Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for spirit and MP5
by Matt Low 
Mar 1st 2010 at 5:00PM
Say again?
Yes, you heard right. MP5 is being removed. It will be gone. Fist pumps and high fives all around!
In any case, when the next expansion comes around, everyone will need to relearn the entire mana regeneration mechanic. Thankfully, it should be much easier this time around. Spirit is the main stat which will contribute to mana regeneration since intellect provides spell \power. It is too early to provide any advice or guides since we can't actually see the changes in action just yet, but the basic idea is that healers will be stacking a combination of intellect and spirit to increase healing throughput as well as mana regeneration.
Lastly, for the druids and shamans:
EyonixIf you are a Balance druid or Elemental shaman:
- You will still share gear with Restoration druids and shaman.
- Your gear will have Spirit on it. It won't have Hit on it.
- You will have a talent that converts Spirit to Hit. We will adjust talents accordingly so that you want about as much Spirit as, say, a warlock wants Hit.
- Hit on rings and other such gear will still benefit you.
- Raid buffs will no longer boost Spirit, so you shouldn't find yourself unexpectedly over the Hit cap because of buffs.
I wonder if this means Prayer of Spirit will be removed. All in all, I'm very excited about the regeneration changes. It'll make things much easier for players to understand (like me)!
Anyway, the line of thinking here regarding the removal of raid spirit buffs is this: Since spirit will be providing elemental shamans and Balance druids with hit due to a talent conversion, any raid buffs which boost spirit will presumable bump their hit and put them over the hit cap which isn't a good thing since any surplus points will be considered wasted.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Avan Mar 1st 2010 5:07PM
I don't buy the removal of Spirit raid buffs. See: Misery from Shadowpriests. If you don't gear with it in mind, then you'll find yourself over the hit cap. Look, wasted itemization!
Hyacinthe Mar 1st 2010 5:19PM
What don't you "buy" about the removal of spirit raid buffs? They already said they were removing spirit from the list of stats that Blessing of Kings improves, by way of example. I don't know if they'll be removing all of them, but they're certainly removing some. At the VERY least, they'll have to change how any buffs they do leave in function.
Doc Mar 1st 2010 5:19PM
Which is why misery will most likely be changed. Since dps cloth casters will not have spirit on their gear, Mage/Lock/spriest will have their talents changed accordingly.
Stephen Mar 1st 2010 5:27PM
Misery was changed in Wrath. In TBC it was a shadow spell damage buff and had nothing to do with +hit. They'll just change it again. They already said they plan to revamp all of the talent trees.
Stephen Mar 1st 2010 5:30PM
Edit: Misery was a buff to spell damage, not just shadow spell damage.
byoonie Mar 1st 2010 5:08PM
All of these Cata articles are getting me excited for the expansion!!
Manic Soul Mar 1st 2010 5:08PM
"What do you think, mr. blue duck?"
"That's quacktaaaaaastic!"
Vazpucci Mar 1st 2010 5:16PM
Me too Byoonie! I am excited that the regerneration will be so much easier!
GerardthePriest Mar 1st 2010 5:23PM
Things that haven't been addressed:
1) The continuing presence of spell plate as a drop that is only used by 1 spec out of 30 in the game.
2) What will happen with cloth gear in re: spirit/hit. It sounds like, after Cataclysm, only priests (of clothies) will want cloth with spirit - but every leather, mail, and plate-wearing caster could want it as well. The simplest suggestion I saw on the forums was to give priests a "convert +hit to +spirit" talent - the inverse of the mail/leather talents - and make there be no such thing as spirit cloth.
With the goal of simplifying and homogenizing gear, I hope we hear more about these at some point. Even if it's a "we're leaving this the way it is" (e.g. with spell plate).
Camaris Mar 1st 2010 5:41PM
I don't see any 'easy' solution to the healing plate issue (speaking as a holy paladin myself). The only thing you could maybe do is give paladins some skill (or talents?) that would actually turn DPS-plate into healing gear (call it 'Sanctification', make it a paladin-only type of Reforging?), or possibly a way to transform other healing gear into plate.
Those kinds of things do make gear choice less transparent though, which seems counter to the intent of the Cataclysm changes.
On the other hand, are there now more single-spec types of gear? Spirit cloth is apparently now just for priest healers (disregarding for a moment the 'higher armor classes', players themselves can take care of that issue).
I'm not entirely sure homogenization is still necessarily the focus in Cataclysm. It was in WotLK, and is probably still desirable to an extent, but they seem to be focusing on easier to understand stats and gear choices for Cataclysm, and what's easier than gear that only fits one spec?
Stephen Mar 1st 2010 5:41PM
#2 Then we're still fighting over gear with warlocks, mages & shadow priests. Or leather/mail caster dps decide to forgo the spirit/hit conversion talent and roll on +hit gear anyway. It won't matter much anyway since they can reforge +hit into spirit.
My preference would be to make all healers wear cloth & increase the +spirit drops. Make them all as squishy as priests.
Candina@WH Mar 1st 2010 5:48PM
I think you misread something.
Spirit will ONLY appear on healer gear(cloth, leather, mail).
Balance Druids and Ele shaman will share gear with resto specs.
Balance Druids and Ele shaman ONLY will have abilities that change spirit to +hit.
So no other specs will want healer gear.
As for one line of itemization benifiting one and only one spec, so what? See also Melee DPS Mail, +sta +dodge leather, etc. Sucks to be a pally, but sucks just as badly to be a Bear or Enh Shammy.
GerardthePriest Mar 1st 2010 5:57PM
@Candina -
I know that they only announced the hit/spirit conversion for those two specs, but my point was that it could also make sense for them to do that for priests, only in the other direction.
Also, there is no dodge leather in ICC - cat, rogue, and bear drops are the same now. And enhance shammies share gear with hunters. With the exception of spell plate, right now every piece of gear that drops in ICC is usable by more than one spec. Some items are a little better than others for particular specs because of their itemization, but all are designed to be usable by multiple specs. Again, spell plate excepted.
Rob Mar 1st 2010 6:35PM
I play mostly resto and boomkin for grins. I have like two pieces of boomkin gear (a nice staff and a ring) at ilvl 245, not including 4T9. Anyway the point is that given this setup, i would love to see tier pieces being interchangable for the spec. Granted I have no idea how this would work, but I kinda like the idea of going into a heroic with mostly resto gear and doing 3k dps in boomkin spec, or 1500 dps in resto spec. That's kinda what I want to see happen; give us some rings & a staff with crit, and allow use to be a bit more versitle on both boomkin and resto forms.
This would help the gear issue somewhat; which is i think the main challenge of druids, we'll always have a main spec and a lol spec, just because there are 4 different PVE specs for druids, and never mind the PVP specs. I'd also like to see closer homogenization of cat and bear sets.
Stardusted Mar 1st 2010 8:06PM
If you read the stat changes, no gear other than weapons will have spell power on it. So there will be no spell plate anymore.
taedirk Mar 1st 2010 5:20PM
"since any surplus points will be considered wasted."
Reading the part about combat ratings, it looks like +hit will be hard to waste. Y'know, with the whole higher tier bosses needing higher hit ratings. It's just a No EZ Mode for the two specs that had to be shoehorned into a stat.
Caution Mar 1st 2010 5:39PM
So in reply to the blue post.
If i am elemental and also resto as OS. i could possibly be going after the same gear for both specs and then change certain attributes.
My questions is when an attribute is changed say spirit to hit will the looks of item change as well?
Cyanea Mar 1st 2010 5:38PM
Great.
So now I have to share my gear. It's hard enough managing to get a drop between the holy pally and other resto shammy in my gear...now I have to fight for it with Elemental?
Mike Mar 1st 2010 5:52PM
You'll have to fight for it with Elemental but you won't be fighting with Holy Paladin any more. But that's still the better situation than us Enhancers, before we could at least take a couple Elemental gear pieces if necessary and make use of the Int-AP conversion, in Cata we'll have to fight with Hunters all the time.
GerardthePriest Mar 1st 2010 5:52PM
@Camaris -
I don't know if they've specifically declared homogenization as a goal for Cataclysm, but their decision to make healing/caster druids and shammies share the same gear seems to suggest that they have an interest in it. They've specifically worked to move from two separate types of item for two specs to a single type of item used by both. So spell plate seems like something they might try to do something about. I'm not sure what they'd do, but it'd be nice if they just acknowledged the issue.
@Stephen and Camaris -
I'd rather fight over gear - as long as the total number of drops is increased - than have spirit cloth that only priests will ever want. Also, as a disc/shadow dual spec, I would really prefer that I could have a single gear set, much like they're setting up boomkins/trees and ele/resto shammies. It just doesn't make any sense for there to be spirit cloth if only healing priests want it.