I just do not understand ARMS Stat Priority...

[Boonatix 1]

Unfortunately there is no deeper explanation or insight, I just do not understand why after the recent hotfixes and the scaling of Mastery, it is still behind Haste and Crit in priority... ? Deep Wounds are my main damage source in most fights, so it would seem logical to push Mastery even further to me... yet it is not recommended. Is the scaling of haste so big that it pushes the amount of dots in a certain timeframe higher, than an increase in mastery would push the overall damage of each dot?

If I keep looking up other warriors on warcraftlogs and check their profiles I just get even more confused... some have 110% mastery, some have over 180% mastery... while having more or less haste... and many of them perform great / equal.

So what is the difference... can anyone explain this more deeply that I can understand this?

Edited September 8, 2018 by Boonatix

[jinsu2301 273]

The "recent" hotfix was just so that an increase in Mastery rating actually did something as opposed to virtually nothing.

Deep Wounds is affected by your Mastery, but also by all your other stats. On the other hand, all other damage is unaffected by Mastery. So, it comes down to how well each stat scales for each point of rating. So, let's say hypothetically your Deep Wounds is 50% of your overall damage, if 100 Haste rating give you 1% Haste (and thus roughly a 1% damage increase), Mastery would have to scale at twice the rate per point (so 100 Mastery rating would need to give you 2% Mastery) to give you the same overall damage increase.

On top of that, there are other factors that influence these scalings: how much of a stat do you have as a baseline, without any gear? How is your rotation affected by certain stats? Can you squeeze in more attacks in a certain time window due to more haste? Are there times during the fight when you can't attack, but your DoTs keep ticking?

If we put all these factors into the simulations, the result are the weights you see everywhere. Haste or Crit just gives more DPS per point in those simulations than Mastery. Whether the same applies to your char, you'd have to sim yourself for that.

2 hours ago, Boonatix said:

some have 110% mastery, some have over 180% mastery... while having more or less haste... and many of them perform great / equal.

With a baseline of 80% for Deep Wounds and the way mastery scales, the difference between someone with 110% and 180% is probably only a couple hundred points of rating, and it might all be due to one guy having avoiding Mastery, or one guy just happening to get more stuff that also had Mastery on top of crit or haste. Also, secondary stats are not as much of an issue as they where in Legion. So unless you go full Mastery/Versatility, your damage is not gonna be that far off, at least not at this point in the expansion.

[Sethix 0]

Haste not only pushes the rate at which your Deep Wounds tick, it increases your Basic Attack Speed (which are your main source of Rage) and decreases the GCD. Haste is great for Arms Warriors, because it helps you cycle through your abilities so insanly.

I think the reason why so many high rated Arms Warriors prefer high amounts of Mastery is, because, as you've mentioned it increases the raw damage of your DoT and makes it to where they appear "stronger" or "better" for the same reason some Holy Paladins choose "Aura of Mercy" over "Devotion Aura": Only the numbers on your Damagemeter count. The Damage of Deep Wounds directly influences your ranking on any Damagemeter, but nobody cares about how consistent you generated rage, how smooth your rotation worked.

And that's the point: The recommendations give you builds, stat priorities, spell rotations, etc. that help you to get as *consistent* as possible, meaning that you "sacrifice" raw damage numbers for (in this case) long-term rage generation, higher tick rates of your DoT and shorter downtimes due to the GCD or your abilities cooldowns.

However, that's just what i have experienced over the past months/years and in the end i think there's not *that* much of a difference damage wise between mastery and haste, so i'd recommend you trying it out yourself and prioritising on whatever stat you feel works best for you.

Edited September 8, 2018 by Sethix

[Boonatix 1]

Awesome, thank you both very much for clearing it up ?