Elemental gearing advice

[Qaeldanas 0]

Hey, i have recently upgraded my valour stuff and it has brought me to the mastery cap. I have been looking at other top tier elemental shamans like leeds from method and some from blood legion and none seem to have mastery over 97% most averaging around 95%. Currently i am 99.81% with 7 items still left to upgrade. I am wondering whether or not I am gearing correctly. A link to my armory 

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/area-52/Qaeldanas/advanced

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

Qael

Edited May 28, 2014 by Qaeldanas

[Qaeldanas 0]

The link does not seem to be working correctly but it does if you remove the stuff at the end of the link, not sure why lol but it works

[Elro 47]

As long as your mastery isn't over 100%, it's useful. If you use Elemental Blast for your lvl 90 talent, the mastery cap is 87%, if I remember rightly. I would suggest swapping out a couple gems for haste, at this point, to avoid reaching mastery cap. Hopefully one of our more experienced shamans shows up and gives you something more concrete, but that's my view on things.

[Qaeldanas 0]

Alright thanks, how many gems should i swap out? like whats the minimum value of mastery i want to be at but still below 100?

[Elro 47]

You'd be better off checking AMR for the exact value, to be honest I don't know. 

[Hybrys 199]

You're absolutely gearing correctly for a UF build.

 

The idea is to get as close to, but not over 100% Mastery, and then to go for Haste to replace excess Mastery.  So once you upgrade your next piece and jump over 100%, you'll want to trade in a haste gem to get it back down just below 100%.

 

Does that make sense?

[dean771 3]

You're absolutely gearing correctly for a UF build.

 

The idea is to get as close to, but not over 100% Mastery, and then to go for Haste to replace excess Mastery.  So once you upgrade your next piece and jump over 100%, you'll want to trade in a haste gem to get it back down just below 100%.

 

Does that make sense?

and imho bare in mind the value of haste and mastery and quite close at all gear levels, dropping a bit more mastery will save you regemming every upgrade

[Qaeldanas 0]

Yeah, thanks man. Another question, would it be more beneficial to go intellect instead of haste after i am mastery capped? Like i could change my 320 mastery gems 1 by 1 into 80 int/160 mastery or is going into haste better?

[dean771 3]

Haste is better, and gets better and better the more powerful amp trinket you get

[Hybrys 199]

and imho bare in mind the value of haste and mastery and quite close at all gear levels, dropping a bit more mastery will save you regemming every upgrade

This is incorrect, as Mastery's value is a fair bit higher w/ UF.  Mastery > Haste > Crit

 

Yeah, thanks man. Another question, would it be more beneficial to go intellect instead of haste after i am mastery capped? Like i could change my 320 mastery gems 1 by 1 into 80 int/160 mastery or is going into haste better?

 

As mentioned, pure haste in yellows and int/haste in reds is still going to be the better option, just because we scale better with it than pure Int.  Once you hit the soft Haste cap (LB @ 1sec w/ either LMG or Lust, NOT both), then pure Int would probably be best.

[dean771 3]

This is incorrect, as Mastery's value is a fair bit higher w/ UF.  Mastery > Haste > Crit

 

 

Depends on what you mean by a fair bit higher? I always got them within 5% but I must say I havnt simed for a while

[Hybrys 199]

Depends on what you mean by a fair bit higher? I always got them within 5% but I must say I havnt simed for a while

As far as I recall, using UF puts mastery about 8% higher, due to the value of your Unleash Flame + UF Lava Bursts procing.

Besides, more than 3% is significant enough to warrant a clear priority, imo.

[dean771 3]

As far as I recall, using UF puts mastery about 8% higher, due to the value of your Unleash Flame + UF Lava Bursts procing.

Besides, more than 3% is significant enough to warrant a clear priority, imo.

Sounds about right. What I'm sugesting is once you are already 98% mastery trading 1% mastery for 1% haste  isn't statisticaly significate.

 

Are you talking the difference between the two stats or the reliave difference once you are already going a mastery build?

[Hybrys 199]

Sounds about right. What I'm sugesting is once you are already 98% mastery trading 1% mastery for 1% haste  isn't statisticaly significate.

 

Are you talking the difference between the two stats or the reliave difference once you are already going a mastery build?

You're thinking about the math incorrectly.  Just because it's closer to 100% doesn't give any less value to the remaining % missing, as Mastery scales linearly.  While having 98% Mastery, on average, 98% of your spells will proc, and you still have that 2% chance to miss those huge LvB procs.

 

I don't know about you, but I don't run around with 13% hit, just because 98% of the time I won't miss.

[Qaeldanas 0]

Thanks, is there an add-on or something i can use to check what my gcd is currently? My chain lightning cast is 1.11 seconds if that helps and is like 0.85 with a 30% haste buff.

[Qaeldanas 0]

never mind i checked using my lava burst, its a 1.14 second cast with a 30% haste buff. Thanks a ton man

[Hybrys 199]

Thanks, is there an add-on or something i can use to check what my gcd is currently? My chain lightning cast is 1.11 seconds if that helps and is like 0.85 with a 30% haste buff.

never mind i checked using my lava burst, its a 1.14 second cast with a 30% haste buff. Thanks a ton man

Yeah, the soft cap we look for is to bring 2.0 cast times to 1.0 during a 30% haste buff, not how low the GCD is.

 

Unfortunately, Chain Lightning is a 1.5 sec cast, so it will quickly go under the GCD w/ a 30% haste buff.

 

And, to be fair, it's just the moment when Haste loses a significant chunk of its value.  I'd be willing to bet that there's an argument to be made for more Haste vs Int once you hit that breakpoint.

[dean771 3]

You're thinking about the math incorrectly.  Just because it's closer to 100% doesn't give any less value to the remaining % missing, as Mastery scales linearly.  While having 98% Mastery, on average, 98% of your spells will proc, and you still have that 2% chance to miss those huge LvB procs.

 

I don't know about you, but I don't run around with 13% hit, just because 98% of the time I won't miss.

The math is fine, mastery scales linearly but it also scales with other stats, The value of trading 1% mastery for 1% haste isnt constant.

 

In the end though its trading convinence for dps, its fine to say you should always maximise dps but with 2 new items getting +4 very week for a while and many shamans balancing a resto a and ele set with some shared items I'm not sure its realistic for a while. I think you would be stocked how close they sim

[Hybrys 199]

The math is fine, mastery scales linearly but it also scales with other stats, The value of trading 1% mastery for 1% haste isnt constant.

 

In the end though its trading convinence for dps, its fine to say you should always maximise dps but with 2 new items getting +4 very week for a while and many shamans balancing a resto a and ele set with some shared items I'm not sure its realistic for a while. I think you would be stocked how close they sim

I know they're close, and that they scale with each other. I'm just saying that there's no good reason to reduce one for the other.