Incoming small novel.
I have a 60 paladin which was my most recently created toon. It’s not my primary raid toon. He’s a fun alt, and no he is neither geared to be a warrior nor played as such. He’s a half elf and started off with a 35 wisdom disadvantage compared to high elf.
I made him half elf for 2 reason:
1) Tunare Diety for Natures Defender Quest. It looks cool as hell, was super easy to quest (he’s an alt - wasn’t going to do epic), has 45 ac (stupid strong) along with a comparable to epic stat spread and proc. If this wasn’t in game I’d have rolled dwarf.
2) FashionQuest. I hate the way high elf males in plate look. I gave up 35 wisdom for a tradeoff of +15 str +5stam/agility, +15 dex. The stat trade offs are debatable (I would have preferred the wisdom) but most importantly I don’t have run around looking like a half elf male in plate. Looking the way you want is the single most important stat. 10 of my starting stats were wisdom.
His magelo:
https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Blue:Mithromir
If he were a high elf geared as he currently is he’d have 1975 mana from the 35 extra wisdom. I’ve already got my bp gems (need to give the stolen fungi back to my monk), the finances to buy the cloak, and nearly enough saves up for Narandi Crown. I need to tap into my inner “not lazy” to go get my 7/6 talisman. Imminent upgrades put me at this:
https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Blue:Mithromirnext
If I were a high elf paladin I’d be at 2400 mana with these non-raid upgrades on the horizon. Othmir prexus totem next goal? 2600 mana.
Really my mana boils down to refusing to be a high elf and being unwilling to wear gear like a zero ac 7 wis/str mask as a tank class.
This whole discussion kicked off after you posted this magelo and asked what the first thing we noticed was:
https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Blue:Salahdin
The first thing I noticed was your bad ac despite clearly having some pretty decent overall gear quality. Clicking through your gear choices quickly explained it. You’re wearing a few dumb pieces that are dragging you down.
Heal over time has a 30 second cool down. You can’t exactly chain cast it even if you want to. Wave of Healing is actually weaker than wiki places it. It’s much less efficient than heal over time and only has situational use, the most important of which I’d argue is threat snap while topping off some group health. 220 heal isn’t going to save anyone. That leaves us with superior heal which is generally on my bar for emergencies where someone needs a faster blast heal. If I’m grouping with a healer worth their salt and not on a raid I don’t keep it mem’d. It’s got a slow cast time and if the ench is going down it usually won’t land in time - that’s what LoH is for. It’s also more expensive to cast and heals for a lot less total than our heal over time. That heal over time should be the only heal any 59+ knight uses outside of extraordinary circumstances. For those circumstances I keep other heals loaded but they have significant drawbacks in terms of insufficiency, inefficiency, and for one of them in being slow to cast.
So what does that leave us with?
-an amazing heal over time that is fast to cast and efficient with a 30 sec lockout
-the need to hold threat which is easy and cheap with a 12 mana spell
-the ability to stun as desired or needed (I keep 2 up always)
-the ability to root as needed
-lulls (not expensive)
-buffs to cast/refresh as needed
-rez to do rarely as needed
-a targeted rune which does actually have some uses. If puller is bringing in a few - tag me with rune and mobs will run to you instead
Having more total mana let’s you cast none of these more often over time unless you or your group has enough down time that one paladin can Med longer while the other would be sitting around full mana and not climb any further. My experience is that this scenario is the exception, not the norm. I usually roll with fast paced groups. The bigger pool just gives you more total reserve with which to operate. In a raid environment on big targets with aoe damage, that deeper pool is critically important.
If you play your paladin like a holy healing Gandalf with chain casting wave of healing and throwing around superior heals like they’re going out of style you’re just simply going to find yourself out of mana. If you’re using that extra mana on extra unnecessary aggro ... you’re going to just run out sooner and either force your group to stop to wait on you to Med or find yourself so low on mana you can’t do anything but flash of light. When that happens you’re NO better than a warrior with less mitigation, fewer hitpoints, and less dps.
My opinion is that knighting properly is balancing your mana usage while effectively using the tools at your disposal and keeping enough always on reserve in the tank to deal with the unexpected when it happens. So far I’ve gotten really good with working that balance with 1500 mana. I’m about to have 2k - or 2 extra HoTs in my hip pocket.
Mana is good. Wisdom is good. Our spellbook is what distinguishes us. At the end of the day, however, we’re still tanks. Tanks with low ac are mana sponges and tanks with low hp are less efficient to heal.