• Richelieu

That is not entirely correct, of course. To be more precise, 100 int = 1500 mana + 1.25% spell crit chance (at level 70).

For any holy priests who stack Int in part because they love healing spell crits, it may be useful to mathematically discuss why using this aspect of Int is a very inefficient way to improve your healing efficiency. I think one reason people rarely discuss the exact effect of +spell crit on healing efficiency is the difficulty of calculating its mana equivalent. I believe the general equation for the MP5 equivalent of 80 Int (= 1% spell crit at level 70) would be this:

MP5 = (((CHPM * ACH * (1 - OH) * .005) + InspirationFactor) * AMHP) /12

where

CHPM = the caster's average crit-able heals per-target cast per minute (with one PoM or CoH counting multiple crit-able heals). This value can vary dramatically depending on the spell repertoire used.

ACH = average base health points healed per-target per crit-able heal. This value can vary dramatically depending on the caster's +healing, talents and spell selection.

OH = average percentage of overhealing

AMHP = the caster's average mana cost per health point healed. This value will vary dramatically depending on the spell repertoire used.

InspirationFactor = amount of health points not required to be healed due to additional procs of Inspiration resulting from the additional 80 Int. This value can vary dramatically depending on the target's armor value, the DPS being absorbed by the target, and the frequency with which Inspiration procs overlap (whether with your own procs or other casters').

So it's no wonder that it's just easier to ignore spell crit when theorycrafting Int for healers. But out of curiosity, what would the MP5 equivalent of 80 Int look like for a well-geared, caster in an ideal critting situation?

Assume a holy priest with +2000 heal buffed and 5 Points in Mental Agility. Assume he is spam-casting CoH rank 5, with no casting delays and no overhealing, on a 5-man party. For now let's assume he does not have Inspiration. In that scenario I believe the above equation would be:

(((200 * 811 * (1 - 0) * .005) + 0) * 0.1) / 12 = 6.75 MP5 = .084 MP5 per Int

Thus, ignoring Inspiration, in this ideal, rosy-lensed scenario the 80 Int would be generating 6.75 MP5 equivalent from the additional crit healing. Considering the utter unlikelihood of this perfect critting scenario ever occurring, the MP5-equivalent contribution of Int's spell crit component does seem negligible for anyone without Inspiration.

Now let's also assume the healer has 3 points in Inspiration, that every Inspiration proc does not overlap, and that his target party has average armor of 16000, and is taking average melee DPS of 1000 from a level 73 boss. Each proc of Inspiration thus increases the target's armor from 16000 to 20000, for an additional damage reduction of 5.35% (using armor formula from Wowwiki). 80 Int contributes an additional 2 procs of Inspiration per minute (1% of 200 targets being hit per minute). Thus, 80 Int contributes 30 seconds of 5.35% reduction of 1000 DPS, i.e., a total of 1605 hit points. Now the formula becomes:

(((200 * 811 * (1 - 0) * .005) + 1605) * 0.1) / 12 = 20.13 MP5 = .252 MP5 per Int

Hey, now we're talking! But in any realistic scenario my gut feeling is the best MP5-equivalent you will ever get per Int (with Inspiration) would rarely if ever be above 0.1. My ballpark guess is .03-.05 would be more typical, and there may be rare cases where that small contribution would tip the balance in choosing a particular piece of gear over another. In conclusion, each point of Int does make a contribution to healing efficiency, but it seems clearly quite small in typical situations and difficult to measure with confidence.

 

galzohar

Just about any thread in this forum is about pve, making pvp-related comments is quite pointless. Obviously in a spam-heal pvp fight int is going to have a much greater value and mp5/spirit are going to be near-useless. Then again even arena matches can last a long time, and due to lack of personal experience I'll refrain from commenting any further except that it doesn't matter if it's good or not in pvp, in pve it's just plain gimp comared to the other stats.

 

Starfire

I'd just like to mention... if you really want to min/max you would ideally use 5 weapons.

Besides the 4 above stated, if you want to get more bang for your buck, get a +damage weapon and swap it in before casting Shadowfiend, the mana return should be noticable.

Even post 2.3, assuming a good weapon, the mana return should be noticable. Especially for Hyjal/BT priests who have access to the trash mace. (I personally put a +40 spell damage chant on it, although you could use Soulfrost).

Swap the weapons should give you an extra 100-200 +damage (counting offhand too).

 

Bendyr

So is there a good macro to equip a weaponset, cast shadowfiend, and then return to your normal healing set?

 

Starfire

I don't think you can do that. Because swapping weapons will put you on the GCD.

I use itemrack however, I just sweap weapons while mid-casting a greater heal or something, hit shadowfiend, then swap back my healing/regen weapon.

 

Happee

The % from armor reduction reduces the raw damage BEFORE armor not the damage that you see.

A player with 16000 armor taking 1000 dps is would be taking 2337.8 dps with 0 armor. A player with 20000 armor would reduce this to 2337 * (1 - 20000/ (20000 + 11960)) = 874 dps.

 

Belenos

The thread [Priest] Shadow Fiend Mechanics seemed to show that swapping in a damage weapon even after a shadowfiend was out would increase the mana you got from it, although not by a ton. I suppose I could add support for this into CasterWeaponSwapper... the downside is you'd need to keep the damage weapon equipped for the duration of the fiend, and odds are you'd lose mana since the damage weapon probably has less mp5 or spirit.

In the meantime, you can use a macro like this to use the fiend and then equip your pewpew weapon, without causing any additional global cooldown.
/cast Shadowfiend
/use Terokk's Shadowstaff

Author of CasterWeaponSwapper: suggestions welcome by forum PM or to wikwocket@gmail.com.

 

Kinien

Love this mod, been using it since I saw this post 1 week ago. My only issue is sometimes the swap burns ya if you are mixing Circle of Healing with standard cast heals. Sometimes it triggers cooldown at a bad time when you wanted to spam away.... Overall I feel it is worth the sacrafice though.

 

Isin

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I see in the 2.4.3 patch notes:

Is this the end of CWS, or is there a workaround for it?

 

• Chicken

It should still work with instant spells, which should make it fairly usable depending on your class. The mod would require some recoding however to ensure it only swaps weapons when you use an instant spell.

At least, in theory. It could still cause problems with the instant spell getting cancelled anyway.

buff /bʌf/ Pronunciation[buhf]
–verb (used with object)
- to reduce or deaden the force of

 

• frmorrison

Note that patch changes can be changed before it goes live, but if not then CWS can still work with instants.

It does kill Libram swapping and limited totem swapping (could swap during Earth Shield refreshes).

 

Belenos

Yes, I am a little disappointed about how Blizzard chose to nerf combat weapon swapping. I think there may have been ways to make libram-swap mods and CWS less automatic, but still allow good players to get some benefit from weapon swapping.

At any rate you bring up a good point about instant casts... but as was said it all depends on the implementation. I'll do some testing on the PTR when able.

Author of CasterWeaponSwapper: suggestions welcome by forum PM or to wikwocket@gmail.com.

 

moink

Did CWS get updated for the new patch? Is switching in a weapon for spellsurge still a viable strategy?

 

◊ Shalas

Unless you like having heals automatically cancelled midcast, no.

Actually, I think the change means they just made CQMC possible again.

 

Belenos

CWS is not updated yet, but it will be soon. I apologize for the delay, which is due to my RL workload and disorganization.

Until CWS is updated, I do not recommend using it unless you primarily cast instant spells: each swap it makes during a cast-time spell will cancel the spell.

The current idea for the new version, for the curious, is:
- When we want to swap, do it during an instant-cast spell if one is seen
- If we want to swap but haven't seen an instant-cast spell, notify the user via a little popup warning
- The user can then manually trigger the appropriate swap via a keybinding, a macro, or clicking on the popup
- This will cause the 1.5s swap cooldown, but at least you can determine when it will be

This not the good old "set and forget" mentality, but it should allow it to work mostly, for most classes at least.

Author of CasterWeaponSwapper: suggestions welcome by forum PM or to wikwocket@gmail.com.

 

gherion

Great news Belenos, i was a little scared by the last pach notes , i realy love your addon. Priest , Dudu, and Shaman shoud not see too much nerf from the "Cast when an istant caste" pala shoud. For healers.

Shoud not possible to put an option "swap while not casting"? , In current raid content happen often to have to move, and people not cast or at last cast istant.

 

Belenos

I updated CWS for 2.4.3. I'm curious what people will think of these changes, and if they will be helpful for the various classes that use CWS:

CasterWeaponSwapper 2.4 (WoW 2.4.3):

• Updated to accomodate 2.4.3's change, where swapping weapons cancels spellcasts:
• In combat, the mod now only swaps after instant-cast and channeled spells, which are not interrupted.
• When the mod needs to swap in combat, if it doesn't see an instant-cast spell, it will pop up a little notifier, so you can trigger the swap (and the resulting cooldown) when it's most convenient.
• To trigger the swap, you can cast any instant-cast or channeled spell, or click the button on the notifier, or use a macro that says "/cws swap", or use the keybinding available in the keybindings menu.
• The popup notifier can be moved anywhere on the screen by dragging it.
• This is a quick fix version, which I hope to refine over time. I know the popup may be a little annoying for now and that the mod may still interrupt casts out of combat; I plan to work on this.

Author of CasterWeaponSwapper: suggestions welcome by forum PM or to wikwocket@gmail.com.

 

Turgid

Can you have a setting to disable/hide the popup? I'd rather just wait to swap when I cast my next instant, instead of fussing with a macro or keybinding or clicking a button. An SCT-style 'Swap ready' type message would work too.

 

Belenos

You can always just cast an instant, this will dismiss the poup since it can do a swap then. But I see what you mean and am looking at ways of showing the popup less obnoxiously.

I also like the idea of a FCT message, let me look into that as well.

Author of CasterWeaponSwapper: suggestions welcome by forum PM or to wikwocket@gmail.com.

 

Kakitajamie

Maybe I'm going nuts, but it appears swapping weapons no longer triggers a GCD. If I'm not just tripping, that means that there is a different solution in switching weapons pre-cast. I don't know if mod code will allow you to switch precast based off the spell being cast though. If they can't then a macro command could be made to trigger the mod pre-cast. People would just have to macro all their heals now.

 

Belenos

Are you testing it in combat? Only swaps during combat trigger the swap global cooldown.

I did test this, and at least for me, combat swapping does cause a cooldown.

Author of CasterWeaponSwapper: suggestions welcome by forum PM or to wikwocket@gmail.com.