[top]3.7 Haste and Haste Rating
Haste is a fickle. Depending on the situation, it can either be the most important or the least important of our secondary stats, although generally with the changes in 4.0.6 resulting in using hardcasted AI as our primary focus dump haste is usually a highly desirable stat. There are a several critical haste points and numerous minor haste points that affect the current value of additional haste.
128.057 haste rating = 1% haste
The benefits of haste to MM hunters are numerous, resulting in haste being difficult to easily quantify, and include:
• Increases autoshot frequency. This is important for MM hunters due to the 15% buff we get to our autoshot damage and due to the increased chance to proc WQ. It also allows a greater chance to regain focus for your pet from GftT.
• Decreases SS cast time. At certain SS cast times, GCDs can be saved allowing additional shots to be taken. These additional shots will normally be our focus dump, currently AI, for not only additional damage but also the possibility to conserve more pet focus from Sic’Em.
• Decreases AI cast time. Similarly to reducing SS cast times, reducing AI cast times allow additional shots to be taken during a CS cycle. Furthermore, reducing AI cast time reduces your exposure to get you AI casts interrupted or push backed.
• Increases focus regen rate for both the hunter and the pet
• Increases your pets attack rate since it inherits our haste
• Increases the uptime or effect of proc abilities like CotH, PS, and stacking trinkets.
Haste does not affect how often our DoTs (SrS and PS bleeds) tick for damage. These are both classified as physical attacks and are therefore unaffected by haste.
As mentioned previously, several break points exist for haste. To understand these and haste better, let's explore how haste effects the different aspects of MM performance.
[top]3.7.1 Haste and Autoshot
There is no break point where additional haste has a reduction of benefit to our autoshots. The more haste we have, the higher the frequency of our autoshots. If all other stats are constant, our autoshot DPS scales linearly with the amount of haste we have and at a slope dependent on our weapon damage, crit rate, and AP. So if our autoshot scales linearly with haste, we should stack haste then, right? Not exactly, haste is never free and comes at the cost of other stats. Thus, at some point, although we are taking more frequent autoshots, they are hitting for so much less per shot that the DPS has decreased. Where this point is gear dependent and not really anything to design your shot selection around.
[top]3.7.2 Haste and Steady Shot
Similar to autoshot, SS DPS generally increases with haste since the cast time is reduced. However, unlike autoshot, SS has several soft and hard haste amounts where the benefit of additional haste is reduced or even eliminated in regards to SS. These are revolve around the 1s GCD.
As a baseline, the default raid cast time for SS when under the effects of the 10% raid buff and the 15% haste from ISS is 1.58s (1.42s with the T11 4-set bonus) with 0% haste from gear and 0/3 Pathing. If you notice your SS casts taking longer than this number, then you are missing one of the critical haste buffs. With 3/3 Pathing as well, the SS cast time is 1.53s (1.38s with T11 4-set).
The hard cap where additional static haste will no longer provide you any benefit to SS is the amount that brings your SS cast time to the GCD of 1s. This static haste from gear hard cap is at 58.1% without Pathing and 53.5% with Pathing (with the T11 4-set the static haste from gear required for the hard cap is 42.3% and 38.1%). With T11 heroic gear, these amounts of static haste are not obtainable from gear.
What are obtainable are the various soft caps where your SS cast becomes temporarily below the 1s GCD due to dynamic haste effects. Below is a list of the amount of haste from gear and Pathing combined required to reach the soft cap under various dynamic haste effects (the amount with the T11 4-set bonus is in parens). This list is not exhaustive since it does not include a lot of proc haste effects (such as from some trinkets) but a similar concept applies for these as well. The list only show the dynamic haste effects that all MM hunters should/can experience in raids.
Glyphed RF: 5.4% (-5.2%)
Unglyphed RF: 12.9% (1.6%)
Bloodlust: 21.6% (9.5%)
Any static haste (from gear and Pathing) above the amounts listed for each dynamic haste effect has reduced benefit to your SS casts since they have no benefit when that dynamic haste effect is present.
The other major effect of haste on SS casts is reducing the cast time to allow additional shots into the CS cycle or during the course of the fight. Prior to 4.0.6, this was more easily quantifiable since the desire was to cast CS off of CD for maximum DPS and the goal of SS cast time reduction was to save GCDs to fire additional ASs (or SS if need the focus). Now the effect of haste on SS cast time to gain additional specials is not as quantifiable since we no longer have a fixed duration CS cycle since it is not generally desirable to cast it off CD anymore and since our focus dump usually takes longer than a GCD. Hence, I will not math this situation for 4.0.6 (this thread does provide some specific examples for certain cases if interested), but wanted to make sure that you were aware of this effect since in regards to it, DPS will decrease as haste is added without gaining additional specials since other stats were sacrificed for that haste; but at the points where additional specials are gained, DPS jumps by the amount of damage of that special over the duration of the cycle or fight length over which it was gained.
The final item to note in regards to SS and haste, is that during an SS cast, an MM hunter always theoretically gains 17 focus (23 when under the effects of 2/2 Termination) regardless of the cast time. In addition to the constant 9 (15 with Term) focus received with each SS cast, the amount of focus regeneration that occurs during the cast is constant since the effect of haste on reducing the cast length increases the focus per second regen rate by an inverse amount. The reason that I include theoretical is because they have been bugs where the haste from the 10% raid buff did not properly affect focus regen. I have not yet tested to see if the bug still exists. If anyone knows, please post.
[top]3.7.2.1 Haste and Steady Shot with AS as Focus Dump
For historical purposes and in case AS becomes our focus dump again, here is the information on the breakpoints where reduction in SS cast time gained additional GCDs during a 10s CS cycle. This information currently is only provided for a base SS cast time of 2s. If this situation becomes applicable again, the information will also be provided with the T11 4-set bonus as well.
There are haste points where our SS cast time has been reduced enough to save a GCD for another shot over the CS cycle. SS has a 2s base cast time. We normally perform 2 SS pairs (4 SSs total) each CS cycle to maintain a 100% ISS uptime. Thus, a GCD is saved for another shot every time we reduce our SS cast time by 0.25s.
Totally unhasted (no dynamic and static haste effects) this means 8s of the 10s CS rotation is spent casting SS leaving 2 GCDs for a CS and an AS. With the 15% haste from ISS and the 10% haste raid buff, we are already under 26.5% effective haste with our SS cast time being reduced to 1.58s. Since 1.58s < 1.75s, without any haste from gear or Pathing, we already naturally save 1 GCD per CS cycle. The haste points where the combined haste from gear and Pathing reduce our SS casts sufficiently to save another GCD are:
1.50s SS cast time: requires 5.4% haste from gear and Pathing and saves 2 GCDs per CS cycle
1.25s SS cast time: requires 26.5% haste from gear and Pathing and saves 3 GCDs per CS cycle
1.00s SS cast time: requires 58.1% haste from gear and Pathing and saves 4 GCDs per CS cycle
From the above data, it is highly recommended that a MM hunter have at least 5.4% haste from gear and Pathing such that their SS cast time is under 1.5s. This provides a floor limit for the amount of haste a MM hunter should have. A little extra haste beyond the 5.4% is also recommended to account for inefficiencies (latency and reaction times). It is highly unlike that an MM hunter will be able to acquire enough haste to get to the 1.25s and 1s SS cast times from gear alone, nor is it recommended to try as is shown later.
The next set of haste points provide a reasonable ceiling for the amount of haste an MM hunter should have from gear and Pathing. These haste points concern the fact that haste has a softcap when you have enough of it to get your SS cast time to the 1s GCD. Below this point, additional haste no longer allows additional special shots to be performed each cycle. Additional haste only increases your autoshot frequency and your pet melee rate. Below is the amount of haste on gear and Pathing that it required to get to the softcap when under various dynamic haste effects.
Glyphed Rapid Fire, ISS, Raid Buff -> 89.85% haste -> only 5.4% haste is needed from gear and Pathing
Rapid Fire, ISS, Raid Buff -> 77.1% haste -> only 12.9% haste is needed from gear and Pathing
Bloodlust, ISS, Raid Buff -> 64.45% haste -> only 21.6% haste is needed from gear and Pathing
As can be seen, the soft haste ceiling when using the glyphed version of Rapid Fire is 5.4%, which is the same as the haste floor. This once again shows how the Glyph of Rapid Fire is a poor glyph choice. The normal RF case is the main limiting factor for the soft haste ceiling with how often a MM hunter can use RF (30s every 195s).
Hence, it is recommended for an MM hunter to have between 5.4% and 12.9% haste from gear and Pathing to maximize the benefits of your haste rating with having the 12.9% being the ideal so that you have a 1s SS cast time during RFs allowing 4 extra shots per CS cycle. This also maximizes the number of CSs that can be performed during the special CA rotation. Having additional haste above the 12.9% amount is still beneficial but each point of haste rating above that amount has less value than prior to that amount since the haste softcap is reached at least part of the time.
[top]3.7.3 Haste and Aimed Shot
The effect of haste on AI is similar to that for SS, except that with the longer base cast time, it takes more haste to reach the hard and soft caps.
As a baseline, the default raid cast time for AI when under the effects of the 10% raid buff and the 15% haste from ISS is 2.292 with 0% haste from gear and 0/3 Pathing. If you notice your AI casts taking longer than this number, then you are probably missing one of the critical haste buffs. With 3/3 Pathing as well, the AI cast time is 2.226s.
The hard cap where additional static haste will longer provide you any benefit to AI is the amount that brings your cast time to the GCD of 1s. This static haste from gear hard cap is at 129.3% without Pathing and 122.6% with Pathing. With T11 heroic gear, these amounts of static haste are not obtainable, so do not worry about the AI haste hard cap.
What can be obtainable but usually are not are the various soft caps where your AI cast becomes temporarily below the 1s GCD due to dynamic haste effect. Below is a list of the amount of haste from gear and Pathing combined required to reach the soft cap under various dynamic haste effects. This list is not exhaustive since it does not include a lot of proc haste effects (such as from some trinkets) but a similar concept applies for these as well.
Glyphed RF and BL: 17.6%
Glyphed RF: 52.8%
Unglyphed RF: 63.8%
Bloodlust: 76.4%
For all practical intents and purposes, unless you are stacking multiple dynamic haste effects, which is not recommended, your AI will never be at any hard or soft haste cap with current gear.
The other major effect of haste on AI casts is reducing the cast time to allow additional shots into the CS cycle or during the course of the fight similar to as discussed in the SS section.
[top]3.7.4 Haste and Focus Regen
Base focus hunter regen is 4 fps. This is modified by your current total haste effects. For instance, with ISS, 3/3 Pathing, the raid buff, and 10% haste from gear, your total haste is 43.32%. Your focus regen at the haste is 4 * 1.4332 = 5.733. When using glyphed RF on top of that, your haste is 115% with focus regen of 8.600.
If you have Rapid Recuperation, your RF provides the equivalent of an additional 4 fps during its duration. Thus, the real focus regen during the RF in the above case is 12.6 fps.
All haste effects (haste rating, haste, attack speed) are suppossed to effect focus regen; however, their was a bug with the 10% raid buff where it was not regenning focus correctly.
Additional haste critical points are those that provide sufficient amount of focus regen where you can replace additional SSs beyond the 4 required to maintain ISS uptime needed periodically to maintain focus with an AI. These points are much more complex to quantify since they depend on shot priority, attack speed, and other factors that are beyond the scope of what I want to discuss here. However, I do want to make you aware of that these points exist since you will probably periodically cross their thresholds when evaluating different gear and reforging options that may produce unexpected results in simulations or testing.
[top]3.7.5 Haste Calculations
For those unfamiliar with haste and how haste is calculated, here is a brief discussion. There are two types of haste effects. Those that provide haste ratings and those that are haste/speed percents.
Effects that provide haste rating are additive with each. You add all of the haste rating together before dividing by 128 to get the haste percent from them. This includes haste rating from gear, gems, enchants, potions/elixers, and some procs. For instance if you have 1000 haste rating from gear, gems, and enchants, are using a Potion of Speed (500 haste rating), and have proced an ability that provides 300 haste rating, you are currently operating at 1800 haste rating or about 14%.
Effects that provide haste percents are multiplicative. This includes Bloodlust, RF, the resulting haste from all of your haste rating, Pathing, ISS, the raid buff, and some procs. For instance, the total haste from the haste rating above (14%), ISS (15%), and the raid buff (10%) is 1.14 * 1.15 * 1.1 = 1.4421, which means you are experiencing 44.21% haste.
To calculate your SS cast time, just divide the base cast time (2s) by the haste amount. Hence, 2s / 1.4421 = 1.39s.
Your autoshot speed can be calculated similarly by taking the weapon speed divided by the haste amount.
Finally, if it can be avoided, you do not want to stack dynamic haste buffs (RF and Bloodlust) since much of the haste will be well above the soft cap. You are better off staggering these effects so that you can be closer to the 1s GCD on SS more often since it gains you 2 shots per 10s CS rotation.
02/13/11, 4:48 PM
