The food inherently creates a balance concern based on the fact it is a percentage.
As a player gets more gear (in particular as their HP and Mana totals increase) the effectiveness of the food increases. A brand-new player sees little to no benefit from this, as their stats are probably sufficiently low enough that using the conjured food would be as almost effective as using the fruitcake.
As you've pointed out in your suggestion, the next best food would be: Conjured Cinnamon Roll/Conjured Crystal Water:
- Conjured Cinnamon Roll = 3180 HP / 30 Seconds, or 106 HP / Second
- Conjured Crystal Water = 4200 Mana / 30 Seconds, or 140 Mana / Second
Prisom's suggestion was aimed towards 1v1, but I believe there is a balance issue here.
So using Prisom as an example, he said flasked with rum (standard WSG buffs, imo) he has a 7.5K HP pool, and for the sake of calculations, I'm assuming he has 4K mana.
So when Prisom uses the fruitcake, his rates are as follows:
- HP: (7500 HP * 0.05) / Second = 375 HP / Second
- Mana: (4000 Mana * 0.05) / Second = 200 Mana / Second
Versus a new hunter, not flasked in blues would see the following rates (the HP/Mana totals are an approximation, but helps prove the point):
- HP (4000 HP * 0.05) / Second = 200 HP / Second
- Mana (2800 Mana * 0.05) / Second = 140 Mana / Second
These are the HP/Mana pools that give a 1:1 ratio between the Conjured Food/Water and the Fruitcake:
- HP = (106 HP/ Second) / 0.05 = 2120 HP
- Mana = (140 Mana / Second) / 0.05 = 2800 Mana
If BiS players are stuck using the normal food/water, it would take BiS players about three to four times as long to get the same HP regen, and depending on their total mana about two to three times.
On my hunter, there are many ways to achieve LoS, find a stump - FD - start eating. Unless I've got like 4+ good DoTs on me, the food will out-do the damage. In WSG, there are many ways to get LoS, hunters have the easiest time dropping combat but any class can do this.
If I didn't have the fruitcake, it would probably make more sense to just continue fighting or wipe so that I can get ressed and be effective again. Basically, if I attempted to FD and eat, I would survive for a few seconds longer but the damage rate would be far greater than the healing rate and it would make more sense to just die.
Using static numbers on food/water creates a more balanced environment, regardless of your total numbers, every player gets the same regeneration rates.
+ 1 for the suggestion.
Granted, I have like so many fruitcakes stockpiled since they stack to 200. I carry around 3k per character. So they would have to delete my fruitcakes (I could choose to not use them, but for this suggestion to work, they have to be eliminated from every character).