Yesmina
New Member
Spell Power, +Healing, and Coefficients September 1, 2008
By now, you’ve almost certainly heard about the change to itemization whereby the +Healing and +Spell Damage stats are being retired for the less specialized Spell Power stat. What, exactly does this mean, though, and what can you expect at the release of Patch 3.0?
Converting +Healing to Spell Power
Balance Druids should see a direct translation of their spell damage into spell power at a 1:1 ratio. (This doesn’t account for the loss of spell power due to the reduction being made to Lunar Guidance, however.) Restoration Druids – or anyone wearing their healing kit – can expect to see their +Healing converted to Spell Power in the following manner:
Spell Power = +Healing * 0.532
In other words, players can expect to see a 46.8% reduction in their +Healing when converting to Spell Power. Note that this change will not affect your effective healing as spell coefficients are being adjusted to account for this reduction (more on this below). 0.532 was derived by comparing the ten staves with the highest +Healing values available in TBC... [site has a list]..
At the same time, you can expect to see your Bonus Spell Damage (in the form of spell power) increased by approximately 60%. This increase in fire power – or Arcane/Nature power, as the case may be – should make leveling in your Resto-kit a lot more viable than it would have been otherwise.
Adjusting Coefficients
While it was Blizzard’s intention to streamline spellcaster gear by having DPS and Healer casters use the same items, it wasn’t their intention to nerf the effectiveness of our spells. Therefore, the +Healing coefficients for Healing spells pre-WotLK will be increased to compensate for the reduction of +Healing. In order to keep the effective amount healed for a given spell the same, we’d expect the original coefficients to be multiplied by 1/0.532 or 1.88. To verify this, I returned to Outlands on the Beta server (no small feat for someone bound in Borean Tundra) and did some coefficient testing for the HoT portion of Rejuvenation and Regrowth. In both cases, using the same gear and same level of +Healing, each spell ticked for the same amount on beta and live (there was a very small difference in a few HoT ticks, but that is no doubt due to rounding issues).
Note: At some point, I hope to publish some revised spell power coefficients for Wrath, but haven’t had the time to perform data collection, yet.
Talent Implications
In Wrath of the Lich King, the Spell Power afforded by Lunar Guidance will be reduced from 25% to 12%. This is a reduction of 52% which is, not coincidentally, about the same percent reduction being applied to +Healing. I believe this talent was reduced in effectiveness to avoid making it too desirable to Healers (as it otherwise would have afforded more than twice the benefit that it did in TBC). This had the unfortunate side effect of harming Balance Druids in the process, however. I suspect that the relocation of both Nature’s Grace and Moonglow to much higher in the Balance tree was similarly meant to discourage Restoration Druid’s from dipping so deeply into Balance. Blizzard probably didn’t want to repeat the perceived mistake of making a hybrid build like the Dreamstate healer even close to as viable as a deeply Restoration-specced Druid.
LINK
I just looked at our healing touch spell, and realized that it’s been changed from 3.5 seconds to 3 seconds. Thus, talented, it would be 2.5 seconds, and with the glyph of healing touch, it would be a 1 second cast. ... a 1 second heal! I think that’s better than any other healer.
Inscription for Druids
my two cents? with improved tree form, healing touch being a 1 sec cast, revive and seed of life..
Restos are officially awesome.
especially mine