In 6 minutes Mighty restoration will Regen 1500 Mana, Distilled wisdom will net you 1125 Mana +27 healing, 1.09% spell crit. (78 Int 65+Kings+Divine Intellect) I agree having a huge mana pool isnt as good as having extra regen but what matters is your net mana gained from the flask and for short fights Distilled wisdom is better.

This is much the same as the debate over Mageblood vs Draenic Wisdom elixirs on the previous post. Using the same principles for decision-making as discussed there: a Flask of Distilled Wisdom = 65 Int, plus Kings = 71 Int. That equates to about 1K mana, 0.9% spell crit and 25 +heal.

The rate of mana return from spell crit obviously varies depending on your usual casting rotation, but with around 300ms latency (typical for Aussies, thus what I calculated on) and assuming near-constant chain-casting 1% spell crit ranges from around 3.5 mp5 (with 100% FoLs) to around 12.5 mp5 (with 100% HLs). For reference, with around 300ms latency and a 3 FoL : 1 HL ratio, 1% spell crit works out around 6.4 mp5.

So using that as the basis for calculation, 0.9% spell crit * 6.4 mp5 = about 5.8 mp5.

Given that paladins have very mana-efficient spells, a huge mana pool is less essential for them than other healer types, and they have very poor passive regen to boot. And most healers I know tend to feel that regen is more important than starting mana pool size – especially so for paladins who don’t have a “top me up!” cooldown like Innervate or Shadowfiend. I saw a nice saying on EJ once; “you only have full mana once: at the start of the fight”.

So I tend to feel that 25 mp5 from a regen flask is more useful than an extra 1k starting mana and 0.9% spellcrit. The +25 heal from the distilled wisdom flask is nice, but in terms of relative value, +25 mp5 is worth a lot more (in itemization value) than +25 heal and 0.9% spellcrit – which is no real surprise, as the Regen flask is a level 70 flask, and Distilled Wisdom is a level 60 flask.

If you feel you need to boost healing as well as regen, the Flask of Distilled Wisdom might be an option, but even then I suspect that you’re better off taking a Regen flask and then eating Golden Fishsticks instead of Blackened Sporefish and using Wizard Oil instead of Mana Oil.