Base mana

Base mana refers to how much mana a character has before it is modified by talents, intellect, enchants, and other item effects. As of patch 3.0.2, all spell costs are a percentage of base mana. Prior to that, most spells cost a fixed amount of mana, rather than a percentage of base mana, with a few exceptions.

The value is in most cases dependent on class only, not on race. A character being both a mana-using class and a gnome does however have a slight advantage compared to another race being the same class due to Expansive Mind.

Significant Base Mana Values
These are the correct values as of patch 2.4.3 for level 70, patch 3.0.8 for level 80, and patch 4.0.3 for level 85.

Calculation
As stated above, the base mana pool is only dependent on character class. Each race will have the exact same base mana. The calculation is quite simple.

Base Mana = MaxMana - ManaFromIntellect = MaxMana - ( min(20, Int) + 15*(Int - min(20, Int) ) ) = MaxMana - (20 + (15*(Int – 20)))      //for Intellect 20 or over = MaxMana - (Int)                       //for Intellect under 20

Mana From Intellect can be seen by hovering your mouse over the Intellect stat on your character screen. The part that says "Increase Mana by XXXX" is how much Intellect is boosting your max mana.

Note: Some talents and items boost max mana. e.g.:


 * Fel Vitality (Increases mana by 1%/2%/3%)
 * Beaming Earthsiege Diamond (+2% mana)

Remove the effect of this talent before doing the computation. For example, if a character has 11000 mana and has a +10% mana effect, then divide 11000 by 1.1 first, to get 10000, then subtract the amount of mana it says is granted by Intellect.

Example : Kalium, Level 70 Human Warlock. Total Mana: 8695. Intellect Increases Mana by 5824. Base Mana = 8695 - ( Talents = 0 ) = 8695 = 8695 - 5824           = 2871 Base Mana Pool

As a sanity check, it can be noted that most spells (as of Patch 3.0.2) cost a percentage of base mana. This can make it very easy to verify that the numbers are correct.

For example, Rank 7 of Mind Flay for a level 70 priest without Focused Mind nor Shadow Focus costs 9% of base mana. In game, this shows up as 235 mana. 9% of 2620 is 235.8 (the numbers all get rounded down).

Table of all values
You can use the following script to print your current Base Mana value, assuming you have no mana increasing effects (such as warlock's Fel Vitality or a Beaming Earthsiege Diamond). The formula subtracts the amount of mana you gain though intelligence from your maximum mana.

/script local mm = UnitManaMax("player"); local int = UnitStat("player", 4); local mfi = math.min(20,int)+15*(int-math.min(20,int)); DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("BaseMana: "..mm-mfi.." = "..mm.."-"..mfi);

The following tables are lists known Base Mana values for each class, by level.

NOTE: As of Cataclysm, Hunters no longer use mana, but the values have been retained for historical purposes