Manthys's Damage Per Mana

Which spell gives you the most damage for your mana? This addon answers that for every damage spell and rank you know, right in the tooltip, and in a sortable comparison window. Abilities that cost rage, energy or focus are scored per point of that resource instead.

Built for World of Warcraft: Forever (the Classic ruleset on the modern client), where downranking still matters and the spellbook is full of ranks with different costs.

What you get

Extra tooltip lines on every damage spell

• Avg damage - the midpoint of the spell's damage range, plus any damage-over-time portion, next to its cost.
• Damage per mana (or rage, energy, focus) - the number that matters. Marked most efficient rank in green when no other rank of that spell beats it, otherwise it names the rank that does.
• Rank efficiency - damage per point for every rank you know, side by side.
• Observed - the average damage and damage per point actually recorded from your own casts, so spell power, crits and resists are reflected too.

A comparison window (/dpm)

Every damage spell and rank in one table, sorted by damage per point, with icons, costs, estimates and observed results. Hover a row for its tooltip. Untick All ranks to see only the best rank of each spell. The window is movable and closes with Escape.

How the numbers are made

The estimate comes straight from the game's own spell text and cost, so it is always in step with the current build: "42 to 46 Shadow damage" becomes 44, "30 Shadow damage over 18 sec" counts the full 30, and channelled spells such as Mind Flay or Arcane Missiles are totalled over their duration. Area spells such as Holy Nova, Arcane Explosion and Chain Lightning show the per-target value and are marked as such.

Abilities described as "weapon damage plus X" count only the X, because the tooltip does not include your weapon. They are flagged in the window and can be hidden with /dpm weapon.

Observed values use the game's built-in damage meter for damage done per spell, combined with a count of your own casts. Nothing is estimated from third-party combat logs, and everything is guarded against the modern client's combat restrictions, so in restricted content the addon shows a dash rather than an error.

Commands

/dpm                 toggle the comparison window
/dpm list            print all damage spells sorted by damage per point
/dpm scan            rescan the spellbook
/dpm ranks           window: every rank / best rank only
/dpm tooltip         toggle tooltip lines
/dpm weapon          toggle listing weapon-based abilities
/dpm reset           clear observed statistics for this character
/dpm debug <spell>   show how a spell's description was read
/dpm options         open the options panel

Settings are also available under Options > AddOns > Manthys's Damage Per Mana.

Good to know

• English spell descriptions only for now.
• The estimate reflects what the tooltip says. If your client's tooltips show base values, your spell power appears in the observed columns rather than the estimate.
• Combo-point finishers that list several damage values are summed rather than read per combo point; use the observed columns for those.
• Observed values are gathered from combat only.
• Healer too? See the companion addon Manthys's Heal Per Mana.

Feedback

WoW Forever is in beta and its spell text changes between builds. If a damage spell shows no lines, run /dpm debug <spell name> and post the output in the comments; new wordings are quick to add.