Caster Stats
Intellect or Spell Power? It is the question every caster asks at the first upgrade, and in a Classic-lineage game the answer is lopsided — but not for the reason most people give. This page works the arithmetic with Forever's real numbers.
On this page 8 sections
Source tiers
- Official or client data
- Verbatim reporting, hands-on
- Provisional or placeholder
- Our analysis
The short answer Source tier B — verbatim reporting or hands-on testing: B
Corrected 9 October. With rank-appropriate spells above about level 20, 1 Spell Power is worth roughly 15–20 Intellect for raw damage, and Spell Power wins. Intellect buys a bigger mana pool and a sliver of crit; Spell Power buys damage on every cast.
Below 20 it inverts. Spells learned before level 20 carry a coefficient penalty, so a few points of Spell Power add almost nothing: at level 9, +2 Spell Power is about +2.7% damage on a ~33-damage Frostbolt, while +3 Intellect is +45 mana, about 9% more casts before you drink. Levelling at that stage is downtime-bound, so take the Intellect item until about 20. Source tier D — our analysis: D
The exception that matters while levelling: if you are running out of mana before the mob dies, the stat comparison is irrelevant. Mana is a pacing problem, not a damage problem, and it is solved by Intellect, Spirit, drinking, or killing faster — in that order of expense. A Mage who can cast six more Frostbolts per drink levels faster than one who hits 4% harder and sits down more.
Intellect Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A
Intellect does three things in Forever:
| Effect | Rate |
|---|---|
| Maximum Mana | 15 mana per point. Warlock pets receive this bonus as well |
| Spell Critical Strike | 1% per 54–60 Intellect, varying by class — Paladins need the fewest, Warlocks the most |
| Weapon skill | Slightly increases your chance to improve weapon skills when attacking. Marginal for a caster |
Note what Intellect does not do: it adds no damage directly. Its entire offensive contribution is the crit conversion, and at ~59 points for a single percentage point that conversion is slow.
Spell Power Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A
Spell Power (listed as Spell Damage and Spell Healing) adds damage to every spell you cast, scaled by that spell's coefficient — the fraction of your Spell Power the spell actually receives.
| Spell type | Coefficient | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Long-cast direct damage | ~80–100% | Frostbolt, Fireball |
| Damage over time | High, spread across the full duration | Corruption, Shadow Word: Pain |
| Instant and AoE | 🔴 ~15% | Arcane Explosion |
A Mage stacking Spell Power for Frostbolt gets close to the full value of every point. The same Mage pulling fifteen mobs and spamming Arcane Explosion gets about a sixth of it. If you AoE grind, Spell Power is a far weaker stat than the single-target numbers suggest, and Intellect's mana pool matters more — because AoE grinding is mana-bound, not damage-bound.
The arithmetic, worked Source tier C — provisional or placeholder data: C
Take a Frostbolt that hits for 500, with a coefficient of 0.814 (a 3-second cast).
+1 Spell Power
Adds 0.814 damage to every Frostbolt. Directly, on every cast, forever.
+1 Intellect (Mage, ~59/1%)
Adds 1/59th of 1% crit. A spell crit is worth +50%, so 1% crit raises average damage by 0.5%.
0.5% of 500 = 2.5 damage per 1% crit ÷ 59 = 0.042 damage. Plus 15 mana.
0.814 ÷ 0.042 ≈ 19 Intellect to match 1 Spell Power
How this shifts as you grow. Spell Power's contribution is flat; crit scales with how hard you already hit. So the ratio tightens as your damage climbs:
| Your Frostbolt hits for | Intellect needed to equal 1 Spell Power |
|---|---|
| 300 (early levelling) | ~32 |
| 500 (mid levelling) | ~19 |
| 1,000 (geared 60) | ~10 |
⚠️ These are illustrative, not authoritative. The 15-mana and 54–60 Intellect figures are Forever's; the coefficient and the worked example use standard Classic spell mechanics, which Forever appears to preserve but has not published. The example assumes a spell learned at 20 or later. Below 20 the coefficient penalty (next section) shrinks Spell Power's side of the comparison and Intellect wins — this page previously said Intellect could never catch Spell Power while levelling, which was wrong for the first twenty levels.
| Level 9 choice | +2 Spell Power | +3 Intellect |
|---|---|---|
| Effect | +0.9 damage on a ~33-damage Frostbolt | +45 mana on a ~500 pool |
| Relative | +2.7% damage | +9% casts before drinking |
Spirit Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A
Spirit regenerates Health and Mana while out of combat and/or not casting. That second clause is the whole problem: a DPS caster is casting almost continuously, so Spirit does very little during a fight.
It becomes strong in two situations. Between pulls, where it shortens the drink — which while levelling is worth more than it looks, because downtime is the real tax on levelling speed. And with a Meditation-style talent, which lets a percentage of Spirit regen continue while casting.
All healer specs now have some form of in-combat mana regeneration talent, which makes Spirit a genuinely strong healer stat in this version. For a DPS caster with no such talent it remains a levelling convenience, not a damage stat.
Hit and Crit Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A
| vs equal level | vs raid boss | |
|---|---|---|
| Spell miss chance | 3% | 🔴 16% |
| Melee miss chance | 5% | 9% |
16% of your casts missing a boss is the single largest damage loss available to a caster, and it is why Hit outranks almost everything else once you start raiding. While levelling against equal-level mobs it is only 3%, so Hit is a low priority until 60.
Crit in Forever is one merged stat — no longer split into melee crit and spell crit on gear. And spell crits deal 50% bonus damage, where melee crits deal 100%. That asymmetry is exactly why crit-per-Intellect is such a poor conversion for casters: you are buying a small amount of a stat that pays half as well as it does for a Rogue.
In Classic, +hit on cloth was desperately scarce, so casters spent the whole game under the cap. In Forever every item that used to carry melee or ranged hit is now a spell-hit item, because it is one stat. The pool goes from a handful of cloth pieces to essentially every hit item in the game. ⚠️ The cap value has not been stated — 16% is a Classic number, not a Forever one.
The downranking rule Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A
Spell coefficients plateau for ranks gained after level 20. A spell learned below 20 keeps about 1 − (20 − spell level) × 0.0375 of its coefficient, so a low rank cast for mana efficiency gets disproportionately little from your Spell Power. If you downrank — and Mages and healers both do — stop at the level-20 rank. Source tier B — verbatim reporting or hands-on testing: B
Forever added two things. Since 1 October the character sheet explains that ranks cast vastly below your level get less spell damage or healing and a reduced chance to trigger class procs — a rank-1 Frostbolt at 60 has a 0% Frostbite chance. And the 8 October build rebalanced ranks 1–5 of Frostbolt, Fireball, Arcane Missiles, Wrath, Smite, Lesser Heal and Heal, Shadow Bolt and Lightning Bolt so every new rank is an upgrade — train each one. That rebalance does not remove the sub-20 penalty. Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A
What Forever changed Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A
| Change | What it does to a caster |
|---|---|
| Caster weapons grant spell damage and healing, from around level 10 | 🔴 The biggest levelling-quality change in the game for a caster. In Classic your weapon was a stat-stick and every upgrade felt inert. Now your staff is a live damage slot at every level band |
| 🔴 Wands no longer gain damage from spell damage (24 September) | The caster-weapon change covers staves, swords, daggers, maces and off-hands, not the wand slot. A wand upgrade is a wand-damage upgrade only; Spell Power on gear does nothing for your wand. Since 15 October a wand also needs you to stand still for 0.5s before it shoots |
| Wizard Oils back to Classic values (24 September) | Minor, Lesser and Wizard Oil give 8 / 16 / 24 spell power. Warlock Firestone and Spellstone are weapon imbues that stack with oils |
| Spell ranks 1–5 rebalanced (8 October) | Each new rank of the core nukes and heals is now an upgrade; ranks far below your level lose spell power and proc chance |
| Spell, melee and ranged hit merged | The hit-item pool expands enormously — see above |
| Crit merged | Racial crit counts for casters: since 15 October Human Ruthless gives +2% crit chance and Orc Savage +1%, with no weapon needed (they replaced Sword and Axe Specialization), and Dwarf Earth Fury gives +2% critical damage and healing Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A. At +50% per spell crit, +2% crit is worth about +1% damage to a caster |
| Bonus healing now carries ⅓ as much bonus damage | Healer-tagged cloth becomes contested — Priests and Druids will roll on pieces they used to pass |
| Quest rewards broadened to cover casters | More caster weapons in the levelling bands than Classic ever had |
| Haste | Exists, but not on gear. Sources: the Skyborne passive Wind Blessed (+3% since 15 October, was 1%), Troll Berserking (+10% for 10s, left unchanged on 15 October), the Warlock Spellstone (“spell haste”) and the Flask of Natural Swiftness (5% Haste, only in Mount Hyjal, Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps). No real gear in the beta carried it; a “PTR only” Minor Haste glove enchant exists in the client and may never ship. Source tier A — official Blizzard or live client data: A |
Priority, in practice
Levelling
Below 20: Intellect > Stamina > Spirit > Spell Power.
From 20: Spell Power > Stamina > Intellect > Spirit > Crit > Hit
Stamina ranks high because dying costs a five-to-ten-minute corpse run in a world with no flying, and because a Warlock's Life Tap spends health for mana — though in Forever the mana it returns scales with Spirit, which makes Spirit a real Warlock stat.
At 60, raiding
Hit (to cap) > Spell Power > Crit > Intellect > Spirit
16% of casts missing dwarfs every other consideration. Once capped, Spell Power resumes first place.
Stat rates from Warcraft Tavern's Forever stats guide; wand, Wizard Oil, downranking and rank changes from Blizzard's beta development notes (24 September; 1, 8 and 15 October); racial crit and Haste values from the 15 October notes; Haste sources from Blizzard's race and Warlock articles and our client item sweep; worked examples are Classic mechanics applied to Forever numbers. Last updated 23 October 2026.