Mana regeneration changing dramatically in 3.1
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 5th 2009 at 3:35PM
The devs have been telling us for some time that they're not happy with the current state of (most) healers having infinite mana, and it looks like the reckoning is going to come in 3.1. And make no mistake, we're getting hit hard.
- Outside-of-5-second-rule regeneration is decreasing. They think the combination of HoTs and clearcasting let us stay OO5SR too long and get too much mana back.
- Mana regenerated by Spirit is being decreased "across the board."
- However, talents that boost while-casting regen (specifically, Arcane Meditation, Improved Spirit Tap, Intensity, Mage Armor, Meditation, Pyromaniac, and Spirit Tap) are being buffed.
- Since Paladins don't really use Spirit for regen, they're getting a different nerf: the healing penalty on Divine Plea is getting raised from 20% to 50%. Spiritual Attunement is also going to be nerfed for Holy paladins somehow.
- They're "taking a close look" at clearcasting abilities. "One likely outcome" is changing them so they restore mana instead of making spells free to cast, which would still give you mana back, but would not kick you OO5SR.
- It has finally been spelled out that they balance around even 10-man raids having Replenishment. Although I think this is silly (why not just remove it from the game, if everyone should have it all the time), it makes me feel a bit better that they said they are "likely to offer this ability to additional classes" (it's already been announced for Destruction warlocks, for instance).
Overall, although this feels very "sky-is-falling," it's important to remember that Blizzard is not trying to make healers sad, or break the game, or ruin your class. As they spell out at the bottom of the post, this is for the purposes of giving encounter designers more room to play. If healers can't run out of mana, they only way to make the encounter hard for them is to throw huge amounts of raid damage around, which is not always the best choice for an encounter.
This will be going up on the PTR, of course, so we'll get a chance to see exactly how it plays out. But I know a certain Holy paladin who will probably want to stop completely avoiding gear with MP5 on it in the near future.
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.Filed under: Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Patches, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Iosep Feb 5th 2009 3:41PM
Doesn't seem to hit resto shaman too hard...? We don't use many HoTs and don't use Spirit at all. Is Water Shield included in the talents getting a boost?
Manatank Feb 5th 2009 4:04PM
resto-shaman's aren't being touched really because they are the only healers with mana problems currently. At least until they get a large enough mana pool to sustain themselves with replenishment. But then, that is true of all healers. Currently any healer class could focus on stacking so much int that mana regen from replenishment makes all class specific abilities pointless.
Aykwa Feb 5th 2009 4:30PM
Yeah... replenishment... are they going to put it on more than just 4 specs out of 3o then? What happened to the "bring the player, not the class" approach that they've been touting lately? And if you give it to so many classes that everyone always has it, why have it at all? Sounds like e very screwed up concept to me, and like one that is probably the pet project of an important person, so they won't think it through as well as they should.
Zul Feb 5th 2009 4:30PM
Shamans can go OOM so I don't think Blizz will mess with us... Some classes (cough) holy paladin (cough) more or less have an endless pool. Then again if they tank healer goes OOM were all screwed right? Raid healers (shaman) can handle a few seconds without a cast (raid will live) but a paladin the tank will die, if it isn't ez mode stuff.
Gormaggus Feb 5th 2009 6:11PM
@ Akywa From what I saw from Eyonix's new 3.1 changes warlocks are probably getting replenishment as well now:
"Improved Soul Leech – this talent now provides Replenishment (similar to shadow priests)"
So yes, they are spreading it around ;).
Bazzel Feb 5th 2009 3:40PM
man i hope they get this correct, and the pally change won't go over well with my pally friend lol.
muhahaha Feb 10th 2009 6:18PM
The last time they did something like this screwed hunters over very hard.
/screw them again!!!!
Muhahahhahhahahaha!!!!!!!1111!!!!1
Josh Feb 17th 2009 11:08PM
Now I see blizz may have a point and this nerf may be needed, but with the current state of the game i cannot believe there nefing healers in any way shape or form. I mean it is so hard to find anyone who's still speced for healing. They have either rerolled or respected and refuse to play that role. Even blizz said that there not happy with healing in the game right now. Its just plan not attractive, and to risk turning more people away from the role is just mind boggling!
zaicalian Feb 5th 2009 3:43PM
This is crazy, crazy, crazy! My 10 man never rolls with replenishment. ONLY 3 CLASSES HAVE IT! It is very possible to not have one of those classes in a 10 man. LAME LAME LAME. They already ready nerfed Improved Water Shield and a few other mana regen mechanics.
Pfooti Feb 5th 2009 3:49PM
Warlocks are also getting replenishment in 3.1.
paper Feb 5th 2009 3:56PM
Not only just three classes, but only very specific talents within three classes. I've been raiding consistently for the past couple of months and I've never had Replenishment active(despite usually have a few pickup people to fill open slots). I'm a Disc priest and normally I don't have to worry about mana, but if things get really bad(an offtank dies or we get adds) I do occasionally run low or empty on mana. Does this mean that certain classes will HAVE to spec into a replenishment talent? Or that people might start losing raid spots for not having that particular talent?
Marc Sadowski Feb 5th 2009 4:30PM
Why nerf mana regen? Let them nerf ALL DPS, that way, all fights last long and the mana thing will work itself out. ;-)
Clegane Feb 5th 2009 4:56PM
Way to ensure every group has replentishment: Give it to DKs.
Eisengel Feb 5th 2009 5:10PM
As far as the Pally and Hunter (and now maybe lock) talents go, I don't know much about them and their availability/use, but pretty much any Spriest that doesn't have VT is either too low in level to get it, or is likely to be congenitally insane. After the Wrath release VT now does a LOAD of direct damage, it is really our best DoT direct-damage-wise.
The Shadow tree is pretty slim to begin with, compare it to, say the Destruction or Affliction trees. You can actually take full ranks of EVERY Shadow talent and still have 1 point left over at 80. Even so there are come really crappy talents that very few Spriests are going to take... and VT certainly is not one of them, so really any SPriest it going to have VT, and VT is really our strongest DoT, and Mblast one of our best damage options, so really any Spriest should not only have VT, but should be proccing Replenishment constantly... unless they're riding the Mind Sear pony all over the AoE pulls.
Eternauta Feb 5th 2009 5:46PM
@eisengel
Every Ret Pally has the Judgements of the Wise talent capped, just like Shadow Priests have VT. I don't know about SV hunters.
kworry Feb 6th 2009 8:04PM
I don't understand the issue. Before Wrath only Spriests had mana return so guild actively sought them out. Now 3 times the number of classes have a mana return ability (soon to be 4). How is this not just better?
Nikkodemus Feb 5th 2009 3:43PM
Regardless of their intention, this really kills my desire to progress until 3.1 comes out. Why? I accept and even look forward to completely replacing all my gear when new expansions come out, and to a lesser extent when moving between tiers. However, what is the point of collecting gear now when "soon" our entire fundamental position changes and I will likely take an immediate hit in gear value. I'll need to go back and get the pieces I skipped before because now they are my new primary stats.
Kassu Feb 5th 2009 3:48PM
I totally agree, this stupid teasing doesn't make it any better too.
"Hey, hey, you want this DELICIOUS cookie, boy? You want it? You really do? HAHA, OKAY, SEE YA IN 3 MONTHS."
steve Feb 5th 2009 5:15PM
@Nikkodemus
I'm not seeing the gear changes you are predicting. Nerfing spirit and buffing a few mid tier talents doesn't look like it would do much to affect itemization to me, because the caster gear has already been homogenized so much. So maybe the rank ordering by slot shifts around a bit and we all end up re-gemming a couple of items.
I'm surprised by the unanimous predictions of doom and gloom from the other posters. I plan to do what I always do when a big class mechanic change is incoming: pay attention to what the theorycrafters and PTR folks are saying on the forums and over at Elitist Jerks, and start thinking about what is going to change for me: do I need to farm lots of Rhino meat and stockpile Flasks of Mojo? Pick up some gems to regem after the patch? Is there a new optimal build for my talent tree? Come patch day, I'll be on my healer in guild chat or LFG looking for groups for the new content.
tater Feb 5th 2009 3:43PM
wow no rapture nerf? nice