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10.2.7
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10.2.6
Beta
Mana changes, no more downranking
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Post by
Galaxi
This is not a bug.
In the latest WotLK beta push, we made a large change to the mana cost of spells. All player spells now cost a percentage of base mana rather than a fixed cost. Base mana is a special value determined by the player’s level and class, regardless of any effects or items that increase intellect. It is the size of a player’s mana pool if the player has zero intellect.
This change was made primarily to prevent downranking, as it's a technique that was never quite intended. Rather than continue to find ways to penalize players for casting low-rank spells, we decided to essentially make doing so obsolete. If rank 5 and rank 6 of a spell cost the same amount of mana, but rank 6 does more damage/healing, then there is no reason to consider casting rank 5.
So, each spell line (eg. Frostbolt, Shadowbolt, Greater Heal, Rejuvenation, etc.) has a fixed percentage of base mana that it costs for most of its ranks. That means each time a player gains a level the cost will go up some. The percentages were picked to attempt to keep the costs relatively similar to what they are currently in World of Warcraft. For most spells, that percentage will drop some when the player receives their highest-rank spell in existing Burning Crusade content. This was done to better fit the existing cost curve, and to keep the mana cost for level 70 players as close as possible to existing costs. Level 70 characters will see most of their maximum rank spells change in cost slightly up or down, but not by significant amounts.
We anticipate there being some balance concerns due to this change, and our development staff will be ready to implement new spells, abilities, or talents to resolve those issues as the testing process continues.
So, for someone like myself who has been playing a mana-using class for several years now, this is going to confuse the heck out of me as I base my casts off numbers not percentages... I use X-perl Unit Frames, I am guessing I can change this to % instead of # in order to gauge how much mana I am using?
Post by
Thuya
No, you can still use #s. the tooltips will still show an exact amount that you will use. They're just saying the mana usage is based on % instead of a number that is static. :) So your.. fireball for example will still show a tooltip number of mana cost.
This change is to stop someone from using a less than max rank spell (mostly heals and CC snares) to save mana, because the cost will scale regardless of the rank you're using. :)
On a personal note: (LOL@PALADINHEALERS)
Post by
Galaxi
Looks like Priests will no longer be downranking their Greater Heal spells also, which is fine by me.. I always felt like it wasn't fair that someone could not use their best spells...
Thanks for the tips, I feel better now =D
Post by
42603
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Post by
167758
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Post by
GenXCub
Every healer downranks to save mana. Unless more healing abilities get added that address this, I think it will become a big problem considering you can only have 1 mana pot per battle.
No more paladins doing Rank 1 SoC to save mana, or Rank 1 Drain soul, Rank 1 Frost Nova.
Post by
Thuya
Every healer downranks to save mana. Unless more healing abilities get added that address this, I think it will become a big problem considering you can only have 1 mana pot per battle.
No more paladins doing Rank 1 SoC to save mana, or Rank 1 Drain soul, Rank 1 Frost Nova.
If this affects everyone, they will either tune encounters so that it's feasible, or make people actually *gasp* have to try for a change. They rarely put in impossible tasks, and I think the good healers will continue to be good, and the bad ones will either L2P, or not advance. I have rank 1,3,7 Gheal on my priest's bar right now, but if they're making these changes then there's not much we can do but adjust and evolve, just like we always do. :)
Post by
5200
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Post by
Thuya
Looks like that crappy illhoof healer cloak that gives you 5 billion mana regen but nothing else might be worth something now. haha.
Post by
GenXCub
Every healer downranks to save mana. Unless more healing abilities get added that address this, I think it will become a big problem considering you can only have 1 mana pot per battle.
No more paladins doing Rank 1 SoC to save mana, or Rank 1 Drain soul, Rank 1 Frost Nova.
If this affects everyone, they will either tune encounters so that it's feasible, or make people actually *gasp* have to try for a change. They rarely put in impossible tasks, and I think the good healers will continue to be good, and the bad ones will either L2P, or not advance. I have rank 1,3,7 Gheal on my priest's bar right now, but if they're making these changes then there's not much we can do but adjust and evolve, just like we always do. :)
That's true, I think good healers will, but for now, it's probably best to view it in the context of how this change would affect us if it went live TODAY, so that we could see what we will need to combat this.
Example, if I'm going to cast max rank Healing Wave, in order for me to have some semblance of mana efficiency, my target needs to be more than -4k hit points. If I want to cast lower ranks to keep Healing Way up, that's probably not going to happen. I can see Healing Way being a talent no one wants anymore, since no shamans keep it up with max rank HW. They'd rather just let it expire.
The original dev text did say that they will tweak it to help healers out by possibly adding more abilities.
All healing classes are getting talents that make them more mana efficient, but will it be enough?
Post by
159525
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Post by
Thuya
I believe it's slated that in WoTLK all the regains (mana/energy) are going to be done on a rolling basis, instead of in "ticks." So it might give the illusion that they are regenning it much faster, because you're not used to seeing it that way? Just an idea.
Post by
L33tsauce
LOL@PALADINHEALERS
Post by
104395
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Thuya
Potion sickness.
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=53787
Post by
119742
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Post by
Sweetscot
No more rank 1-2 consecrates by your pally tanks either...
Post by
5200
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Post by
NeoBlackheart
This really stinks. I can get off more heals in a raid by droping my heals 1 lvl then with my healbot addon I just have it hotkeyed if need be to allow me to Cast the highest rank. This now screws that over might as well just make every caster have half mana now.
Post by
91244
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