The Progressive Removal of Downtime for Leveling

However incomplete and inconsistent, Blizzard has slowly been phasing in better means for each class to minimize downtime.

Forgive me for the ethnic slur, but I heard once that playing a mage had similarities to being Irish. The process for both goes drink -> fight -> drink -> fight…

That is downtime. The necessity to stop killing mobs in order to replenish whatever resources are needed to continue to do so at a reliable pace. Sure, as a mage, you could engage another mob when you have no mana left. The game doesn’t stop you. However, the ability to do it with any degree of speed just isn’t there. You can’t cast any of your spells and would have to rely on wanding. And even then, the mob might do more damage to you than you do to it, so indeed it might be impossible to continue without restoring your mana.

For the other classes with mana, some fare better than others. Hunters for instance can rely on pet dps and autoshot to bring mobs down at a decent pace. It doesn’t nearly get close to what a hunter can do using other shots (arcane, etc) but it’s definitely faster than some other classes without their mana. Warlocks get lifetap, an ability which exchanges an amount of health for a dose of mana, so for a warlock to really truly be out of mana is an interesting situation indeed. Druids spend much of their time in forms while leveling, not requiring much of their mana except to heal after fights (unless they are balance; I don’t personally know how leveling goes for balance druids, they might have downtime issues).

Even the non-mana users, rogues and warriors, have downtime issues, mostly with their health bars. A warrior with little health remaining can do the same amount of damage regardless, but has few tools with which to continue if his or her health is running out, and, of course, will die when it does. Can’t do much damage then. Rogues don’t have nearly as many issues due to the ability to control the fights they engage in using stuns and other hampering effects on their opponents to reduce damage intake, but still have to stop and eat or bandage if things go sour.

However, as things have progressed, downtime for many classes has been lowered or nearly removed.

Mages now have Evocation, an ability which restores a great deal of mana, as a base ability. It’s been that way for a while now, but there was a time that mages had to spec into Arcane to get this. With the increased value of spirit, mage downtime will probably decrease. In addition, Frost-spec Water Elementals, if improved, restore mana over time. Arcane mages get increased mana regeneration while casting. However, Fire mages that do not use Mage Armor or spec far enough into Arcane for the aforementioned regeneration are stuck and have to rely on speedy kills in order to continue unhampered.

Druids’ Improved Leader of the Pack restores health when getting a critical hit, albeit at a maximum of once per six seconds (and to groupmates, no less). In addition, Innervate was made baseline, meaning all druids (levels 40+) have access to a mana restoration ability.

Image from ripten.com.

Warriors still have few tools for health regen and typically have to rely on food or bandages to continue fighting. However, Blood Craze restores health when the warrior receives a critical hit, and Bloodthirst will restore health after used. However, the utility of Blood Craze only exists if the warrior is being attacked, and Bloodthirst is deep enough in the Fury tree to limit it to Fury-spec warriors. As such, I expect the Fury tree to be the best for leveling due to the lack of downtime. Second Wind, in the Arms tree, will restore some health, but the circumstances under which it does so are much more slim in a soloing environment…those being stunning or rooting effects. Protection relies on taking less damage altogether to continue fighting and lacks self-healing abilities.

Hunters have Aspect of the Viper now, which restores mana to them when attacking at the expense of doing less damage while it’s active. (Its original incarnation featured it restoring quite a bit of mana over time and was a more primary aspect than it is now.) I don’t believe they have any significant self-healing abilities; hunters rely on their pets taking most of the incoming damage, and do have abilities to help keep said pets alive. Marksman and Survival hunters might still have issues if their pets do not hold aggro, but the pet talent trees in 3.0.2 may have fixed this at least somewhat. As well, Survival has a “replenishment effect” within, restoring quite a bit of mana both for the hunter and his or her groupmates.

Image from starstore.com.

Warlocks remain nearly immune from downtime, especially now that Soul Leech has an improved version which will also restore mana to Destruction-spec warlocks. (Destruction, however, seems to remain the worst for soloing strictly due to downtime, due to the lack of self-healing tools available to them (Soul Leech does not seem to happen often enough to keep the warlock going for as long as the abilities possessed by other classes).) Demonology warlocks, like hunters, rely on their pets to take damage. Unfortunately for them, warlock pet aggro is not quite as good as that of hunters, and can be easily pulled from. (Buffs I missed in 3.0.2 may have fixed this.) Affliction, and the act of “drain-tanking,” would seem to remain the best soloing spec for Warlocks. Between Siphon Life and a near-uninterruptible Drain Life, and the new Haunt which also restores health, and Improved Life Tap and Dark Pact, unless the affliction-spec warlock is besieged by six mobs at once, downtime should not be necessary*.

*They might still not need it, even in that case.

Paladins used to have quite a few issues with downtime. Mana inefficiency for both Holy and Ret made Prot the typical ideal soloing spec. Using Seal/Judgement of Light/Wisdom, they would pull large groups of mobs and use consecrate to fight them all at once, continuing through with the Seal/Judgement procs. Now, however, Ret has a replenishment effect, and Divine Storm can provide some healing while in combat. Art of War will offer a buff that makes Flash of Light instant for more mid-combat healing. The revamped Judgement system and removal of Seal/Judgement of the Crusader makes it yet further possible to avoid downtime, since no longer do paladins suffer a loss in dps using Judgement of Wisdom or Light. That last part, in addition to the consolidation of spellpower, unfortunately, is the only thing helping Holy paladins solo, however. And Improved Blessing of Wisdom, but they’ve had that for as long as I can remember.

For shaman, well, I don’t know much about how it used to be. I know I leveled mine as enhancement, and it wasn’t exactly an easy non-stop run through the levels. Drinking was required for me until level 50, when Shamanistic Rage became available. However, the utility of the buff is limited while soloing, as killing things quickly meant you would be done with a mob in a couple seconds, having restored little mana in the process, and have to run over to another, the buff still ticking down. As well, crit chance outside of talents for shaman is scarce until post-60, so the old Shamanistic Focus talent was often unused (it used to provide a 60% mana cost reduction to shocks after critting in melee). However, that’s a flat 45% now, making it also useful for other specs and lower-level shaman. In addition, 3.0.2 made Water Shield available to lower level shaman, reducing downtime nearly completely. Enhancement is quite set as a leveling spec now. Elemental now has Thunderstorm, which restores quite a bit of mana while also doing damage and knocking melee-range opponents away, but I don’t think the mana it restores is enough to really reduce downtime by much. Lastly, Restoration doesn’t have much going for it in the leveling department, but thanks to the consolidation of spellpower, isn’t quite so inept in dealing damage any longer.

As for rogues, I don’t think they received many changes to help them with any downtime they experienced. I couldn’t find any evidence of anything glancing over their 3.0.2 talent trees either. They still have to rely on control.

Image from dwarfpriest.com.

Priests have had Spirit Tap for as long as I can remember, and that certainly is quite helpful to them. Continuing down the Shadow tree leads to Vampiric Touch and Embrace, both abilities which restore resources the Priest needs in order to function. Added in 3.0.2 was Improved Spirit Tap, which increased the priest’s spirit by a percentage after getting a critical hit with Mind Blast or Shadow Word: Death. As for Discipline and Holy, I’m not sure they received much of anything. However, Spirit tap is still on the first tier of Shadow, available to any priest should they wish to spend the points there, and many Disc/Holy priests are quite heavy on Spirit.

Image from gearfuse.com.

Lastly, I know Blood-spec Death Knights have significant self-healing abilities, and Unholy ones get a pet to share some of the damage. I’m not sure what Frost DKs have available.

And that’s that. Where before the game was more harsh, requiring most classes (exceptions being the hunter and warlock) to spend time between some fights recovering, it has gotten easier to advance, or farm mats, or what-have-you. Some of the specs still need work I think, but overall the devs are pushing the right ideas. Now they just need to make levels 1-60 interesting again.