World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

As a species, humans are mostly resistant to change. It is an inherent trait that exists in almost all communities and nations around the world. No community, however, is more reluctant to accept and quick to decry changes like those that congregate in MMOGs. Perhaps it's the years and years of being slowly built up then quickly torn down by seemingly erratic developers that have ingrained this in us or a deep seeded belief that every other class is jealous of us and out to get us. Whatever the root of this paranoia is one thing is certain, if your class has a major change announced come patch time, then the doom and gloom will begin.

Recent changes to the druid were met with typical outcry and predications of a “druidageddon” where all restoration druids would simply vanish come patch day. I am glad to say this didn't happen and most of us are still here.

The changes that 3.1 presented to resto druids were two fold. First, the change in the lifebloom mechanic, and second was the change in spirit in regards to mana regeneration that also affected other classes.

Lifebloom -
Lifebloom is a heal over time spell that replenishes health every second as opposed to every tick, and has a larger healing effect upon expiration. The effect stacks up to three times and is increased by spellpower. Patch 3.1 modified the way lifebloom is used by doubling its mana cost but adding a mana refund if it were allowed to run its full course and "bloom" on the target. Prior to 3.1 most druids simply kept track of the timer and refreshed it as it was set to expire to keep a three stack rolling on their targets at all times. At first glance this change in mechanic seemed like a huge disadvantage, however they added a wrinkle. Lifebloom’s final tick of healing, the "bloom" portion, is now able to have a critical effect. This addition along with the way spirit affects us has actually made lifebloom a more powerful spell than it was before but a bit trickier to use. Pre 3.1 I would time my rotations around lifebloom and use regrowth at the end of the rotation for its big heal. Now I cast regrowth in the middle of my rotation and lean on nourish to do the brunt of my big healing, with the biggest change being the amount of trust I put in the final tick of lifebloom to top the tank back off.  This change took a bit of getting used to but I find myself with more mana now as allowing lifebloom to come to fruition keeps out of the five second rule longer and allow me to achieve greater mana regeneration.

Nourish -
Nourish is a single target heal that is strengthened if you have an active HOT spell on your target. I have glyphed nourish to be increased by the number of HOTs on my target, and with my current haste rating it has a 1.35 cast time. I find nourish to be a great lifesaver for spike damage, and with the glyph I rarely need to use swiftmend anymore. Knowing that nourish will save your tank is empowering because the likelihood of swiftmend being available when you really need it will be that much higher. I have highlighted nourish here not for any direct change to it from the patch but for its default increased potential considering the changes

Sample Rotation.
This is a 30 second breakdown of a typical HOT rotation. My charts below assume two things. First is that you have the Lifebloom glyph that increases the duration by one second. Secondly that your haste rating is high enough and that you have selected gift of the earthmother to reduce your global cooldown to approx 1 second.

FSR = The "Five Second Rule"  is the name given to the mechanic that states no mana will be regenerated naturally  for five seconds after a spell is cast. While under this effect you regenerate an amount of mana displayed by the character sheet as "mana regenerated while casting", which is the total of the mana restored from MP5 items plus any passive mana regeneration from talents and abilities. This amount is always on and will regenerate its value regardless of whether or not you are casting.

GCD = "Global Cool Down" which is pretty much as it sounds - a timed window that prevents you from casting a spell immediately after another spell. Unhasted, the GCD is approx 1.5 seconds

 The difference results in 3 additional seconds per 30 second block of the rotation. While this doesn't seem like a lot of time, it can really add up over an extremely long fight. The chart does not take into account a swiftmend or nourish, however you could apply a nature's swiftness heal without affecting the GCD timer. .