Spark of Hope & other mana reduction

[Neric]

Disclaimer: In contrast to many recent (classic) guides, Spirit of Hope does not drop from Novos the Summoner, it drops in Ulduar 10 from Kologarn.

If we look at the stats (42 mana reduction on spells + 100 spirit) this looks insanely good for disco priests. At a GCD of 1s on PW:S - discounting latency - it should result in 210 mp5 + 50% gain from Meditation for 100 spirit. Of course it all depends on the situation, but let that situation simply be very stressful.

For holy paladins Libram of Renewal is bis, so why isn't this bis for disco priests? Because other stuff is better! But why is Abacus better? Let's do some math:

Abacus is basically a free random Flash Heal every 45 seconds. Thats 695 mana saved devided by 9 = 77.2 mp5. Then you have to add the extra pump that you gain from 201 additional spellpower. Here it gets tricky, because the result depends on many factors like crit%, overhealing% and so on. It better be a lot though, because there is a lot of ground to cover. Even if the result is close, I would prefer the static advantage of mana saved over a dynamic one.

Why isn't the Idol of Awakening bis for resto druids either? Same logic applies, that applies to holy paladins. Last but not least, Totem of Forest Growth allows my shaman to cast 53 chain heals before going oom instead of 47 without. Other shamans may get different numbers, yet same logic applies.

The only answer that I came up with is this: In the endgame you don't have mana issues, you don't go oom, therefore you don't need such mana savers. Well, that is not the only answer. Another answer would be that it all depends: In some encounters certain items are bis, in other encounters it's others. This on the other hand would mean that all those neat lovely bis-lists are somewhat relative. In order to get the most out of your character you have to adjust.

[Mercy]

Trinket options typically depend on the boss encounter and how much unnecessary damage your group takes. But if we're going to compare to Holydins, it's purely a mana argument. Paladins are very mana hungry unless they're able to auto attack the boss. Which, that does vary on encounter. It's also the "safe" option, particularly for noobs. Personally, I rarely use that libram. Though librams for a Holydin doesn't matter nearly as much as some people may argue that it does. Priests, usually, have less mana problems. If played well, and your group plays well, you'll be hard pressed to OOM even without mana trinkets on a Disc at any point past T7. But we can't always expect our groups to play well, either.

I would also go so far as to say that anyone who claims there is a strict set of BIS trinkets for a healer, that the boss encounter doesn't matter, etc., they are naive. I would always recommend collecting trinkets and using what works best for you on a given boss encounter, from the pool of trinkets you've collected.