Do you like "mastery" as a stat?

[noralya]

Like Tanzlee said, I disagree with everything you said, I like the concept of mastery doing something special for every spec in the game. Now, that doesn't mean that every mastery effect is a nice one, for example I've never liked the concept of Main Gauche as mastery for combat (if that's not the mastery anymore, forgive me for being rusty), but that doesn't mean that mastery as a whole is broken.

And yeah, reforging was one of the best things to be implemented in the game.

[Vulcanasm]

I play a rogue, and I don't like mastery as a stat. I personally find, that all mastery does, is increase damage in a boring and complicated way. I think it contractradicts the main stats that boost damage (agility, strengh, intellect ect depending on your class).

Does anyone else feel the same way? I'm not complaining about rogues, or mastery balance, but rather it's mechanics as a damage increasing stat when we have so many already. I suppose this could make my arguement biased for a dps roll, and I'm not considering it uses as a healer or tank.

I also don't like the reforging system, or the now very bland talent system.

What are you thoughts on this?

In general, yes. In fact I think it's my favorite "added" stat since launch. However, I wish all specializations had an interesting mastery, so that stacking it significantly changed the play style. Flat-out damage type buffs (e.g. Enh Shaman) are a mindless waste, even if they are effective.

[Thyranne]

I have just read the Rogue-Masteries and I think you should complain about rogues.

Let me list you the classes that I play:
Shadow Priest: DoT's have a chance to deal double damage.
Retribution: Many attacks do additional damage as Holy.
Beast Master: Increased damage by your pet.
Prot-Paladin: More damage-reduction, more selfhealing and more block.
Holy Paladin: Your heals leave a shield.

All of those things are, in my opinion, more interesting than bland haste and crit (or parry/dodge).

I disagree about the retribution mastery. For me it's boring.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I disagree about the retribution mastery. For me it's boring.

It is *boring* but it's powerful if you ask me. That's the thing about it being a stat.

[Thelxi]

You notice Elemental Overload. I guess that's why I like Mastery.

They could turn all "fun" masteries into simple passives.

[aggixx]

I like mastery in the current system, but I also feel things could be a lot more interesting if they were to add one more secondary stat in addition to what we have now. It would make itemization a lot less bland because the stat combinations would be a bit more diverse. The problem with that is that they already added the "be awesomer" stat so it kind of backs them into a corner in terms of what they could add (maybe something like a crit damage stat or a multistrike stat).

[Thyranne]

It is *boring* but it's powerful if you ask me. That's the thing about it being a stat.

Maybe it's just because I hate retribution (but I must say it's a lot better this patch (my main spec is prot)). I like WW mastery (even tho it's the worst stat) because you can see a difference in your rotation (it's not something big but it's just an example).

Maybe. But is it more interesting than crit or haste? I would say yes.

To be honest I prefer haste because it decreases the CD of your spells so you can feel a difference in the way that you play, not just numbers.

[Orcbert]

I like mastery as a whole, but some specs it's hit or miss. I enjoy it most when it can actually affect the way you play the game. A good example of this would be the arcane mage mastery. It really makes you play games with your mana management in a class that it would otherwise be not very important. Also my main is a restore shaman which has a very useful mastery that can be adjusted on hard fights as needed or specced out of when the content starts getting easier.


I do agree that flat damage increases are boring. At that point it's just something you need to compare to other stats and figure out which stat is better for your class. It's cut and dry.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Maybe it's just because I hate retribution (but I must say it's a lot better this patch (my main spec is prot)). I like WW mastery (even tho it's the worst stat) because you can see a difference in your rotation (it's not something big but it's just an example).

It's better then it used to be I'll admit but Wrath IMo was the best model.

[aggixx]

I do agree that flat damage increases are boring. At that point it's just something you need to compare to other stats and figure out which stat is better for your class. It's cut and dry.

Flat damage increases that have implications are fine (Feral mastery is a good example), but ones that don't are indeed boring (Ret mastery, Enh mastery: Some of my spells hit harder, woo?).

[Thyranne]

Another good mastery imo is the feral mastery. Increases the damage of your DoTs so the more mastery you have the more unforgiven it becomes (which is nice).

[Feali]

Never liked it. It diminished the importance and fun of haste and crit for no apparent reason. It just bloated the game in yet another pointless way. I also think resilience, pvp power and battle fatigue are stupid.

Exactly this. Nothing more, nothing less.

[rayden54]

Don't like it at all, it ruined my class, one of the many things that made me lose interest in the technical aspect of the game. Diminished the importance of fun stats like haste or crit. Mages for example were forced to gem/reforge only mastery when mastery was introduced. It's essentially just a flat dmg increase to this and that spell from every class, really stupid. Oversimplified the game for dumb people, but that's what Blizzard does now.

And gemming straight crit's better?

At least with five stats, you tend to end up at least one halfway decent stat per item (I'm counting hit and expertise). It's better than in Wrath where 90% of the gear always had the same two crappy stats.

Reforging, I HATE. Whatever their intentions, it's nothing more than a complex way to maintain caps.

[Archimand]

mastery as a stat is intresting hit/expertise isnt
they should get rid of expertise and make everyone go for 15% hit
also atm we have haste/crit/mastery i think it will make it more intresting if they add 4th secondary stat
crit power that will effect critical heals/damage
or somthing else that will make stuff intresting

[jbombard]

When they added it the reason was to be a sort of tuning knob that they could use to adjust balance. It totally failed in that regard, and hence is just another number people need to worry about. I think it really comes down to do you like more numbers to worry about or less.

[Mormolyce]

I love it. I think it gives Blizzard an opportunity to allow you to enhance your class/spec in a very unique way. If anything they should nix Hit and Expertise.

This is how I feel as well. Mastery is the MOST interesting stat. Not to say it couldn't be better for certain specs of course.

[melodramocracy]

Mastery is ok. For the classes that really benefit from it, it can be an interesting choice between that and haste, etc.

i'm not sure it worked out quite as they intended, by just being an easy way to tweak damage 1 way or the other for classes.

[MoanaLisa]

Having played as shadow for most of the time that mastery has been in the game I can't say that it's enhanced the game at all for me. Part of that is because mastery has been at the very bottom of our stats for a great deal of the time during its existence. It's better now but as a stat it's still murky and rather meaningless.

Mastery to me--based on the meaning of the word--should be something that can be 'improved' over time as you master your class. Tying it to gear and reforging takes all of the meaning out of the word which is why it's so very blah for me. It's just another numerical vector to theory craft around. I'm not saying that a complicated system needs to be created for it just that the word 'mastery' loses all meaning due to how it's used in the game.

Stats should mean something. I don't think that mastery really meets that test. Really it's a piece of the larger problem in which gear = character progression.

[Raintola]

It's better then it used to be I'll admit but Wrath IMo was the best model.

Bloated with many talents that had hardly any affect on gameplay at all? Okay.

[Kalcheus]

I'm ok with Mastery. I'm ok with Expertise and Hit, too, I just wish there was some sort of benefit to being over the Hit/Exp cap; reforging helps but it's so hard not to waste stats now (altho the item squish will help some).