Replenishment: So that my cup runneth over…
Edit: This post needed an overhaul because… shock of shocks… I messed up the math. Thanks so much to Mythology to pointing out my misstep so that I could get this post back on track. Be sure to read the comments here for more insight.
In a comment to a recent post I did about stat stacking for restoration Druids, Viiryen observed the following:
Due to Replenishment, Int stacking yields more actual mana than any other stat because Replenishment is percentage based. A Resto Druid with 15K Mana will gain FAR less than a Resto Druid with 20K mana from Replenishment. That is, of course, assuming a high Replenishment uptime and not making much use of the 5SR.
To be honest, I had never considered stacking Int as a response to Replenishment in my raid. This comment has had the creaky wheels in my brain turning ever since. I decided to do some research into Replenishment.
The Basics
Replenishment is an umbrella term that actually refers to an effect given by three different spells available to toons specced into specific trees of their class. Retribution Paladins have Judgements of the Wise, Shadow Priests use Vampiric Touch, and Survival Hunters bring Hunting Party. Edit: thanks Nibuca for pointing out that Mages and Destro Locks also provide their own form of Replenishment. Although they achieve the replenishment effect in class specific ways, each of these abilities procs Replenishment, which gives up to 10 party or raid members .25% of their maximum mana per second for 15 seconds.
Ghostcrawler has gone on the record saying that, as far as Blizzard is concerned, Replenishment is mandatory for raiding, in that they design their raid encounters around the assumption that a raid will have Replenishment available to it by bringing one of the Replenishment classes. Let’s take a look at how this might effect Druid stat stacking.
Mana Regen mechanics of Int and Spirit
Both Intellect and Spirit contribute to mana regeneration for Restoration Druids. The amount of contribution is dependent upon factors such as level and gear. The formula for working these values out is, admittedly, over this English major’s head. I’ve been looking at them from various sources for over an hour trying to come up with a coherent and basic description of how that works for this post, but I’m afraid I’m just going to have to toss this one out to the theory crafters and take their word for it. Thankfully, others have gone to the trouble to work out the differences for me.
The following information is quoted directly from Ridley on the Restoration Itemization post on the Elitest Jerks forums outlining the mp5 value of one point of intellect vs. one point of spirit on gear for a Resto Druid with 1200 Int and 1200 Spirit. The post was most recently updated on May 11, 2009.
Intellect
1 intellect provides the following:
- 1 intellect increases mana pool with 15 mana. On a typical 8 minute fight with Kings and IMotW this can be converted to 0.175 mp5
- Assuming 1200 intellect and 1200 spirit, 1 intellect increases your main mana regeneration with 0.325 mp5 out of the five second rule or 0.162 mp5 in the five second rule (with Kings, IMotW and Intensity).
- Since Replenish works off the size of your mana pool, 16.83 (Kings and IMotW) extra mana means 0.210 mp5 more through Replenishment.
- 1 intellect also increases the chance you critically hit with spells by 0.00676% (this is with Kings and IMotW).
This sums up to 0.547 mp5 (0.560 with the meta gem) and a little bit of crit chance. However, this number can change a lot based on your intellect, spirit, Replenishment uptime, duration of the encounter and time spent in the five second rule.Spirit
1 spirit provides the following (assuming Living Spirit, Intensity, Kings and Improved Mark of the Wild):
- Assuming 1200 intellect and 1200 spirit, 1 spirit increases your main mana regeneration with 0.748 mp5 out of the five second rule or 0.374 mp5 in the five second rule.
- If you have improved Tree of Life, 1 spirit also increases your spellpower with 0.194.
Now, as I admitted already, I’m not as good at the maths as some other geniuses out there (/jealous!), however, I think I can add this up. One point of Int (based on the assumed stats of 1200 Int and 1200 Spirit) gives 0.547 mp5 with Replenishment up. One point of Spirit gives 0.375 mp5 during casting, Replenishment or not. We can’t assume that Replenishment will be up, neccessarily. The abilities apply the Replenishment effect on up to 10 players. If you have one source of Replenishment in a 25 man raid full of mana users… well… even I can do those maths!
Long and the short of it
This is an edited version of the conclusion here, and I owe some thanks to Mythology for sorting me out…
It seems that when Replenishment is active during combat, a point of Int on gear is a clear upgrade for mana replenishment over a point of Spirit. Out of combat, Spirit has a clear advantage over Int in terms of mana regeneration, as it seems to for 5 man dungeons without a Replenishment class, raiding without Replenishment or when Replenishment is not up, or soloing.
Thus, it seems that a raiding druid would need to do some analysis looking at how often Replenishment is up for them during raiding and, perhaps, turn to Int as a favored stat over Spirit if they are looking to increase their mana regeneration. I’m going to be interested to see if I can parse out the positive effects for me personally during our raiding using WWS. If I can find some numbers of interest, I’ll be sure to put them up here.
In addition, I’d like to thank Viiryen for the comment that led to this post. I absolutely appreciate that Viiryen took the time to comment here on the blog and led me to learn quite a bit more about the mechanics of Replenishment, an effect about which I had heretofore been quite uneducated.
There are 16 Comments to "Replenishment: So that my cup runneth over…"
Replenishment can also be given by Destruction Warlocks and Frost Mages as of patch 3.0.
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Um your math is wrong.
One point of Int (based on the assumed stats of 1200 Int and 1200 Spirit) gives 0.547 mp5 with Replenishment up. One point of Spirit gives 0.568 mp5 during casting, Replenishment or not.
I am assuming you got the 0.568 by adding
out of the five second rule or 0.374 mp5
with
1 spirit also increases your spellpower with 0.194.
Which would equal 0.568. But you mis read. that 0.194 is SPELL POWER not mp5.
Though to compare the 0.547 with the 0.374 mp5 would not be effective either because of periods where you dont have to cast. Basically it becomes shifted. The more you cast the less you spend out of the 5 second rule and more mana you get back.
Overall pure int will give greater mana but if stats are not ballanced you quickly loose the advantage and a single point of int becomes less valuable then a point of spirit.
ok time for a rewrite. lol thanks mythology
Just doing some more consideration and judging the relative values of int and spirit are going to depend on two things. The duration of a fight, and the percentage of time in that duration spent in and out of the 5 second rule.
The longer the fight is, the less value your total mana vs the mana you can regen is worth. To say it simpler…
1 intellect increases mana pool with 15 mana. On a typical 8 minute fight with Kings and IMotW this can be converted to 0.175 mp5 (the 0.175 mp5 value given will go up in shorter fights, and go down in longer)
The ammount of time spent in and out of the 5 second rule will alter the ammount of mana you recieve in the range between 0.748 and 0.374 for spirit, and 0.325 and 0.162 for int.
I guess you also have to consider the total uptime of replenishment.
To make a simple example, most hard fights are going to require constant healing, and require a shorter duration due to quick kills or lower enrage timers. In these cases int will be of greater value. (Provided replenishment stays up)
This is looking at pure mp5 and not considering the throughput of considering the relitive value you get for the increased spellpower on your heals and the crit chance. But I am already going insane thinking about this all. I am sticking to my example but still saying ballance your stats.
I acutually gemmed some of my new gear a little differently with replenishment in thought. I usually stack straight spell power, but this time if I had a yellow socket, and the socket bonus was +7 spell power, I tossed in a luminous monarch topaz.
I figured that giving up 3 spell power for 8 int was worth it =)
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NP on the assist, even if you ARE a NE druid.
/snicker! yer jealous cause I got a Teldrassil Sproutling, aren’t you? =P
Actually quite. But thats all the more reason why you should go out of your way to support your tauren druid brothers and sisters who dont know the joy of being a parent guardian and role model.
Shame on you for lording that over your bretheren. Druids are suposed to be in harmony and balance, not lording over each other.
Sylly knows shame. Deep, humbling shame. You can babysit my baby tree whenever you’d like, Mythology.
Just call me Uncle Myth
lol will do. Shouldn’t be too hard on you. The little one sleeps an awful lot!
I just pray that when we druids get our promised face lift your baby doesnt get confused because he doesnt look like you anymore… well you can always just promise him thats what he will look like when he grows up.
Ahhh, this is something I hadn’t considered. But truth to tell the poor thing can only see as high as my knee cap to begin with. Perhaps we’ll look the same in our roots….
I have been stacking int on both my druid and priest since I heard about the spirit nerf that was incoming in 3.1.
The spirit nerf wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I get more mp5 from int anyway, cuz I have replenishment up 100% of the time.
Having more int is also good for fights like General Vezax, where you have 0 mana regen, so the bigger the mana pool you have to start out with, the better.
You’re quite welcome, and thanks for the mention in your post.
T’was a pleasure reading, madam.
Yes, replenishment is not something that can be ignored. I figure I have it close to 100% and I’m I5SR close to 100% of the time in 25 man raids. I use the 2% meta gem and luminous monarch topaz gems in yellow sockets. All my mana regen calculations for my gear lists take replenishment into consideration.
Good job tackling this math topic, especially with so much else on your plate right now!
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