[Balance] Item Level Vs. Stat Priority?

[Terodas]

Greetings all! Long time lurker, first time poster with a question about balance gearing. At any point is it recommended to equip an item of lower iLvl when it doesn't have mastery on it and your other piece does? For example, would one be better off equipping iLvl 502 Vampire Bat Hide Bracers (720 Int, 508 Spirit & 433 Haste) or iLvl 522 Hearthfire Armwraps (868 Int, 637 Spirit & 480 Mastery). I am aware that mastery is our least desirable stat, but is it worth losing 148 Int to trade 480 mastery for 433 haste? Spirit is a non-issue for me at this point. What is the general rule for iLvl vs stat priority? I apologize for not using wowhead links, but this is my first post


Thanks for your time,
-Profound of Shu'Halo

[Slippykins]

Greetings all! Long time lurker, first time poster with a question about balance gearing. At any point is it recommended to equip an item of lower iLvl when it doesn't have mastery on it and your other piece does? For example, would one be better off equipping iLvl 502 Vampire Bat Hide Bracers (720 Int, 508 Spirit & 433 Haste) or iLvl 522 Hearthfire Armwraps (868 Int, 637 Spirit & 480 Mastery). I am aware that mastery is our least desirable stat, but is it worth losing 148 Int to trade 480 mastery for 433 haste? Spirit is a non-issue for me at this point. What is the general rule for iLvl vs stat priority? I apologize for not using wowhead links, but this is my first post


Thanks for your time,
-Profound of Shu'Halo

Usually a higher ilvl piece with mastery will beat out a lower ilvl item without it. 20 ilvls is a huge gap, so I'd say stick with the 522s you have. Mastery is our worst stat, but it's still contributes to our DPS, just less per point.

[boomkinhero]

Exactly what slippy said. It's good to keep in mind that point for point, int beats every secondary stat.