Mastery Opinions.

[Karot]

I reforged some hit into mastery
I reforged some haste into mastery
I reforged a LOT of crit into mastery

Nearly every piece of gear I have has been reforged. My goal was to get at least 30% WQ from mastery, to stay at 8% hit or just a touch over it and to get my haste down to where SS's out-of-combat cast time was between 1.6 and 1.68. I accomplished those goals. Now whenever ISS is up my SS casts in 1.48.

IIRC my stats were something like 5680 rap, 49% crit, 20.22% haste, 21~something mastery. Nothing stellar and plenty of people outgear those numbers by significant margins.

Any piece that had hit I reforged to mastery, reaching the hit cap through regemming for hit in blue sockets.
I reforged HWT's haste to mastery.
Every other piece I reforged crit to mastery. I originally had the intention of reforging whichever stat would provide the most mastery possible, which actually turned out to be crit on every piece. haha

My stats are 5574 RAP, 48.51% crit, 19.91% haste, and a 37% chance for a Wild Quiver proc (I'm not in game at the moment, and it seems that Armory doesn't show mastery yet, so I don't know my exact mastery rating). Since I reforged every single piece, Wild Quiver is among my top damaging abilities now, so it does seem worthwhile to reforge for it.

[rockallnite]

So basically as long as ur crit is above 45%, haste is above 15%, and WQ chance is above 30-32%, ur in pretty good shape? I know its a huge generalization, but I just wanna get some type of ballpark.

[Shoot-]

My thoughts on mastery; I played around with it some on the PTR, when live hit my curiosity got the better of me so I experimented with a few different builds.

There is some talk of whether to reforge haste to mastery or crit to mastery, or whether to reforge at all. Haste is thought of currently as a less beneficial stat than crit, however there is more crit on some or most of my gear than haste so effectively I get more mastery from reforging crit when its the larger stat.

My 1st build; Reforge all haste to mastery, leave crit alone; I experimented with this awhile on the target dummy, I didn't log any data of this.

My 2nd build; Reforge all haste/crit to mastery (choose the larger stat to get more mastery when available). I experimented with this on the target dummy as well, currently this is my build and I'm sitting at a 38% chance to proc wild quiver. We raided last night so I was also able to see some numbers/data on what exactly my top abilities were. I was seeing Auto Shot and #1 and Wild Quiver at #2, in most fights, I took a look at a few other WoL reports and was noticing Hunters that reforged maximum possible mastery getting similar results.

Conclusion; It's hard for me to say at lower gear levels the value of haste/crit over mastery, or if even at lower gear levels you should still aim for mastery but in higher gear levels I think its a must-have stat, now mind you I've only been playing MM so I can't speak about mastery and its effects/benefits on SV or BM, these are just some observations I've been noting since 4.01 went live.

[LQDMTL]

I reversed almost all of my reforges tonight when I logged on. I broke even at the target dummy before and after the change (using the one in Exodar, as it's abandoned and I'm always alone). Over 5 minutes per test. 4 tests. One before and one after with each ranged weapon, using: Zod's (normal) and Rowan's (to test gun bug).

I had 7k dps before and after the reverse reforge with the bow, and 6300 before and after with the gun.

I tried my best to use the same rotation with each. I still think I have things about my rotation that I can fix. And I'm not sure why Rowan's is so much lower other than the loss of Agi and wasted stats. The dps rating alone should make it more competitive (or would have prior to 4.0), but it isn't.

For a base of reference, I just broke 6kgs and have taken upgrades where I could get them, not optimal gear (by any means). So I'm nowhere near BiS. I reversed my reforging to test out Crit being better than Mastery at 80. We'll see after my next raid (hopefully tonight).

[Toots]

I am no MM expert, but I highly doubt you need 50%+ crit rating. As a BM hunter (after reforging) I have 40% crit, 25% haste, 14% mastery, and I am still 1% over hit capped; I currently pull 10k dps in ICC. Like I said, I am no MM expert, but that 50% crit could be forged into more haste/mastery and potentially increasing dps. For instance, more mastery for me makes my pet hit harder; with kill command, my pet crits for 10k; w/o kill command, my pet crits around 5-7k. I assume the more mastery I add to that the harder he will crit. So for those who haven't done that, try it.

Haste- Shorter Global Cooldown/Shorter Cast times/More focus regen
Mastery- BM- Higher Pet damage(which again contributes greatly to BM dps) MM- Higher Wild Quiver chance (I haven't tested it, but I'm assuming this with a nice balance of crit would do nicely; an extra attack that crits for a good bit equals more dps, and the more it happens the better) SV- Increases Nature Damage (I haven't really looked into Survival at all, I never did like it too much but I'm guessing Black Arrow and Stings benefit from this potentially increasing dps)

Hopefully someone will benefit from this information; post some feedback, because I know I could benefit from you also. =)

[Unionoob]

I had bunch of hit.. since the cap was a lil relaxed.. i gave up some hit for mastery.. the rest from Crit on gear... It works like magic..

Umm, haven't paid attention, but what is hit cap? or same old 8%?


And I reforged all my crit to Mastery and left haste where it is and on Argent Crusader dummy lvl 80 I am doing ~10k without CD's.., WC did 18% of my total dmg, while steady and arcane id 20%.

[Deleted]

Hit cap is still 8% which translates to 246 hit if I'm not mistaken.
As for mastery and target dummies, keep in mind that the dummies are above 80% health which means you have 30% more crit on them with steady and aimed shot. Also consider that raid buffs for crit are lower than before. so it might not be such a good idea to reforge crit for mastery.

[3clipse]

I know this is primarily a MM discussion right now, but I thought I would chime in to say that the SV and BM masteries are really nice too; SV will be even moreso when we get Cobra Shot, but BM is definitely super nice now; I've got 21.75 Mastery and my average Kill Command crits for 15k, 18k with Killing Streak, 21k-22k with Killing Streak and Bestial Wrath (and this is nerfed Bestial Wrath, it would be up at 27k if they hadn't lowered the damage).

[Deleted]

Umm, haven't paid attention, but what is hit cap? or same old 8%?


And I reforged all my crit to Mastery and left haste where it is and on Argent Crusader dummy lvl 80 I am doing ~10k without CD's.., WC did 18% of my total dmg, while steady and arcane id 20%.

Hit is still 8% but it is now 246 hit. (Just to confirm what jbelig said)

[Rezusian]

So I reforged all of my crit straight away into mastery for my MM spec. I was sat at 63% crit so I didn't see the point of it. I am currently on 48% crit 35% mastery 8% hit 21% haste. Bumped up to 53% crit in combat running with my trusty wolf companion.

ICC 10 Run last night I saw numbers like this:

Marrowgar 7.7k dps
Lady Deathwhisper 7.4k dps
Gunship N/A as I afkd the entire fight
Saurfang 9.4k dps
Festergut N/A My recount broke and I went up to red latency so I swapped to BM to give the group BLust (Someone said I did ~6.4k I think)
Rotface 7.9k dps
Proffesor Putricide iirc ran about 8.9k dps
Blood Princes 5k dps (NerfGravityBombs)
Blood Queen 13.6k dps (Second vampire bite only got 40s out of buff + she died)

Stopped raid here as was getting late and I am a grumpy panda if I don't get sleep

I'd say my numbers are about same as before, higher on some fights lower on others but I am enjoying my "rotation" a lot more which is what counts right?

Oh... AoE dps varied, usually sat at 8k with a ExpT SnakeT Slow Multi rotation thing (Multi every few seconds to avoid going sub 20 focus) and my AoE dps peaked at 16k on the plague wing trash with same technique

[Goretex]

My expierience with mastery is that sits the best. Well im Bm/surv duel spec. Bm seemed to pull more dps than surv on dummies I couldnt get past 6.3 on dummies in BM spec and could barely get past 5k dps in surv and i'm in full t10 atm. So I decided to try to reforge my hit cuz im over hit cap on my gear into haste instead of mastery. I tried that and it was frickin aweful as hell! was barely gettin 5k on dummies in BM and surv was doing 4.3. Btw I'm used to my rotation so that wasn't the prob.So I reforged back to hit back to mastery instead of haste and stayed steady at 6.3k dps on dummies. So I decided to deal with it. Then I did a few heroics and my dps went up to 7-9k dps in heroics. So the dummies be lieing mon. My numbers are whack on the ?? boss dummy in UC and Org but when i get into a heroic or raid my dps is on top 3 in heroics and top 5 in 10 man raids. But the dps compared to other classes is quite weak As for MM I haven't been MM since BC I never really liked the rotation of MM and my wolf pet seemed to always die quickly in MM and I like the wolf buff. anywho thought I throw my expieriences out there. P.S I'm really loving not having mana steady shot seems to annoy me a tad but gotta get used to the changes

[Tranquillize]

my dps is on top 3 in heroics and top 5 in 10 man raids.

There are only 3 DPS in Heroics and only 5 DPS in 10-man raids..

OT: I did some tests on the Heroic Dummy, each test running until I reached 3 million damage done. I am MM, was using a wolf, was hitcapped, and was alone.
Before reforging all my crit (where possible) my stats were 66% crit, 20% haste and basic Mastery. This netted me an average DPS of about 7-7.5k
After reforging my stats were 53% crit, 20% haste and a 40% chance of proccing Wild quiver. My DPS went up to about 8.5k after this.
So yes, Mastery looks like it is awesome at the moment, though this will probably scale down once we start leveling.

[3clipse]

I mean, MM is probably technically "best" right now, but...it's 4.0 at 80. Lolz. No reason to take it super seriously.

I'm definitely doing more as BM on ICC25 hardmodes than I did as SV, and I'm sure it's because of focus regen; I have way more as BM than I did as SV. Invigoration procs a lot more than Thrill of the Hunt, and (and this is the big one) BM has near-constant Focus Fire, while SV has no active 15% haste proc like MM and BM. This means BM and MM are getting off a lot more steady shots, which means they're getting more focus.

Having to recast Serpent Sting every 15 seconds is definitely not helping a spec that already has focus starvation issues.

[Bloodwisp]

I am no MM expert, but I highly doubt you need 50%+ crit rating. As a BM hunter (after reforging) I have 40% crit, 25% haste, 14% mastery, and I am still 1% over hit capped; I currently pull 10k dps in ICC. Like I said, I am no MM expert, but that 50% crit could be forged into more haste/mastery and potentially increasing dps. For instance, more mastery for me makes my pet hit harder; with kill command, my pet crits for 10k; w/o kill command, my pet crits around 5-7k. I assume the more mastery I add to that the harder he will crit. So for those who haven't done that, try it.

Haste- Shorter Global Cooldown/Shorter Cast times/More focus regen
Mastery- BM- Higher Pet damage(which again contributes greatly to BM dps) MM- Higher Wild Quiver chance (I haven't tested it, but I'm assuming this with a nice balance of crit would do nicely; an extra attack that crits for a good bit equals more dps, and the more it happens the better) SV- Increases Nature Damage (I haven't really looked into Survival at all, I never did like it too much but I'm guessing Black Arrow and Stings benefit from this potentially increasing dps)

Hopefully someone will benefit from this information; post some feedback, because I know I could benefit from you also. =)

The mastery for survival is increasing elemental damage which means it increases the damage of every attack survival does except SS and auto-shot atm. Therefore it's a big dmg boost if you don't get to low on crit which you won't. So I would reforge as much as possible to mastery as survival also.

[Goretex]

There are only 3 DPS in Heroics and only 5 DPS in 10-man raids..

OT: I did some tests on the Heroic Dummy, each test running until I reached 3 million damage done. I am MM, was using a wolf, was hitcapped, and was alone.
Before reforging all my crit (where possible) my stats were 66% crit, 20% haste and basic Mastery. This netted me an average DPS of about 7-7.5k
After reforging my stats were 53% crit, 20% haste and a 40% chance of proccing Wild quiver. My DPS went up to about 8.5k after this.
So yes, Mastery looks like it is awesome at the moment, though this will probably scale down once we start leveling.

what i meant was I wa sin top 3 or 5 in heroics and 10 mans wheer as before patch I was almost always top dps.

[Immanio]

I did some quick napkin calculations on mastery for SV, based solely on rough number for how much of my damage is explosive shot, other elemental (essentially BA and SpS) and physical. (40% physical, 30% ES, 30% other elemental.) The result was mastery adding about 1,5 times as much damage per point as crit.

This did not take into account anything else than the pure damage increase from crits, but as far as I can tell Go for the Throat is the only proc on crit I currently get.

Note also that this was purely a comparison of crit vs. mastery, I haven't looked at for instance haste at all, since that gets a lot more complicated.

[Toots]

The mastery for survival is increasing elemental damage which means it increases the damage of every attack survival does except SS and auto-shot atm. Therefore it's a big dmg boost if you don't get to low on crit which you won't. So I would reforge as much as possible to mastery as survival also.

Agreed, I looked up survival yesterday, and so far it looks like mastery/haste is the way to go for hunters. As of now, It seems that mastery/haste will improve dps. Also, I agree with your statement on crit rating; as hunters, we will probably have a decent amount of crit rating. I don't know if they will nerf this or not, but as of now, even after reforging, crit rating should be fairly high, depending or your gear I would say, anywhere from 30% to 45%, maybe even higher.