introduced say 5 more tiers of content without also bumping the level cap. We aren't going to do that." And when we're all at level 90, the druid's base mana will be higher, so that should solve that problem.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
FifthDream May 2nd 2009 6:11PM
"After the patch, it gives "450% of the casting Druid's base mana pool to the target over 20 seconds," which works out to a bit under 16,000 mana over the course of the effect."
Or, um... isn't it based on their "base mana", which means that final number would different depending on what the user's base mana is? Or am i really misunderstanding?
niko May 2nd 2009 6:14PM
Base mana is the same for all lvl80 druids. Total mana is with all your gear on, enchants, buffs, etc.
FifthDream May 2nd 2009 6:16PM
Ahh, so it's a level 80 thing. I get it now. Just showing off my ingornance. XD Thanks for the info. :)
Alexander Krizak May 2nd 2009 6:22PM
All Druids of the same level have the same amount of base mana, before mana from Intellect, talents, buffs, or anything else is factored in. This is also why, say, casting a spell that has a mana cost of "20% of base mana" doesn't actually eat your full mana bar in five casts.
McRaider May 2nd 2009 6:55PM
Just take all your gear off, buffs off and respec. Then look at your mana pool. That is your base mana. Each race has it's own base mana and it doesn't vary. Simple :D
Balius May 2nd 2009 7:08PM
DO NOT LISTEN TO MCRAIDER.
Base mana is the mana pool without anything else factored in...including the unmodified intellect you gain from leveling. Just being naked and talentless would give you a VASTLY inflated number (something like 27500 mana from Innervate at 80, instead of the 15250 one might expect from the ACTUAL base mana).
Moroan May 3rd 2009 3:12AM
Balius is wrong. Leveling increases base int which increases base mana, removing all gear, buffs and specs will show base mana. If it didn't then what ghostcrawler said makes no sense. And youd be getting 16k mana an innervate at lvl which seems kinda stupid to me.
Balius May 3rd 2009 5:43AM
I'm not going to argue. I honestly don't know what I'd even be arguing with, since I don't know what part of the things Ghostcrawler said supposedly support unmodified intellect being used to calculate base mana.
I will point out that the math doesn't work to support those arguing with me (this article mentions a number just under 16,000 mana for innervate, and the exact value is 15732 obtained from 450% of a druid's base mana of 3496) and that any reputable WoW site supports the idea that ALL intellect must be factored out, and I encourage that anyone who isn't sure who to listen to look up base mana on those sites rather than taking anyone here on faith.
Wyred May 4th 2009 4:52AM
"I honestly don't know what I'd even be arguing with, since I don't know what part of the things Ghostcrawler said supposedly support unmodified intellect being used to calculate base mana."
It's the bit where they talk about base mana scaling with lvl, but nothing else. "We don't think the lack of scaling at level 80 is going to be any kind of problem unless we introduced say 5 more tiers of content without also bumping the level cap."
So McRaider is right. And as Moroan points out, if it used the mechanic you're suggesting, innervate would return the same amount of mana when used by a lvl1 druid as it would when used by a lvl80.
Jack May 4th 2009 1:34PM
Each time you level up, you gain a certain amount of mana and health, along with some stats. It is this mana that forms your "base mana." Int is not a factor in base mana,even int gained from levelling. So in order to see your base mana, you would want to be completely naked and talentless, and also have a debuff on you reducing your int to zero.
Mhyquel May 2nd 2009 6:18PM
Well no more trinket buff.
Equip, Use, and Innervate.
/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Shift-click this to place a link into a chat message: \124cffa335ee\124Hitem:39388:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0\124h[Spirit-World Glass]\124h\124r");
Brian May 2nd 2009 6:19PM
I like the new changes. It makes innervate valuable to cast on ALL mana using classes, which I'm sure holy paladins and resto shamans will appreciate.
That said, the biggest change that WoW Insider missed is that the glyph of Innervate now returns 90% of the casters mana pool over 20 seconds. This makes the previous change a HUGE improvement, as it means the impact on a self-cast innervate is moot if you're using the glyph (which I plan on doing).
Unless I'm misunderstanding the patch notes, it seems like the changes mean you should never be casting innervate on yourself, instead casting it on another mana user who needs a boost, and giving yourself a nearly full mana pool in the process.
Zila May 2nd 2009 7:01PM
I believe the glyph is 90% of BASE mana
Balius May 2nd 2009 7:04PM
It returns 450% of the base mana to your target, and 90% of your base mana to you. Which is still a nice bonus, if not ludicrously high.
Faar May 2nd 2009 8:18PM
I would also gain MORE mana on my druid with this innervate than I do now, since I'm a "casual" player (who logs like 20+ hours a week lol) and not raid geared. I don't particularly mind that change... :)
Justin May 3rd 2009 6:11AM
Now, I'll have to come up with a new reason not to cast it on healers who don't have the gear/spec to do what they need to do...
Anteia May 3rd 2009 11:19PM
How about druids saving innervate to cast it on ourselves when we, you know, need it. Just because feral druids don't use mana that much doesn't mean boomkin and resto druids never get near to running out on longer fights. I only cast my innervate on another when they're a healer and they just died and I battlerezzed them. THEN they get my innervate and a spot buff in order for them to continue doing their job. But for me to continue doing -mine-, I need my mana to DPS as well. Not as big a issue with refreshment in raids (but if I'm not having an issue with mana, I'm really wondering why a healer is with refreshment), though ten mans without it or five mans without it can be a pain. Innervate is supposed to be an aid to druids to help when mana is tight. It annoys me that people just expect us to always save it to cast on others. Battlerezzing is abou tthe only time I do it now. I've rather enjoyed having my innervate to myself in Wrath.
epsilon343 May 2nd 2009 6:30PM
Hooray!
Gamer am I May 2nd 2009 7:31PM
This is going to be huge for us feral druids. Innervate currently only returns 20% of my mana pool, enough to cast Mark of the Wild and Thorns. With the innervate changes, it will return more than 200% of my mana pool. Hurray!
Lemons May 2nd 2009 7:34PM
Sure it doesn't scale, but hey, 16,000 mana is 16,000 mana no matter how you slice it. On a ret pally however does this mean he'll get like full mana on the first few ticks then be able to use it while the inervate is still regening his mana? That seems a little OP to me.