Let's talk about Spirit

This is probably too rudimentary a topic for a majority of the readers here, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows what that’s about. With Spirit itemization in our future, it’s something we’ll need to stay on top of. If this is too basic a topic for you, feel free to skip this post.

Your mana regen is given in two numbers. The smaller value is your regen “while casting” and the larger is “while not casting.” Sometimes you will see these values called “in combat” and “not in combat,” respectively, but these labels are incorrect. It takes 5 seconds from your last cast to be considered not casting.

Let’s be technical. The moment you go from not-casting to casting differs depending on the type of spell. An instant or channeled spell (with a mana cost > 0) triggers the change immediately. Spells with cast time mark you as casting only when the cast completes. As soon as you are in this casting state, a 5 second timer begins. If you cast another spell during this time, the timer refreshes to 5 seconds again. After the 5 seconds pass, you return to the not-casting state.

There is a standard formula for not-casting regen for all mana users. This formula, from the wiki article, looks like this:

Mana Regen = 3 * (0.001 + sqrt(Int) * Spirit * Base_Regen )
where Base_Regen = 0.005575 for level 80.

With an Intellect of 1157 and a Spirit of 145, that gives me a not-casting regen of 82. Intellect is a factor in the formula, but because it is a square root term, it contributes much more slowly than Spirit.

What makes Shamans non-Spirit casters is that that 82 not-casting regen is the sum total of what I get from Spirit. And even that number is about 1/3 a product of Intellect. Not only do we lack tools to squeeze some not-casting seconds in during a fight, but we also lack talents that convert chunks of Spirit to something more useful.

Here are the ways Spirit synergizes with some of the other healing classes:

Druids take Intensity, which allows up to 50% of their not-casting regen to continue while casting. Omen of Clarity is a Clearcasting talent that allows periodic mana-free casts, thus not starting a 5 second counter. Living Spirit increases their Spirit by a scalar 15%. And Improved Tree of Life yields bonus healing Spellpower equal to 15% of their total Spirit.

Priests get Spiritual Guidance, which converts 25% of their Spirit to Spellpower, and Meditation, which allows up to 50% of not-casting regen while casting. Holy Concentration increases Spirit regen after a critical heal.

Patch 3.1, which Bob mentions, changed the valuation formula to combat the practice of gaming the 5 second rule. Not-casting mana regen was reduced by a whopping 40%! At the same time talents that allow fractions of one’s not-casting regen to continue while casting were increased to compensate.

Prior to that patch, Intensity and Meditation capped at 30% of not-casting regen. Combine that with 40% more regen when not-casting, and you can see why trying to squeeze in some not-casting regen during a fight was attractive to those healers.

Right now, Shamans and Paladins are both anti-Spirit healers. Stacking Spirit for us is less valuable than having a stack of water in our bags. In time that will change. Like the unified Spellpower change heading into Burning Crusade, I expect the stats on our existing gear to be revised to meet the new model.

Historically the item budget value of 1 MP5 was equal to 2.5 Spirit. A gem, for instance, would sport 10 Spirit or 4 MP5. Patch 3.2 revised this to weight MP5 a little higher, giving a weighting of 1 MP5 to 2 Spirit. If that holds true, my 573 MP5 (buffed) would convert to 1146 Spirit.

If we plug that number into the Spirit formula above, we get a not-casting regen of 734 — close to the 655 I was running then. However, presuming a Meditation talent that works like other casters, I would have a mere 367 MP5. That would be quite a blow.

At the moment, my take is this: they can have my MP5 when the pry it from my cold, blue hooves. And you people shouting that MP5 is boring? Ixnay. Straightforward does not equal boring.

Too much regen

In the beginning, there was MP5, and healers of all stripes would fall upon it like hungry dogs. This was before Priests and Druids got significant in-combat regen from Spirit, Paladins didn’t redeem mana from critical hits, and Shamans didn’t heal. There appeared to be two camps within Blizzard. The equipment designers believed that Spirit’s OO5SR regen was all you needed. The encounter designers built fights that required constant casting. Healers’ mana ran dry and downranking was born.

The rise of MP5 grew out of healers’ distaste with gaming the five second rule. Delaying a cast to get a couple seconds of regen while incoming damage is continuous puts the entire group at risk. Casting the mana-efficient Greater Heal instead of Flash Heal, putting the tank’s life at risk, because you’ll get 1 second of Spirit regen before the cast completes is a risky ploy. We didn’t have enough mana or regen to be responsible healers.

At the height of this insanity, guilds would coordinate rotating teams of healers for Molten Core. Because you could not possibly have enough mana to get through some of the fights, teams of relief healers would rotate through the fight. Benched healers got enough of a breather for Spirit to contribute. Sassy healers would carry bandages to have something to do when they could no longer cast.

MP5 cut through all that nonsense. Straightforward, easy to understand, works in combat. Who cares how long it takes to get mana back outside of combat? That’s what water is for. Most importantly, it is a stat you can invest in that doesn’t require a counter-productive behavior change to use productively.

In time, the game matured to a point where Spirit became a worthwhile stat. This came through talents in particular class trees that converted fractions of it to Spellpower or in-combat-regen. Druids and Priests continued to gear for Spirit, while Paladins and Shamans diverged. Paladins leaned on crit, while Shamans got MP5. And for a long time, things were good.

Then Ulduar happened, and things changed for the Shaman. Fights were so spread out and on the run that the value of Chain Heal dipped precipitously. To earn their keep in raids, Shamans tried to compete with the other classes at single-target healing. They dumped their MP5 and Intellect for Spellpower, Haste and Crit to maximize throughput. Paladins took all the MP5 gear.

It was not uncommon during this time to find Shamans running with less than 200 MP5 with their Water Shields up. They could hit you with big heals, lightning fast, but they had little staying power. If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you will know that I was never one of them. At its lowest, my MP5 dropped to 375. I stayed a traditional group healer, and contented myself with healing the damage-prone melee.

In patch 3.2, the picture has changed for Shaman regen. On the positive side, we have:

* MP5 gear buffed 25% higher than original values.
* Water Shield charges no longer consumed by spell critical strikes. It still gives the mana though.
* Chain Heal crits can now trigger Water Shield procs.
* Chain Heal jump distance increased to 12.5 meters, so it will hit more targets.
* Nature’s Swiftness cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, letting us Chain Heal on the run more often.

The negative side of the ledger contains only this:

* Mana returned by Replenishment reduced by 20%.

The critical bits here are the ones that make Chain Heal more desirable. Chain Heal hits more targets, so you cast it more often. Chain Heal crits trigger Water Shield procs, restoring mana. Water Shield now has massively increased uptime because crits no longer discharge it. It is important to remember that Chain Heal can crit separately with every step. If my Chain Heal hits 4 targets and my crit percentage is 38%, at least 1 crit is almost a given.

Slap in that Glyph of Chain Heal and go to town.

Do I love these changes? Absolutely. I feel like a king when I see those chains flying around the raid. If there is a drawback, it is this. I feel guilty when I see my mana bar at 95% in the climactic moments of a boss fight.

How did that happen? Remember that guy from Ensidia running with less than 200 MP5? Blizzard’s designers sure do. Because it is his numbers that they used to balance these changes. Someone like me, who never re-itemized away from MP5? I fall outside their formulae. I became a super-space-goat mana generating monster. Now the Ensidia guy and I need to meet somewhere in the middle.

Train wreck

Before the loading screen had closed I heard the raid invite drum riff. Troops were being marshalled for a 25-man attempt on Ulduar, presuming the new content would be flat busted. So there I am with a big “This addon is outdated” notice from Deadly Boss Mods, no action bars, Swatter capturing Lua stack traces left and right, Grid smeared over the lower quarter but lacking all text, and my new spells untrained while a raid is trying to get rolling. Totem Timers doesn’t support the new totem dropping spells! Sigh.

It’s been a couple months since I was last in Ulduar 25. This was more like 21 when you subtract out the perpetual disconnects. It was a mess. Helicopters spawned on us at the tail end of the Flame Leviathan fight, and wiped us as soon as the boss was dead. Razorscale had a bizarre love of fireballing the harpoon designate (“7 in a row!”). And the trick of tanking XT by junk piles to keep adds from spawning by them no longer works. Nerf scrapbots.

On the plus side, the Shaman buffs appear to be effective. A singularly aggressive Druid healer I run with, who ordinarily posts a 5% edge over me on the meters, came in second behind me. The game isn’t changed, but you’ll spend less time refreshing Water Shield and Chain Heal takes on greater value.

Patch day

You know what that means. Get in game early. Make sure to stop by the trainer to get your new totem management spells.

Chances of addon pandemonium: 100%

What happened to all the addons?

Is it just my addons, or have all the addon authors gone on vacation? In times past, each day would bring 4 or 5 updates. Then, around the beginning of July — right when Patch 3.2 showed up on the PTR — that stream turned into a trickle. It is a rare week now that an addon gets updated.

Is everyone testing versions that aren’t being promoted to the major tracking sites? Or did the end of the traditional school year bring an end to the update heydays?