Active mana regeneration and the restoration problem

Make no mistake, giving balance druids the active form of mana regeneration that they need is not an easy, cut-and-dry task. For this reason, the current Moonkin Form return mechanic is well designed. A restoration druid and even a balance druid cannot take the talent and be able to exponentially increase their mana regeneration while being able to continuously heal at the same time. In a situation where healing mana matters, any mana return mechanics given to balance druids have to take into account the access that restoration druids are going to have to it.

Others may not be, but I am already concerned by the prospect that restoration druids will more than likely have easy access to Dreamstate in Cataclysm. So far as I am aware (I may be incorrect on this, so don't get mad at me if I am), no other healer has access to a secondary form of mana regeneration so easily. Unrelenting Storm, a shaman talent that is virtually the same as Dreamstate, is accessible to restoration shaman, but there is a difference. Restoration shaman generally sub-spec into enhancement, since the top tiers of elemental offer them nothing at all. Sub-speccing elemental means the shaman has to give up Ancestral Knowledge, Thundering Strikes, Improved Shields and Elemental Weapons, while the only thing that he would gain would be Unrelenting Storm.

Alternately, restorations druids already sub-spec down into the balance tree. They're there to get talents such as Moonglow, Genesis, Nature's Majesty and Nature's Splendor, so they have to give up relatively less in order to go down a little bit further in order to get Dreamstate. This is problematic for a variety of reasons. First, Blizzard would be forced to balance around restoration's getting Dreamstate. Second, Dreamstate would never be powerful enough to be the primary source of a balance druid's mana regeneration because restoration can get it.

The same principle holds true for any other mana regeneration talents that balance druids are going to need -- and make no mistake that we need far more than Moonglow and Dreamstate can provide. Due to this, any additional mana return talents are going to be forced to have a few restrictions. They are going to need to be much lower within the tree, around the area that Eclipse is at, and/or they are going to need to be tied specifically to damage spells or Moonkin Form.

Active regeneration, passive regeneration and homogenization

There have been a lot of comparisons thus far to abilities that other classes have and how balance druids need to have similar abilities. One concern about doing this is making all of the classes feel too homogenized with each other. Realize that this doesn't have to be the case for everything. There are ways to homogenize systems without doing so to specific abilities.

There has also been a large focus on active versus passive regeneration. All DPS casters need to have strong active regeneration, that cannot be ignored, but this does not have to mean that passive regeneration is nonexistent or that it has to be trivialized. One of the ways to differentiate among the classes is to create a rift between the reliance on active and passive regeneration. Warlocks, for example, have very weak passive mana regeneration for the most part and rely much more on active regeneration; conversely, mages have strong passive mana regeneration yet still need to use their active regeneration abilities properly in order to avoid running out of mana.

In my personal vision, balance druids would follow the mage system more closely than they would the warlock system. Although we need to have an active regeneration ability, having a strong reliance on passive regeneration isn't a terrible thing. Balance druids should have fairly decent passive regeneration, enough so that we do not constantly feel that we need to utilize any active regeneration that we may have, but not enough that we have no need for active regeneration. Dreamstate is good for this, though I cannot say how powerful or weak it may be in Cataclysm at this point; we will probably need something else.

As much as I have railed against the concept, the Moonkin Form mana return talent can remain in practice; however, there are several key changes that I would suggest. First and foremost, it should not be our primary source of mana regeneration; it should be secondary. To that end, I would change the ability from refunding 2% of maximum mana on critical strike to return, say, 50% of spell cost on critical strike. The reasoning for this is that in order for the ability to be our secondary source of mana return, it should not have the capacity to scale to the point that it eclipses our need for additional mana sources. It still needs to scale, though. Alternatively, Moonkin Form could merely become our new Intensity, wherein we regenerate mana based upon some factor (base mana, maximum mana, spirit, etc.) while shifted.

As far as active mana returns go, we do not actually need to have a new ability added in; we already have a very strong mana return mechanic in the form of Innervate. I will say out right that balance druids should never, ever be balanced around the concept that we absolutely have to use Innervate on ourselves every cooldown in order to maintain our mana pool. Innervate is a raid utility that is fairly unique and very important, especially in a world where healer mana matters. What can be done, however, is to add in a talent that functions similarly to the Glyph of Innervate. Innervate can be made to function where we can use it on others while still reaping a nominal, yet sufficient for PvE purposes, benefit for ourselves, yet have it be that much more powerful when used on ourselves at times when we might specifically need the additional mana regeneration (such as PvP). This heightened mana regeneration can have a cost associated with it, if need be, as well. Say that when cast on someone else, the drawback in less personal mana regeneration forces a higher reliance on passive methods to sustain yourself, but when used on yourself, the cost is either reduced damage or reduced healing (or perhaps both).

Innervate as our primary source of mana regeneration is a simplistic solution. It doesn't require adding in additional abilities that needed to be specifically balanced solely for us while ensuring that restoration druids cannot abuse the mechanic, and it flows well with the current kit of the class as a whole.

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Every week, Shifting Perspectives treks across Azeroth in pursuit of truth, beauty and insight concerning the druid class. Sometimes it finds the latter, or something good enough for government work. Whether you're a bear, cat, moonkin, tree or stuck in caster form, we've got the skinny on druid changes in patch 3.3, a look at the disappearance of the bear tank, and thoughts on why you should be playing the class (or why not).

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