Base mana for dummies
In Wrath of the Lich King, all spells are being reworked so that their cost, rather than being a static mana value, is a percentage of your base mana pool (this is largely to prevent downranking). For instance, in the current, live game, Levitate costs 100 mana. In the Wrath beta, Levitate costs 3% of base mana But what is base mana?
It's the amount of mana you have before talents, buffs, and stats (like intellect and +mana) are factored in, and before base intellect from your race is taken into account. In other words, it's the amount of mana you would have if you were naked, unbuffed, and un-talented, and had no Intellect. Thus, it is a static value for each character of a given class/level combination. Getting more Int from gear will not raise the cost of spells, because it does not raise your base mana pool (it raises total mana pool). [Thanks for the correction, Breck and Improbable.]
So to the person who wrote in asking "what's the point of getting more Int if it will just make spell costs go up," I hope that answers your question: more Int does not affect your base mana pool. Ultimately we should see little difference from this base-mana-pool spell cost change, aside from the death of downranking.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
8-21-2008 @ 7:08PM
Nathan said...
So basically it will still be a static value, however will scale with your level.
If they're going to do that, why don't they (as previously suggested) just make only one spell in your spellbook with the same base mana cost instead of all the different ranks. The only upgrade trainable being the output of the spell, not the cost.
Reply
8-21-2008 @ 7:46PM
Tiberius said...
In beta there is a button to only show the max rank of the spell
8-21-2008 @ 8:24PM
Saelorn said...
@Tiberius
The question is, why should multiple ranks of the same spell even exist? Originally, you needed ten different ranks of fireball because each one would cost a different amount of mana and do more damage; you could cast a cheap rank 1 fireball for a minute amount of damage, but you would normally cast the biggest fireball you could which would do much more damage at a much higher cost. Now that mana cost scales with your level, why not make the damage scale with your level as well? Say, there's only one rank of fireball and it costs 10% of your base mana and deals 30 damage per level (or some more complicated formula; this is just an example). Precedence exists among dragonhawks.
The answer, of course, is because higher ranks of spells are a gold sink essential to the system. This way just makes it that much more obvious that the system is designed to hurt you.
8-21-2008 @ 7:11PM
Eternalpayn said...
You just called a reader of your site, who took the time to write to you, a dummie. Granted they are, it's still not nice. :)
Reply
8-21-2008 @ 7:19PM
Breck said...
Correction: it's the amount of mana you would have if you were naked, unbuffed, un-talented, and had no base intellect.
Reply
8-21-2008 @ 7:20PM
Iamnotalie said...
Is the gnome +intellect racial factored into base mana? Because if it is, this change is going to make that racial worth a lot less.
Reply
8-21-2008 @ 7:22PM
Plastriq said...
No. Read Breck's post above.
8-21-2008 @ 7:26PM
Breck said...
A clearer way to state it would be "Base mana is the amount of mana you would have if you had zero intellect and zero +mana enchants/talents/buffs."
8-21-2008 @ 7:24PM
Improbable said...
Close, but not quite.
Base mana is actually calculated before any stats, not just stats from gear. My druid, for instance, has 4310 mana naked, but much of that is from his 148 natural Intellect. A 70 druid's base mana is actually just 2370.
Reply
8-21-2008 @ 7:33PM
Manatank said...
Nobody is going to be stacking int anymore. Right now my base mana is something like 11,000 raid buffed. What's the point when my spells will be based on a percentage of this?
Reply
8-21-2008 @ 7:39PM
Jar said...
Is that a serious question?
Please re-read the original article.
Thank you.
8-21-2008 @ 7:39PM
Igneusnex said...
Did you even read what he wrote?
8-21-2008 @ 7:39PM
Eternalpayn said...
You missed the point of this article, didn't you?
8-21-2008 @ 8:10PM
Kad said...
Did you read any of what this article is about? Go back and try again.
8-21-2008 @ 7:42PM
Tiberius said...
Base mana is when you have no gear, enchants, talents, or anything else that gives you mana. Basically when your character is completely naked.
8-21-2008 @ 7:42PM
Cookie McWeaksauce said...
/bonk
8-21-2008 @ 7:43PM
nikoli said...
Fail.
8-21-2008 @ 7:57PM
Hilton said...
Read the bold words in the article. Otherwise stop playing and go back to school.
This may help. Read. Comprehend. Learn.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Base_mana
At level 70 your base mana is...
Class Base mana
Mage 2241
Druid 2370
Warlock 2615
Priest 2620
Paladin 2953
Shaman 2958
Hunter 3383
8-21-2008 @ 9:20PM
Manatank said...
Sorry, I couldn't resist the troll. Thanks for biting everyone.
8-21-2008 @ 9:52PM
Brasson said...
*nom*