v3.3

Let us gather the various parts together and have a look at some of the numbers. This post also includes LootRanks and Pawn values.

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

Summary of stat weights

MP5

• Discipline = 2.00
• Holy = 2.00

Spirit

• Discipline = 0.4272
  • MP5 value from mana regen = 0.4272
• Holy = 1.0516
  • MP5 value from mana regen = 0.3818
  • MP5 value from Holy Concentration = 0.0924
  • MP5 value from Spiritual Guidance = 0.525

Intellect

• Discipline = 1.2349
  • MP5 value from mana regen = 0.1552
  • MP5 value from maximum mana = 0.1977
  • MP5 value from Replenishment = 0.1518
  • MP5 value from Shadowfiend = 0.0988
  • MP5 value from Rapture = 0.1581
  • MP5 value from critical healing = 0.2187
  • MP5 value from Divine Aegis = 0.1969
  • MP5 value from Inspiration = 0.0577
• Holy = 0.9114
  • MP5 value from mana regen = 0.1632
  • MP5 value from maximum mana = 0.1719
  • MP5 value from Replenishment = 0.132
  • MP5 value from Shadowfiend = 0.0859
  • MP5 value from critical healing = 0.2020
  • MP5 value from Surge of Light = 0.0614
  • MP5 value from Holy Concentration = 0.0395
  • MP5 value from Inspiration = 0.0556

Spell Power

• Discipline = 2.0
• Holy = 2.0

Critical Rating

• Discipline = 1.3610
  • MP5 value from critical healing = 0.6290
  • MP5 value from Divine Aegis = 0.5661
  • MP5 value from Inspiration = 0.1660
• Holy = 1.0547
  • MP5 value from critical healing = 0.6681
  • MP5 value from Surge of Light = 0.2029
  • MP5 value from Inspiration = 0.1838

Stamina

• Discipline = 0.2
• Holy = 0.2

Haste Rating

• Discipline = 0.6309
  • MP5 value from hasted healing = 0.6309
• Holy = 0.6227
  • MP5 value from hasted healing = 0.6096

Gear lists

Below are a pair of links to LootRank gear lists which are a good place to start with looking at the application of these stat weights.

• Discipline LootRank
• Holy LootRank

Pawn values

Pawn values for these are:

( Pawn: v1: "Discipline33": Stamina=0.2, Intellect=1.2349, Spirit=0.4273, RedSocket=46, CritRating=1.361, MetaSocket=105.933, HasteRating=0.6309, BlueSocket=29, YellowSocket=36.349, SpellPower=2, Mp5=1)

( Pawn: v1: "Holy33": Stamina=0.2, Intellect=0.9114, Spirit=1.0516, RedSocket=46, CritRating=1.0547, MetaSocket=99.1395, HasteRating=0.6096, BlueSocket=34.5165, YellowSocket=33.114, SpellPower=2, Mp5=1)

Note that the gem values are derived from the best-in-slot blue gems for each socket. These for both specs are Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (meta), Luminous Ametrine (yellow) and Runed Cardinal Ruby (red). Blue slots are Royal Dreadstone for discipline and Purified Dreadstone for holy.

Comments

Spell power is still king for both specs. The hunt for spell power, especially when gemming and enchanting will continue.

For discipline spec priests critical rating and intellect continue to be primary stats. Although critical rating vs haste rating is a personal preference critical rating outshines haste rating completely on a theorycrafting basis. Even in an unlimited mana scenario (which is actually feasible at T9.5), where discipline haste rating rises to 1.1621, ciritcal rating (1.3610) provides better value for itemisation. Spirit continues to be the poor cousin to intellect.

For holy spec priests the stats are more evenly balanced. Spirit, intellect, critical rating and haste rating (in an unlimited mana scenario – 1.2344) are all evenly valued. In my experience holy priests continue to have significantly more mana issues than discipline priests decreasing the value of haste significantly.

How much MP5 are abilities worth a T9.5 gearing level?

• Replenishment about 172-237 MP5
• Shadowfiend about 129-155 MP5
• Rapture about 247 MP5
• Holy Concentration about 100 MP5
• Divine Aegis about 909 MP5 at 35% crit
• Surge of light about 326 MP5 at 35% crit
• Inspiration is about 266-295 MP% at 35% crit

Divine Aegis is huge, and to a lesser extent so are Surge of Light and Inspiration, because at this gearing level the amount healed per cast is high. All these abilities add quite a bit of additional throughput for no extra mana cost.

Thanks for reading and your constructive comments.

Gobble gobble.

v3.3

There are three areas which are affected by Critical Rating. There is the base 50% additional healing which results from a critical and then there is then one talent for each of the healing schools which is crit based. These are Divine Aegis for discipline and Surge of Light for holy.

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:

• Flash Heal is being spammed (1887 base heal, 81% co-efficient. 1.5s cast time)
• Discipline has 2774 spell power
• Holy has 3096 spell power
• 45.91 Crit Rating equals 1% Crit
• 167 Intellect equals 1% crit. However as we are including talents and Blessing of Kings the amount of intellect on gear required for 1% crit is 132 for discipline and 151.8 for holy
• 30% over-heal
• Divine Aegis is 70% consumed.
• Surge of Light procs are 90% consumed

Base Critical value

Healing spells that critically hit heal the target for 150% of their normal healing value. To calculate the value of this additional healing we assume that the caster is using Flash Heal and use the attributes associated with that spell. To determine its value as MP5 we equate the total heal for the FH as MP5 based on the SP to MP5 ratio (2.0:1) and then calculate how much is additional healing is due to the critical. Over-healing is also taken into account.

Flash Heal Crit MP5 value = (base heal + (SP * SP co-efficient)) * SP MP5 value * proportion from crit * (1 - over-heal %)
FH Crit MP5 value (Disc) = (1887+(2774*80.68%))*2*0.5*(1-0.3)
FH Crit MP5 value (Disc) = 2887
FH Crit MP5 value (Holy) = 3099 (Holy FH crits are bigger)

1% FH Crit MP5 value (Disc) = 28.87
1% FH Crit MP5 value (Holy) = 30.99

These numbers are now converted to Critical Rating and Intellect values:

• Discipline
  • Crit rating MP5 = 28.31/45.91 = 0.6290
  • Intellect MP5 = 28.31/132 = 0.2187
• Holy
  • Crit rating MP5 = 30.43/45.91 = 0.6681
  • Intellect MP5 = 30.43/151.8 = 0.2020

Divine Aegis

Discipline priests have an additional effect that triggers on healing critical hits. Divine Aegis creates an additional 30% of the total critical heal value as a damage absorption bubble. To calculate its MP5 value we need to once again assume Flash Heal is being cast and then calculate the MP5 value of the Flash Heal and the associated Divine Aegis.

Divine Aegis FH MP5 value = (base heal + (SP * SP co-efficient)) * SP MP5 value * 1.5 * DA bonus * DA consumption rate
Divine Aegis FH MP5 value = (1887 + (2774 * 80.68%)) * 2.0 * 1.5 * 0.3 * 0.7
Divine Aegis FH MP5 value = 2598

1% DA FH MP5 value = 25.98

Divine Aegis Crit Rating MP5 value = 25.98/45.91 = 0.5661
Divine Aegis Intellect MP5 value = 25.98/132 = 0.1969

Divine Aegis, under a Flash Heal spamming scenario, provides a lot of extra throughput at this level of gearing. High spell power and high critical hit chance grant Divine Aegis quite a lot of value in this model.

Surge of Light

Holy also have a critical based talent which creates MP5 value. Surge of Light provides free Flash Heals, 50% of the time, following a spell critical.

SoL MP5 per 1% crit = Spell mana cost / cast speed * 5 * proc rate * consumption rate / 100

SoL MP5 per 1% crit = 621/1.5*5*50%*90%/100
SoL MP5 per 1% crit = 9.315

SoL Crit Rating MP5 value = 9.315/45.91 = 0.2029
SoL Intellect MP5 value = 9.315/151.8 = 0.0614

Inspiration

There is one more ability we can have a go at estimating the value off and that is Inspiration. This talent provides a buff to healing targets which reduces damage received by 10%. At first glance this doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider that a tank can take 2 million (2,000,000)points of damage in a eight minute boss fight the 10% damage reduction starts to add up.

Assumptions:

• Inspiration reduces all physical damage received by 10%
• Uptime is about 60%. Single target healing uptime is about 90%, but raid healing uptime is about 40%. To make the calculations simpler i’ve assumed a middle of the range 60% uptime.
• 30% critical chance
• MP5 value per Flash Heal is 2887 for Discipline and 3099 for Holy. This is calculated in my critical rating theorycrafting post for 3.3.
• Mana cost of Flash Healing is 528 for Discipline and 621 for Holy

Damage reduction per 1% critical chance = 10%*60%/30 = 0.20%
Damage reduction = 0.20% * 2000000 = 4000

Flash heals saved per 1% critical for:

Discipline = 4000 / 2887 = 1.3853 Flash Heals
Holy = 4000 / 3099 = 1.3041 Flash Heals

Inspiration MP5 per 1% critical = (FH mana cost * FH saved) / fight duration * 5
Discipline Inspiration MP5 per 1% critical = (528 * 1.3853) / 480 * 5 = 7.6189
Holy Inspiration MP5 per 1% critical = (621 * 1.2904) / 480 * 5 = 8.4362

Inspiration Crit Rating MP5 = Inspiration MP5 per 1% critical / Crit rating per 1% crit

Inspiration Crit Rating MP5 for discipline = 7.6189 / 45.91 = 0.1660
Inspiration Crit Rating MP5 for holy = 8.4362 / 45.91 = 0.1838

Inspiration Intellect MP5 = Inspiration MP5 per 1% critical / Intellect per 1% crit (remembering to include talents and buffs)

Inspiration Intellect MP5 for discipline = 7.6189 / 132.0158 = 0.0577
Inspiration Intellect MP5 for holy = 8.4362 / 151.8182 = 0.0556

Final critical related stat weightings are:

Discipline

• Critical rating
  • Base critical rating MP5 weighting = 0.6290
  • Divine Aegis critical rating MP5 weighting = 0.5661
  • Inspiration critical rating MP5 weighting = 0.1660
• Intellect
  • Base Intellect MP5 weighting = 0.2187
  • Divine Aegis Intellect MP5 weighting = 0.1969
  • Inspiration Intellect MP5 weighting = 0.0577

Holy:

• Critical rating
  • Base critical MP5 weighting = 0.6681
  • SoL critical rating MP5 weighting = 0.2029
  • Inspiration critical rating MP5 weighting = 0.1838
• Intellect
  • Base Intellect MP5 weighting = 0.2020
  • SoL Intellect MP5 weighting = 0.0614
  • Inspiration Intellect MP5 weighting = 0.0556

Finally next we conclude with the summary.

v3.3

Time to look at haste. Haste is a trickier creature to calculate as there are two main aspects to it:

1. More haste allows faster casting which means more throughput
2. More haste also increases the chance that a spell will be cast just-in-time to prevent death. The so called ’saving cast’.

The saving casts can not be quantified as far as I am aware as it is dependant on factors such as player skill and latency. We can however estimate the additional throughput that haste grants.

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:

• Flash Heal is being spammed (1887 base heal, 80.68% co-efficient and 1.5s cast time)
• Discipline has 2774 spell power
• Holy has 3092 spell power
• 32.8 Haste Rating equals 1% Haste
• Caster currently has zero haste. The effect of moving from 0% to 1% haste is slightly greater than moving from 6% to 7% haste. However the effect on weighting is very small.
• 30% over-heal
• Borrowed Time and Serendipity have been ignored as only FH is being spammed.
• Surge of Light procs are ignored.

Firstly we calculate the MP5 value of a Flash Heal. We calculate this so we can figure out how much an additional FH, enabled by haste, is worth.

Flash Heal MP5 value = (base heal + (SP * SP co-efficient)) * SP MP5 value * (1 - overheal %)

Flash Heal MP5 value is 5775 for discipline and 6134 for Holy.

Secondly we need to calculate the number of additional casts 1 Haste Rating allows.

Cast time for 1% Haste = Base Casting Time/(1 + (% Spell Haste / 100))
Cast time for 1% Haste = 1.5/(1 + (1 / 100))

Cast time for 1% Haste = 1.48149
Extra casts for 1% Haste = 1.5 - Caste time for 1% Haste
Extra casts for 1% Haste = 1 .5- 1.48149
Extra casts for 1% Haste = 0.014851
Extra casts for 1% Haste (%) = Extra casts for 1% Haste/ Base cast time
Extra casts for 1% Haste (%) = 0.014851 / 1.5
Extra casts for 1% Haste (%) = 0.990099%
Extra casts for 1 Haste Rating = Extra casts for 1% Haste / Haste Rating per Haste
Extra casts for 1 Haste Rating = 0.009901 / 32.8
Extra casts for 1 Haste Rating = 0.030186%

So for each 1 Haste Rating you get 0.030186% additional casts. Not much eh? Thirdly we bring the parts together to calculate how much MP5 value 1 Haste Rating brings.

Haste Rating MP5 value from additional healing = FH MP5 value per second * extra casts for 1 Haste Rating
Haste Rating MP5 value (Disc) from additional healing = 5775 / 1.5 * 0.030186%
Haste Rating MP5 value (Disc) from additional healing = 1.1621

Haste Rating MP5 value (Holy) from additional healing = 6199 / 1.5 * 0.030186%

Haste Rating MP5 value (Holy) from additional healing = 1.2344

Now this additional healing throughput comes at a cost. Casting more Flash Heals heals for more but also consumes more mana. So we need to deduct the additonal mana consumption.

Mana consumption per haste rating (MP5) = Flash Heal mana cost * extra casts for 1 Haste Rating / Flash Heal cast time * 5
Mana consumption per haste rating (MP5) (Disc) = 528 * 0.030186% / 1.5 * 5
Mana consumption per haste rating (MP5) (Disc) = 0.5312

Mana consumption per haste rating (MP5) (Holy) = 621 * 0.030186% / 1.5 * 5

Mana consumption per haste rating (MP5) (Holy) = 0.6248

Final value of haste rating is additional healing minus additional mana cost or:

• Haste Rating MP5 value for Discipline = 1.1621 – 0.5312 = 0.6309
• Haste Rating MP5 value for Holy = 1.2344 – 0.6248 = 0.6096

Using this model, at about a spell power to MP5 ratio of about 1:1 the additional throughput generated by haste rating is equal to the the additional mana cost of casting the spells. Thus at ratios less than these I suggest a floor value of 0 for haste rating MP5 value be used instead of a negative value.

Next is critical rating.

v3.3

Just a quickie.

I’m going to reconsider the holy intellect/spirit balance with an eye to taking a couple of hundred spirit off them and adding it to intellect.  I’ve been stalking a lot of holy priests and all have more intellect than spirit.  So the holy numbers will change before I do the gear lists.

I might also extend the fight duration out to 8 minutes from 6 minutes.  If I do this both the discipline and holy numbers will change slightly.

One interesting thing I discovered while checking out the holies is there is two main gearing methods  in use ATM.

Intellect stacking – Just like disc some holies are stacking intellect.  These guys tend to have similar intellect/spirit balances to disc priests.  For example 1500 Int and 900 spirit.  These players have low spell power usually around 2400.

Spirit stacking – These priests are behaving as I expected and stacking carrying intellect and spirit in about equal measures.  They tend to have about 1300 intellect and 1200 spirit.  These priests tend to have much higher spell power at about 3000.

Anyway watch this space regarding slight changes to stat weights.

Gobble gobble.

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.