In this post I am assuming both soft caps as a starting point since both are readily reachable. I am also ignoring bloodlust, power infusion, and potions since they generally are harder to plan for. I realize that much of this may have been said before, but from what I've seen, not all in one place. I am also going to go out on a limb and disagree with the TTT statement that post-soft cap haste and post-soft cap crit have equal value.


We basically have 4 phases of our stationary rotation: SE, trying to proc LE, LE, trying to proc SE


SE: Given that NG lasts for 3 secs, we basically have 3 tries to proc NG again. With >55% crit NG will fail to be refreshed less than 10% of the time (0.45^3 = .09). So haste has very little value.


Trying to proc LE: Same as during SE, NG will have such a high up time that additional haste has little value.


LE: The only real value haste has here is to squeeze in an extra buffed SF. Here's the formula I've been using:

Haste Rating Req = {3 / [1.2 * 1.05 * 1.03 * 1.03 * (15 - TL) / X] - 1} * 100 * 32.79,

where TL is the time lost on an extra wrath cast (i.e. poor play), latency, and/or instants (dot refreshes, starfall, on-use trinkets, pots, barkskin, innervate, etc.), and X is the number of starfires you want to squeeze in. For me personally, I typically lose between 2 and 2.5 seconds (an extra wrath cast because I'm bad, a DoT refresh and about 150-250 ms of lat). Given this range of time lost, I would need to acquire well over 700 haste to fit in an additional buffed SF. So for me at least, I gain nothing from additional haste in this phase. Skilled players that never waste that extra second will lose between 1 and 1.5 secs if they have to cast an instant and have some degree of latency. These players can squeeze in an additional buffed SF nuke by hitting 510-540 haste.

There is an additional complication that might have arisen from the way Blizzard has broken the WiseEclipse mechanic (or at least from what I understand of how they broke it). If you over shoot the amount of haste you have and your last SF cast that was started with eclipse but ended without it lands in the "unproccable dead zone", you will have a wasted SF cast that wasn't buffed by eclipse and had no chance to proc the next one. At least it has happened to me where I crit with a SF cast started under the effect of eclipse but had buff ran out before it ended and still failed to proc the next eclipse (I'd like to hear some outside confirmation of this happening though).


Trying to proc SE: This phase can be more or less be modeled as a geometric distribution (there is a minor complication in that only the first 2 SF casts will be under the effect of NG, but I don't think that this affects the result). Napkin math inc...

The expected time until your next SF crit = (1/CP) * CT, where CP is the crit % and CT is the cast time. Plugging in the numbers:

Exp. Time = 1 / [(1.85 + INT/166.67 + CR/45.91)/100] * 3 / [1.2 * 1.05 * 1.03 * 1.03 * (1 + HR / 3279)]

simplifying and assuming a very generous raid buffed INT of 1900...

ET = k / [(85 + 0.275 * INT + CR)(3279 + HR)], where k is some constant.

finding the marginal values of CR and HR to reduce ET...

∂(ET)/∂CR = - k / [(607 + CR)^2 (3279 + HR)]
∂(ET)/∂HR = - k / [(607 + CR) * (3279 + HR)^2]

For any value of CR (700-1300) and HR (400-1000) that are attainable, (607 + CR) < (3279 + HR), which means that |∂(ET)/∂CR| > |∂(ET)/∂HR|.
In other words, point for point, on average crit rating will do more to reduce the waiting time before the next eclipse for all values of crit and haste you could possibly have.


TL;DNR: Haste only really comes into play during LE and when trying to proc SE. During LE, you want just enough so that for your rotation/play style you can maximize the number of buffed SFs you cast, but you don't want to over shoot as this can result in unbuffed SFs that can't proc the next eclipse. Although haste does help you proc SE faster, point for point crit will help you proc SE faster more than haste. Basically, I plan on shooting for some ideal range of haste values that fits with whatever I generally do during LE, and then go for crit the rest of the way.

World of Logs - Real Time Raid Analysis

Colville is my balance druid. This is for our togc25 tonight. I'm through Faction Champs while posting this, and so far the Valkyr's damage is about even with my Treants damage.

On Beasts it was much lower, on Jaraxxus where I can multi dot and starfall AE much higher, same with FC.

It dies really fast on Twins so I use my mh/oh combo, but I presume it'll be solid on Anub when I get there in 20 minutes or so

I have read some blurbs where boomkins are considered broken. I have avidly followed EJ's build specs and cant match similarly geared ferals. I have met hit cap, haste cap and still have a fair amount of crit. But I just cant match them. Are you guys finding this to be true ?

Hit is way too easy to get as it is, right now the only no spirit bracers that come from ICC have hit on them so already getting it from that and at least one piece of t10 you are already at a good amount of hit. not to mention the exalted ashen verdict ring is really nice and also has hit. Not to mention that there are some really nice cloth boots from 25 man festergut without spirit or hit on them.