The thread regarding 2.4 Int Vs Spirit seems to only address regen, which seems to be not a complete comparison of the stats. So I built a spreadsheet that would accurately model the differences of the stats:

Intvsspi.xls

The model from previous posts used for spirit & int regen is .0093271*spirit * (int^.5) * 5 for a MP5 value. The tab “OO5 Regen” simply presents a grid of OO5 values for regen for spirit and int values between 400 & 1000 (this will not correspond to character sheet values unless you’re wearing 0 MP5).

The next two tabs, OO5 Change Spirit and OO5 Change Int, model the change in OO5 regen for the gain of a single point of spirit and int, respectively, at each gear value.

The tab DeltaIntSpi is simply the difference between the regen gained by a point of spirit and a point of int at each gear value.

The tab Int Versus Spirit is the useful one. There are a number of changeable fields at the top. This uses the regen value difference from the DeltaIntSpi page as a base regen number, calculates how much mana you would gain over the length of the fight based on the fight duration and OO5 % time fields at the top. This is the base net mana gained if you had 1 point of spirit more over 1 point of int more. It subtracts the 16.5 base mana gained from the point of int. It subtracts an additional 16.5 points of mana for each innervate received (see assumptions, below). It subtracts .24*16.5 for each mana tide received. It then presents a single value of how much mana a point of spirit would gain you in a given fight versus a point of intellect.

A negative number for a given fight and gear setup implies intellect would provide more total mana over a fight, while a positive number implies you will get more mana from spirit.

Important assumptions:

Innervate will bring you to full mana, so spirit does effectively nothing while int will give you a large base mana pool to increase.
Blessing of Kings is active
You get full benefit from mana tide (easily adjustable by using fractional numbers in “# of mana tide” field)
Ignores the benefits of +crit of intellect and +healing/damage of spirit (including shadowfiend)

The last assumption is the most critical, and while the analysis of that will take a lot more time (I plan on getting to it), a VERY rough “healing throughput” analysis is included. In that tab, adjusting the values to suit will create a “mana value difference. I realize that +healing throughput and crit throughput are not equivalent, and mana and healing are not fungible, this is not a completely accurate tool, but it does attempt to reasonably account for the spirit’s additional benefit (which outweighs the crit by a fair margin, but not as large as people think). The Int vs Spi Throughput Adjusted spreadsheet takes the additional “mana value” of the spirit’s additional healing throughput in the field to attempt to take into account the slightly more beneficial value of spirit over int from a healing perspective instead of mana perspective.

If people want to dig through the math and ask questions to see if there are any errors in the calculations, as well as play around, I think it is a very useful tool. I originally decided to develop it when reading constantus’ post regarding gaining almost 3MP5 from a 11 healing/5 int gem at his gear levels, and that made me realize that int was worthwhile enough from a regen perspective that the base mana it gives as well probably makes it a very undervalued stat.


There are far too many variables to draw conclusions without looking at the spreadsheet, but here are some quick rules of thumb:

If your spirit is significantly higher than your Int, Int will be worth more.

If it’s a shorter fight with little to no time for OO5 besides chaining IF-Clearcasting, Int will be better.

If you’re getting Innervate(s) or Mana Tide(s), Int will be better, especially on shorter (6 minute) fights.


While perhaps not as useful for gemming for mana as blue slots have little else to put in them while yellow slots can increase throughput through haste gems, it should make int slightly more noticed on gear where it's usually completely disregarded: a difference of 5-8 int based on discussions with people and posts on these forums was largely disregarded where a difference of 5-8 spirit would be much more highly noticed, considered its on average roughly equal to spirit, and in some cases (arguably where mana is most tight) better.