Wait...why exactly is the new idol a bad idea for freya/xt?

There is no diminishing return on the absolute value of haste -- each point will reduce cast time by the same amount. This is really more about a diminishing return on the relative value of haste.

Relative value is subjective but here's what it boils down to for me. I just finished a night of ToC and Ulduar. Parsing the log, no less than 97% of my throughput came from RJ, WG, LB, and Swiftmend. Only 3% of my throughput came from Nourish or Regrowth. So up until 359, each point of haste is increasing my efficiency on all spells and has a positive effect on 100% of my throughput. Past 359 and a 1 second GCD, each point of haste is only increasing my efficiency on the spells that make up 3% of my throughput.

Based on the above, as a druid raid healer, assuming 5/5 GotEM and the buffs that are commonly available in any serious raiding guild, my opinion is that haste past 359 has far less value to me. I'm not saying it has no value or to avoid it (it does continue to show value on cast time spells still as well as reduce the GCD of decurse, abolish). But, as haste past 359 affects less than 5% of what I do, it absolutely becomes less of a concern for me to purposefully stack or seek out.


EDIT: Now, the above is all assuming I'm raid healing in 25s. If I am healing 10s (just Firefighter and 1 Light Yogg from 10-man meta achievement), haste does have more relative value to me. In 10s, Nourish/Regrowth peak up to over 10% of my throughput and I definitely get value from them channeling faster to land on a target in time. However, my primary focus in gear / spec decisions revolves around my role as a raid healer in 25s.

You can easily get oom on xt/freya even with old idol and spark, so new idol is bad idea on them.
But on jaraxus or something like it the new idon owns, so i thing ist "must have" anyway.

Every throughput boost will contribute to overhealing. A crit is more likely to do some than SP, yes, but since rejuv ticks aren't as big as other classes heals then it should be pretty smooth.
The heroic T9 gear is ilvl-258 so the hardmode non-tier loot isn't going to be a lot better. 4T9 will surely be BiS gear until IC.
And lastly and most importantly, our top healing spell scales with crit (assuming 4t9 is actually based on your real crit-%). This is a huge difference, and the right method will be to gear until you're haste-capped with 5/5 GotEM and then stack crit. Right now neither haste (past 359) nor crit offer any meaningful gains. Getting gear upgrades that actually mean something == good.

Just a nit-pick. It looks like you should move Swiftmend to the Nourish/Regrowth camp. At least the GotEM tooltip at Wowhead doesn't mention Swiftmend. Is the GotEM tooltip incomplete?

You are correct -- I should move Swiftmend over to the other side and this adds another 1.5% throughput on last night's logs. That's what I get for typing out a post at 2:30 am after raids with a numb mind

Anyway, still less than 5% of throughput that isn't covered by 359 haste number so general theme remains the same despite my late night grogginess.

You're correct IF hardmode non-tier loot isn't going to be a lot better.
I still don't get why everyone is talking about keeping 4t8 bonus until gaining 4t9 25m heroic. At least if you have let's say 2 pieces of t9 (25m) you could consider wearing 2t9 and Ulduar hardmode loots / Coliseum 25m loots instead. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE 4t8 and I think it really sucks that we can't keep it, but keeping it until Coliseum HM doesn't seem to be a real solution.

I think people are saying that is because it's going to take about that much increased itemization to make up the 10+% throughput that the tier 8, 4-piece provides. Honestly, I'm skipping 245 set pieces and likely waiting til 4-piece 258 to swap in as well.

Yeah I decided not to roll on 245 set pieces and wait for HM loot. Hopefully we will get the opportunity to spend our Emblems of Triumph for the new orbs since there's no alternative besides the new idol and the ring (which is worse than Ulduar HM rings), so I'm sitting on my emblems and don't know how to use them

I consider the Band of the Invoker to be 2nd BIS, slightly above Fire Orchid Signet. My personal ranking is:
Conductive Seal (Mimiron 25H)
Band of the Invoker (35 Badges of Triumph)
Starshine Circle (Algalon-25 quest reward)
Fire Orchid Signet (Freya 10H)
Other rings below.

I'm curious what 2nd ulduar ring you'd rate above the new ilvl 245 band.

Yeah I agree, after 359 haste decreases in value immensely.

Looking at the staffs/maces etc, there is pretty much only one Staff to get from toc.

Sufferance - Items - Sigrie

I'm not sure why but for some reason it doesn't seem that great to me. Any ideas why?