Healer Mana in a post 4.0 world.

[shoju]

I know it is early, but the data I have from my Disc Priest has me a little concerned about the idea that Healing mana is going to continuously be a concern at max content in Cataclysm.

I originally brought this up when they talked about Removing Spellpower and just deriving it from Intellect. My thought was:

"You will just reach a point in gearing where you can just go full on nuts and it wont matter"

I haven't checked on the beta in a week or so to see how stats are fairing at entry heroic levels on my pre-made, and this is something that I intend to look into, and probably report in beta when I get a chance.

When 4.0 was released, I gained ~14-15k mana and ~500 spell/healing power on Maryshelly, My Discipline Priest. My gear was gemmed with
Spellpower
Spellpower + Haste or crit
Spellpower +Spirit gems.

Now, all of those gems are Intellect and Intellect + "X" gems. My Mana regen went up more as well. Pre Patch I was at 978 / 489 MP5 with Divine Spirit. Right now I'm at 1019 / 606 MP5 and there is no Divine Spirit any more. I'm fairly confident with Might/Mana Spring and Replenishment, I will actually be in a much better position mana wise than I was pre patch.

Because of this, I'm sitting at more mana than a lot of paladins were pre patch, and I've received a huge boost in my spellpower. IMO, Stacking Intellect is going to become "THE" thing that healers do at 85.

It gives you:

• More throughput
  
• larger mana pool
  
• Indirectly boosts Mastery. Each healing class gets a %boost to healing or shielding or a HoT based on a %, etc.. of the heal. By stacking INT for a larger mana pool, you will also be increasing your spellpower, a key coefficient to your healing spells, which will be checked for your Mastery.
  

What I see happening isn't going to happen right away, but eventually, healers are going to be able to gem up their gear with Int and Int +X gems, and get to a point where there gear is outstripping the difficulty that they are attempting. I'm not talking about in old content, Blizzard has stated time and time again that overgearing content is not a big deal. I'm thinking that this is going to happen in a current tier. At some point, Healers are just going to be able to gem/enchant their way out of mana mattering.

I hope I'm wrong, But I'm pretty interested to hear what the rest of the Lurkers community thinks about this. Am I way off? Did I miss something?

[Kevin]

I hope I'm wrong, But I'm pretty interested to hear what the rest of the Lurkers community thinks about this. Am I way off? Did I miss something?

Umm this happened in wrath. I actually had to worry about my mana pool and when to pop my cooldowns for mana regen on both Festergut and Blood Prince Council until I got 2 piece T10 and and a few other upgrades from ICC and didn't have to think about it anymore. People forget that Lower Spire was designed to be defeated by people in mostly ilvl 232 gear. Most of our raids were 232/219 geared when we were getting first kills in there and the encounters played differently. This is why some people were so frustrated that folks in 251/264 gear with a 30% zone buff couldn't take down bosses that we took down in 232/251 gear and no zone buff.

But you can go back more than that. I had to worry about mana and when to use my cooldowns for mana regen on fights like Hodir in Ulduar. I didn't have to worry about it in Naxx because well we could pop the mana regen and not take the 50% healing power hit. We had wipes on Thorim because healers were OOM and we had to adjust things to help with that.

There was a time in wrath when druids were about the only healers that never did have to worry about mana all the other classes did. You can find discussions on these boards where mana regen is discussed.

So if that does happen I don't think it's going to be anything new. People just have short memories.

[Concillian]

In current content mana isn't an issue. As we level, base mana increases... dramatically and not in proportion to the gear INT and SPI boost. This will push mana usage way up, as spell costs are tied to base mana. Health pools and mana pools are increasing by a factor of 2-3x, mana costs are increasing by a factor of ~5x. Raw heal amounts per spell are increasing by a factor of 1.5-2x. There will be a lot more need for mana at 85.

Unless there are sliding scales for regen based on tier, then mana will 'top out' eventually. That's kinda what happens. Gear for regen, get "enough" then switch to gearing throughput. As I remember it, it's been that way since like, WoW came out.

Most weel geared discipline priests are reforging spirit to mastery for 4.0.1 since mana is not much of an issue. Discipline has always been the more mana efficient healing spec for priests.

[Mavfin]

Most weel geared discipline priests are reforging spirit to mastery for 4.0.1 since mana is not much of an issue. =

At 80, my Disc priest, which isn't geared as well as Conc's, is at ~39K mana unbuffed after patch, so I have mana to burn at the moment. So, I can burn some spirit for bigger shields for now. As Conc said, after 80 we'll have to think about mana again.