Resto Druid Haste vs Mastery

[Kobe 0]

Hi All,

 

First time poster :) 

 

I just had a few questions for those who have had some experience running both in WoD. I know its early so I understand if some feel like this question is too soon to actually make a judgement call.

 

I've looked through many of the top guilds resto druids and some run haste while others run mastery.

 

What have you seen so far in terms of overall healing output (Haste vs Mastery)?

 

 

 

[Nuadria 20]

Hi All,

 

First time poster

 

I just had a few questions for those who have had some experience running both in WoD. I know its early so I understand if some feel like this question is too soon to actually make a judgement call.

 

I've looked through many of the top guilds resto druids and some run haste while others run mastery.

 

What have you seen so far in terms of overall healing output (Haste vs Mastery)?

I have not been able to test level 100 as of yet as a resto druid, but before WoD I always preferred to be a haste druid, versus mastery. The haste aspect allowed me to keep multiple people up in succession, and have a faster response time. This might be different in level 100 heroic dungeons/raiding now, but due to changes in talents/spells, it seems to me that haste is still better, but I'm unsure.

[Krazyito 521]

I have not been able to test level 100 as of yet as a resto druid, but before WoD I always preferred to be a haste druid, versus mastery. The haste aspect allowed me to keep multiple people up in succession, and have a faster response time. This might be different in level 100 heroic dungeons/raiding now, but due to changes in talents/spells, it seems to me that haste is still better, but I'm unsure.

This really isn't true. Druids have mainly all instant cast abilities, so you can heal the same amount of people just as quick with either haste or mastery.

 

 

Honestly the choice between haste and mastery is going to come down to preference. They are both so close in value to each other that going for either one isn't wrong.

 

Haste has the benefit of making your hots tick faster, reducing your GCD, and reducing your cast time, but haste is the only stat that come with the downside of reducing your overall mana because of the quicker cast times. Mastery is just a straight buff to your healing.

 

Resto druids are in a spot where BOTH of these stats are very good for us. We are the only healers that really WANT haste and can actually benefit immensely from it. Every other healer is trying to avoid it right now.

 

Personally I'm going with haste, but for you you should just pick what you think you will like best for your playstyle and stick with it. 

[Mimerss 0]

Try to go with both of them. They're both really good stats, back in MoP I'd prioritize mastery due to being a big Reju user. Mastery increases how much your hots ticks for(if I'm not remembering wrong), aswell as how much your HT heals for.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Mimerss

[Krazyito 521]

If you're a big rejuv user, you're more likely to go haste. Mastery affects all of your healing equally, while haste affects your hots more than your direct heals.

 

The thing some people don't realize in haste was ALWAYS the best stat for a resto druid. Its just that the value of it plummeted after a specific breakpoint because of the way ticks worked. Now that the healing increase is linear with haste regardless of how much haste you have, it stays at the same exact value. You weren't stacking mastery becasue it was a better stat. You were stacking mastery because you we already at the highest value of haste you could get that was useful.

 

Now haste is always useful regardless of how much you have. Which puts Haste and mastery VERY CLOSE together.

[Shedim 13]

This really isn't true. Druids have mainly all instant cast abilities, so you can heal the same amount of people just as quick with either haste or mastery.

 

You're incorrect Krazyito. Having more haste reduces your gcd allowing you to heal more people at the same time (as well as increasing your healing), while mastery only increases your output.

 

Consider the following hypothetical scenarios 

1. 50% haste and 0% mastery

Your gcd is reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1.0. You can keep your Rejuvenation up on 18 targets at once (with Germination)

 

2. 0% haste and 50% mastery

Your gcd is 1.5 seconds. You can keep your Rejuvenation up on 12 targets at once (with Germination)

 

This doesn't mean haste is better though. Even with the +5% haste from all items, mastery still pulls slightly ahead in terms of output and efficiency. However, haste is a more desired stat (due to faster response time and the ability to heal more people at once), making both stats about equal.

 

Roughly it looks like this:

Mastery = Haste > Multistrike = Critical Strike > Versatility

Edited December 11, 2014 by Shedim

[Krazyito 521]

Even though your GCD is lowered, you're not using every possible global. So realistically they heal about the same amount of people when you take into account mana management and actual healing needs.

I personally want to go haste, but having a viable offspec is important to me, so I gem mastery for both resto and boomkin and still do well in healing.

Also, according to hamlets theorycraftering on EJ, he says haste is better than mastery, but by a slight margin. In the end the stats are insanely close together and it doesn't matter which one you pick.

[Shedim 13]

You should be using every gcd. Nonetheless, the point is that you can do more spread healing with haste in contrast to mastery, which is the point Naudria was trying to make. If the raid takes sustained damage you're better off with a rejuv on most targets than stronger rejuvs on fewer targets.

 

Personally, I'd still go with mastery though, due to mana efficiency. 

[Delaila 4]

About using every gcd, it might not be needed so why waste The mana? Im going with haste as nr 1 stat but im trying to have haste and mastery balanced.

[Dedree 0]

I see the merits in both Shedim's and Krazyito's arguements. Depends entirely on context and primary healing role; I can really see haste being slightly better in terms of raid healing where faster response and lower GCD (for quicker rejuv aplication and reapplication across the raid).

 

Personally, I went with Haste to begin with but am finding now Mastery to be slightly better. For a few personal reasons; I use Glyph of Regrowth, so I use it primarily and bigger slower Regrowth's feel like would benefit more from Mastery in output and efficiency. Also with my latency and just general playstyle, I don't find myself spamming as often as I can.

[Shedim 13]

@Delaila, you should be using every global cooldown. If not on healing, then on Wrath / Moonfire. I keep around 5k dps on most encounters. 

[Krazyito 521]

@Delaila, you should be using every global cooldown. If not on healing, then on Wrath / Moonfire. I keep around 5k dps on most encounters. 

 

Yea, but in your example you're talking about Healing, not doing damage.

 

 

I suppose I should have re-worded my statement. 

 

"Even though your GCD is lowered, you're not using every possible global on healing. So realistically they heal about the same amount of people when you take into account mana management and actual healing needs."

 

Using the spare GCDs on DPS does not help you heal more or less people.  You're going to adjust the pace at which you're using healing spells based on your mana, which is affected by haste. Just because you can casts more rejuvs in a length of time doesn't mean you should. Which, of course, you probably already understand.

[Archieie 0]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but 10% haste gives you 10% raw healing increase to all your hots, with 0% increase to your initial rejuv hit and 10% increase in casting speed/a bit lower gcd, and mastery gives you 10% increase to all your healing spells, so they're somewhat even with haste pulling ahead slightly because of lower gcd (talking max healing output). But haste gives you 1% per 100 rating, where mastery gives you 1.136~% for 100 rating. So the question is, do you really have to spam rejuvs that fast to keep the raid alive? So imho haste makes healing feel easier, but mastery is the slightly better stat.