Shadow Priests: Haste Guide

[Alkhara Majere]

From shadowpriest.com
Props.

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I've been getting tired of all of the haste related questions appearing and had been thinking of writing this guide. Then another poster suggested this would be a useful guide, so here it is.



How much haste should I get?

As much as possible.


Well then, how much damage should I get?

As much as possible.


But I have a choice between item 1 that has 50 damage, or item 2 that has 30 haste and 25 damage. Which should I pick?

A sensible question at last.

Item 2 has 25 less damage but an extra 30 haste. The question is therefore which is worth more to you, 25 damage or 30 haste. The answer to this question depends on how much damage (including buffs if you are using them) you already have.

It is generally agreed that if you currently have 1400 damage (including raid buffs), then 1 more point of damage will add the same to your DPS as 1 more point of haste. If you have more than 1400 damage then haste will be a little more valuable, and if you have less then damage will be a little more valuable.

A rough rule of thumb to use is as follows:

At 1000 damage, 1 haste = 0.6 damage.
At 1200 damage, 1 haste = 0.8 damage.
At 1400 damage, 1 haste = 1 damage.
At 1600 damage, 1 haste = 1.2 damage.
At 1800 damage, 1 haste = 1.4 damage.

Please note that this is just a rough rule of thumb. It isn’t exact and the relationship between haste and damage is rather more complicated. There are a number of threads around if you want to get into the detailed mechanics, but the above rule of thumb will be pretty reasonable.

Going back to the original example, let’s say you have 1000 damage. The question is now whether 25 damage or 30 * 0.6 = 18 damage is better. Clearly 25 > 18 so go with item 1.


Doesn’t haste make my spells less efficient?

Not exactly, haste doesn’t make your spells less efficient, however damage makes your spells more efficient.

This doesn’t mean that you throw your item calculations out of the window. It just means that if the calculation for different items is close then you should think about taking the damage item instead.

At high levels of damage and with raid buffs you will probably find that you can’t run out of mana anyway so this becomes a non issue.


Should I stack haste?

Again, not a very useful question. Pick your items based on how much overall benefit (haste and damage) they provide to you.

If the items available to you mean you have lots of damage and little haste that is fine. Or if your available items mean you have less damage and lots of haste then that is fine too.


I heard that there are sweet spots for particular amounts of haste I should get. Is this true?

No.

The longer answer is that there are some very minor sweet spots but these can safely be ignored. At very worst you will lose 0.5% of your dps by ignoring the sweet spots. If you really want to get into the detailed simulationcraft, then this isn’t the thread for you.


What is the formula to convert haste rating into a casting time reduction?

New Casting Time = Base Casting Time / (1 + (Spell Haste Rating/1570)).

Because of the way this formula works, 100% haste rating will halve the casting time of a spell and will not reduce the cast time to zero.

To get a 1.5 second spell to cast in 1 second requires 785 haste.


Yes, but all I really want to know is how much haste I should be aiming for?

Go back to question 1 and read this post again.

Keep rereading the post until you realize that this isn’t a useful question to be asking.

[TheProoflol]

I'm suprised that alot of spriests don't know the effectiveness of spellhaste, I've seen them pass on robes with spellhaste + heavy spirit stat (ZA) alot of times and most of them had around 1.2k sd unbuffed. Good post.

[Zaxic]

hmm thats good, thx for guide +rep