Everyone knows a version of “The Five Second Rule” that we learned as children. If you drop a candy bar on the floor and pick it up in less than five seconds, it’s okay to eat it. Needless to say, it probably wasn’t your mother who taught you this. There’s a different version of this used in World of Warcraft that deals with mana regeneration from your druids so take into account…

In WoW, the five second rule is often abbreviated as “FSR” and has to do with how mana regeneration is affected by casting spells. One of the ways druids regenerate mana is as a direct result of their spirit stat and, to a lesser extent, their intelligence stat. Once a spell is cast, the regeneration effect you gain from your stats doesn’t start again for five seconds. So you’re walking around one afternoon minding your own business. A bunny jumps out and you kill it with a Moonfire. Once that spell is cast, you must wait a full five seconds for the regeneration effect to start again. This happens every time you cast a spell with a few exceptions.

1) Those spells and effects that don’t cost mana to cast don’t trigger FSR like Clearcasting and Natures Swiftness.

2) The channel spells we use, like Hurricane and Tranquility, are affected by FSR differently than normally cast spells. The FSR starts in these cases as soon as the launch of one begins. Second, the FSR will not exceed five seconds. For example with Hurricane the channel time is 10 seconds. The FSR starts when you start the channel, and since that channel lasts longer than 5 seconds, you don’t have to wait an additional 5 seconds after the spell completes.

So what is the problem and why should you care? Well, what if you find yourself casting a spell every five seconds during a long fight? That’s how it is! Your little blue bar is empty. A Moonkin or Remnant without mana is useful in a fight as a mound of earth.

Fortunately, there are a few ways around this. First of all, the mp5 equipment is not affected by FSR, so it regenerates from those continuous sources. Also talents like Intensity and Dreamstate are very helpful, as well as our Innervate spell. While this may not seem like much of an issue at lower or even mid-levels, once your druid starts hitting the level cap and entering end-game content, it becomes quite a factor.