Mastery
Echo of Light- Your direct healing spells heal for an additional 10% over 6 seconds. Each point of Mastery provides an additional 1.25% healing over 6 seconds.
Every spell we use, from Heal/Flash Heal to Prayer of Mending and even Renew (as long as you're properly talented) all benefit from our Mastery. And because Mastery increases our healing done, it makes it an attractive throughput stat. It doesn't top Intellect which increases our spellpower, but it certainly tops Critical Strike Rating which relies on the Random Number Generator.
Haste
Haste- Decreases the cast time of your spells, reduces the Global Cooldown of spells, and also adds HoT ticks to some spells based on various points of Haste.
Most spells we utilize are affected by our Haste Rating. Haste is very valuable for Holy priests because many of our biggest healing spells have a long cast time. Lowering this cast time increases our throughput in the sense that we can cast more spells in the same time allotted for a boss fight. Also be aware that casting more spells equals more mana used, so having the mana regen to handle the increased Haste is essential.
Renew and the Legend of the Soft Haste Cap
Renew is a HoT available to priests and it is very similar to a druid's Rejuvenation. The Holy tree has talents that buff Renew and make it the preferred single target heal when raid healing. Haste rating increases Renew's efficiency because in Cataclysm all HoT effects are affected by Haste Rating (with the exception of our Mastery, go figure). A fresh-85 Holy priest will most likely only get 4 ticks out of Renew over 12 seconds. When you get geared for raiding, hitting 12.5% will squeeze a 5th tick out of Renew in that same 12 second time frame, increasing it's efficiency. Because Renew becomes more efficient than Heal at 12.5%, it becomes essential for a raid healing Holy priest to hit this "soft haste cap."
Why is it called the "soft haste cap?"
Because the next tick for Renew won't be achieved until 37.5% Haste which is impossible to get at our current gear levels. This is called the "hard haste cap." Haste is still valuable after 12.5%, but it is diminished since our primary HoT doesn't benefit from it until 37.5%.
Haste vs. Mastery after 12.5% Haste Rating
Here's my theory:
At lower gear levels when you are clearing out normal mode content, mana regen will still be a problem for most healers. And because high Haste depends on high mana regen, it's not a preferred stat past 12.5% for a priest starting to raid.
Meanwhile, Mastery makes your heals hit harder at no cost to your mana. Echo of Light can account for almost 15% of your effective healing depending on your Mastery rating all while keeping your mana efficiency in check.
But what if I'm geared and I'm comfortable with my mana regen?
Then Haste will take the lead over Mastery, especially with Cataclysm Heroic-modes. Mastery is still a good stat, but getting off your Prayer of Healing quicker without having to worry about mana is better for Heroic-mode encounters where damage can be extremely spiky and getting everyone to full health ASAP is our top priority.
In Conclusion
- If you are a priest still working on normal modes and are still struggling with mana, gear for Mastery rating.
- If you are a priest working on Heroic-modes and are comfortable with your mana regen, gear for Haste rating.
Well written, sir! Me likey
ReplyDeleteLet's see if I can't get this strange comment window to finally work for me.
ReplyDeleteI tend to look at haste v. mastery as a "chicken or the egg" kind of argument. If the heal doesn't land in time, you won't have a mastery HoT to place on someone because they will be dead.
I still stand behind my feeling that there aren't really any blanket rules for haste v. mastery. I can see there being a different preference for 10 mans and 25 mans, groups with certain kinds of healers and without. It's that individual and that personal of a choice that makes it hard to give advice about this sort of thing or to really set a precedent.
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ReplyDeleteI had a comment written here, but Blogger ate it. :( I'll try to paraphrase.
ReplyDeleteI liked your summary! What you concluded was exactly what Paragon's Priests concluded. For Normal mode raiders, stack mastery. For Heroic mode raiders, stack haste.
If you look at Paragon's Priests (on certain days) you'll see they're usually far in excess of 12.5% haste. Yet their mastery is usually >15. They're getting the same passive healing from EoL as a regular raiding Priest, but pumping out far more heals thanks to their massively higher haste. And their mana regen allows them to do this.
It's pretty apparent from my experience in Heroic raids so far, as well as videos, there's a lot of quick healing needed to keep people alive through massive damage. Lookin' at you, Al'Akir / Sinestra.
It seems Holy Priests really got blessed with awesome theorycrafting this expansion. I actually enjoy poring over Priest theory moreso than Rogue theory. Consider me jealous.
(Also, thanks for adding me on Twitter! :D)
Thanks all for the comments!
ReplyDeleteI think personal preference is also considered for haste and mastery, but for heroic modes, I truly believe haste takes the lead. This is mainly because EoL has the ability to overheal by quite a bit depending on your raid composition and while overhealing isn't necessarily an awful thing, it does waste the mastery rating stats that you have gemmed/reforged for whereas haste rating can never be wasted.