Affliction Haste Softcap

[Staaal]

So....I've got my cast time on Haunt and UA down to 1.0 in a raid...keep going haste or switch to spellpower? The haste I know will keep reducing cast time, but I need someone with maths to see if the negative time from being below GCD is a dps loss or not.

If that's confusing, I'll simplify. Affliction Warlock -> Keep going haste even after hitting GCD on Haunt and UA?

I believe yes, but I want to make sure.

[Satorri]

Personally? I would say no, I would favor crit for a yellow stat, but that isn't based on hard math or testing. I would simply favor it for your DoTs that can crit, while the Haste will only improve your filler.

If you want to figure out the math, you can do a damage per time calculation. You know what each of your DoT ticks for and what Haunt, Shadow Bolt, and Drain Soul tick for. Use your haste value to calculate the time to cast, divide damage by time of yours it takes (down to that 1 sec minimum), and compare the improvement in values for how many you fire off.

I can tell you now that the determining factor will be only gaining damage value on Corruption (hasted ticks through glyph), and Shadowbolt and Drain Soul for your fills. There will be a degree of saw-tooth in there where you won't get value until you can squeeze an entire extra shadowbolt in. The same will be true of Drain Soul ticks squeezing in.

[Staaal]

Any other thoughts on this guys? Forgot to mention, more haste = faster corruption ticks. Haste would therefore continue to benefit your top dps spells which account for roughly 65-70% of our damage.

[Phati]

The most important stat is hit rating as long as you do not reach the hit cap. Afterwards, spell power is by far the strongest stat. Haste rating come next. For high amounts of spell power, haste rating becomes the best stat (somewhere in the T10 region).
Crit rating ist still a lot worse than these and comes in third. Due to Fel Armor, Glyph of Lifetap and finally the way Lifetap itself scales, Spirit has become a very strong stat as well. Intellect is still inferior to all other dps stats as it's only benefit is a slight increase of your crit rating and your replenished mana. All of these ratings come from the damage model discussed later

Taken directly from: http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t37900-d...ead/#Key_Stats

[Satorri]

<3 EJ, but that stat assessment doesn't take haste's regions of effectiveness into account.

I'm going to play with a spreadsheet this weekend updating for my Lock, if I get the chance I'll try to respond here with proper numbers.

[Phati]

Hey Satorri, what exactly do you mean by taking "haste's regions of effectiveness into account"? I ask because I switched from a warlock main to a DK tank main somewhere in the middle of the Trial of the Crusader patch. I still play my warlock regularly and manage a 5.9k gs. I typically gem all 23 spell power with the exception of activating my meta gem. I run over 800 haste (with spellstone applied) with out gemming for any of it. Are you implying that there may be good cause to gem either more haste or crit? Seems opposite everything I've come to consider optimal. I'd definately love to see some maths as I have none prepared myself.

Thanks for your time!

Phati