Crit Theory
There is much discussion around various places frequented by Laser Turkeys about the value of crit. I know I sure like to see those big crits flying. There aren't many things when nuking away that are as satisfying as a nice long string of Starfire crits. But how good is crit for a Boomkin really? I mean, exactly how good?
One very cool website is of course MaxDPS.com. Although some people might take the numbers there a little too literally, when used with a bit of common sense and knowledge about how your class works, its really a great tool they have there. According to it, with my current gear, each 10 points of various stats would translate in to more DPS like this:
| (+) 10 Spell Power: | 7.40 |
| (+) 10 Crit Rating: | 7.02 |
| (+) 10 Hit Rating: | 0.00 |
| (+) 10 Haste Rating: | 10.96 |
| (+) 10 Intellect: | 4.88 |
So, I should be looking for haste first, Spell Power second, with crit a close third.
Another good resource is of course the forums at ElitistJerks.com. There is some very good info there, and some seriously deep math discussion. I mean the kind of stuff that makes your brain melt, pour out your ears and all over your keyboard. Deep stuff. There are usually a few spots there where you can find information about how crit rating stacks up against spell power, haste, Intellect, etc.
Crit Fact?
But last night, I think I found the ultimate authority on the real effect of crit for a Boomkin. WWS reports! More specifically, Loatheb numbers.
On the Loatheb fight, you will have a buff that gives you an extra 50% crit. You will have it most, or all of the fight. You can go over 100% crit on Stafire with Eclipse for short periods.
With that massive of an increase to crit, we can see how it really does stack up for us. I have to say, the results were pretty surprising. I did about 500 or 600 more DPS on Loatheb than other, more normal boss encounters. That's all. Not thousands, but hundreds. The other Boomkin in the raid, same thing. Mages on the other hand, seem to be scaling very nicely with that extra crit.
On Loatheb, thats about triple the normal chance to crit that I have. For a DPS gain measurable in the hundreds. So that got me thinking. What would my DPS gain be if I tripled Spell power? I am pretty sure that would be up in the 5 digit DPS range. How about tripling Haste? Imagine casting Starfire in just over a second. That would be pretty high 4 digit, maybe 5 digit DPS. Triple the crit, and its hundreds of DPS higher, not thousands.
So...
Some folks have long said to never gem or enchant for crit. I personally have always gone spell power and haste. After reading Loatheb WWS reports, sure I am glad about that!
Now this does not take in to account the mana return from critting alot. On Loatheb, my mana bar practically stays glued to max. But with better gear, and a mana pool hitting 20k or 21k in raids now, and the added benefit of Replenishment that comes with that higher mana pool, I rarely have mana issues anymore.
So despite wanting it to not be so, I have to say, Not To Crit. Gimme spell power and haste all way!
2 comments:
While i agree with the result, the analogy is somewhat false : tripling crit is coincidental to your stats, you are actually adding ~2k crit rating.
So that would compare to adding 2000 spellpower ie "only" doubling it.
(and i'm too lazy to get the exact conversion rate for crit or to verify the speed of an SF with 2000 more haste because i think the demonstration still stands with those corrections)
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Celdhyrean
True, and that gets in to a relative/absolute thing that while simple, can really make my head hurt.
What is an absolute though (well, until it changes again lol) is item budget. I think what would make this whole thing more relevant is looking at item budget. Is X number of budget points better invested in Spell Power, Haste, Crit, or something else?
I have seen somewhere item budget equivalents, like 1 budget point = this many spell power, etc. However, I haven't got a clue where I saw it, and it was a while ago. Any idea?
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