Healadin crit vs mp5 hypothesises

I've followed the healadin discussions at elitistjerks.com, even though everything isn't really figured out yet.

My thoughts of the healadin has always been fast point healing, with some emergency big spell rescues. My crit chance has always been considered low, but still I have had little or no problem keeping people up for a long time (never forgetting the 6-8 minutes-ish 5 survivors Prince K fight from 40 down to 7 % pre-patch-3-nerf with only one healer).

The overheal factor is of course important. It can be argued that we have rarely been strictly organized with certain raiders as our own responsibility. But it can also be argued that crit heals are wasted increased healing if all it's gonna be is overheals.

Crit does some nice things for paladins (with proper talents):
- 60% mana returned after each crit
- Holy shock crit decrease cast time on next spell by 1.5 sec (making flash heal instant)

Critting seem to be important from the developers' point of view. With talents only, we can build 16 % without any gear rating...

Crit is nice, lots of bonus stuff for it now also, but... mp5 seems to be the key for all situations really. With some haste you can boost your swiftness and with mp5 you can keep doing it forever. Well, mp5 and a nice mana pool..

One factor, game mechanical or not, is that tanks seem to like and enjoy healer who doesn't need mana breaks. Hehe... And I definately agree, when tanking I just want to keep pulling as fast as the DPSers can kill and not take breaks.

I'll be aiming for the talented 16 % crit and BoK for the mana pool, gear up with int and mp5 and grab crit/haste if I can get that also as an addition. Until my mp5 is so high that I never go oom on any boss fight..

I am the only holy paladin at the moment, so I am not expecting a huge and intense discussion, but if you non-healadins have thoughts about this, feel free to share them.

From current available gear, it is possible to have 377 mp5 while casting, using only blue pre-raid gear and blue gems. In a 10 minute fight, this represents 45240 regenerated mana. To beat that by spamming holy light, with no break at all, you need a crit% at 24.65. Statistically this is equal to 377 mp5. If flash of light is spammed instead, more than 60% crit% is needed to beat 377 mp5.

In fights you rarely spam, but need to move every now and then. The mana pool might also be a problem for holy light spamming, so going for flash healing doesn't look so bad.

From current available gear, not caring about other stats, it is possible to have 38.33% holy spell crit (including talented crit chance), pre-raid with blue gear and blue gems only, not counting enchants nor buffs. This means 28299 regenerated mana if you spam flash of light, or 70344 regenerated mana if you spam holy light.

With this gear you have no mp5 at all, which means you must cast without pauses to maintain illumination regen. For reasons like that and need to move every now and then, the recycled mana is lower, but it's impossible to know how much.

I've made a few calculations, but I am not sure I covered it all. If anyone stumbles across these numbers, feel free to correct me or add any smart comments. For the moment, I am too tired to continue... these numbers are "subject to change" all the time.

Character stats (based on current mp5-maxed blue gear, blue gems and talented crit%):
Mp5: 377
Crit rating: 890 = 19.39% holy spell crit

Base mana at 80: 4394
=> Flash of Light cost: 307 mana

Without latency, 10 minute fight...
= 400 Flash of Light
= 45240 regained mana from mp5
= 14310 regained mana from illumination
= total mana regen: 59550 (=5955 per minute)
= total mana cost for spamming Flash of Light without any pause: 12303 per minute

Total mana (expected) at level 80: ~15000
With BoK: ~16500

Arcane torrent spam (6% instant mana regen, 2 minutes cooldown) = 41 mp5
BoW = 109 Mp5
Superior mana oil = 14 mp5
Enchants on chest, boots, shoulders = 22 mp5
Divine plea (25% mana regen over 15 seconds, 1 minute cooldown) spam = 344 mp5
Sum buffed mana regen per minute: 6362

Total mana regen per minute: 5955+6362=12317

Mana reduction per minute: flash of light cost - total mana regen = 12303-12317 = -14

THIS is surprising, fantastic and strange... and it awakens my suspicious mind. Can it really be so, that if fighting with all available buffs, spamming all talents on every CD, Flash of Light spams will never drain your mana??! If this is true, paladins going the mp5 way (remember the stats are only from blue pre-raid gear!) will never go OOM.

Since this is truly amazing, please doublecheck my data if you are into numbers... and find any facts that I overlooked.

Hummm just found 1 error in your calcs, and it does not mather much...

The mana oil is not usable anymore so take awya 14 mp5.

Other then that it's fine I think =)

Thanks. =)

I removed the oil and the result was:

Mana decreases by 154 per minute.
I would go OOM after 100.8 minutes.

Should be enough for any fight.

The question about spell power remains. I have not considered how much I would have with mp5 maxed blue gear or what I would need to heal a entry level raid tank.

This is taken from Elitist Jerks:
FoL scales really well with Spell Power because it has a low mana cost, but gets more benefit from Spell Power then most 1.5sec spells. So once you get to higher gear levels its low amount of base healing won't really matter, since 75% of the healing it does is from Spell Power.

Assuming I have enough spell power, everything should be ok. And if not, I can always nerf my mp5 a lot and still never go OOM in a 10 minute boss fight.

In theory...

Concerning spellcrits.

I am now at 39.67% spellcrit with holy spells. With Hurna around and some consumables I reach ~46.7%, plus eventual INT boosts from BoK (1.28%), landing at ~48% raid buffed.

MP5 is low on my list now since I since 5% ago regained more mana from crits than regular regen. SP is a little bit put aside for now, thinking that crits will bring higher HPS in the long run.

With special crit gear available right now, my spellcrit can be increased to ~55.8% raid buffed. We shall see if I am lucky enough to get those items. It will be interesting to see how healing goes then.