questions concerning manaward

thepubear · 07-14-2009, 03:12 PM

Trying to figure out the specific effectiveness of manaward. Never bothered with it, but i'm wondering if a little more research is in order.

So the question is, what spot in the order of wards and heals does it fall in? What has to get beaten through for it to be used, in other words. If a shaman throws up single and group wards, and the templar throws up repent or a cleric throws up sacrifice. Well you get the idea. Does my manaward get used up before or after these.

I.E. as a ward is used before anything else, I have to ask then, who's wards get used first, mine or the healer one's.

Also, I know that manaflow can be macro'd with manaward, so that you can throw manaflow and then cast manaward before the flow replenishes you. My question is how does this look in act? Does that power being replenished show in the logs as going to you or does it show at all?

nyquist · 07-14-2009, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thepubear

So the question is, what spot in the order of wards and heals does it fall in? What has to get beaten through for it to be used, in other words. If a shaman throws up single and group wards, and the templar throws up repent or a cleric throws up sacrifice. Well you get the idea. Does my manaward get used up before or after these.

I.E. as a ward is used before anything else, I have to ask then, who's wards get used first, mine or the healer one's.

For this, I'm quite sure it works in order of casting. Simply, who ever casts a ward first (whether it's the healer or you) will have their ward used up in its entirety first.

Though I am not sure about the whole manaward->manaflow trick...

Orochan · 07-14-2009, 03:23 PM

I'm pretty sure it's whoever cast last takes effect first, I.E shammy throws up ward, u put up mana ward, shammy refreshes first ward for whatever reason, shammy ward gets used first.

nyquist · 07-14-2009, 03:30 PM

this is not how healers' wards work in general, so I'm leaning toward first cast, first used; not positive though, they could have different mechanics for manaward in particular, I can check tonight (as I never really thought much into this, I never checked before :P)

Edit: actually, I'm pretty much positive it is first cast, first used.

example: if the following is cast
1) Shaman: Ancestral Ward on the tank
2) Shaman: Oberon Ward on the tank
Shaman's Ancestral ward will be used up first without a doubt.

If the casting goes like this instead:
1) Shaman: Ancestral ward on the tank
2) Coercer: Manaward on the tank
3) Shaman: Oberon ward on the tank

Oberon cannot take precedence over Ancestral because ancestral was cast first...so it would have to be first cast, first used

thepubear · 07-14-2009, 04:06 PM

The reason i'm asking, is that i've got another coercer in the guild who i know is casting it, and in an entire night, i could only find where it blocked one hit for 5k.

Unfortunately I can't even figure out how to find out how many times its being cast, so i can figure out what's going on. If its not being used, its less than useless, since it doesnt block power drains.

nyquist · 07-14-2009, 04:15 PM

well it could just be that the shaman wards are soaking up everything while his is up, this isn't too likely though, unless you only see dark green 'ward numbers' all the time instead of the bright green 'heal numbers;' with a recast of 5 min iirc, I would expect not many hits to appear on this ward, but more than 1.

maybe he isn't casting it as much as you think? well hopefully you'll get some input from some high end raiders telling you if it's worth investing in or not...

also, out of curiosity, where were you when the manaward only absorbed 1 hit? (could it be that you were in PB or thuuga or something where a good geared/skilled shaman ~could~ solo heal without letting anything pass through his wards?)

Harowen · 07-14-2009, 04:35 PM

I generally throw manaward on the OT as soon as the MT says "down!". That or when there's no DP's up for Gynok's curse. The rest of the use of it generally happens when my healer is either sucking, or dead, and I need to block my own choker hits

It's not unusual though for me to throw manaward and then the shaman end up overwarding it sufficiently that the wards expires after 30s.

Revel · 07-14-2009, 05:08 PM

It is by the order, meaning if someone recasts their ward even if it has some time left on it, it does move down the order. I think there's one or two exceptions but the first-in-time is the general rule.

As far as usefulness, only a tank/offtank really has ever used a full manaward. By the time I throw it on some dps class as an emergency they are already dead, being healed, or the mob is off of them.

Chrome · 07-15-2009, 11:02 AM

I recently spec'd for it just for kicks since with one good timed manaflow, I can be back up to high power right away. It seems like a useless spell till that one time you use it and save the MT or OT that extra second or two for the healers to catch up.

Senelin · 07-16-2009, 03:12 PM

I feel like I'm better off with it than without it, and I'm not really losing much to take it - bottom line.