Mad Priests on Madmortem

Updated for 3.2

There are a couple of different ways to regenerate mana for priests (and everybody else):

Also, as a sweet little addition, the relative value of our stats.

Mana every 5 Seconds
The kind of items which have “Restores X mana every 5 seconds” in their description work very simple:
Without respect to your situation (except for Vezax style debuffs) they regenerate X mana every 5 seconds. (Since 3.0 this is not delivered in one blow, but rather added continuously.)

Spirit
The kind of mana regeneration that is called “spirit regen” by many people, actually takes intellect into consideration as well.

< strong >The 5 second rule:
Spirit regeneration does not kick into effect until you have not casted a spell that uses mana for 5 seconds. Meaning:
You cast Levitate: No spirit regen for 5 seconds.
You finish casting Greater Heal: No spirit regen for 5 seconds.
You cast Inner Focus and then Divine Hymn: Your spirit regen continues.

< strong >Meditation:
Even when inside the 5 sec rule, 50% of your spirit regeneration is active. Must have talent for healers. (Yes, that includes discipline priests…)

Theorycrafting

“Spirit regen” formula:
0.6005 + 0.02875 * X Spirit * SQRT(Y Intellect) = Z MP5 ooc

(For correctness’ sake: The above is only true for lvl 80 chars, the coefficients change with your level.)

To elaborate on this, let us just rewrite this formula to include 80% of time spent in the 5 second rule (assuming 3/3 Meditation of course):

Z MP5 total =
(spirit regen) * 0.2 + (spirit regen) * 0.5 * 0.8 =
(spirit regen) * (0.2 + 0.5 * 0.8) = Z MP5 total =
(0.6005 + 0.02875 * X Spirit * SQRT(Y Intellect)) * 0.6 =
0.3603 + 0.01725 * X Spirit * SQRT(Y Intellect)

To illustrate this, behold the following graph, which shows mana regeneration with values of 900 to 1700 intellect and spirit:

Mana regen from Intellect and Spirit

The intellect grows to the right and the spirit to the bottom, therefore increasing spirit increases this kind of regen more than intellect, but to get the most out of everything you have to strive for a kind of balance. (Also do not forget that intellect has other effects as well!!)