Dealing with the Deplorable Drape

Alliteration is fun!  Kurn and I had been talking about this a bit and I thought I’d post about it.

- Why the Drape of the Violet Tower is mediocre -

First off, this is obviously written for healadins, but shaman can get on this boat as well, as the gearing needs of shaman tend to closely resemble those of healadins these days, at as far as back slot goes.  The Drape of the Violet Tower is the cloak purchased with 50 Emblems of Frost.  The stats on it are crit/MP5 and the socket color is blue.

The main problem with this cloak is that both crit and MP5 are considered regen stats, both of which are undesirable.  The truly desirable stat is that our throughput stat of haste, which is what we gear towards, is completely missing from this piece.  I am going with the generally accepted stat weighting of:  INT > haste > crit and MP5  There will be some light use of numbers to explain ways to work around or work with this item.

- Solution #1:  Avoid it -

It is important to point out that ilevel is generally -not- an important element to gearing for healadins if the stats are not optimal.  The loss of some INT is worth keeping the correct itemization on a lower ilevel cloak.  There are some quite acceptable alternatives to this piece at varying levels of difficulty.  I will write out the loss/gains of choosing each alternative.  Also, I am trying to list them in order of “best alternative to weakest alternative,” but all of these can be considered instead of the Drape.

Cloak of the Burning Dusk (-30 MP5, +4 INT, +4 crit, +7 SP, + 64 haste, yellow socket for +5 SP):  Obviously, this is the best bet of cloaks.  You’ll have to fight every other caster out there for it, but Halion-25 is puggable in this day and age.  It might take a few weeks, but getting this cloak is doable with some patience.  (Heroic: -30 MP5, +14 INT, +13 crit, +21 SP, +73 haste, yellow socket for +5 SP)

Frostbinder’s Shredded Cape (-30 MP5, +8 crit, +52 haste):  This cape comes from Valithria-25 and used to be the best caster cloak.  Since the release of Halion and his cloaks, this one might be easier to get.  Healadins also have a leg-up on getting this boss down in a PuG, since we are so useful for the fight.  Any PuG that can clear the first four ICC bosses should be able to get this encounter finished no problem.  (Heroic:  -30 MP5, +9 INT, +16 crit, +13 SP, +60 haste)

Abduction’s Cover (-6 MP5, -4 INT, -52 crit, -6 SP, +57 haste):  This cape off Halion-10 is a great example of why ilevel means so little compared to itemization.  Despite the slightly lower ilevel is it quite obvious that this cloak is superior to the Drape.  Again, PuGs for this are not terribly hard to find.  With some time and some lucky rolls, this is quite the nice upgrade.  (Heroic: -2 MP5, +4 INT, -52 crit, +7 SP, +64 haste)

Heartsick Mender’s Cape (-3 MP5, -8 INT, -52 crit, -12 SP, +45 haste):   Compared to the first three options, this cloak off of Princes-10 is a little light on the haste, but is still an excellent choice.  This encounter might be harder on PuGs than some others, but it is at the least available to strict 10-man groups.  And yes, despite the lower ilevel this is a far and away better choice than the Drape.  The hardmode version is even better, if you can get your hands on it.  (Heroic:  -52 crit, +52 haste)

Pennant Cloak (-30 MP5, -23 INT, -18 crit, -33 SP, +42 haste):  People hate to hear it, but this Sarth+2 25-man cloak is actually generally better than the Drape.  That -23 INT is a bit hard to bear, but the gain of haste makes up for it.  Point for point, this cloak is going to yield better results than even the ilevel 245 listed below.

Flowing Sapphiron Drape (-30 MP5, -15 INT, -2 crit, -8 SP, +35 haste, -socket):  The loss of the socket on this is a major “ouch.”  The total INT loss with that socket would be -35 INT, so it is important to look at the rest of your gear before grabbing this off of Onyxia-25.  Do you have at least 675 haste?  Do you have enough regen on other items?  Generally, if you answer “no” to the first question, this is a better choice than the Drape.  If you answered “yes” to the first, then the second question is one you might have to play around with to figure out.

- Solution #2: Work with it -

It is possible to use the Drape if you are careful to cover the item’s weaknesses elsewhere.  Generally, a healadin can get away with a single slot without haste if we take the time to compensate elsewhere.  This really only works if the Drape is the only piece of crit/MP5 gear you are using.  The use of any other crit/MP5 piece upsets the balance too much to make this a viable solution.

Gearing changes:  A way to work with the extra load of regen from the Drape is to replace 2-3 haste/MP5 items with haste/crit items.  It is important to do this -only- with slots where switching would yield either more haste or equal haste.  For example, switching your Mail of Crimson Coins to Meteor Chaser’s Raiment.

Consumables:  Switch your food to either Imperial Manta Steak or Very Burnt Worg.  The 40 haste from either of these choices is really the way to go for healadins.  (Dare I say that all healadins should be using these, regardless!)  A more costly change, but one that should seriously be considered by anyone wanting to use the Drape, is to switch from using a flask to using two elixirs.  The two best choices for elixirs would be Elixir of Lightning Speed (45 haste) and Elixir of Mighty Thoughts (45 INT).  The haste gain is great and the INT elixir will help make up for losing the 65 INT from the Flask of Distilled Wisdom that all healadins should be using.  (Pardon me while I yell at myself for not doing so 100% of the time, too.)

Gemming:  I do -not- suggest switching any INT gems to haste gems.  If you are running so low on haste that gemming for it becomes a consideration, then you shouldn’t be using the Drape at all.  Likewise, there isn’t a metagem that will make up for the loss of haste, so just stick with your IED.

- Blizzard hates good itemization -

They pretty much always have.  The question is how to deal with what they give you.  While working around the Drape of the Violet Tower is possible, most people are going to find that simply avoiding the thing will take far less time and effort.  Of course, part of the reason I bothered to write this all out is so that Kurn will no longer tease me for using it myself.  But hey, using it thoughtfully and balancing out the weaknesses is okay.  Using it just because it’s there, without thinking about it, is what causes issues.  Remember, higher ilevel does not mean automatic upgrade.

Healadin hardmode/RS BiS

I figured it is past time that I sat down and finalized my own list for this.  The WoWhead profiler that I normally use is being very wonky, so please ignore the lack of enchants and strange gemming that may show up, since it won’t allow me to fix it.  The profile can be found here.

Head: Sanctified Lightsworn Headpiece
Neck: Blood Queen’s Crimson Choker
Shoulders: Sanctified Lightsworn Spaulders
Back: Cloak of Burning Dusk
Chest: Rot-Resistant Breastplate
Wrists: Phaseshifter’s Bracers
Hands: Fallen Lord’s Handguards
Waist: Split Shape Belt
Legs: Lightning-Infused Leggings
Feet: Foreshadow Steps
Finger 1: Ring of Phased Regeneration
Finger 2: Ashen Band of Endless Wisdom
Trinket 1: Solace of the Defeated/Fallen
Trinket 2: Meteorite Crystal
Libram: Libram of Renewal
Shield: Bulwark of Smouldering Steel
Weapon: Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings

There are two slots where I’m not sure what I would prefer, namely chest and hands. Most healadin BiS lists would include the 277 versions of Mail of Crimson Coins and Unclean Surgical Gloves in those slots, but I am well-known for running as little MP5 as I can possibly get away with. The list as I have it written sits me at 86 MP5, which might be one the low side, even for me. Replacing just those two pieces puts me back up to 184 MP5 with this set-up. In the end, I’ll probably pick up all four pieces up once our Resto shaman have the mail ones and just play around with them.

Someday we’ll get a better libram. -SOMEDAY.- (Cataclysm, probably, oye.)

You’ll notice that I still have ilevel 264 legs on the list, but that is because there simply isn’t anything better. It’s utterly depressing, but sadly true.

For those without access to the legendary mace (or the hardmode Lich King weapons), there are really three choices: Bloodsurge, Royal Scepter, or ilevel 277 Rigormortis. The two Lich King weapons have the same stats, so it just is a matter of which you can get your hands on. The main question is if you can deal with having the hit on your gear or not. Personally, I favor the Rigormortis option; the gem slot, slightly increased INT and slight increased haste make the loss of the crit negligible. If you have access to the hardmode Lich King weapons, that is absolutely the way to go, obviously.

Along the same lines, if you don’t have access to Algalon for the trinket, regular Solace is a good choice with the Talisman of Resurgence falling in slightly behind that.

New 80 Healadin List(s)

This has been bopping around my head for a bit, so I thought I’d let it out into the wild.  It actually started because I wanted to think about what sort of gearing strategy I’d use if I were to take part in Gevlon‘s Blue Project.  I can’t actually join, since I’m a US-server account, but it was an interesting exercise.  It moved on from that to “what would I suggest a new 80′s pre-raiding list look like.”  Couldn’t hurt to share them?  If you disagree or have suggestions for either, do let me know!  I am -utterly- open to such.

- First there were blues -

The profile for this one can be found here.  I am pretty unhappy with the amount of haste I was able to scrape together using blue gear, but I had to keep an eye on having at least some MP5 and crit, as I can see mana being a huge issue at this gear level.  Not being able to use -any- purples really put the kibosh on my libram choices, too.  At first I was leery of including anything tradeskill-wise, but I just can’t see not being a jewelcrafter for this.  I would probably replace the Soul Preserver with the INT owl trinket.  And I would probably be a blacksmith, too, for the two extra gem slots.  But as it stands, here is my take on it without tradeskills.

Head: Battlemap Hide Helm
Neck: Choker of Betrayal
Shoulders: Dark Runic Mantle
Back: Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape
Chest: Drakewing Raiments
Wrist: Bands of Fading Light
Hands: Traditionally Dyed Handguards
Waist: Girdle of Ice
Legs: Frozen Forest Kilt
Feet: Sabatons of Erekem
Finger 1: Ring of the Traitor King
Finger 2: Solitaire of Reflecting Beams
Trinket 1: Soul Preserver
Trinket 2: Spark of Life
Libram: Savage Gladiator’s Libram
Shield: Facade Shield of Glyphs
Weapons: Gavel of the Fleshcrafter

- And then there were purples -

The profile for this set-up can be found here, but of course.  I was going for high INT with as much haste as I could get, but on the whole it is much heavier on the crit than I’d like.  You’ll note that I don’t have any of the expensive BoEs for this set, nor any Frost badge purchased items.  I wanted this to be easy for anyone just farming 5-man heroics to get, without having to set foot in a raid.  Likewise, putting items on here that cost thousands of gold just seemed cheesy, so I omitted them.  Yes, there is a single piece of PvP gear on there, but it is one purchased with Wintergrasp marks and very easy to get.  The best gems and enchants are listed in the profile (as well as what I’d consider a “new healadin” spec and glyphs set-up), since there is just no excuse for not having the best available in those.

Head:  Helm of Inner Warmth
Neck: Arcane Loops of Anger
Shoulders: Pauldrons of the Cavalier
Back: Titan-Forged Cloak of Ascendancy
Chest: Chestpiece of High Treason
Wrist: Bracer of Worn Molars
Hands: Rusty Frozen Fingerguards
Waist: Strip of Remorse
Legs: Legguards of Frosty Depths
Feet: Mudslide Boots
Finger 1: Oath of Empress Zoe
Finger 2: Heartmender Circle
Trinket 1: Talisman of Resurgence
Trinket 2: Tears of the Vanquished
Libram: Libram of Renewal
Shield: Protective Barricade of the Light
Weapon: Bone Golem Scapula

This isn’t a BiS list, obviously, seeing as there are at least 9 items up there that can be upgraded nicely by laying down hefty amounts of gold.  (If you can find someone selling, of course.)  But this is a decent list.  This sort of gear in the hands of a skilled healadin will get you into ICC-10, a good place to start grinding out Frost badges.

- What I learned -

You can almost think of this as “old pre-raid gear” vs “new pre-raid gear.”  I remember gearing up in ilevel 200 blues to get ready to raid Naxx back when the expansion first hit.  I liked knowing that I would be replacing those blues with shiny purples.  There just isn’t as much of an “ooo, aah” element when you’re going from epics to better epics, frankly.  5-man heroics are now just something to farm for badges with a bunch of way over-geared people.  It makes me want to shake my cane and tell stories about how things were in -my day.-  Darned kids!

And of course it makes me remember that New Year’s Eve when I accidently sold my boots (ilevel 200 blues, but they were still my raiding boots at the time) to the vendor, which proceeded to not let me buy them back.  I still get crap for that, even from people who weren’t even there!  Don’t log on after parties while smashed, I guess.

I still have the BWL boots that I used for a month after that in my bank…

Is there such a thing as too much mana?

After reading a blog entry by a healadin who says that she doesn’t like using glyphed Seal of Wisdom, I felt I should touch on this subject.  It’s a bit funny, how Blizzard claims that mana regen is currently not something that healers take into account, yet I always seem to be bringing it up on my blog.  Sure, I’m not biting my nails during every fight to make sure I don’t waste a single drop of my blue bar, but all healers who are trying to progress should be thinking about just how much regen they need before going into the raid.

The question “is there such a thing as too much mana?” is an interesting one to me, as there is only one healing class right now that currently gems and enchants strictly for regen.  Some may view it as a necessary evil for keeping up in HPS, but I find it is actually more a case than gemming for anything except INT just doesn’t give the returns I’d like.  Priests and druids get to gem all those reds to see their healing go up across the board as they blanket the raid.  Shaman have that really run time gemming into haste and more haste, letting them spam those slow casting Chain Heals faster, faster, faster.  Those classes get to see a direct increase to their healing with their gem choices.

Healadins don’t get to have that.  By gemming any sort of throughput, we generate quite a bit of “waste.”  Spellpower will simply up the overhealing.  Haste would drop us below the 1 second mark and cost us way too much mana to sustain.  Crit is laughable with how little it gives us, especially with the amount we have with proper gearing.  All of these stats just produce a very “meh” feeling, in that in the end we get very little out of them.  But INT?  That stat gives us exactly what we need.  More casts mean more healing.  Being able to sustain Holy Light for longer will up your HPS far more than gemming any sort of throughput.

Let’s just be honest:  If you have too much mana when you are gemmed/geared correctly, the problem lies with how you are healing.

People hate to hear that.  We all hate to be told “you are doing it wrong” and we like to scowl at those doing it, trying to make the person saying it sound like the villain.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t -true,- however.  If you are considering switching from glyphed Seal of Wisdom to glyphed Seal of Light as a healadin, you are, in fact, “doing it wrong.”  (Dreamwalker and PvP excluded, of course.)  What I mean by that is that you are doing a huge disservice to yourself, your raid and the other healers.  You are not holding up your end of the bargain and trying your hardest to keep people alive by using every ounce you have.

Cast more.  I keep trying to drill this into people’s heads, but it is absolutely true.  Cast more, cast more, cast more.  If you’re gemmed/enchanted/geared correctly, you must cast more.   Even if you’re -not- maximized in your gear, just cast more.  (And then go fix your gear after the raid…)  Never stop casting!  Every GCD used is one less thing you’re putting on the shoulders of your compatriots.  This isn’t about “I don’t want to step on the other healers’ toes,” it is about “what can I do to make things easier for everyone else.”  The answer?  -Cast more!-  Mana problem solved.

Healadin Do-it Yourself – Converting INT (and crit) to MP5

I was emailed just recently asking for the formulas to convert INT into MP5.  The answer I sent back was rather complicated and took a long time to write, so I figured I’d turn it into a blog post.  More people might want to take a “do-it yourself” attitude towards their mana regen.  Why wouldn’t you, right?

- First it is about averages -

Before you can even begin to look at the math, you need to figure out the average amount of times things happen.  Open up those WoLs, ladies and gents, and let’s get ready to spend some time at it.  This is the most time consuming part of the whole process, but it is necessary if you are going to get an accurate answer.  (Otherwise you’d just straight up believe me when I tell you it should be about 1 INT =~ .8 MP5!  But that’s not what this is about, is it?)  I like to go through and find all the hardmodes for my averages, as I tend to get very lazy during farm content and that throws off my numbers.  Just remember to get as large a sample as you can.

The abilities are you looking for are Divine Plea, Judgment of Blah (doesn’t matter which) and Arcane Torrent if you’re a blood elf.  You’re also looking for uptime on Replenishment and Revitalize.  Also, you need to know if you normally have a Restoration Shaman in your group for Mana Tide totem.  For most people, that’s a binary yes-no answer.  If you are like me and always have at least one, but sometimes have -two,- I suggest doing the math figured with just the one and consider the second a “bonus.”

You will need to convert your casts into casts per five minutes for all fights, before trying to average them.  It’s not hard, just convert those 12 Judgments during that 6.5 minute fight into x casts for a 5 minute one by putting it into seconds.  (12/360 = x/300)  Do that for each fight and then add up all the xs and divide by your sample size.  It is completely alright to work with a decimals (ex. 10.6) as that won’t mess up the math.

To get an accurate number from the crit rating portion of it, you’ll likewise need to find the average casts per minute for Holy Light, Flash of Light and Holy Shock.  Note that it is casts per -one minute- for those spells and not per five minutes as for the others.  Decimals are again okay to have.

Now we figure out your average up-time on Replenishment and Revitalize.  WoL is very nice in that it gives you the number of ticks per fight.  So you’ll be converting those 270 ticks in that 5.25 minute fight to x ticks in a 5 minute fight.  (270/315 = x/300)  What we’re looking for is the average up-time, this time, so once you find that average x, go ahead and divide it by 300.  If you don’t have a number that is less than 1, then something went wrong in your calculations.

That was step one.  Now it’s time to move onto the far more fun step two!

- Plug and chug -

This is pretty straightforward, but I suggest using a round number for INT in these equations.  I favor using 10 INT, since working with smaller numbers can get messy.  (You’d just divide by 10 at the end if you want to know what 1 INT is in MP5.)  If you are looking for a specific MP5 amount from a given item, like the Talisman of Resurgence, you -can- plug it into the equations and do it that way, although I’d probably recommend finding for 1 INT and then multiplying at the end instead.  Also, if you’re looking for the MP5 from an item, -always- remember to add in that extra 10% INT that healadins get!  (The aforementioned Talisman yields ~141 INT to healadins.)

Okay, enough talk.  Time for numbers!

Mana from INT:
1 INT = 18 mana
z INT * 18 = x

a) Crit mana return formula:
((z / 166.66667) + 3.336) = Crit % from z INT
Crit % from z INT * 45.91 = Crit rating from z INT
(HLPM * 382.2 * 0.0002178 * .o83333) + (HSPM * 237.3 * 0.0002178 * .o83333) + (FoLPM * 92.1 * 0.0002178 * .o83333) = the MP5 1 crit is worth to you for this fight where HLPM = Holy Lights per minute, HSPM = Holy Shocks per minute, and FoLPM = Flash of Lights per minute
Crit rating from z INT * MP5 from 1 crit = a
a = MP5 from z INT via crit

b) Mana Tide formula:
(x * 0.24 / 5 / 60) * 5 = mp5 from Mana Tide, where x is the mana gained from z INT
b = MP5 from z INT via Mana Tide

c) Replenishment formula:
(x * 0.01) * y = mp5 from Replenishment, where x is the mana gained from z INT and y is the average uptime expressed as a decimal
c = MP5 from z INT via Replenishment

d) Revitalize formula:
(x * 0.01) * y = mp5 from Revitalize, where x is the mana gained from z INT and y is the average uptime expressed as a decimal
d = MP5 from z INT via Revitalize

e) Judgments formula:
((x * .04) * y) + ((4394 * .02) * y) / 60 = mp5 from Judgments, where x is the mana gained from z INT and y is the average number of Judgments in 5 minutes
e = MP5 from z INT via Judgments

f) Divine Plea formula:
(x * .25) * y) / 60 = mp5 from Divine Plea, where x is the mana gained from z INT and y is the average number of Pleas in 5 minutes
f = MP5 from z INT via Divine Plea

g) Arcane Torrent formula (blood elf only):
(x * .06) * y) / 60 = mp5 from Arcane Torrent, where x is the mana gained from z INT and y is the average number of Torrents in 5 minutes
g = MP5 from z INT via Arcane Torrent

a + b + c + d + e + f + g = MP5 gained from z INT

- Wasn’t that fun? -

That first step of finding the averages of everything is my least favorite part, since it takes so long to really get a good sample size.  Since the crit rating formula is in there, I labeled this for finding the MP5 from crit, too.  Now that I’m looking back at it… I feel like I have forgotten something in there, some step that would be really useful to know for beginners or something.  Hmm.  Well, if anyone spots it, let me know, I guess!

INC Podcast

So, I’ve been invited to join in a healadin round table event.  I’m thinking it’ll be a good time!  Check it out.  I hope my readers won’t be put off by how utterly unprofessional I sound…

Recycle-a-Post: Holy Paladin mana regen

I hope this green isn’t too difficult to read, but I thought I’d post in this color to honor Earth Day and because I’m doing a Recycle-a-Post. I figured I’d go back and take a look at my first really in-depth math post to make sure that I still like it and whatnot.  All comments from me in the current day will be in this green italic.

This post has been bouncing around in my head and recently comments on my dislike of MP5 have made me think that I need to show -why- I don’t really like it.  There shall be math involved!

- Some basics to know beforehand -

First of all, there is an element of play style involved in these calculations.  Things like group composition, frequency of heals cast and skillful use of all paladin abilities really determine things.  I’ll be as specific as I can.  Let me lay some ground work.

Item budget:  INT = 1, Crit = 1, MP5 = 2

Item budget determines how costly it is to put a specific stat on an item per point.  For example, to put 1 point of INT on an ilevel 200 epic costs 1 ilevel, leaving 199 ilevels left.  To put 1 point of Crit on an ilevel 200 epic costs 1 ilevel, leaving 199 ilevels left.  To put 1 point of MP5 on an ilevel 200 epic costs 2 ilevels, leaving 198 ilevels left.  In short, it’s twice as costly to put MP5 on an item as INT or crit.  This is important when we’re comparing usefulness for mana regen.

These comments about item budget are rather confusing, I think.  I should have just said “for every 1 point of MP5 on a piece of gear, you’d get 2 points of crit or INT.”  That’s part of the reason why later computations don’t look as clean, I think.  Making sure that the proper comparison is 1 crit = 1 INT = .5 MP5 when adjusted for item budget would have been a better choice.

Synergy:  MP5 gives nothing but mana regen.  Crit gives some mana regen and a random chance of increasing throughput.  INT gives mana regen, a random chance of increasing throughput  and a constant throughput increase through spellpower.

- Critical Strike Rating -

Healadins have a great talent (although highly nerfed now) to get mana back when our heals crit, Illumination.  The way it works is that the more you cast, the better it is.  Fights were you are constantly casting get more mana regen from crit than fights where you have long pauses or cast slowly.  This means that crit is very fight dependent.  Generally, once all the math is done, crit gives 30-50% of the mana regen MP5 does when you’re comparing two items.  (This is taking into account item budget.)

To find out for yourself how much regen each point of crit is giving you, you need to know how many times you cast each of your heals per minute.  That is calculated by knowing your total casts and the fight length.  HLPM is Holy Light casts per minute, HSPM is Holy Shock casts per minute and FoLPM is Flash of Light casts per minute.  The formula is thus:

(HLPM * 382.2 * 0.0002178 * .o83333) + (HSPM * 237.3 * 0.0002178 * .o83333) + (FoLPM * 92.1 * 0.0002178 * .o83333) = the MP5 1 crit is worth to you for this fight

The second number in each parenthesis is the amount of mana gained per spell crit, after that is the crit added per point of crit in decimal form, and after that is the amount of MP5 ticks in a minute in decimal form.  Not as complicated as you’d think right?  Remember at the end to double the number you get before you compare it to 1 MP5, due to 2 crit = 1 MP5 in item budget.  (Or you can compare the number you arrive at above to .5 MP5, both work out in the end.)

As you can see, the mana regen we get from crit is no where near as good as what we get from MP5.  However, crit is -not- purely a mana regen stat.  It also increases HPS, which is something to consider.

Wow, I should have really backed this up with a specific example.  Even during fights with phases where I don’t do any healing at all (LK’s last phase) or where I die early (Marrowgar-25 hardmode), I never see the usefulness of crit drop below 30% and generally it stays up around 50% of MP5s usefulness as a regen stat.  This is of course added to the HPS bonus of it all.  I wrote this back in ToGC days, when tanks had less HP.  As time as gone on, crit has increased in importance as a throughput stat, what with bigger tank health pools and faster/harder boss hits.

- Intellect -

This one is far more complicated than then crit and doesn’t really depend nearly as much on play style.  Mana regen from INT is actually much more dependent on group composition than anything else.  For sake of ease, we’ll start by exploring what 100 INT gets you and then break it down to show what 1 INT is.

100 INT =
1800 mana, mana that you start a fight with
18 MP5 from 100% uptime Replenishment
37.5 MP5 from using Divine Plea every cooldown
16 MP5 from Judging using Seal of Wisdom twice a minute
10 MP5 from crit gained
7.2 MP5 from Mana Tide Totem on cooldown (requires a Resto shaman in your party)
(4.5 MP5 from Arcane Torrent if you’re a Blood Elf)
= 88.7 MP5 (93.2 MP5 for Blood Elves)

Not all of these numbers would be considered “real world.” You’ll probably only have a 80-90% uptime on Replenishment, might not be running with a Resto shaman and might not be able to use Divine Plea exactly on cooldown. (The number from crit is an estimate from above, as well.) However, Judging on cooldown more than makes up for it. Thus, this is a relatively close estimate.

So, we can give an average of .887 MP5 for 1 INT. Taking into account that 2 INT = 1 MP5 (1.774 MP5 vs. 1 MP5) for item budget, you can see that the regen power of INT far outweighs MP5. This doesn’t take into account the added mana you begin the fight with.

As an added bonus, you also get crit rating and spellpower from INT. (100 INT = .726% crit, 20 spellpower) It isn’t much of a throughput bonus, but considering that MP5 gives no bonus at all…

I find this is a bit higher than what I get now, since Replenishment almost never has a 100% uptime and there is generally some time spent between when Plea comes off cooldown and when I use it.  However, I Judge constantly, which makes up for a huge chunk of that regen.  Generally, I like to round down to .75 as a good number.  It makes my calculations look much cleaner!  I really need to work on making awkward comparisons much clearer.  That whole item budget thing makes this look messy again.  “The choice between 2 INT and 1 MP5 amounts to the choice between 1.5 MP5 from the INT and 1 MP5.”  Or something like that.

- In the end… -

Blizzard tried to strong-arm Healadins into taking MP5 gear by severely reducing the mana we regen from crit and also reducing what we gain from INT, but even with all the changes they’ve made, Intellect is -still- our prime mana regen stat. You’ll often read in guides that healadins recommend gemming/enchanting towards INT, but that is simply because it is that good. There are very nice INT trinkets out there as well that I highly recommend picking up. Going towards INT gives you double the goodness; you’re picking up small amounts of throughput from the INT itself and you’re freeing up yourself to wear more straight throughput items.

Crit isn’t a very good mana regen stat anymore, as I’ve shown. However, it does give you throughput, whereas MP5 gives no throughput at all. Picking up an item with both haste and crit on it gives you double throughput with some mana regen on it. With a proper eye turned towards enough INT being on the item, you may be able to get the exact same regen in that slot as you would with an MP5 piece, without sacrificing any throughput!

Generally, it isn’t gearing that causes many healadins to run short on mana, but rather improper use of regen mechanics. If you forget to Judge, forget to use Divine Plea and never remember to use a mana potion, those are things you need to remedy -first.- Trying to compensate for those things by stacking more and more regen isn’t helping your raid any. As healers, we need to gear just enough mana regen that we can end the fight with just a little sliver of mana left (that we keep for emergencies) with all cool-downs blown. Any more than that is just a waste!

I’m pretty happy with how this was written.  It gets into the math without being entirely overwhelming.  I look forward to having to translate all these regen mechanics for the new expansion, of course!  Good thing I have a priest and a druid so I’m used to Spirit-based mana regen already, heh.

More details on why I don’t talk about FoL spec

Why the heck not, right?  It’s been a long couple of days and I don’t really feel like crunching any numbers right now.

- Introduction type part of the post -

(I’m having issues thinking of witty catch-phrases, can you tell?)  My first post on this was a quick explanation of why I don’t want to discuss Flash of Light specced paladins.  Of the five, albeit not terribly in-depth, points I made, the second one is the one that people really latched onto and tried to argue against.  To quote myself: “There is no way I could keep the tanks up with that on some fights.”  Notice the pronoun there?  I never said that it will never, ever keep the tanks up.  It was quite clear that it isn’t a viable spec for the sheer amount of healing I’m doing.  In this case, that means having 5 healers with only myself on the tanks, generally.  Rather curious is that no one actually latched onto my other points (ie. trading HPS for HPM, stat scaling issues) to refute, just the validity one.

It has also been said that I’m not writing about FoL spec because it doesn’t work for me.  Well… yes?  I also have no desire to do any real tanking on my paladin, so I refrain from writing about that, too.  The gist of my previous post was that I don’t write about it because I don’t like it.  That seems like a valid reason to me.

Let me note that I have used FoL spec before.  In fact, there was a time when I used nothing but!  There was also a time when I stacked MP5 through the roof and where I refused to spec into Divine Sacrifice because it would hurt my numbers.  Thankfully, those times have passed and I have moved on to min-maxing my play.

As per usual, if you want to prove me wrong about some of the factual reasons given in this post, please do so!  If you don’t feel comfortable posting your WoL data in the comments, you can also email it to me at leontheyal AT gmail DOT com.  Saying “I pull 7k HPS and keep both LK tanks up just fine with FoL spec” is all well and good, but please back it up with proof.  I rather like being proven wrong, but anecdotal claims aren’t true evidence.

- First the math-y reasons -

HPM vs. HPS:  I just spent some time doing some math, taking into account my current gear (shown here) and optimal FoL spec gear before hardmodes (shown here), calculating the average HPS for each taking into account both SoL/FoL glyphs and crit ratio.  I didn’t take into account the healing from the HL glyph because it would make things more complicated and I wanted to focus on the amount of pure tank healing that could be averaged for each spell for each appropriately geared healer.  In the end, the combination of the haste cap and the lower spellpower coefficient are really what did in FoL for HPS.  (HL has a 188.5% coefficient and FoL only has a 113% one.)  On average, FoL will net 5911.5714 HPS while HL will net 9629.1765 HPS.  On the HPM side, FoL costs 307.58 MPS, while HL costs 1019.408 MPS.  That gives FoL 19.21696 HPM per second and HL 9.4458 HPM per second.  That’s a -huge- difference for mana use, but also a -huge- difference in healing.  FoL spec leans heavily on the mana efficiency side of the equation and HL spec leans heavily on the throughput side of the equation.  The kicker comes in the fact that you don’t need the sort of HPM you get from FoL if you are using your mana regen skills effectively.  You end up having an over-abundance of mana and start coming in really short for potential throughput.

Ability to keep tanks alive:  This one is more math based that some might think.  I’m currently going through the parse from the Lich King encounter (shown here) and I’m seeing that Soul Reaper had an average initial hit of 30798.7 damage with an average tick of 27091.9 damage five seconds later, even with multiple cooldowns up at once.  This happens throughout phases two and three, in addition to the average 19905.6 damage melee swings.  Looking at the numbers I calculated above, how can HL spec be anything -but- better for keeping the tanks alive?  I’m trying to find the Lich King’s average DPS, but I don’t seem to see it.  What I can say is that, given the heavy damage in all the most difficult fights, FoL spec seems more a detriment than anything.  Couple this with the fact that nearly all fights have lulls where it is safe to regen your mana, the HPS loss for HPM is more than unnecessary.  Damage in WotLK has been incredibly spikey, something the developers are trying to move away from in the next expansion.  Spike damage of that nature means that your tank may go from 100% health to dead in 2 seconds.  Given that, logic dictates that fast, big heals are of more use than a steady stream of smaller ones.

Promoting the use of one spell:  Let’s face it, both specs do this.  The major difference is that FoL spec can’t support pure HL spam, whereas HL spec completely supports FoL spam.  There are fights where I almost cast nothing -but- FoL in my HL spec.  Going back to my average HPS calculations (taking into account my current gear and glyphs), I can pull about 5209.515 HPS using FoL.  That’s right, my average FoL HPS is only 702 less than what a fully geared/gemmed FoL user sees.  The main difference is that when the big hits start coming in, I can pump out a steady stream of big heals for much longer than a FoL specced user could.

Stat disparity:  This is an interesting problem, similar to the issues that Disc priests have.  What I mean by this is that there comes a point in gearing where only two stats will improve your healing for FoL specced paladins, those being critical strike and spellpower.  The other two stats found on gear are considered wasted, because they do no help improve your healing.  Haste beyond the 676 cap is considered wasted because you can’t cast faster than 1 second due to the GCD.  MP5 is considered wasted because FoL is so mana efficient and HL usage is sporadic, not constant.  HL spec, however, sees no stats as wasted so long as a healthy balance of MP5 to crit is maintained.  It makes gearing more mindful, rather than just “is it high ilevel with crit on it?”  It also means there is less waste in item budget, allowing paladins to get more bang for their buck.

- Less math based reasons -

FoL is boring:  It bores the life out of me!  It’s a slightly speedier version of Whack-a-Mole, only without the fun elements of getting to see huge crits and lots of little numbers from the splash.  It also reduces the amount of regen skills I need to use, meaning fewer Judgments and less general time spent looking at my mana bar.  Timing my Pleas well and often, running in to sneak melee swings between casts… these are all things that give me something to do that isn’t straight up heal spam.  Yes, I could still do them while hitting FoL, but the point is I don’t have to, so I’m liable to get lazy. I know, I’ve seen myself do it.  I want my big numbers and my need for tight mana control.  It’s the only way to keep myself interested with the repetitive nature of healing.

Spreading out responsibility for the tanks is bad:  This is another subjective one, but the last thing I want to do is to make more work for my team.  I want to know that I can keep the tank(s) up all by myself and help them out on raid healing at the same time, even if it’s only with HL splash.  They are busy enough as it is!  This is similar to my reasoning against 51/5/15 specs; Divine Sacrifice is good for the entire raid, even if you have to lose a bit of your personal bonuses.  My HL spec takes pressure off the raid healers, because they don’t have to worry about rolling on the tanks when they’re busy.  They know that during single tank fights, I’ll have the tank Beaconed and be spamming a combination of fast FoLs and hard-hitting HLs (with splash!) on the raid to help them out.  During two tank fights, they know I’ll have one tank Beaconed and be casting HLs (with splash!) on the tank closest to melee to give them some wiggle room in raid healing.  I can help -them- with their assignments, not the other way around.

- But in the end… -

I don’t think my reasoning is going to sway FoL specced healers away from their chosen role.  FoL spec isn’t for min-maxing healers, as I’ve shown with my numbers, but it is generally the non-math based reasons that sway most people towards that spec.  FoL spec is “good enough,” even if it isn’t optimal.

Before anyone starts telling me that it works just fine for 10-mans, HL spec works just as well for 10s with the added bonus of working best for 25-mans.  As always, my motto is “prepare for the hardest content and the rest will be just fine.”  I gear, spec, and write so that I can be the very best healer I can be.  That is why I don’t write about FoL spec and related tactics.  From a min-maxing point of view, it -isn’t- the best healer I be.

Updates on the paladin preview

Okay, so it turns out the FoL/HL thing was just a bad case of wording.  It seems they want paladins to go the way of priests with their three heals which, well, I’m okay with I guess.  I liked paladins being different, but what can you do.

The Beacon changes… they just need to stop talking about it.  It makes me more and more unhappy the more they talk about it.  All of the proposed changes will make it highly unlikely that Beacon will get used in anything other than specific fights.  They very much are moving back to the days of TBC and while I liked the -raids- of TBC better, I didn’t exactly like healing better.  They way they are proposing the paladin changes will make me back into a “single tank healer.”  So boring.

Paladin Preview – Thoughts

I’m not going to repost the entire preview (you can see it here), but here are my thoughts on what has been released so far:

Blinding Shield is either going to be incredibly overpowered or entirely useless.  I’m speaking in PvP terms, of course.  Being able to blind the entire other party as an -instant cast- is just insane.  Of course, if they have to be facing you, it’ll lose a whole lot of its power for healadins, since it’ll get interrupted or at best people will just spin away.

Healing Hands, I assume, is their answer to wanting healadins to stand in melee by the boss and raid heal.  However, it is a passive ability that will be hit every 15 seconds and then the healadin will just continue with their casting routine.  It potentially has a 2/5 uptime, which will be nice on AoE fights and I’m actually kind of excited to see what the graphics of it will be like.  Waiting until we see the HPM and the limits to this before getting overly happy.  It might end up having a very limited healing amount for a heavy mana cost.

Guardian of Ancient Kings is a an auto-healing pet?  (Those ancient kings, they be lovin’ me!)  That’s… fun, I suppose?  A fun thing to pop while hanging out?  I’m not really sure how this could -not- be overpowered in arenas and I’m not sure how we’re exactly supposed to use this in PvE.  Will it be another cooldown to have while we’re Pleaing?  The duration on it is really freaking long, too.  30 seconds!  That’s a 1/10 uptime, for gods’ sakes.  It again might fall into the “too much mana cost for too little healing” to be something we use often.

Cleanse changes and dispel changes are generally pretty boring.  No real comments on them until I see it in action.

Blessing changes mean that our 5-ish paladins will have even less buffing to do.  Heck, let’s just make it into a single buff called “Blessing” so that I can get rid of PallyPower and be lazy!  As it stands, I plan on never buffing during the expansion due to abusing my power.  Heh.

Crusader Strike being baseline will sure help things out for leveling.  It is -so boring- leveling a paladin…

Are they changing it so Holy Shock doesn’t do damage anymore?  That would rather suck.  Giving it as a spell to all paladins could lead into PvP healing in non-Holy specs again.  It might also put even more of a burden on dps paladins to help spot heal, taking their attention away from their job.  We’ll have to see.

If they nerf the Divine Shield duration, I’m going to be pissed.  If they shorten the duration, they had better take it off the GCD or else I’m going to be killing myself whenever I BoSac the tank.

Sacred Shield going to a 30 minute buff is pretty boring.  They’ll be increasing the mana cost of it substantially, I assume, which means that switching it to tunneled people in arenas isn’t going to be as handy.

I just have to quote this about the New Bigger Heal:  “We want to add to the Holy tree a nice big heal to correspond with Greater Heal. Flash of Light remains the expensive, fast heal and Holy Light is the go-to heal that has average efficiency and throughput.”  …WHAT?!  Holy Light is an -average heal- to them?!  Flash of Light is an -expensive heal- to them?!  I don’t even know what to say to this.  Do they know what spells they are talking about, here?  It boggles my mind, it really does.  Hilariously, though, this coincides with my joking that paladins are going to get a 10-second cast time Complete Heal.  It’s like the cycle of my videogame healing career is complete…  Join me in my prayers to Tunare, brothers and sisters!

“Beacon of Light will be changed to work with Flash of Light. We like the ability, but want paladins to use it intelligently and not be constantly healing for twice as much.”  Why, hello there, TBC, how are you today?  Hilarious.  This will work out in one of two ways: 1) healadins will all go back to casting only FoL or else 2) healadins will go back to healing only the tank.  This goes hand in hand with the Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses: Healing, Meditation, Critical Healing Effect.  Yup, looks like it’s back to FoL spam.  Ah, Hyjal, how I’ve missed you…

Overall – The new things they are adding seem gimmicky to me, especially as they are both passive abilities.  They are replacing a spell we have to cast every 30 seconds with one that will be cast every 15 seconds, so that isn’t exactly very interesting.  The new spell they are adding will most likely not be very much used and will probably turn out the way that Greater Heal is for priests at the current moment.  The really big hit is going to be if they go through with Beacon only working for FoL.  That added to the changes they are making to how tanks take damage (a steady stream instead of huge chunks) means that healadins are going to go back to casting nothing but FoL.  Because -that- isn’t boring or anything.