Priest Theorycrafting for 3.3 – Mana Pool (Part 3)

v3.3

Next we look at mana pool and abilities which effect mana pool. There a number of parts to discuss in this post. Base mana pool and calculating the effective MP5 of a static mana pool for a specific fight duration is first followed by Replenishment, Shadowfiend and Rapture for disc priests.

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:

• MP5 for mana pools is based on a 8 minute (480s) fight over which the entire mana pool is depleted.
• Discipline has 1741 Intellect
• Holy has 1417 Intellect
• Replenishment is assumed to have an 80% uptime and returns 1% of the mana pool every five seconds.
• Shadowfiend returns 5% of the mana pool per hit and strikes for an average of 10 times per use. It is only used once per 6 minute fight.
• Rapture returns 2.5% of the mana pool each time it procs and does so once every 15s. In theory it can proc every 12s but this seems unlikely in reality. I have also ignored multiple, simultaneous procs.

Mana pool

This is also called maximum mana. To calculate the MP5 value of this firstly we need to calculate what the mana pool actually is. This calculation is fairly straight forward.

Maximum mana = Base mana + 20 + (15 x (Intellect - 20))

Base mana@80 is 3836 so the maximum mana is 29678 for Disc and 21511 for Holy. Over a 8 minute fight this is (Maximum mana/480)x5 = MP5 or 309 MP5 for Disc and 258 MP5 for Holy.

The Intellect MP5 weighting for additonal mana granted by intellect is:
Intellect MP5 weighting = Mana gained per Intellect / Fight time (s) * 5


15 mana is gained per point in intellect so the Intellect MP5 weighting is:

• Intellect MP5 weighting for Discipline maximum mana = 0.1977
• Intellect MP5 weighting for Holy maximum mana = 0.1719

The difference between dicipline and holy arises from Mental Strength, which grants 15% additional intellect to discipline priests.

Replenishment

Replenishment MP5 = Maximum mana x uptime x mana return per five seconds

This results in 29678 x 80% x 1% = 237 MP5 for Discipline and 24811 x 80% x 1% = 198 MP5 for Holy.

The Intellect MP5 weighting for Replenishment = Replenishment Mp5/Intellect (base intellect before talents and buffs) so we get these weightings:

• Intellect MP5 weighting for Discipline Replenishment = 0.1518
• Intellect MP5 weighting for Holy Replenishment = 0.132

Shadowfiend

Shadowfiend MP5 = (Maximum mana x mana return per hit x number of hits) / Fight duration in seconds x 5

This results in (29678 x 5% x 10) / 480 x 5 = 155 MP5 for Discipline and (24811 x 5% x 10) / 360 x 5 = 129 MP5 for Holy. For this calculation I have ignored the fairly common practice of using Shadowfiend and Hymn of Hope together. Mainly because its not always possible for a priest to channel Hymn of Hope for the duration of Shadowfiend.

The Intellect MP5 weighting for Shadowfiend = Shadowfiend Mp5/base Intellect so we get these weightings:

• Intellect MP5 weighting for Discipline Shadowfiend = 0.0988
• Intellect MP5 weighting for Holy Shadowfiend = 0.0859

Rapture

Rapture MP5 = ((Maximum mana x mana return per proc) x (1/proc frequency)) x 5
Rapture MP5 = (29678 x 2.5%) x (1/15) x 5
Rapture MP5 = 247

The Intellect MP5 weighting for Rapture = Rapture Mp5/base Intellect so we get this weighting:

• Intellect MP5 weighting for Discipline Rapture = 0.1581

Mana pool complete. Next is haste rating.