To Haste, or not to Haste, that is the question

My position on haste, itemised as it was prior to 2.4, was that it was not going to be useful for shaman at all. This was because the minimal amount we could put together to get around the chain lightning cooldown was not enough, or you'd be reducing other stats too much to make up for it.

Now things have changed.

I've been doing a little bit of work on comparing an "ideal" LB/CL gear setup with one for LB, reducing crit and increasing haste.

Surprisingly enough, the "best in slot" Sunwell gear for both is the same. The only differences are gemming and rings/trinkets. LB/CL uses Sextant, the crafted SW trash ring, and the BT trash ring, with a combination of potent pyrestones, glowing shadow amythest, and runed crimson rubies. LB spam on the other hand, has a Skull of Gul'dam instead of Sextant, two of the BT trash rings, and Quick Lionseyes, Forceful Seaspray Emeralds. Runed CS's remain the same.

The difference between the two rotations, when taking into account the gear, comes down to about 50-60 dps in favour of LB/CL.

Not much of a difference is it? The big difference between the two is that you aren't timing things to use CL on every cooldown, can just spam one button (SB Locks will say this is a good thing), and don't have to count out your LB casts or watch a timer to try to get as much damage out as possible. The fact that you're using less mana overall is just a bonus (CL is 684 to LB's 300) meaning more potion cooldowns can be used for destruction potions rather than mana.

Even after all this, Elemental Shaman will be able to break 2k dps in Sunwell, without taking into account Herosm, dps pots, and smart trinket use. The only trick will be, as per usual, managing your totems.

This post was brought to you by 20 fishing levels, and my new non-combat pet Muckbreath (who I found on my second daily fishing quest).