How to not go OOM: 101. AKA: Benediction sucks.

[knaughty]

How to not go OOM: 101. AKA: Benediction sucks.

• Put up Sanctuary instead of Kings.
• Stop using CC.
• Pull more.
• Divine Plea. Use it.
• Modulate your TPS. (Skip Consecrate)

The end

If SA+ Sanc aren't returning enough mana, you're not tanking enough. Start tanking more, and taking more damage.

Benediction is not a tanking talent.

Benediction is an utter and complete waste of points. If you're going OOM, you're tanking wrong and need to learn how our mechanics work.

Spiritual Attunement Numbarz

Your healer has roughly 20k mana. You have 6k. When you take damage, he transfers mana from his blue bar to your blue bar. How efficient is this transfer?.

Paladin healing you:
Base mana 4,394

• Holy light at 2k spellpower hits for ~10k.
• Costs the Holy pally 1.3k mana, gives you 1k.
• If the pally crits, the heal hits for 15k and only costs the paladin 517 mana.

• Flash of Light costs 308 mana. 123 mana on a crit.
• FoL heals for 3.3k, 5k on a crit.
• ZOMG! he specs 123 or 308 mana to give you 300-500.

Assuming your holy pally isn't a complete tard, he can transfer his mana bar to your mana bar at more than 100% efficiency.

(Holy) Priest Healing You:

Base mana 3,863. Total mana ~20k, spellpower 2k.

• Renew: 656 mana. ~6.9k healing.
• Flash Heal: 590 mana. 4k heal. Only 440 mana if it topped you off.
• Greater Heal: 1050 mana. ~9-10k. Only 788 mana if it topped you off

Harder for a holy priest to transfer mana over 100% efficiency, but their mana regen is ridiculous. Think 1,000 Mp5 outside 5-sec, 300 Mp5 inside. And they will be outside the 5 sec rule frequently due to freebie casts.

Tree/shaman healing you

Do I need to belabour the point? More of the same. They can transfer their 18-20k mana pools to your blue rage bar at about 1:1, and regen a hell of a lot faster than you.

Summary: You do not have a 6k mana pool and no regen. You have a 25k mana pool, it's just that your healer is carrying most of it for you. He can refuel you from empty to full in 10-20 seconds depending on class, if you can take enough damage. He can regen the 6k he just transferred from his pool to yours in about 30 seconds of just standing there.

Neat Trink: Get naked. Get clothed. OK, you just lost 10k health, inc 1k mana. Repeat. This is faster than drinking if you healer is full mana and you're OOM. Create a "get naked" button. Outfit mod is your friend.

Sanctuary Numbarz

ZOMG! SA only kicks in if you take damage and get healed! What about the rest of the time!!oneoneeleven!

• Pure avoidance at level 80 is about 50%.
• You'll block most of the rest.
• You get about 120-130 mana for every mitigated/avoided hit.

Grab a standard trash pack. 4 mobs, 1 on whom is a caster. Three beating on you for not much.

• Three mobs @ 2 sec swing speed, DPS start on the caster.
• Pack takes ~25 seconds to kill (almost one AS CD).

How much mana?

• Caster gives you none from BoS, only SA.
• Melee are going to swing at you about two-dozen times, half avoided, rest blocked.
• About 20 out of 24 hits are going to proc BoS, giving you 40% of your mana back.
• About half will also do damage and give you some mana via SA.

Practicalities and Pacing.

• It's hard to do more than 2 pulls a minute due to AS CD.
• Thus: Every second pack you get 25% of your mana back via Divine Plea.

Plea + BoS give you back about half a bar total per trash pack.

What can you cast for half a mana bar?
• Avenger's Shield.
• One Consecrate.

IE: You need half a mana bar to pull. Make sure to finish your pulls with half a mana bar so you can pull again.

What does SA have to cover?
• Hammer of the Righteous: 6% base mana; 6 second CD
• ShoR: 6% base; 6 sec
• Judgement: 5%; 9 sec
• Holy Shield: 10%; 9 sec

Mana per second: 3.66% of base mana per second = 161 mana per second.

Thus: Incoming damage needs to be 1,610 DPS and you won't go OOM.

Is this a possible healing rate? Holy paladin casting Flash of Light with ~400ms ping is about 2k HPS. Certainly well over our required 1.6k HPS. A Holy Paladin can do this roughly forever. He never needs to break out a big heal or pop CDs.

Other healers solve the same problem different ways, with the same result. 2k HPS, single target, is ridiculously easy for a level 80 healer to sustain virtually forever.

It's worth noting that at this damage rate, your "Time to live" is roughly 30 seconds. IE: You're dealing with trash packs so goddamn weak that you could tank the entire pack to dead with no heals at all.

So the required damage rate is low enough that you healer can be AFK for the actual combats. Or you can dual-box heal yourself, where you only heal yourself after each pack. If you're actually taking enough damage that the pack can actually kill you if you don't get heals, then you can't go OOM.

This is just bullshit theorycraft!

My Armory

Short version: 3 items short of "epic" achievement (every slot with a 25-man epic item).

IE: My gear is close to best available.

• I do not go OOM in Heroics, even easy ones.
• I do not drink more than a couple of times.
• I do not spec or glyph mana efficiency.

It isn't "theory". I easily manage to tank heroics I grossly outgear without requiring Benediction.

The math is here because lot of people don't believe you if you don't post math, and I'm sick of people saying "Benedicution is gud, coz like, -10% mana off everyfink!"

TL;DR! Gimmah tips!

• Put up Sanctuary instead of Kings.
• Stop using CC.
• Pull more.
• Divine Plea. Use it.
• Modulate your TPS. (Skip Consecrate)


Main one is: Consecrate is optional. Skip it unless you really need TPS on over 5 mobs. Learn to tank 4 mobs without Consecrate: AS three, Judge 4th, HammerTime!

Once the first couple of mobs are dead, look at Omen? Do you need to be doing TPS? Or do you have ginormous threat bars with piddly DPS threat eeking along at the bottom? Probably yes! At that point, skip everything except Holy Shield and HotR. Holy Shield costs negative mana - three blocks and you're ahead. Hammer keeps SoV ticking on three targets and is thus stupidly cheap TPS.

[Kynes]

5 stars.

[Invisusira]

How to not go OOM: 101. AKA: Benediction sucks.

• Put up Sanctuary instead of Kings.

This really is all you needed to post.

[Worldie]

There's also the additional rule "Press X".

[knaughty]

How to not go OOM: 101. AKA: Benediction sucks.

• Put up Sanctuary instead of Kings.

This really is all you needed to post.

But ranting is WAY more fun.

There's also the additional rule "Press X".

Haven't had to do this yet.

[Worldie]

Neither did I, but i always run with a replenishment as well.

[knaughty]

Neither did I, but i always run with a replenishment as well.

Always had one in 25s.

Done lots of heroics without replenishment, and even some 10-man stuff. Still no "sitting" required.

Biggest "OOM" issue I have is now heroic bosses, because you can't just "add more trash". Especially bosses that penalise you if you don't keep Consecrate down. EG: Telestra in Nexus is a PITA. She runs me to empty, pretty much.

In raid content, I don't drink, I mana pot, so I can pull next pack rather than hold up the raid. Typical Naxx-25 clear might cost me 1-2 pots. Naxx-10, no replenishment, 2-3. Have gone through 19 pots in a month's raiding (clearing everything). And a few of those are on things like bloody Telestra.

[moduspwnens]

Linked in sticky. :O

There is a thread discussing the lack of value of Benediction here.

[Threatco]

I respect the poster and those who have agreed but I want to contribute based on my experiance.

I find benediction a great tanking talent.

Benediction is 100% reliable. Benediction does not rely on your healer. Benediction is not on a timer. Benedictiond does not care how fast you pull. Or how much health you have left. It does not care if your mobs are attacking fast, or slow, or not at all. Benediction always works.

What else can reduce mana cost reliably when I am not taking hit's or getting healed.

"thats not ever ever going to happen"

Yes it does, tanks can go oom in heroics even when doing it right because theres not enough SA or Sanc regen. The majority of tanks are not going to be taking 1k + dps the whole fight because PuGs are messy. Stupid puggers who nuke on the pull, then you have to go chasing after it an waste all your mana and GCD's taunting and sticking it to you, and healers who heal in spurts. PuGs are messy and benediction fills in the holes in our mana regens unreliability. Also casting sacred shield, hands and other utility spells will eat up a tonne of mana thats not being accounted for.

Going oom can cause wipes. So I this endorse this talent.

So I would have to say, if you have a reliable 5 man team and know the pulls are going to go perfect, and you never have mana issues. Then you can get away without benediction.

If not, then benediction is a great option to consider.


Disclaimer. I realize I am speaking from a position of less experience and credibility. My hope is just that if any others think the way I do then they can come to a better understanding.

[moduspwnens]

Going oom can cause wipes. So I this endorse this talent.

I'd just carry mana potions. Even if you can't wait for Divine Plea, you can use one once per combat, and if you're going OOM more than that, then you should know to downgear, use Sanc, or one of the other options in this thread. I'd argue it's much better than using talent points that could be in something more important.

[Threatco]

I specced out of it for kings since I am now asked to tank naxx on occasion. But before that when it was heroic only and kings was not needed there is plenty of room.

I would say at least the 3 points from "that talent that adds a % to crit debuff on mob" could be used instead.

[Panzerdin]

You may well be right, and Benediction may be of very low value.

Pray tell me, where the hell else am I going to put 4 points in Ret to get to PoJ?

[majiben]

You may well be right, and Benediction may be of very low value.

Pray tell me, where the hell else am I going to put 4 points in Ret to get to PoJ?

3 in HotC if it pleases you and one in benediction.

I believe the point of this thread was not to show that you should not use benediction under any circumstances but that you shouldn't spec to try to stay topped off in mana.

[Noradin]

You may well be right, and Benediction may be of very low value.

Pray tell me, where the hell else am I going to put 4 points in Ret to get to PoJ?

3 in HotC if it pleases you and one in benediction.

I believe the point of this thread was not to show that you should not use benediction under any circumstances but that you shouldn't spec to try to stay topped off in mana.

But maybe the wording hid such a resonable intention very well.

[Panzerdin]

HotC is a waste, because Ret will cover it happily.

And I don't think Knaughty can claim that he was in any way moderating his criticism of Benediction, given that the Title "... Bendiction sucks."