From gear to Reputation grinds to non-combat pet collections, Blizzard seems keen to make players feel like they’re making progress. Unlike many competitors, however, they have yet to add the most significant, non-combat progression path: player housing.
This article became obsolete as of Patch 2.4. For Intellect and MP5 comparisons relevant as of 2.4, please see 2.4 Mana Regen – Part 1: The Basics and 2.4 Mana Regen – Part 2: The Mana Regen Calculator.
Intellect and Mana per Five share an interesting relationship. While every point of Intellect gives you mana up front, the MP5 statistic returns mana over time, assuming you aren’t already at your maximum. As you might have intuited, determining their relative values involves a consideration of time. Luckily, the formula that determines their relationship is one of the simplest.
For every point of Intellect, a caster adds 15 more mana to her base mana pool. And every point of MP5 returns 1 Mana every 5 seconds. Therefore, at 1 minute and 15 seconds, a single point of MP5 is worth a point of Intellect. This sliding scale can be expressed by the following formula:
(Fight Length in Seconds/5)/15 = Intellect required to Equal 1 MP5
If we consider the value of Blessing of Kings, a buff grantiing 10% to all stats that is available in most 25-man raids, it increases the value of Intellect by 10%, changing our formula to the following:
(Fight Length in Seconds/5)/(15*1.1) = Intellect required to Equal 1 MP5
Applying these two formulas to fights varying from 0 to 10 minutes, we can derive the following graph:
Therefore, to know how much you value Intellect, you will want to consider the average length of those boss fights which which your guild is currently struggling (i.e., disregard encounters you have on farm; they are less likely to require optimization).
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I am excited that BRK is back, though!
/cry I love you, ty for everything.
I think you’re forgetting about the effect of the five second rule, aren’t you?
I don’t believe that the mana granted by Intellect nor the mana returned from MP5 is affected by the 5 Second Rule. The 5SR only affects your mana regeneration due to Spirit. That’s the reason that MP5 was once considered far and away better than Spirit, but with the 2.3 changes to Intensity, the default Blizzard value became much closer to what Restoration Druids experience.
Now if we were to equivocate Intellect to Spirit, we would need to consider the 5SR%. =)
You’re linking to the wrong spreadsheet (Spi vs MP5), and something in this graph smells fishy, although it’s too early in the morning to tell exactly what (just got up and was waiting for my online banking to be ready before even taking breakfast, so I may be needing a coffee…)
BTW: how do we *read* this graphic? 8 Int equals 1 MP5 for a 10 min fight, is that it? (or 7 Int with BoK)
10 Mins equals 10*60*/5 equal 120 ticks, so 1 MP5 will restore 120 Mana over 10 minutes, which does indeed translate to 8 Int, but you’re leaving something out of the equation: how much do you NEED to spend and how much is your BASE mana pool? Because it all equates to that: how much more mana/MP5 do you need to use all your abilities without running OOM…
Still, something still smells fishy here, but I just can’t point it out right now!
I like the equation you came up with.
I was thinking a long time ago about this thing in order to compare the value of int to mp5, but I had the idea of putting an averaged mana usage in the equation.
You could basically calculate – given a certain amount of mana to begin with – the amount of MP5 needed to keep you going indefinitely. Anyway, that’s irrelevant for your post.
The thing I wanted to point out is perhaps a confusion between a mana regen tick, and the ticks you use here in this post. In-game mana regeneration ticks are every 2 seconds. It doesn’t matter for the equation, but I thought I’d mention it before someone gets confused.
@Someone & partouf: Well, you can always write down your typical spell rotation and translate it into “negative MP5″. Then you would get an equation like Base_mana + (Mana_regen_per_second – Spell_cost_per_second)*t = 0. Solve it and you’ll get for how long -t- you can do stuff before running OOM. If t turns out to be less than 0.. congratulations! You can heal forever
By adding the HPS factor I figured out how much DPS I could outheal and for how long, and found out I could win some duels without kiting at all (HoT, HoT, moonfire, insect swarm, HoT..) You just have to check your DPS is higher than his DPS minus your HPS (given the same health; you can also consider different health pools, math is still simple enough), and that by the time your DPS*t is higher than your enemy’s health you haven’t run OOM yet. It sounds weird, but you can kill quite a few (not so many if specifically PvP-geared) warriors and rogues like this.. if given enough time. Last rogue I dueled loaded crippling poison I didn’t even bother to dispel.
This is just for the laugs, though, because in “real” PvP it doesn’t work (for lots of reasons); it also requires 0 skill and it’s sooo slow nobody will want to duel you ever again
However I would try not to go too far with any of this. If I’ve learned something about engineering is it’s pointless to run a terribly complicated model based on just rough estimations
Fortunately, intellect-versus-MP5 comparison is always true no matter how the fight turns out (provided it lasts at least X minutes), so it’s something to have always in mind.
@Phaelia: Since you seem to like fancy graphics, I have a suggestion
How about considering Innervate? Take best and worst case scenarios (first innervate at t=0 or t=6min, and then of course again every 6 minutes) so mana regenerated by MP5 versus time becomes a ladder rather than a straight line. Then you see interesting things like MP5 getting a nearly 40% boost in 7-minute fights.
Anyway, unless there’s a really good socket bonus requiring it, I never put +9heal/+4int gem if I can use +9heal/+2MP5.
Very nice graph Phae. I will agree that as long as you have enough Mp5 int dosen’t matter anyway because we are trees and we just rock ^_^. Thouge extra int never hurts. =)
I haven’t really stressed too much over int and looked at it more as an extra bonus like stat instead of a stat you reach for.
Well put and nice logic Phae. However you check only their direct relation, leaving other parameters unchecked. In order to be able to make a decision conserning one’s desirability over the other, you need to check all of their effects.
One thing you are forgetting is that the most valuable effect that mp5 has as fights grow longer is the advantage of delaying out of mana situations.
A first idea is to find how much mana you spend per mp5 tick in average and how much 1 mp5 point postpones your ability to cast your last “medium” heal before getting out of mana.
I cannot make a solid mathematical representation or even a rough estimate of it right now (I m at work and my minds is… well…), but I would expect the graph to be rather an upward curve, with mp5 utility increasing exponentially and not linearly.
@Someone: Whoops. Fixed the spreadsheet link. GG copy-and-paste! Yes, that’s how you read the graph. I tried to set it up to show marks along the X axis only for whole numbers to make it less crowded but only succeeded in making it only show the *.5 numbers so I gave up. ^_^ You can ignore how much mana you “need” because if you end up not using your “extra” mana, then the effect is the same on either Intellect or MP5. In other words, for any stat that only gives you mana, all that matters is the worst-case scenario where you need every drop. If you don’t need all your mana, the excess is wasted regardless of whether it came from Intellect (base mana) or MP5 (mana regeneration), and the Intellect vs. MP5 that is wasted in those scenarios ends up being wasted at the exact ratio shown in the graph.
@Partouf: Good point about ticks. The “tick” I’m referring to is the MP5 tick, but I will adjust the article to be more consistent with what most people are familiar with. Thanks!
@Ermengol: Unfortunately, Innervate has no effect on this graph since Innervate’s mana regeneration is not affected by either Intellect or MP5 (it’s purely 500% of your out of 5SR Spirit-based mana regeneration for 20 seconds). It doesn’t change the relative values of these two stats. One of the reasons that I try not to break my set bonuses is that I need a certain number (2) of Red, Blue, and Yellow gems so that my meta gem continues to function (I hate how restrictive it is, but I adore its proc). I should look to see if I can continue meeting my Yellow requirements but break a gem bonus, though.
@Zackoria: I’m with you. It’s rare that I look at something and say “ooooo!!!! Intellect! I am SMRT now!” It’s more of a “huzzah! oh crap, my Intellect is still higher than my Spirit!” type of thing.
@Dimitris: Assuming you have the option to have the same amount of mana coming from Intellect or MP5, in Intellect you get it all up front and with MP5 you have to wait for it over the course of the entire fight. My model assumption tries to maximize mana over the course of the fight. You could choose instead to minimize your mana gap given some model of expenditure, but I wouldn’t even begin to know how to represent this. But any model that tried to account for mana expenditure would make Intellect relatively more valuable than MP5. After all, would you rather have a million dollars now (Intellect) or $10,000/year paid out over 100 years (MP5)? In my analysis, I ignore the difference between Intellect and MP5 as it pertains to when you get your mana because it’s very hard to quantify, but it’s clear that the advantage would go toward Intellect since it gives you the same amount of mana up front.
Man, if you really want a headache, think about how Dreamstate would affect this analysis.
Assuming a raid encounter, if you are potting at Mana(max)-3000 does it really matter what your mana pool size is? Also as mentioned for a Hybrid 4 Int = 1 Healing.
@Graylo: Factoring in Dreamstate would be really, really interesting. Because I don’t have much experience with a healing Dreamstate build, I tend to stick to analyses that focus on more heavily Resto builds. These are also more popular so apply to more visitors, but I would LOVE to see someone do similar things for our Dreamstate brethren.
@Bullar: I still run out of mana occassionally, even with using pots, Drums of Restoration, and Innervate. It’s far less of an issue for me than it used to be, but it’s very frustrating when it does happen. Do you think this analysis wasn’t worthwhile since mana isn’t an issue for some? I am so jealous of those people! =)
I was wondering where have you seen “4 Int = 1 Healing”? I haven’t seen anything like that before. How do you define “hybrid”? Aren’t all healers are hybrids since we all have at least 1 DPS tree?
I was talking about the Lunar Guidance talent in the balance tree, this only applies to a hybrid/dreamstate build. I define Hybrid as anything less than 41 points in Resto. And I think every analysis is worthwhile, mana issues or not. Usually when I am full Tree my mana rarely if ever drops below 50%. That is why I never consider INT a healing stat with that build. I am currently a Dreamstate build where at least INT is providing +heal/+damage. While I don’t put out the raw healing a true Tree does it ‘feels’ like I am getting more out of my item stats. Whether I am or not or is to be determined.
Couple comments:
First off, the timing of your mana (i.e. int at the start of the fight vs. mp5 to get it later) doesn’t always favor it up front. The immediate example that comes to mind is FLK, when healing the hunter who has a viper sting that cannot be dispelled. You will run OOM here, and end up relying on regen. (we kill him 2nd, and in the first 3min of that fight I’ve generally potted twice, blown my innervate, and am asking for a feral’s innervate once the hunter’s down). But yes, for any fight with ‘normal’ mechanics (i.e. you only lose mana via casting cost), mana up front would be preferable due to the flexibility it allows.
Further, if it’s a fight where you ever hit your max mana beyond T=0s, then the value of additional int is even more significant (since mana regen does nothing for you if your mana is full). So some situations (Prince Phase 1 with decent gear, Al’ar Phase 1, Vashj Phase 1…guess the them is “phase 1″ type fights, lol…or if your innervate more than fills your mana bar) provide unique value to int that doesn’t pertain to mp5.
Secondly, another interesting analysis takes a slightly different approach. Rather than saying “how much int = 1mp5 for a fight X minutes long,” I like to ask at what point does mp5 become better use of itemization. I don’t have my math handy (and I think I overlooked BoK anyway). However, given that 1mp5 = 2.5 itemization points, and 1int = 1 itemization point, we simply need to look on your graph for where 1mp5 = 2.5int. It looks like right around 3min and 15seconds (roughly). So essentially in a fight under 3m 15s you’re better off getting mana via int, whereas in a fighter over that length you’re better off with mp5 (assuming equal item level and all other stats held equal).
Of course, gems are probably the easiest way to manipulate these stats and Royal Nightseye has 1mp5=2int (which is why those gems are so good, since they rounded up the mp5 giving you bonus itemization points relative to equivalent ilevel gems), so from a gemming perspective the breaking point is closer to 2m 15s.
@Bullar
Yes then 4 int = 1 healing due to the 25% heal bonus from int (other int bonuses aside of course). Thanks for clarifying.
Interesting that you feel you get more out of your stats with a DS build. I don’t have the numbers to back it up, but I’m certain that Lifebloom (and I believe HoTs in general) scales far better than Healing Touch. This would actually mean that from an effective healing perspective, you get more out of gear improvements (or at least heal improvements) with a pure resto build. Mind you, pure resto builds don’t get reflected on the character sheet as much since it’s mostly spell specific, so this could lead to a misconception.
Of course, if you’re using stats in a more constrictive sense (i.e. not looking at healing and strictly the 5 primary stats instead), then yes, int certainly has more value to a DS build than a pure resto build. Of course, spirit has more value to a ToL build than it does to a DS build, but I would argue that the increased utility you get from intellect via DS (and related balance talents) outweighs the lost utility of your spirit.
@Kalaghan
Yes, the numbers very much favor a Tree build. 20% extra from Healing is much better than 25% of INT. I still use HoT’s as DS build (ironic ain’t it!). Yes my HoT’s tick a bit lower but my ‘blooms’ are bit bigger. I could never argue a DS build heals better but there are some intangibles such as keeping Insect Swarm up and being able to cure poison and decurse without shifting. I respec a lot back and forth just to keep things interesting. Tree is best for raw healing but a DS build is certainly effective and a LOT more fun.
Here is what I am currently running if you care..I always appreciate input
http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Terokkar&n=Bullar
Maybe I’m mistaken (I can’t log right now to check) but I believe Innervate just multiplies your mana regen by 5 while ignoring 5SR. The good thing about having high spirit is -I thought- the “while ignoring 5SR” part since spirit becomes a considerable portion of total regen, but I’m pretty sure it applies to regular MP5 too.
@Bullar
Armory appears to be down, I’ll check out your spec later and see if I have any input. I would point out though, cure/abolish poison can be cast in treeform as of 2.3.
As per insect swarm, that’s not intangible. It decrease hit by 2%. I forget how the rolls work but I believe there are 2 seperate rolls, one to determine if the swing is a “hit” and then a second to determine if the hit is dodged/blocked/parried (if I’m wrong there, everything following this is also wrong). This means that the reduction in hit % is independent of the tanks evasion abilities (i.e. It’s 2% less damage, regardless of whether evasion is 30% or 70%. If miss chance were included with dodge/block/parry additively, then the 2% becomes much more significant since a tank with 60% evasion would move to 62%, meaning a 2%/40% = 5% reduction in damage). You won’t find an encounter in BC that requires more than 4 healers on your MT I don’t think, so each healer is responsible (on average) for 25% of the damage. Insect swarm reducing your “share” to 23% (i.e. insect swarm = 8% of your healing share) just doesn’t seem to be worth that many talent points. If my initial assumption about it hit/miss being calculated before dodge/parry/block is mistaken it becomes significantly more valuable, particularly with a high avoidance tank. Obviously, if you’re going DS anyway you should pick it up, but it is an aside. I could delve into it further to see if the mana cost even justifies it, but I don’t really feel the analysis is warranted. It shouldn’t be used as an argument in favour of DS healing, it’s a minor fringe benefit in my opinion.
@Ermengol
Innervate is based off spirit and exclusively spirit (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=29166). It appears there’s some confusion and they may have, briefly, changed it to be all mana regen. However, it most certainly is exclusively spirit based regen that gets the multiplier as of the current patch. I’ve also tested this in-game.
@Bullar
Armories back up. There are only 3 points I question in your build. 1 point in OOC (Omen of Clarity) makes no sense to me…it’s clearly a PvE build (3/5 subtelty, control of nature/nature’s grasp not maxed, it’s DS, etc.), so why would you ever melee as a healer? I’m guessing maybe this is to get mana back as a boomkin, but it’s certainly not condusive to healing. Even for boomkin, your dps would benefit more from any number of balance talents so it doesn’t even really makes sense from that perspective. OOC is really just a feral talent put in the resto tree for no apparent reason.
I also don’t like the 2 points in improved regrowth. Frankly, a DS build should never ever use regrowth. It’s highly mana inneffecient to begin with, and your hots don’t even pack the same punch as they would with full resto. If you’re looking for burst healing, you should be using HT as DS. If you’re looking for HoTs, LB or Rejuv. No need to ever cast regrowth. You’d be much better served putting those 3 points into Gift of Nature, Empowered Touch or Tranquil Spirit (I’d top off Gift of Nature first since you said you use HoTs a fair bit and it benefits all heals, then go 2/5 Tranquil Spirit if you ever have mana trouble, or 2/2 Empowered Touch otherwise).
If you’re interested in some general rules for heal specced druids, check out my post in the following thread:
http://elitistjerks.com/f32/t19126-scrub_-_raidmember_talent_scanner_talentshow/p3/
It attempts to design a rule-set that will Red Flag any obviously non-optimal choices and yellow flag any that are questionable.
OK, I feel stupid now
@Kalaghan
Yes OOC is not needed for raiding but I still use it a lot while soloing (although not nearly as much as I did in as full resto build). As far as the Regrowth goes, that IS my primary direct heal. HT is just too slow for raids. Regrowth is 2sec or 1.5 after Natures Grace proc, which the improved Regrowth crit rate helps with. I understand that it is not as mana efficient…but..If I am not having any mana issues does it really matter? If after Regrowth/Rej/LB more healing is needed I will fire off a HT, but now the HoT’s are giving me the time to do so. I still use LB/Rejuv liberally across the raid and Regrowth when needed. We ran Gruul and Mag last night and I came out on top of meters again (granted meters do not mean much), so I am not necessarily gimping myself too much.
I was reading about it because I couldn’t believe I had been so wrong for so long, and apparently this has always been Innervate’s behaviour; it’s the tooltip what has been incorrectly saying “mana regen” and not “spirit based mana regen” until not so long ago.
At some point of the history of WoW MP5 stats were introduced but the tooltip remained the same for a while, hence my mistake
/cry
OK Phae again your money example you are making a HUGE mistake. mp5 is not time restricted, but continues to return mana as the fight gets longer.
Cause even if 1 million $ sound really better than 10.000 $ for 100 years, you really have to think how much you expect to spend and how soon. Cause buying a Ferrari is one way to spend some, but having to redecorate Gruul’s lair after each cave-in is another. We need to take into account the marginal profit from each one of the stats not their sum.
So the correct example would be something like the following (in terms that a woman would appreciate : p )
Let’s say that you like DK shoes so much that you want to buy as much of the models they produce. Your usually spend 10k a year to them and you are offered either 1 million $ now or 10k $ per year “FOR EVER” (like mp5 is forever, or at least for as long as the fight is). Of course there is a big chance (DK being a succesful company and all) that will keep making more shoes for much longer than 100 years… Which one sounds better then? (Provided of course that you manage to evercome that minor age problem :p )
There are actually some financial models that can be used to calculate that with indefinite payments and all abut I am sooooo bored to remember/search for them…
@Kalaghan: You make a good point about the FLK fight (what does “FLK” stand for? ^_^) not necessarily favoring mana up front. That’s only one fight, though, so I admit that I’m generalizing.
@Dimitris: MP5 does not last forever; it stops when the fight stops. Getting mana back after we’re /dancing over Gruul’s dead body doesn’t help me. Which is why the value of Intellect vs. MP5 is directly related to the length of the fight. To correct your example, $10k per year “forever” would really be $10k until you die. You can take your average life expectancy given your current age and determine how many $10k payments you can expect over the course of your lifetime. So if you were 25 years old and your life expectancy is 90, then you should get $650,000 over the course of your life. Would you rather have that paid out right now or divided up into $10k increments over the next 65 years?
@Ermengol: Don’t worry about it! I had to doublecheck myself. I wasn’t aware that the tooltip had changed. =)
OK your life expectency might be 90 but you might as well live for 110 years. See my point? The numbers here are a bit out of place since it is more probable that a 6 min fight lasts eg 8.
And you should not consider the numbers as sums of mana but as a marginal addition to the stats.
Usually from gear you get much less intellect than the maximum you must have to endure the entire fight (which you also cannot predict). Usually just a tiny fragment of it. That is why you have to get more mp5 to compensate for the potential lack of mana.
OK to use your graph.
Let’s assume a 3min fight (36 ticks).
For 1mp5 you get 36 MP.
for ~3 intellect you get 45 MP.
The 2nd actually sound better does it not?
But what happens if the dpsers actually slack cause they are eating pizza and the fight lengthens to 6mins? (Provided that you already have made your choice?)
You will still get 45 MP from intellect, but mp5 would now tick 72 times giving you double the mana.
This ex-post gives mp5 more desirability cause you cannot predict for sure how much the fight will last or how much mana you have to use.
My point is that there is no error in your logic, but your not taking into account how each stat individually gets affected by the game or affects the game itself, thus making it rather unsuitable for decision making, unlike your other calculations that compare stats with effects that are more close to each other eg mp5 and spirit. Comparing mp5 and intellect only to each other is a bit like comparing apples to oranges.
@Bullar
Well, my take on it is if you’re DS specced you shouldn’t be healing reactively. You should be focusing on pre-casting. The advantage of a DS spec is it gives you the ability to pump out HPS on a single target at a faster rate than a tree druid. Obviously, yes, if you never run out of mana then you aren’t gimping yourself with the regrowths. However, it does sound to me like you might be better served with a full resto build and just staying out of treeform? Really the only talents you get from the balance tree are -9% to rejuv/regrowth/HT, 100healing, and 40mp5. You’d get back 20% more power to your HoTs, Swiftmend, 30% increased crit chance on regrowth, the -10% from tranquil spirit offsets the lost 9% to HT (still out 9% on rejuv/regrowth)and 2% to all healing spells. Here are a couple other talent specs that I think would serve your healing style maybe a little better, if you can get by without the 40mp5 from DS:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tcMubIZZxxcbeq0xoh
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tcMubZZxxcLeqMxox
They’re still not my favourite builds, and I would question how far your current style will heal you into deep content. It sounds to me like you are making a concious decision to sacrifice a bit of healing power and effeciency so that you can play the style you enjoy most. There’s nothing wrong with that. As long as you (and arguably your guild) are aware of the trade-offs you’re making, then the more power to ya. =)
@Dimitris
I would have to strongly disagree with you. I think Phae’s analysis is fine. What about the reverse situation. Rather than consider a 3 minute fight, consider a 3 minute fight where you have to heal for X total health in the first 3 minutes. Suppose it takes 36 mana to heal for X.
1mp5 = 36MP
3int = 45MP
But oh no, someone didn’t get out of that cave-in/AoE/cleave in time and suddenly now you have to heal for more than what your 36mana allows. Suddenly your int up front is more valuable. There’s room for variability in either direction, thus improving the value of either stat.
Additionally, consider enrage timers. Illhoof, Netherspite, Hydross, FLK (Fathom Lord Karathress), Leo, and VR (Void Reaver) all have enrage timers. There is no way for the fight to go beyond the 10 minute mark (at least not by more than a few seconds), so you can put an absolute cap value on your mp5.
To say that it’s comparing apples to oranges just doesn’t seem reasonable. There is a clear baseline value that is the only thing that matters from either, the mana they provide (well, for druids at least…int does improve spell crit which is more relevant for other classes).
Granted, if a fight on average lasts 6 minutes, you might not want to use her graph to determine the value of int to mp5. This is because the distribution of fight lengths (given that it’s a variable) probably does not follow a normal distribution. eg. It’s more likely the fight will go longer than that it will be shorter. In order to make the analysis any more accurate you would have to delve into high level statistics and model the probability of various fight lengths, as well as a work on a model that would show the distribution of volumes of healing needed early in the fight (i.e. front-loaded mana use, providing additional value to int). To expect such statistical work would be utterly absurd though.
Your criticism doesn’t invalidate her analysis, it only serves to point out a fact she has already addressed (within all reasonable expectations). The relative values of the two stats are dependent on fight length. That’s why the X factor in her graph is the length of the fight. If you’re concerned about the fight going longer than it’s average of 6 minutes, then shift down the graph to the X = 8min marker.
P.S. The $10,000 per year for an unlimited number of years is called an annuity and the forumla for determining it’s value in present dollar terms is:
NPV (Net Present Value) = $10,000/r
Where r is the current rate of interest (in this case it would be annualized since the $10,000 is per year, but effectively you only need to match the time units used).
@Phaelia
Sorry if I’m taking over your comment board! Hehe…I don’t have the the motivation to get my own blog going but I love discussing the finer points of being a resto druid.
@Kalaghan: I don’t mind at all! The conversations that readers have on some of these posts are one of the things that makes writing a blog so enjoyable. Thank you for all that you (and everyone else) contributes!
First of all I would like to appologise if I sounded way too critic there. I have followed Phae around for quite some time and I really respect her opinion and analysis. I wish we had more druids like her.
And yes I enjoy this as much as you do Kalaghan
Now to our subject again.
I get your point about the need to burst heal. Let’s say that the accident happens on the 1st min. With intellect you have 45mp more to spare, while with mp5 you have 12mp. Will the less mp would be enough? Maybe yes/no? Depends on the dps and your total mps. Probably yes cause your mana pool is rather nice anyway and the fight is still young. Now consider having to burst heal again after two minutes when the boss enrages and your mana pool is running low. You have already spent your 45 mp from intellect and now have nothing more to spare. On the other hand, the 1 mp5 would have given you 12 mana more by that time which might be adequate to allow you to throw an extra rejuvenation. And of-course the mp5 value in this matter increases as we move to more lengthier fights that might include killing frenzy phases or more cave-ins or shatters.
I agree on your max desirable mp5 point. But I have to say that such levels are out of reach for most of us, at least until we get some T6. I also agree that after a certain amount mp5 loses desirability because you can maintain enough mana for the whole duration of the fight. BUT I must point out that this effect comes through mp5 and not through intellect. Get the Dreamstate build for an example. You get a huge mana pool, but you also get a huge mp5 regen to compensate for your need to spam heal.
To sum-up an intellect increase
Has no time-related positive effect.
It’s utility is negatively affected by boss DPS and can be actually 0 after the fight’s duration exceeds a certain point (dependent on boss dps again provided a given heal output), since you will have spend all of it by then.
In your example, the utility of intellect past the 1st minute is actually 0.
So introducing boss dps as a mean value or something would make the model much more accurate.
No one questioned that intellect’s value is inversely related to fight length. I think Phaelia and I both agreed whole-heartedly with you on that point. My point was, since Phaelia’s model uses fight length as the X variable, it already takes into account this relationship.
And yes, when things go wrong, mp5 is likely to be more useful than int (since things go wrong towards the end of a fight usually). Hence my proposition that if a fight lasts on average 6 minutes, then assume it will last 8 minutes and find the corresponding int to mp5 value in her graph. Then, so long as things don’t really REALLY go wrong, your int vs. mp5 ratio will if anything overrate mp5 (in the event that the fight doesn’t last 8 minutes). How much you offset this length estimate should depend on the variability in the length of the encounter (eg. if you avereage 9min 30s and enrage is 10m, you don’t go off by much. If it’s say, Lurker though, where you can get by for a long time without a full raid, maybe you want to slide up the graph by even 3min).
The reality of the situation is, you will rarely tweak your mp5 to int ratio on a fight to fight basis. More often, you have maybe two or at most 3 potential choices to use as part of your primary healing set. As noted before, 2.5 int costs the same as 1mp5 (again, with the exception of Royal Nightseye gems). Using Phae’s graph, we can see then that for any fight over 3min 30sec (estimate, and remember 2.5int = 2.75 with kings), mp5 makes better utilization of your itemization points than int.
Most, if not all challenging (i.e. if you’re T5 and in kara this doesn’t apply) boss fights in this game last longer than 3min 30sec. Because of this, the most important piece you can get from her analysis is: always gear for mp5 over int (in cases of equal itemization level). The only exception to this rule should be when your int is so low that you are losing out on the effects of innervate, etc. IMO, the absolute ideal balance would be to have enough int that one innervate will exactly fill your mana bar. Everything else I would want in mp5 and spirit (from a strict regen perspective, obviously you need healing & stamina too).