Both myself and Mongo have different opinions on this. Since this really belongs in another thread, I've gone ahead and started one.
There are three main opinions when it comes to Priests on whether to go Int, Spirit, or a mixture of the two. My thoughts on this is to lean more heavily toward that of the Int higher than Spirit for several reasons. In order to show that reasoning, let me break down a couple things about the two attributes when it comes to mana.
1 Int = 25 Mana (confirmed by using AI on Arlisse, without AI up, Arlisse has 425 Mana, casting AI, which increases Int by 2, this gives Arlisse 475, difference of 50 mana, so dividing by 2 gets 25 mana per point of Int).
3 Spirit = 1 Mana regen every tick. A tick is defined as 2 seconds (I have timed this many times before with a stop watch. While my reflexes aren't the best, they aren't particulary bad either and doing tests with regen I consistently got ticks as being between 1.5s and 2s, with a large number falling around 1.7s to 1.8s, so I rounded up to 2s which is what a lot of other players have observed).
Now, let's take a pair of items, say one item has +30 Int and +15 Spirit (+750 Mana and +5 regen every tick) and a second item that has +15 Int and +30 Spirit (+375 Mana and +10 regen every tick).
Now, we have a difference of 375 Mana between the two. This 375 Mana is enough mana to cast an additional Renew or Flash Heal.
Let's assume for ease of calculation that Flash Heal cost 375 Mana.
Priest 1 has the +30 Int, +15 Spirit item and Priest 2 has the +15 Int, +30 Spirit item.
Both Priests cast one Flash heal at Time 0.
5 seconds pass and both Priests begin regenning mana.
At Tick 38, Priest 2 can now cast another Flash Heal as they have 380 Mana. At Tick 38, Priest 1 still have enough mana to cast Flash Heal plus has 190 Mana regened.
Both Priests cast Flash Heal
5 seconds pass and both Priests begin to regen mana again.
Again, after 38 Ticks, both Priest have enough mana to cast Flash (Priest 1 has 380 mana because of an additional 190 Mana and Priest 2 has 385 Mana from the 5 they did not spend before).
Now, let's take a look at the situation. Priest 1 will not be able to cast another Flash heal for 55 Ticks (because they will have 5 mana left after casting the third Flash) and Priest 2 will be able to cast another Flash in 37 Ticks (due to the 10 mana they will have left after casting the third Flash and will be able to cast a fifth flash at Tick 55 from when they cast the third Flash meaning they are now 1 Flash ahead). So, at Tick 131 (38+38+55), Priest 2 has cast 5 Flashes to Priest 1's 4.
So, it looks like Spirit is better right? Wait, we haven't taken a look at the time that this has covered. 76 Ticks alone is 152 seconds and if we add the 3 seconds for casting the 2 Flashes (1.5 second cast) and 10 seconds for the time we were not able to regenerate after each spell due to the 5 second rule, the lapse of time is now 168 seconds or nearly 3 minutes! (2 minutes 48 seconds)
Battles against the end bosses of the high end instances (not Raid instances) typically last 3 to 4 minutes depending on how good your party is (longer if the part doesn't know the encounter that will, less if they do). During this time period, the Priest is typically casting a large number of spells, it is rare for the Priest to get a 15 to 20 second breather before they are casting spells and under the 5 second rule. Again, if we assume that we get a 20 second period of regen during each minute were we can regen uninterrupted and are either casting or under the 5 second rule the rest of the time period, this means using the above Priests, Priest 2 is only going to get 50 more mana per minute than Priest 1. This means that if the battle goes 4 minutes, Priest 2 will have made up that difference in mana that Priest 1 had to begin with the additional Int (375 Mana difference, 400 Mana gained by Priest 2 in that minute, 200 Mana gained by Priest 1), but Priest 1 will still have more Mana than Priest 2 (Priest 1 would have 375 mana + 200 regened mana for 575 mana total while Priest 2 would have 400 regened Mana).
So, when we take into account the above situations, it becomes apparent that in encounters that last 5 minutes and less, +Int is king (and really only Raid content, Ragnos, Onxyia, etc, will take more than 5 minutes to finish the battle, this is where Spirit becomes king).
There are three main opinions when it comes to Priests on whether to go Int, Spirit, or a mixture of the two. My thoughts on this is to lean more heavily toward that of the Int higher than Spirit for several reasons. In order to show that reasoning, let me break down a couple things about the two attributes when it comes to mana.
1 Int = 25 Mana (confirmed by using AI on Arlisse, without AI up, Arlisse has 425 Mana, casting AI, which increases Int by 2, this gives Arlisse 475, difference of 50 mana, so dividing by 2 gets 25 mana per point of Int).
3 Spirit = 1 Mana regen every tick. A tick is defined as 2 seconds (I have timed this many times before with a stop watch. While my reflexes aren't the best, they aren't particulary bad either and doing tests with regen I consistently got ticks as being between 1.5s and 2s, with a large number falling around 1.7s to 1.8s, so I rounded up to 2s which is what a lot of other players have observed).
Now, let's take a pair of items, say one item has +30 Int and +15 Spirit (+750 Mana and +5 regen every tick) and a second item that has +15 Int and +30 Spirit (+375 Mana and +10 regen every tick).
Now, we have a difference of 375 Mana between the two. This 375 Mana is enough mana to cast an additional Renew or Flash Heal.
Let's assume for ease of calculation that Flash Heal cost 375 Mana.
Priest 1 has the +30 Int, +15 Spirit item and Priest 2 has the +15 Int, +30 Spirit item.
Both Priests cast one Flash heal at Time 0.
5 seconds pass and both Priests begin regenning mana.
At Tick 38, Priest 2 can now cast another Flash Heal as they have 380 Mana. At Tick 38, Priest 1 still have enough mana to cast Flash Heal plus has 190 Mana regened.
Both Priests cast Flash Heal
5 seconds pass and both Priests begin to regen mana again.
Again, after 38 Ticks, both Priest have enough mana to cast Flash (Priest 1 has 380 mana because of an additional 190 Mana and Priest 2 has 385 Mana from the 5 they did not spend before).
Now, let's take a look at the situation. Priest 1 will not be able to cast another Flash heal for 55 Ticks (because they will have 5 mana left after casting the third Flash) and Priest 2 will be able to cast another Flash in 37 Ticks (due to the 10 mana they will have left after casting the third Flash and will be able to cast a fifth flash at Tick 55 from when they cast the third Flash meaning they are now 1 Flash ahead). So, at Tick 131 (38+38+55), Priest 2 has cast 5 Flashes to Priest 1's 4.
So, it looks like Spirit is better right? Wait, we haven't taken a look at the time that this has covered. 76 Ticks alone is 152 seconds and if we add the 3 seconds for casting the 2 Flashes (1.5 second cast) and 10 seconds for the time we were not able to regenerate after each spell due to the 5 second rule, the lapse of time is now 168 seconds or nearly 3 minutes! (2 minutes 48 seconds)
Battles against the end bosses of the high end instances (not Raid instances) typically last 3 to 4 minutes depending on how good your party is (longer if the part doesn't know the encounter that will, less if they do). During this time period, the Priest is typically casting a large number of spells, it is rare for the Priest to get a 15 to 20 second breather before they are casting spells and under the 5 second rule. Again, if we assume that we get a 20 second period of regen during each minute were we can regen uninterrupted and are either casting or under the 5 second rule the rest of the time period, this means using the above Priests, Priest 2 is only going to get 50 more mana per minute than Priest 1. This means that if the battle goes 4 minutes, Priest 2 will have made up that difference in mana that Priest 1 had to begin with the additional Int (375 Mana difference, 400 Mana gained by Priest 2 in that minute, 200 Mana gained by Priest 1), but Priest 1 will still have more Mana than Priest 2 (Priest 1 would have 375 mana + 200 regened mana for 575 mana total while Priest 2 would have 400 regened Mana).
So, when we take into account the above situations, it becomes apparent that in encounters that last 5 minutes and less, +Int is king (and really only Raid content, Ragnos, Onxyia, etc, will take more than 5 minutes to finish the battle, this is where Spirit becomes king).
Sith Warriors - They only class that gets a new room added to their ship after leaving Hoth, they get a Brooncloset
Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.
Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.