Mana Spring Totem Not Stacking With Blessing of Wisdom In 3.1

CM Eyonix has posted that they are changing Mana Spring Totem for Shamans and Blessing of Wisdom for Paladins. This is part of their effort to provide raid wide buffs just like other buffs for Wrath of the Lich King. Similar buffs do not stack and Blizzard is making use of this to further deal with the mana regen issue which they are nerfing in 3.1.

We are making a change to these spells so that their benefits are exclusive in patch 3.1.0. The buffs will be equivalent, but will no longer stack. Mana Spring will affect the entire raid instead of just the shaman’s party. We felt that both paladins and shamans brought too many unique buffs to a group. Additionally, we have been trying to tone down mana regeneration in large groups, and were concerned raids would feel the need to stack paladins or especially shaman to have enough Mana Spring totems. We have also been trying to get more benefits out of the party and into the raid, and Mana Spring previously was still a party only buff. With this change, if there is only one paladin, he or she can bring Blessing of Kings while the shaman offers Mana Spring. If there are two paladins and the second offers Blessing of Wisdom, then the shaman can offer healing or cleansing with their water totem instead. source

So with this change, Blizzard killed two birds with one stone by making Mana Spring Totem a raid wide buff but also nerfed mana regen by making it not stack with Blessing of Wisdom. This announcement seems bitter-sweet since it comes at a cost. My understanding is that holy paladins who spec into imp BoW will make it better than mana spring totem so this will further reduce it’s effective ness since it won’t stack on those people who have the imp version of BoW. In a way it allows flexibility between the buffs that both classes provide but overall it just doesn’t come out right.