(WW) haste trinkets and 5.4

[fluxpapillon]

so im a 6/13hm MW monk who has made the choice to switch to the healer/offspec dps role and am tryin to master WW for the release of SOO

1- unfortunately im stuck with absolutely terrible trinkets due to the fact that WW is my offspec (raid with a rogue and BrM, offpsec gear has been hard to come by). the ones im currently using are normal Talisman of Bloodlust and jade bandit figurine (489 flat agi with haste on use).
My question is with these terrible haste proccing/on use trinkets should i go into 5.4 with a crit heavy build vs the high haste build people have been testing since the results are similar. my thoughts are even though haste builds are comin out on top that when they are used/procc i will energy cap/go to waste. That and the procs would help fill in empty GCDs that are experienced in a crit heavy build.

2- secondly in 5.4 once i get proper trinkets and move to a high haste build are people still using FoF or does a 8k+haste build not allow for the use of FoF (energy capping)

3- are there people out there like me that prefer a non haste heavy build? i dont mind not casting every GCD (i.e energy pooling for rogues) ive gotten the impression that a lot of WW seem to despise the idea of a build/rotation that doesnt allow them to fill every GCD.

[Hydromonk]

From the reading I have done people are seriously experimenting with builds that run haste as low as 4k and seeing competitive results (relative to other windwalker builds at the very least). While the community seems to be at a loss for any semblance of a consensus, blizzard (through Lore) indicated that a lower haste build performs better than a haste heavy build.
In short:
1) Many people will be gravitating towards a crit/mastery build anyway next patch regardless of having haste trinkets.
2)It depends on what trinkets you get to some extent. I.e. Assurance of Consequence will increase energy regen as a result of EB allowing you to drop some haste and have FoF more readily available.
3)As I've mentioned, people are branching out from haste-centric builds next patch. I think the lowest haste value i saw somebody testing in another thread was somehow like 2.2k. If you like empty gcds this could very well be the patch for you to pick up WW.

[Greencap]

At this moment in time I'm actually leaning towards increasing my haste as opposed to what I run with on live (up to around 12k). That seems to yield best results both in simulations and in my own playtesting on the PTR. Hydromonk is correct in that blizzard seems to believe we overvalue haste, but we have yet to learn how blizzard's own playtesters are playing and blizzard refuses to tell us.

Unless we find a radically different playstyle soon it looks like haste is going to be just as important as in previous patches.

[Orion Antares]

I would recommend against going over 6k haste to be honest. I've played this whole tier staying at 6k with a non-RoRo build (never dropped) of Agi > Crit > Mastery keeping haste between 6k-6.5k and it has worked well for me. Based on what people have been doing on the PTR it seams like the stat breakdown will remain pretty similar to that with the possibility of that haste cap being lowered.

Even in a lighter haste build you should not have many empty GCDs if you're timing things correctly and do not run into a Combo Breaker dry spell.

As far as your trinkets go, I'd probably line up the Jade Bandit Figurine use with a FoF cast. The Talisman of Bloodlust procs are going to push back your use of FoF and Energizing Brew because of the extra energy regen. You may consider grabbing the Vicious Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault when it drops to Justice Points after the patch if you can dump enough hit from your gear to not waste too many stat points.

[Greencap]

6k haste is a bit low, especially if you decide to drop Ascension for Chi Brew. At the start of 5.4 this will likely not yield the most DPS. Even at 12k haste I still have moments where I can use FoF without energy capping (much). If you sim it, the simulations still manage to put FoF in the rotation (without capping) even at much higher haste levels!

Energy capping while using FoF is wasteful, but not the end of the world DPS-wise.