What Is “Base Mana”?

The WotLK Beta Patch notes are out - along with some talent calculators for Hunters and Paladins. Among the patch notes are a lot of changes where the costs of spells are being shifted from static values to percentage of “base mana.”

This isn’t a new mechanic. Many spells - for example Judgement and Spellsteal - are already based off “base mana.”

It’s not really something to get up in arms about, but a lot of people are complaining. They seem to think this will make spells more expensive, and make spells cost a static portion of their mana pool - making intellect gear useless. Not so at all.

What Is Base Mana?

First, let’s get the definition of “base mana” out of the way.

Every time you level, you gain a few things - health, mana, stats, and a talent point. Your base mana is the collection of all of the mana that you’ve gained just from leveling. Ignore gear, ignore Intellect, and you’ve got your base mana.

At level 70, the base mana for a Mage is 2241. This is lower than you naked mana pool (4273 Mana for a Human) because even without gear you have Intellect to boost your mana.

At level 60, this amount was lower - 1183.

What Does the Change Mean?

One change noted in the patch notes is that Polymorph will be shifted to 12% of base mana. Before the change, Polymorph (Rank 4) cost 150 mana. So will this change make Polymorph more or less expensive?

It will not make it radically more expensive. I think a lot of people mis-interpreted “base mana” to mean “mana” in general. If my Mage has 10k mana buffed, casting Polymorph will not cost 1200 mana, or 12% of my mana pool. That’s just ridiculous.

At level 60, 12% of base mana would be 142. This ends up being slightly cheaper. At level 70, 12% of base mana would be 269. Somewhat more expensive.

Why the Change?

I would guess that the change is intended to help balance costs more effectively.

If you look at the ranks of Polymorph, you’ll notice a trend. Each is slightly more expensive than the previous one. However, there is no new rank learned from levels 61 to 70.

These new ranks serve two purposes. They increase effectiveness (longer duration) and they balance mana costs. As you increase in level, you’ll tend to use the highest rank - and thus use more mana.

Without a new rank between levels 61 and 70, the base mana cost of Polymorph has dropped off dramatically. It’s gone from roughly 12% of base mana to less than 7% of base mana.

If the cost of Polymorph (and most spells) shifts to a percent of base mana, there’s no need to add extra ranks simply to balance costs. The only purpose of a new rank would be to increase the effectiveness. As you level, the cost of Polymorph (Ranks 1, 2, 3, and 4) will increase and remain balanced.

What About Heals…?

Interestingly, there was no mention of a change for healing spells. This suggests that down-ranking - which I’ve heard people complain is getting the nerf bat - is going to remain in the game.

Blizzard is maintaining variable costs on different ranks of heal spells on purpose, because there are reasons to use varying ranks of those spells. You may want to use a lower rank Flash of Light, because it heals for the appropriate amount and is more cost effective than the highest available rank.

Certain Paladin abilities - Hammer of Justice, Repentance, and Divine Shield - are being converted to a percentage of base mana. There is no mention in the patch notes of Holy Light or Flash of Light being affected. So continue down-ranking.

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