So, a quick review for anyone who may have just wandered onto the subject material. The first pillar is intellect. The second is spell power. The third pillar is mana regeneration per 5 seconds while casting. The fourth and final pillar is critical strike rating.
So, when do we want what and why? Alright, that is a fair question, and we can review it in-depth for you. When you start out in the game the very first stat you will need to concern yourself with is going to be intellect. As your spells are going to be both offensive and healing in nature and you will spend much time questing, obtaining the largest pool of mana is the best course of action. I would continue gathering as much intellect as possible into the mid 20s. One you start getting into the mid 20s range, there will start to be more options and spell power gear should be somewhat available. So, if it is there and it contains some intellect, make sure and grab it. This will be your standard operating from this point on. Do not compromise yourself in this area, grab gear with intellect always, if there is an option for intellect plus spell power, then make sure and pick it up. By the time you get the BC content, you will start to see gear that intellect, spell power, and occasionally MP5. Make sure and acquire this gear. As in the BC content you spend more time spamming Flash of Light than anything else, this will guarantee a large pool of mana, decent spell power, and if you acquire the MP5 gear, plenty of mana regeneration to keep you running non-stop. As you approach the late 60s, you will see more gear which will have intellect, spell power, and critical strike rating. Review the gear closely, if there is not an option that has MP5, then go ahead and pick up the critical strike rating, as by the time you hit WotLK, critical strike rating will become important.
So, what is a good balance of numbers? To be honest I am not a number cruncher, and I did not pay attention to the numbers early in the game and I have no intention of rolling another holy Paladin to find out. Sorry guys, but I can say early on do not concern yourself with the numbers, work on acquiring the gear with the stats listed here and you will be fine. I can say that after the patch where they combined spell power and running Kara (before nerfing), I was at 1100 spell power, had around 11,000 mana, MP5 was at 175 range, and the critical percentage I had was 25% for holy. I did not have any issues whatsoever with running Kara or ZA. After they nerfed the raid content, I stopped tracking as I felt it was pointless, but I am confident those stats would have worked out fine.
In retrospect, looking at WotLK content, I am not sure where I want to take my build. The use of mana consumption has dropped, so maintaining an MP5 level that is close to the cost of my Flash of Light would seem like a waste of stats. Intellect is going to still be primary as it allows for the mana pool to cast your spells and helps to improve your critical strike number slightly. I went for a build (and this is pre-raiding) of 1600 spell power (for pre-heroic instance), 200 MP5, and wanting to boost crit to 25-30%. This seemed to work well while using Beacon of Light and Sacred Shield effectively. The guild has not yet run the raid content out there (as we tend to take our time on raid progression, and I personally am more PVP oriented). My goal for raid gear is to boost the spell power to 2000+, the MP5 I am going to attempt to leave at 200 (although if my mana consumption remains low, I may lower it back to BC content levels), and the critical strike percentage I would like to see would be above 40%. It looks like a doable goal and the numbers would seem to support the roles I would likely perform in a raid group.
Tomorrow we will look at some of the other stats and some reasons why I do not feel they warrant to be on the holy Paladin build.
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