Draenic Wisdom or Mageblood?

When raiding, I choose between Elixir of Draenic Wisdom or Elixir of Major Mageblood for my Guardian Elixir.

Usually, I go with the Draenic Wisdom one, mainly because my alchemist sister Joaquime can't make the Mageblood one and I prefer to be prepared myself and not rely on others.

But is DW really better than Mageblood? Or am I just being cheap, should I go buy that recipe?

So, I embarked on a daring venture out into the world of game mathematics, to see if I could get some solid evidence of which elixir is better for me.

Basic facts:

Jools, holy priest (20/41/0) with the talent Meditation for 30% continued mana regen while casting.

Unbuffed:
My intellect INT = 484
My spirit SPI = 349

According to Wowwiki, the formula for calculating the Spi/Int-based mana regen is

mana/5 seconds (MP5) = 5 * (0,001 + SQRT(INT) * SPI * Base_Regen)

where Base_Regen for a lvl 70 is 0,009327.

Putting my numbers into this I get my Int/Spi-based mana regen to be 358 MP5 out of combat, 107 MP5 in combat.

My MP5 from items (gems, enchants and gear stats that specifically say xx Mana per 5 sec.) is 95.

So, my total unbuffed mana regen would be 453 MP5 out of combat, 202 MP5 in combat.

Now I take a hefty swallow of the juicy Draenic Wisdom and watch my numbers go up, my Int/Spi based mana regen is now 401 MP5 out of combat, and 120 MP5 in combat. Add in the flat 95 MP5 from my items and I get a nice total of 496 MP5 out of combat, 215 MP5 in combat.

I spit the DW out, and instead I take a sip of the Major Mageblood. My INT/SPI and the associated mana regen falls down to their original numbers (358/107) but the MP5 from items is increased by 16. My total MP5 is now 469 out of combat, 218 MP5 in combat.

Seems we have a winner, eh? Combat mana regen is 218 for the Major Mageblood, 215 for the Draenic one.

But wait! There's this little thing called the 5-second-rule (FSR), that applies to Int/Spi-based mana regen. This rule says that your mana regen is suspended for 5 seconds after casting, i e by default you regain NO Int/Spi-mana for 5 seconds after you have finished casting a spell (but all the mana/5 from items still keep ticking). My Meditation allows me to keep 30% of my Int/Spi-based mana regen going during these 5 seconds though. If I don't cast a new spell my mana regen will go up to the full 100% out-of-combat after these 5 seconds.

So, it is also important to look at how much time do you actually spend inside this 5-second-rule.

Although it may feel that you are chaincasting all the time, and thus spend 100% of your time inside this rule, chances are that it is not so. If the spellcast is interrupted, by you or by a mob, when you get small breathers in the fight, your designated heal target is not being beaten on and the rest of the raid is topped off, you might get out of those 5 secs and your heavy mana regen will kick in.

For me, the break-even between the Draenic Wisdom and the Major Mageblood is at 90%. If I spend 90% of my time inside the FSR either elixir will help me generate the same amount of mana/5 on average throughout the figth.

If I spend more than 90% of my time inside the FSR, the Major Mageblood is better, if I spend less the Draenic Wisdom is the choice for me.

I have seen numbers for FSR-time ranging from 65-85%, and to determine my own I downloaded the Fubar addon and the Fubar_Regen plugin to keep track of my mana regen.

After a fast (and I mean fast!) heroic BM run I got the following result:


It seems that in this run I spent about 78% of my time while in combat inside the 5-second rule (FSR), and if I put that number in my elixir mana regen calculations I get that if I drink Elixir of Draenic Wisdom I get 277 MP5 while the Major Mageblood only gives 274 MP5.

And the Intellect and Spirit of the DW has some other bonus effects like increased crit chance and increased health regeneration rate.

So, ladies and gentlemen, the winner is....Elixir of Draenic Wisdom!

Cheers!

If you want to check which drink will be better for you, please use the embedded spreadsheet: