Spell haste... is it worth it for FoL spammers?

[benseac]

We chat everyone now and then in the paladin channel about our various stats and one that comes up is spell haste. For those who cast mainly flash of light (such as myself), is haste the answer or should we concentrate more on crit.

From what I've read at elitist jerks, the consensus seems to be that while spell haste is groovy for those who tend to cast holy light more often, for mainly FoL casters, it really isn't all that impressive of a change. I, myself, have been thinking of changing my spell haste gems to spell crit.

One of the reasons why high spell crit is nice for paladins is that, thanks to the illumination (http://www.wowwiki.com/Illumination) talent, we can get decent mana back for each healing spell. With higher crit comes higher opportunities to get mana back which is always a plus.

So I'd like to hear some input from y'all about spell haste vs spell crit.

[Etrigana]

My personal stance on this is that itemizing for spell haste is simply the better way to go. There are a few reasons for this.

1) Spell haste allows you to increase your healing throughput in the form of faster and more heals. My current spell haste lowers my GCD by .08s or so. Thats not a lot, but over the course of a 6 minute fight, its almost 14 extra casts simply from my 5% spell haste. For paladins, a class that excels at single target healing, those added casts could be the difference between a wipe and a win. Thats especially true on fights where tanks are taking massive spike damage (every fight really).

2) Ive yet to find any reason at all to prefer mana regen over other stats for paladins or druids at our gear level. Ive made it almost instinct to chug a potion on bosses when I hit 60% mana or so and its resulted in me almost never having mana issues (Mother and Illidari council are the rare exception). So if you are concerned, Id suggest combing through WWS looking for the restore mana (http://wowwebstats.com/sofjgzcpaxdyu?ab=268) buff (perhaps on fights where mana is an issue for you) and see if you are managing potions efficiently. If you are and still running into mana issues, are you flasked? Well fed? Oiled? If yes and STILL having mana issues, then I guess maybe a bit of crit couldnt hurt. But if you are having zero mana issues as is, then stats which will increase healing throughput (haste, +healing and crit - in that order) should be your focus.

3) With gems, spell crit requires more points per percentage which means it scales slower than haste. Haste requires ~16 rating for one percent where crit requires ~22 rating. Bigger numbers = better! So since haste goes up faster %-wise per gem than crit, it makes more sense to gem it! But seriously, Im sure some really geeky person has a spreadsheet with the effects of haste v. crit and I would be SHOCKED if haste didnt beat crit, hands down, after like....25% or something. And since you pretty much have 25% innately on gear and through talents, there is almost no reason to stack it further.

4) Crit will make your heals hit harder but since ~60% of your healing is overheal right now (again, comb WWS to see if that number holds up - I just plucked it from a random sheet), bigger heals will likely just go to waste. Because you are spamming more heals, haste will increase your overhealing as well, but you get the added bonus of being able to save a tank with that 1.3s FoL while other healers are still casting their bigger 2.5s heals.


And lastly....
5) Check the Armory profiles of SK gaming and Nihilium paladins. They are stacking haste in the form of anything they can get (gems, craftables, PvP trinkets, etc). Since they are way better at this game then me and most likely you Id say go with what they are doing!

-Etri

[benseac]

Thanks for the response Etri. I'm hesitant of giving up using the Hyjal ring because I love the "chance to" additional healing it gives because it procs so much. However, I'll try out the Sunwell ring (Wenge can now make it I think) and see how that affects my overall performance.

[Raptace]

What is your other ring that you "just can't give it up" I still use my Hyjal ring cause it procs all the damn time.

[benseac]

What is your other ring that you "just can't give it up" I still use my Hyjal ring cause it procs all the damn time.

The Hyjal ring was the one I didn't want to give up. My other ring is the Blessed Band of Caribou (or whatever it's called) which has 30 spell haste already.

And yeah, my Hyjal ring procs so many times it's ridiculous.

[Raptace]

Yeah I have my one haste ring, the crafted one, I think if I got another haste one I'd atleast give it a run and see which one is better.

[benseac]

Yeah I have my one haste ring, the crafted one, I think if I got another haste one I'd atleast give it a run and see which one is better.

That's what I doing this week. I'll give it a shot and see how the extra haste helps.

[Raptace]

I think especially if your judging all the time that haste would be essential to play catch up in between that don't you?

[benseac]

I think especially if your judging all the time that haste would be essential to play catch up in between that don't you?

I'll have to check the WWS to see if that helped. In theory, it should, I'd think.