My feelings on crit as a frostmage are that although technically haste sims stronger, crit's benefits outweigh the slight average dps gain
- You won't get a string of bad luck- you'll never have a bad RNG burn phase which can make a big difference in pushing a difficult part of an encounter
- You can reliably kill time-sensitive targets - sparks on elegon are a clear example of this
- Critting is fun
For reference I had some top 10 ranks in firelands and hit 90 on my mage the other day (4th alt) and ranked on the one MSV boss i killed in a pug the other night at ilvl 465, so I'm not just some schmuck. I'd like to discuss the pve viability of crit capping.. or more precisely near-crit-capping such that with buffs and procs you hit approximately the cap.
Personally I run crit reforges and molten armor, and I think some crit hybrid gems although i cant armory myself at work and my gear is so bad atm it doesnt matter much.
I feel like when it comes to secondary stats people blindly follow the sims, ignoring that the differences are fairly minor.
Does anyone have any evidence (anecdotal or otherwise) for the *in-game* viability of reforging all haste? We know it's good in sims, obviously, but for example are there any mages who have tried both methods and what was your experience. How do you (the mage community) feel about haste - do the increased FoF procs and shorter casts times feel good? Has anyone tried reforging mastery and if so how did it perform? Personally I see mastery as being the least viable secondary stat since it gains you no particular utility.
Discussion of both in-game experiences and theorycrafting welcome here - If your evidence is anecdotal please provide some sort of proof that you know what you're talking about, preferably logs. I'll be posting my own logs once I get some real raiding under my mage's belt.