Shifting Perspectives: Fixing balance druid mana issues
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids.
Greetings once again, folks. These are the days that I always dread every coming expansion, the days shortly before -- well, just over a month and a half before -- the newest installment of World of Warcraft hits the shelves, when everything feels as if it has to be done now. Perhaps the sense of urgency is false, but I can at least tell that I am not alone; it seems as though everyone believes that every class balance issue needs to be fixed by tomorrow or the world will end. I am really no different. The new version of the balance druid is an improvement over what we have today. There have been a lot of significant changes that have put us in a better position now than we have even been in before. But nothing is ever perfect, and there is always something that can be improved.
What I want to talk about today isn't a minor quality-of-life improvement that balance druids need in order to simply have an easier time of playing; the issue that I want to talk about is one that could potentially prevent balance druids from playing at all. If you have been following the most recent beta forum posts on balance druids (or even a few of my articles), then you know that level 85 balance druids are having a serious issue with mana. The simple fact remains that even our most basic rotations consume far more mana than we are able to regenerate, which leaves us sitting there twiddling our thumbs while the rest of the world is actually killing the big baddie that's looking to turn us into meat paste. It's a problem that I know I've talked about frequently, but today, I'd rather focus on a different aspect of the issue; today, I want to talk about possible ways in which to fix the current mana issues that are threatening balance druids.
Unfortunately, before I can begin on talking about the issue of mana, there's an overarching principle that needs to be discussed as well -- the principle of how mana should operate for DPS specs in general. There are many different theories on how mana should be handled in this expansion, and certainly one of the biggest concerns as of late is making sure that healers are concerned about mana. Although that may not seem like it is a balance druid problem, this shift in mana philosophy directly impacts us due to the fact that our class has access to healing spells. Based on that, we are directly impacted by the changes that have been happening to restoration druids.
The mana philosophy
One of the key principles of Cataclysm focuses on ensuring that healers are concerned about their mana. This requires a heavy amount of balancing with respect to the mana cost of healing abilities as well as the mana regeneration capacity of all specs in general. Balance druids are not healers, but certain steps have to be taken to avoid several key issues -- predominantly the fact that we never want to see a case in which balance druids passively regenerate so much mana that they can effectively become healers with an infinite mana supply. Our healing may be weak in comparison to that of restoration druids, but that wouldn't stop a niche from developing for balance druids who do nothing but spam heals, should we be able to sustain the function for a longer period of time than a pure restoration druid could. Like it or not, our mana fate is linked to that of restoration.
On the flip side of that coin is a different question -- how should mana-using DPS classes handle mana regeneration? Right or wrong, I am of the opinion that balance druids and other caster DPS classes should never have to fear running out of mana, provided that they utilize what can be considered a "normal" rotation. For the context of this discussion, a normal rotation is one in which a class uses all of its damage-dealing abilities to the extent that is expected in order to yield a balanced level of DPS.
For example, Thorns is now a highly respectable DPS tool. The damage that it deals is exceptionally high, and this spell would naturally fall within the confines of a standard rotation, given that its DPET (damage per effective time) is higher than our other spells; however, Thorns also has an exorbitantly high mana cost, costing 6,702 mana per cast in comparison to Starfire's 2,981. Would balance druids have their damage balanced around using Thorns on every cooldown? If so, then we need to generate enough mana in order to support the cost of the spell; if not, then we need to be balanced around a factor in which using Thorns on every cooldown will run us OOM.
This is where the mana regeneration philosophy becomes difficult to pin down, because you start to run into many "should" questions that simply cannot be answered. Should balance druids have their damage balanced around using Thorns on the tank every cooldown? What about encounters in which Thorns isn't effective, such as primary caster bosses that wouldn't proc the damage -- would our damage contribution then be too low? Would our damage contribution become too high against bosses with fast swing times? Should balance druids be able to sustain healing in any amount? What amount of healing should they be able to do? How should AoE abilities be factored into the equation? How often should a balance druid be able to AoE?
There are no concrete answers to these types of questions, only what we can speculate. I believe that balance druids should be able to use Thorns within their standard rotation, should it end up being effective DPS. I believe that balance druids should be able to sustain a moderate uptime of healing, but at the risk of running out of mana should they heal continuously. I believe that all classes should be able to effectively AoE if the encounter mechanics call for it. Am I wrong? Possibly -- but this is one theory among many, and only Blizzard can have a final say on who is right and wrong.
How is mana an issue?
Although I have been adamant in advocating for a solution to the balance druid mana issues for a very long time now, there are still some people who contest whether balance druids have any mana issues at all. Let me be perfectly clear on something: Balance druids do have mana issues. Our downtime is absolutely horrendous in comparison to other classes, and the current mana scheme cannot sustain a balance druid in the confines of a raid setting.
If you are playing on the PTR, then mana more than likely isn't an issue for you, but that is due to the balancing of content at level 80 and has little to do with the flaws of the system itself. Just to throw out an example of what I mean, my guild currently clears Ulduar 25 every week for Mimiron's Head; when we get to General Vezax, we generally all spread out and simply ignore Shadow Crashes unless they fall directly on top of us. Every week, I can kill General Vezax, an encounter in which I have 0 mana regeneration, without getting into a single Shadow Crash. Yes, we out-gear the encounter; yes, that isn't the design intent; and yes, that couldn't be done at the time when Ulduar was relevant. But the theory of why that is possible still holds true. Mana costs operate on base mana, which stops scaling once you reach the max level; however, mana pools do continue to scale after reaching max level. My gear is some of the best that can be gained in this expansion, so my current max mana pool is vastly increased over what I originally had when I first hit level 80. Thus, any system balanced around mana regeneration that functions off max mana is going to be overinflated in comparison to what is seen at level 85, when this isn't true.
Three sources of mana regen
But theory is just theory; there is actual evidence that balance druids have mana issues. As it stands, balance druids only have three sources of mana regeneration: a passive 931 mana regeneration in combat, 12 percent total mana returned from Euphoria when we proc Eclipse, and 50 percent of total mana returned when we Innervate ourselves with the Dreamstate talent.
In beta, with a level 85 character in all blues, I have just over 65,0000 mana. This means that Euphoria refunds 7,800 mana, while Innervate refunds 32,500 mana. Now, the only way to get mana from Euphoria is to get an Eclipse proc; only Starfire, Wrath and Starsurge generate Eclipse Power that can proc Eclipse. Going from 100 Lunar Power -- which is where you are when you proc a Lunar Eclipse -- to 100 Solar Power requires casting 10 Starfires (Starfire generates 20 Solar Power per cast). As I mentioned earlier, Starfire costs 2,981 mana per cast at level 85. This would mean that to go from a Lunar Eclipse proc to a Solar Eclipse proc, I would have to spend 29,810 mana at minimum -- I am not using any of my other DPS tools such as Insect Swarm, Starfall, Moonfire, Wild Mushroom, Thorns or Force of Nature, given that none of those generate Eclipse Power.
That's 29,810 mana spent in order to gain 7,800 mana. Assuming that I have 0 haste -- which is actually impossible, since Moonkin Form gives 5 percent passive haste -- the process would take 30 seconds, meaning that I would also passively regenerate 5,586 mana during that time period. That's 13,386 mana gained, 29,810 mana spent. And that is with Starfire, the lighter of two spells when it comes to mana. Wrath costs 2,608 mana to cast and generates 13 to 14 Lunar Power per cast. It takes 15 Wrath casts to go from a Solar Eclipse proc to a Lunar Eclipse proc; this would end up costing 39,120 mana. Again, I would gain 7,800 mana from Euphoria, and assuming 0 haste, the sequence would take 37 seconds, during which time I would regenerate 7,448 mana passive -- actually a little bit less than that, but I'll be generous: 15,248 mana gained, 39,120 mana spent.
Clearly, I am losing vast amounts of mana far more quickly than I am gaining any of it. I really don't think that it requires laying out the math to see that there is no possible way that a balance druid is going to be able to cycle through Eclipse procs for 3 minutes -- the cooldown on Innervate -- meaning that I am going to OOM eventually.
Furthermore, this example considers only casting Wrath and Starfire; it does not take into consideration any of our other offensive spells. Insect Swarm is a very cheap spell, rounding out at 1,490 mana, but the same cannot be said for our other spells. Moonfire costs over 3,000 mana. Starfall costs 6,500 mana. Each Wild Mushroom costs over 2,000 mana. Force of Nature costs over 2,000 mana, and Thorns costs well over 6,500 mana. None of these spells generates Eclipse Power, meaning that every time one is used, it effectively tosses that mana away without any gain in return. Yes, Euphoria can reduce the number of Wrath/Starfire casts required to proc Eclipse, but not by nearly enough. Yes, in a raid environment we would have Replenishment. Even considering both of those factors, there isn't a way in which balance druids can sustain themselves. Period. It is not possible; we simply expend far more mana than we regenerate.
