Priest Theorycrafting for 3.3 – Introduction (Part 1)

v3.3

Time for some theorycrafting! This post and the others that follow are basically an update and re-fresh of my 3.1 theory crafting work for 3.3.

Until you finish gearing from heroics and Emblems of Triumph you are probably better using my 3.1 stat weights. The original 3.1 stat weightings are more mana regeneration focused and at the earlier stages of gearing mana regen will be a significant issue. Links to all my earlier work can be found under Priestly Resources in the menu above. This includes gear lists, gemming and enchants. These stat weights are aimed at players starting tier 10 raiding (Ice Crown).

Always treat stat weights with caution. There are many opinions on exactly what they should be and arguments on the methods for calculating them. I created these to provide a guide for selecting gear for your healing priest. They are however a guide and gear is only one factor in determining a players ability to perform their role along side experience and skill.

Healing priests can choose to just aim to gear at the highest item level possible and provided they choose appropriate gear (stuff with spell power, intellect, spirit, haste, etc on it) they would be competative with a similarly skilled and experienced priest who selected gear based on these stat weights. This is a bit of a slap in the face for someone who has spent hours fiddling with spreadsheets, but at the end of the day stat weights are about fine tuning gear selection and not the be-all-and-end-all of gearing.

Sections

1. Introduction
2. Mana regeneration including Spell Power and Stamina
3. Mana pool
4. Haste rating
5. Critical rating
6. Summary including LootRank and Pawn values

Assumptions

As always when creating my model I needed to make a number of assumptions. I will mention these again, where relevant in each section, but I will cover the bigger ones here at the onset.

• Mana regeneration is based on the caster spending 95% of their fight time inside the 5 second rule.
• Stats, where required, are roughly based on Turkelife’s current stats at time of writing. This includes Mark of the Wild, Dalaran Intellect, Blessing of Kings, Prayer of Fortitude and Prayer of Spirit raid buffs. It doesn’t include flasks, food or talent build specific buffs such as a boomkins critical aura. This is about a tier 9.5 (item level 245) gearing level:
  • Discipline
    • Intellect 1741
    • Spirit 1166
    • Spell power 2774
  • Holy
    • Intellect 1417
    • Spirit 1272
    • Spell power 3092
• Fight length is 8 minutes (480 seconds)
• Flash Heal is used whenever a spell cast is required
• Spell power co-efficient 81%
• Base heal is 1887
• Mana cost 528 for discipline and 621 for holy (assuming talents and glyphs)
• Over-healing is assumed to be 30% and 50% for critical hits

Discipline stats start from a base (without talents or buffs) value of 1300 intellect and 900 spirit. Holy start from 1200 intellect and 1000 spirit.

More to follow.