Wrath Mana Regen Calculations

 

Mmmmm.... mana!

Okay, so this is the promised post regarding all the changes to our regeneration come Wrath. An overview:

 

 

Moonkin Form now has a chance to regenerate 2% of our total mana on a Spell Critical Strike. 

 

Omen of Clarity now works for spells, has a 6% proc chance, and a 10 second internal cooldown.

 

Intensity remains the same–30% mana regeneration while casting. 

 

The Moonkin Form proc chance has been guessed at, the low end, 96.6%. I will assume 95% here. Yes, this will be nerfed, but it’s all I have to work with. I might put up numbers at 50% too. 

 

I am borrowing some math from Phaelia over at Resto4Life regarding Omen of Clarity. For this post I will do both a 3.0 average cast speed (1.00 PPM [proc per minute] for OoC) and 1.5 (1.71 PPM), simulating both Starfire and Wrath spam. OoC and Moonkin Form will actually benefit more from Wrath spam, but the high mana cost will stamp this out, I’m sure. Let’s let the numbers tell it. 

 

I’m using some numbers from my own toon, who is not a high-end raider, and has mixed PvE and PvP gear, but it’s what I can work with. I will again assume 30% crit (which is only 21% crit outside of Moonkin Form–5% from form, 4% for Wrath and Starfire from talents). I’ll assume 10k mana pool (will be much higher in Wrath I’m sure, but let’s start here). And 200 Mp5 while not casting. These are slightly buffed numbers from my real toon. 

 

Due to things like PPM and Mp5, I will simply simulate an entire minute of said spell spam. Numbers will be averages.

 

So, a minute of casting max rank Starfire. 20 casts at 505 mana each = 10100 mana cost. With an average of 1 PPM from Omen of Clarity, according to Phaelia, we save the mana from 1 spell cast. 

 

(10100-505) = 9595 mana. 

 

Out of those 20 spell casts, (20 x .30) = 6 will be critical strikes. Thus we will regenerate:

 

(6 x .95) = number of procs from Moonkin Form = 5.7; (5.7 x .02) = .114; 11.4% of Total Mana regenerated [this is where you can use your own real mana pool]. At 10k mana, that is:

 

(10,000 x .114) = 1140 mana saved; (9595-1140) =  8455 mana cost for 1 minute of Starfire Spam. Add in Intensity:

 

(200 x .30) = 60 Mp5 while casting. 12 instances of 5 second intervals in 1 minute gets us (12 x 60) = 720 mana earned back, assumed saved. Thus (8455-720) = 7735 mana cost, on average, for 1 minute of Starfire spam. Starfire review:

 

(10100- 7735) = 2365 mana saved total; 1140 from Moonkin Form, 505 from Omen of Clarity and 720 from Intensity. Omen of Clarity is better with NG procs. Moonkin Form is better with more Crits ad a larger mana pool. Intensity is better with more Spirit. As you can see, Moonkin Form at 95% is wonderful. Now let’s try 50%: 

 

(6 crits x .50) = 3 crits to proc Moonkin Form. (3 x .02) = .06; 6% of total mana regnerated. At 10k this is (10,000 x .06) = 600 mana. (1140-600) = 540 mana per minute less than at 95%. 

 

Now let’s do Wrath: 40 casts in 1 minute w/o NG. At 346 mana each that is:

 

(40 x 346) = 13,840 mana for 1 minute of Wrath Spam. At this cast speed, we get 1.71 PPM from Omen of Clarity. 

 

(1.71 x 346) = 592 mana saved, on average. (13,840 – 592) = 13,248 mana now. 

 

30% will be crits, so (40 x .30) = 12 crits. At 95% Moonkin Form proc rate, we get:

 

(12 x .95) = 11.4 procs. (11.4 x .02) = .228; 22.8% of total mana regenerated. At 10k mana that is (10,000 x .228 ) = 2280 mana saved. (13,248 – 2,280) = 10,968 mana cost. And we still regenerate 720 mana; (10,968 -720) = 10,248 mana cost for 1 minute of Wrath Spam. 

 

We save (13840 – 10,248 ) = 3,592 mana; 2280 from Moonkin Form, 592 from Omen of Clarity and 720 still from Intensity. Still 3k more mana than Starfire, but DPM and DPS desires are left up to you. Let’s do Wrath at 50% Moonkin Form proc rate. 

 

(12 x .50) = 6 procs. (6 x .02) = .12; 12% mana regenerated. At 10k this is (10,000 x .12) = 1,200 mana, which is (2280 – 1200) = 1080 mana less than at 95%. 

 

Well, those are the numbers. Yes, Nature’s Grace makes a huge difference, but for now, I’m leaving it out. Now that it benefits Wrath, it is worth putting in. I might edit this later, but I want to get this up now. As always, feedback and corrections are much appreciated. One more recap, shall we? 

 

SF: From all 3 talents, 2365 mana saved; 1140 from Moonkin Form, 505 from Omen of Clarity and 720 from Intensity. Total mana cost: 7,735

 

W: From all 3 talents, 3592 mana saved; 2280 from Moonkin Form, 592 from Omen of Clarity and 720 from Intensity. Total mana cost: 10,248. 

 

Now, feel free to plug in your real numbers and your speculations, it shouldn’t be too hard. But to help:

 

Starfire with Omen of Clarity will cost (10,100 – 505) = 9,595 mana, on average. So if C is your crit chance, M your mana pool, F the chance for Moonkin Form to proc, and P your Mp5, your cost in 1 minute is:

 

{ 9,595 – ([((20 x C) x F) x .02] x M) + ((P x .30) x 12))  }

 

For Wrath:

 

{ 13,248 – ([((40 x C) x F) x .02] xM) +((P x .30) x 12))  }

 

Or if you feel like more specific calculations, just use Phaelia’s PPM chart and your average cast time and find your cost per minute with OoC and total casts and put those in place of the first 2 numbers respectively. 

 

Hope this helped.

 

/wave

 

P.S. A note: these are the same, max-rank-in-Beta spell costs from the Eclipse post.

 

[Edit]: If you are doing your own personal calculations and are using a spell rotation, make sure to multiply your PPM from OoC by the mana cost of whatever spell you think you would cast during the Clearcast buff. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

Reworking Eclipse–More Math!

 

The sun is still eclipsed by the moon

Okay, so as you might see in Murmur’s comment on the Eclipse post (and his comments on the Druid forums) some of the math was flawed. I was also requested to expand the math from the previous calculations, I assume for clarity’s sake. Here goes. 

 

 

For starters, just to clarify, when we deal with critical strikes from our spells, due to Vengeance, they do double damage. Thus, if you have a 30% critical strike chance with a certain spell, then out of 100 spells 70 will do full damage and 30 will do double damage. If it does an average of 1000 damage per second without critting, this is equal to:

 

(1000×70) + (2000×30) / 100 = 1300 DPS. Thus, this can be simplified to multiplying your DPS with a given spell by (1 + C) where C is your critical strike chance with that spell as a decimal (i.e. 35.67% crit chance is .3567 as C). 

 

Let’s reiterate the numbers from the previous post regarding max rank Starfire and Wrath as given to us by MMO-Champion. 

 

Wrath: Causes 489-551 Nature damage to the target. 380 mana. Avg. 520 dmg.

Starfire: Causes 661-779 Arcane damage to the target. 555 mana. Avg. 720 dmg. 

 

I was also requested to use more realistic numbers (which hurt my Moonkin pride, I’m at 865 and proud of it) for spell damage. 1000 was cited as very low for raid situations and let’s do some random speculation for WotLK damage numbers at pop that up to 2000. I know some high-end Moonkins are well above 1500 raid buffed, right? Well, I think so. So let’s hope that 2000 isn’t too high considering level 80 raid buffed. Disclaimer: We actually have no idea. Level 80 isn’t even possible in Beta yet. But I bet it’s more than possible. 

 

I’m going to again assume Moonfury, Moonglow and Earth and Moon, as well as Master Shapeshifter (and additional 4% spell damage) which is likely in a min/max PvE build. By request a talented Curse of the Elements is being added which boosts Arcane damage an additional 13%. This is all intended for raiding mostly, and Wrath will be more on par with Starfire for PvP or soloing. 

 

Wrath: 67.1% coefficient. Thus (2000 x .671) = 1342 + 520 = 1862. Total 20% damage increase from debuffs. (1862 x .20) + 1862 = 2234.4 damage on average. Mana cost lowered 9% to 346 mana. Spell cast speed = 1.5 seconds talented w/o NG. Thus we arrive at 1489.6 DPS and 6.458 DPM. 

 

Starfire: 120% coefficient. Thus (2000 x 1.20) = 2400 + 720 = 3120. Total 20% + 13% damage increase from debuffs = 33%. (3120 x .33) +3120 = 4149.6 damage on average. Mana cost lowered 9% to 505 mana. Cast speed = 3.0 seconds talented w/o NG. Thus we arrive at 1383.2 DPS and 8.217 DPM. 

 

Wrath’s DPS factoring in crits, assuming a modest 30% chance for that spell, we multiply by 1.30:

 

(1489.6 x 1.30) = 1936.5 DPS; (6.458 x 1.30) = 8.395 DPM

 

If Wrath is buffed from Eclipse and has it’s damage increased an additional 10% then simply multiply it’s DPS and DPM by 110%, I believe, to get 1638.6 DPS and 7.104 DPM. A big DPS boost and DPM boost, but not approaching. If we factor in for crits (which I believe comes last in calculations) we multiply by the crit chance and get:

 

(1638.6 x 1.30) = 2130.2 DPS; (7.104 x 1.30) = 9.235 DPM. 

 

Now, let’s look at Starfire’s final DPS and DPM with and without the buff. Without, we multiply our numbers by 1.30 at 30% crit:

 

(1383.2 x 1.30) = 1798.2 DPS; (8.217 x 1.30) = 10.682 DPM. 

 

With the buff, we multiply instead by 1.40 and get:

 

(1383.2 x 1.40) = 1936.5 DPS; (8.217 x 1.40) = 11.504 DPM. 

 

Let me retype the final numbers so we can look at them all together. 

 

Wrath: without buff–1936.5 DPS; 8.395 DPM

with buff–2130.2 DPS; 9.235 DPM

 

Starfire: without buff–1798.2 DPS; 10.682 DPM

with buff–1936.5 DPS; 11.504 DPM

 

So, those are some preliminary numbers. At 2000 spell damage and 30% crit for Wrath and Starfire (26% on your character sheet) we see, well, those numbers. Whether or not you think Eclipse is worth it depends on how much mana you have, but obviously Wrath is better to cast before than after the buff. I won’t pretend to know whether this is good enough for raid situations or not. I’ll let you be the judge.

 

Some people have suggested dropping only 1 point in Eclipse because while it’s a nice buff, it’s not necessary. When it procs, use it. Otherwise you’ll be OK. I kind of like that idea, simply because there are too many good talents around that are also very nice. 

 

I hope that helped.

 

/wave

Second First Impressions

 

Some people are "Wrathful" at the nerfs. Oh that was a bad one.

There has been a lot of stuff going on with the new Beta, and I’ve been almost embarrassingly busy looking up and responding to all sorts of information. There’s a lot going on that I hadn’t noticed before and some interesting notes other responders have given, so I’m going to go ahead and talk about some of these things here today. 

 

 

First, there’s an awful lot of contention over the new talents. While I was pretty giddy over what we getting in the expansion, I guess a lot of people were a little less…enthused. They do bring up some valid concerns. I’ll list a few here you can mull over.

 

 

• Starfall’s damage is too low for it’s 51 pt talent status and 3 minute cooldown. You see, the problem is that with a maximum of 20 stars, the damage actually will decrease when more targets are added, which is unlike all other AoE effects out there.
• Typhoon is situational at best. Well, sure, I say, but it’s pretty powerful.
• Talent bloat exists. This is typical at this stage, but might also be intentional to break up cookie-cutter builds.
• Eclipse is confusing and annoying. My earlier post showed it was pretty worth it, but yes, it’s a little convoluted right now. Some people suggest having Starfire buff Starfire and Wrath the same, or have Insect Swarm buff Wrath and Moonfire buff Starfire. I bet the former won’t even be considered for spell synergy. The latter I like. 
• Earth and Moon is underwhelming. For 5 points, yes it is. If it was 3, then it would be good. If it stacked 5 times, then it would be good. Currently it is just too many talents.
• The Moonkin Form change is actually bad. I vehemently disagree, because the old mechanic was situational at best. But it did return a lot of mana. As long as it is appropriately balanced, I believe it is better this way. 

That’s a brief overview. Now, I was looking around the Beta forums and normal Druid forums and saw some preliminary data suggesting that the Moonkin Form proc is around 60%. This isn’t bad at all. But I’ll relegate the math to another post. 

Starfall is actually the biggest disappointment right now. There’s a lot of confusion going on regarding some missing ranks and it’s scaling or lack there of. You see, it was nerfed considerably from Alpha to Beta. And right now, it’s just not really appropriate as a 51 point talent.

As for talent bloat, I think that Blizzard could reduce a lot of 5 point talent dumps to 3 pointers. Deep Balance is pretty awful in terms of talent bloat. But even if it isn’t intentional for release, it is apparently just how it was in Beta for The Burning Crusade. I’m not too worried, but it’d be too bad if they just did away with some talents instead of rolling some together or reducing the talent investment. 

I’m excited about the Moonkin Form and Omen of Clarity change though. I’m guessing that both will allow us to not need to spec Intensity. Unfortunately, Omen of Clarity is on the same tier as Intensity, and I wish it would be moved to tier 2. This would help keep a lot of talent in Balance, where I personally want them. 

Here’s a link to a video of Typhoon and Starfall in action, posted by a Beta tester on the Druid forums. The Typhoon animation looks like it’s supposed to be a wave, but I hope they clean that up. Starfall looks amazing. http://www.veoh.com/videos/v15129741Rd5QBWcA

I don’t know what else to bring up now. I left a lot of questions on some thread in the official forums and I will post back with any relevant information I garner. Until then.

/wave

Why Moonkins Still Lack Active Mana Regen

 

If only this was possible

A long time ago, in a time before TBC, we brave, we few, we Balance Druids were known by the oh-so-clever title OOMkins. The problem was our itemization was so bad, and the talents non-existent, that we honestly couldn’t last long during fights without drinking. The talent that is now Intensity was our only hope for regeneration, and it still wasn’t enough. Now the itemization is better and we have Dreamstate, but one of our main weaknesses remains our inability to last as long as other casters, especially in boss fights (although it is annoying while soloing and deadly in long Arena matches as well). 

 

 

For example, Elemental Shaman do fairly well with their mana. Each time they crit with a spell, the next two spells cost 40% less mana. And they have a high-end talent which gives a 20% chance to cast a second spell which does half damage, no threat, and costs zero mana whenever they cast a Lightning Spell. These two talents combined (along with Mana Spring totem) give them fairly good mana regeneration. 

 

Or look at Mages. They don’t need to spec for the 30% mana regeneration we do, because they have a spell they can use on themselves (Mage Armor) which accomplishes the same feat. But not too deep into Arcane, they can have a 10% chance on each spell cast to have the next spell cost zero mana. These combined with Evocation make them do pretty well. 

 

The only active regeneration we have is Innervate, and depending on just what play style you participate in, you might be expected to save that for another player (such as a healer). 

 

Unfortunately, the only other way we can get mana is through melee. While our Moonkin Form bonus can actually regenerate mana very well (not to mention, endlessly), it is inefficient in terms of how we accomplish our main role–damage. Both Elemental Shamans and slightly-Arcane Mages need to be doing damage to save mana. We need to essentially stop for a minute or so and whack a mob with a big stick (which we must acquire first) to get back to our primary role. This is why it is flawed. 

 

There are other concerns of course. On certain boss fights, for example, you can’t really just walk up and start whacking away. AoE damage prevents that, or certain other placement restraints. While soloing, it can be difficult because when you decide to fight a mob in melee to get mana back, you take a lot more damage which then needs to be healed (or bandaged). If healed, this reduces the net gain of mana you can regenerate. Now, our 400% bonus to armor can help a lot if fighting a melee mob, but the issues with itemization for Leather currently reduce that bonus from Plate to maybe more like Mail or Leather depending on how much cloth you wear. And just try getting any reasonable mana back from that MS Warrior in SV trying to smash your antlers in. It ain’t gonna happen. 

 

So what to do? Well, this topic has come up a lot, of course. The typical suggestion is just replace all that melee mumbo jumbo on Moonkin Form to give us a percentage of the mana cost of a spell if it crits. Seeing as the form gives us 5% spell crit anyway, it seems rather synergistic. I approve. Another is to give a second talent which improves our Moonkin Aura to cause party members to do the same. Now, in Wrath, we are getting such a talent, but instead of returning mana, it increases spell casting speed by 20%. This is of course fantastic, but sometimes your DPS is more limited by how much mana you have than by your casting speed. Of course, this could be flipped around drastically and it might appear in the final release version. I would probably prefer that to the current version. 

 

Another common idea is to copy Priests’ Shadowfiend and let our Treants return mana equal to a percentage of their damage done. The cooldown is being dropped to 2 minutes in Wrath, and if they gave us a pet bar AND mana regeneration, they would become very useful and necessary (and even more important for our enemies to incapacitate or destroy, which unfortunately isn’t very hard right now). In fact, I’d be just smitten.

 

There has also been some suggestion of using spirit more in Wrath. If you take a look at some Warlock talents, you see that Blizzard is even making their Spirit more worthwhile. Hopefully they will ramp up our Spirit both on gear and in its effectiveness for us. This still relies on having the Intensity talent (which just gets harder with all the wonderful new talents so deep in Balance). The other possibility is to add a lot more Intellect on our gear, because our one Balance talent for mana relies on that. And they can certainly add pure Mp5, although Intellect helps our mana pool, regeneration and critical strike chance. 

 

It’s kind of cute to see a Moonkin in melee, but unfortunately it doesn’t work quite as well as it could or should. Hopefully in Wrath, and maybe later builds we might see in Beta, we Moonkins will have a better way to keep supplying our boom, and change our nickname permanently from OOMkin to Boomkin. 

 

/wave