Assumption: "Paladins should socket nothing but 20 int gems, regardless of socket bonus and other stats since int gives sp, effective mp5 and mana."

After being told I was a "lolfag" for "socketing mp5" this evening, I decided to go verify if the conventional wisdom that all paladins should only socket 20 int gems held true. After all, if all of Ensidia's paladins socket nothing but Int, that must mean it's the absolute only way to go, right? We all want to be as good as Ensidia, right?

Well, I don't "socket mp5". I socket for what I deem decent socket bonuses that allow for greater throughput without gimping my longevity. You see, I don't run out of mana. You've heard me brag, and you've seen me at 40% mana on most boss deaths. On tonight's hard mode Mimiron, on our kill with 1 second to spare, I still had 30% mana after nonstop power-healing for the duration of the fight. I'd like to think I did pretty good.

So, would I have done "better" if I had socketed nothing but int? No. And here's why:

If you're not running out of mana (which I'm not), current ToC paladin itemization makes socket bonuses outweigh pure-int socketing when looking at THROUGHPUT. In the case of our gear (or, specifically, my gear) almost all socket bonuses are in SP. As awesome as the coefficient is for int->sp for paladins (20% of total int is converted into spell power), the set bonuses along with my various int/sp gems outweigh the conversion of only int to sp. Here's a chart:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnOmFUzXaXK6dDRqalVUODFuZGVKZG9HdGNFSHJFWnc&hl=en

There are three scenarios listed:

1. Current gear where I use 10int/5mp5 to hit socket bonuses on various items<
2. Where I replace ONLY those 10int/5mp5 gems with 20 int gems and thus break the bonuses on those items
3. Where I replace everything with 20 int gems

What really matters are the bottom, bold numbers: mana pool, effective mp5, and spell power. As we can see moving from scenario 1 to scenario 3, I'm gaining mana pool and losing SP.

So, yay! I gain mana and a lot of mp5! But wait. I don't need either. I'm already outlasting every boss. I need that SP (and more haste, imo) while carefully balancing int and existing mp5. We're not wiping in Phase 3 HM Anub because I'm running out of mana. A bigger mana pool simply doesn't help me do my job better.

So why all this "conventional wisdom" about socketing nothing but int? Well, because 1) it's easy and 2) it's good enough. When a newbie pally asks me what he should socket, I say "int" because it's easier that going over all his gear and play style. When elitist dickbags in other guilds on Gorg accost me for "socketing mp5", not only are they showing they only know how to cookie-cutter in this game they also show that they're terrible at arithmetic. My suggestion to them is: Add up the numbers, be a better player, don't fall back on dismissive platitudes. 

And, if Ensidia does it, that must be the only way to do it, right?