Benediction truly sucks

[jere]

Honestly, I would expect the majority of them to go into ret to get conviction. Holy paladins will get a lot more utility/stat increases going ret than they will Prot, unless they are going prot for offtanking reasons.

Unless a Prot Paladin isn't present, in which case it will probably be an overall help to the raid to get Kings.

Yes, but I would be willing to wager that most holy paladins will be spec'ing to fill their own needs vice those that spec specifically for their exact raid composition (whether because they are selfish, or because their raid doesn't min/max, or because their is no need to, etc.) . Yes, there will be some, but I see the need to do that diminishing. The reasons for not having a prot paladin in your raid are quickly diminishing down to "I can't find one".

[Lore]

Ok... you're picking a hole in a semantic difference there. All the mana consumption figures still hold true.

Not necessarily. Even if we have 0 +intellect on any of our gear (and even though we're sharing itemization with DK's and Warriors, it might still pop up on our tier sets), you still get intellect boosts from buffs. At level 80, Arcane Intellect + Imp Mark of the Wild + Blessing of Kings = 60 + 50 x 1.1 = 121 Intellect. That's 1815 mana, which is a pretty decent chunk.

[Magnusharkov]

Not necessarily. Even if we have 0 +intellect on any of our gear (and even though we're sharing itemization with DK's and Warriors, it might still pop up on our tier sets), you still get intellect boosts from buffs. At level 80, Arcane Intellect + Imp Mark of the Wild + Blessing of Kings = 60 + 50 x 1.1 = 121 Intellect. That's 1815 mana, which is a pretty decent chunk.

For the purposes of what I was looking at the *size* of a mana bar is completely irrelevant, I don't care if you have 5000 mana or 500000. Im only interested in the effects on mana consumption by taking 5/5 benediction, which is that it seems to lower mana consumption by 2 to 2.5%

[Modal]

Repeat after me:

Base Mana != Mana Bar.

It does for tankadins...

[Sabindeus]

For the purposes of what I was looking at the *size* of a mana bar is completely irrelevant, I don't care if you have 5000 mana or 500000. Im only interested in the effects on mana consumption by taking 5/5 benediction, which is that it seems to lower mana consumption by 2 to 2.5%

Only if you're consecrate spamming. Take that out of the equation and things are a little different.

[Dorvan]

Anyway, I standby my opinion that benediction is exceptionally weak as it stands and that we really need to make some noise about it. I see people complaining about redoubt and shield spec a lot, but at least those are easily skippable, we really need to be doing something about benediction.

Indeed, it's a valid opiinion. Your first post was just whining that would be completely ignored by Blizzard staff, your second actually has some support to back it up and wouldn't be a bad idea to post to the suggestions forum. However, as Sab said you should take Cons out of your calculation....it's pretty clear we're not intended to be spamming that for single target tanking anymore.

[Lore]

Not necessarily. Even if we have 0 +intellect on any of our gear (and even though we're sharing itemization with DK's and Warriors, it might still pop up on our tier sets), you still get intellect boosts from buffs. At level 80, Arcane Intellect + Imp Mark of the Wild + Blessing of Kings = 60 + 50 x 1.1 = 121 Intellect. That's 1815 mana, which is a pretty decent chunk.

For the purposes of what I was looking at the *size* of a mana bar is completely irrelevant, I don't care if you have 5000 mana or 500000. Im only interested in the effects on mana consumption by taking 5/5 benediction, which is that it seems to lower mana consumption by 2 to 2.5%

Right, but outside of context that doesn't mean much Level 70 Priests, for example, can use something like 20% of their base mana on a single Greater Heal (their most mana efficient single target healing spell), making their base mana consumption somewhere in the vicinity of 480% base mana per minute. Out of context that's ridiculous, but add in all the +intellect and mana regen they get and a T6 priest can spam Greater Heal for days.

I don't disagree with your conclusion, I just don't think you used a conclusive means to get there.