Do you like "mastery" as a stat?

[RaoBurning]

In general, yes. Better for some specs than others, certainly. I think it adds a different flavor than hit/exp/haste/crit. Mastery is a very specific type of power boost.

For example, my Destro Lock. A solid mastery proc can really kick ass when I'm FnB Incinerating a big pack of mobs, or help burn through big adds with a well placed Havoc Chaos Bolt. It's pure bonus for Aff Lock, and I have a blast with high mastery builds as an Elemental shaman.

[Kelimbror]

So, yes, I don't consider these masteries "boring." Not if you're a min-maxer. Sure, none of them fundamentally change your playstyle (except in cases like Blood Shield and multi-Raking and some other examples), but since when do haste and crit do that? The only classes I've ever cared about Haste was all about reaching a certain haste breakpoint, and then magically my DoTs had extra ticks. It didn't involve anything I had to do.

All of what you wrote was just stretching the truth that none of those change your rotation in the slightest. Like I said, you will be using death strikes anyways so having a shield doesn't somehow make it more fun or different to play the class. For all the 'devalues this, values that' it just doesn't change anything.

I mean you even used that somehow mastery of a feral devalues FB, but there is a priority system regardless of wtf your mastery level is at. It's not like there are druids running around using FB in place of rip ffs. What you have written is basically fluff. We have math that tells us exactly what to do and mastery doesn't fundamentally change what you are doing. You dont' gain some new and exciting playstyle because you just reforged to all mastery. Give me a break.

You are also operating under the fallacy that I somehow think haste or crit are more interesting or do anything differently. Let me just clarify that I don't. I think they are all equally uninteresting, except that large differences in haste can be readily observed via resource regen and amount of abilities used (Smashing more buttons) which others have pointed out.

I already gave a suggestion for mastery many, many pages ago that actually makes it an interesting stat.

Edit:
You are confusing 'interesting' with 'effective'. They are not remotely similar concepts.

[Grubjuice]

it's not always bad that the masteries are a % increase to damage, as long as that increase to damage relates to the core essence of that spec

Demonology's core essence is stance dancing, and knowing how to time Metamorphosis with procs and cooldowns, how to pool DF out of Meta and burn it in Meta, so Demonology's mastery is a trully superb expression of that core essense. I would same the same for Destruction's Mastery, which also relies on Resource management and timing. Yes both their masteries are passive damage increases but that mastery is tied to the essence of the rotation itself.

On the opposite end of spectrum is a truly flawed mastery like Mistweaver mastery, mistweaver mastery is basically completely out the hands of the skill of the player, and there is nothing the player can do to maximise or fail to maximise the benefit of mastery, and stacking mastery on a MW has practically no measureable benefit either. and worst of all, healing spheres have little relationship to the nature of a monk's rotation. I better mastery would be some sort of mastery that tied into the chi-generators vs. chi-expenders mechanic.


I am personally less interested in whether mastery is easy/convenient to use or difficult/nuanced to use, than i am with whether or not a spec's mastery is stylistically appropriate to that spec.

[Stormspellz]

it just another stat the makes the scaling issue that much worse


but I like the concept of it, just not the execution/implementation of it.

[Buxton McGraff]

I don't mind it, but I far preferred armor pen.

[Therougetitan]

I like mastery overall. I think some of the more boring mastery for specs like rogue ones should be changed. But for the majority of specs I'd say I like it.

[abjectgothic]

I love the idea of a stat that boosts a special class based ability, but I don't like mastery itself as a stat. I'm having a hard time putting my reasoning into words right now, but simply put, I find it odd that my Assassination Rogue relies on it so heavily where my Arms Warrior could do without it almost completely. It seems to me like the bonuses given by mastery could be baked into each classes' primary stat (agility, strength, intelligence, etc...)

[Grubjuice]

this is my take on all the masteries, it merely reflects personal opinion.

Most boring masteries:

• Frost: [Frozen Heart] (bland/passive)
• Unholy: [Dreadblade] (bland/passive)
• Guardian: [Nature's Guardian] (entirely passive)
• Marksmanship: [Wild Quiver] (entirely passive)
• Survival: [Essence of the Viper] (poor thematic coherence, passive)
• Mistweaver: [Gift of the Serpent] (severely flawed)
• Holy (pally) : [Illuminated Healing] (bland)
• Retribution: [Hand of Light] (entirely passive)
• Holy (priest) : [Echo of Light] (entirely passive)
• Enhancement: [Enhanced Elements] (no thematic coherence)
• Affliction: [Potent Afflictions] (bland/passive)
• Arms: [Strikes of Opportunity] (passive)
• Protection (Warr): [Critical Block] (passive)

Masteries I am ambivalent about:

• Protection (Pally): [Divine Bulwark] (at least it requires awareness of Bastion of Glory)
• Shadow[Shadowy Recall] (at least it’s tied to various proc-on-tic abilities)
• Frost: [Icicles]: (passive but thematically coherent)
• Combat [Main Gauche] (at least it’s tied to energy regeneration)
• Assassination: [Potent Poisons] (passive but thematically coherent)
• Elemental: [Elemental Overload] (passive but thematically coherent)
• Restoration: [Deep Healing] (passive but thematically coherent)
• Feral: [Razor Claws] (passive but thematically coherent)

My favorite Masteries:

• Blood: [Blood Shield] (thematically coherent, benefits from superb skill and timing)
• Balance: [Total Eclipse] (thematically coherent, central to rotation, tied to resource management)
• Restoration: [Harmony] (thematically coherent, require active maintenance)
• Beast Mastery: [Master of Beasts] (thematically coherent, tied to pet management)
• Arcane: [Mana Adept] (thematically coherent, tied to resource management)
• Fire: [Ignite] (thematically coherent, central to rotation)
• Brewmaster: [Elusive Brawler] (thematically coherent, tied to resource management)
• Windwalker: [Bottled Fury] (thematically coherent, tied to resource management)
• Discipline: [Shield Discipline] (thematically coherent, central to rotation)
• Subtlety: [Executioner] (thematically coherent, tied to resource management)
• Demonology: [Master Demonologist] (thematically coherent, tied to resource management)
• Destruction: [Emberstorm] (thematically coherent, tied to resource management)
• Fury: [Unshackled Fury]: (thematically coherent, central to rotation)

[Soulfròst]

Well, to give some hope to those who play a spec with a boring mastery:

Blizzcon is two weeks away. New expansion usually means the most radical changes to the game that ever happen.

I main an Elemental Shaman and it's the most fun I've had yet playing any class. My alt is a Fury Warrior, which I used to love, but has since grown dull.

[Kuul]

same shit different day...everybody still runs the same cookie cutter builds specs enchants gems and reforges its no different than how the old talent system used to be

I guess I'm doing something wrong then because I tend to switch between Barrage and Glaive Toss a lot (and that was just an example).
Sure there could be some tweaking here and there but imo the talent system is a lot better than the previous ones. The only problem I see with the current talent system is that leveling up an alt gets boring because you don't get talent points to spend that often and that was kind of rewarding everytime you leveled up back in the days. Maybe some mix of the old and new system in next expansion? Like keep the current talents as "the big ones" and then put smaller talents between the big ones, similarly how the glyphs work.

[Memory]

I'd like it if they didn't change it all time. Although it's an ingenious (and developing-friendly) way of fueling class-specific mechanics that scale with gear.

[Trassk]

mastery was nothing more then a replacement for the removed old talent trees where we could decide on if we wanted better procs.

In a way its good because you can increase master at your leisure so you might get better procs on certain abilities, but it also makes those abilities very gear defendant.

[Ronduwil]

I liked it as it was originally conceived, as stated at Blizzard's Greg Street on new systems in Cataclysm :

There is a Mastery rating bonus as an item stat that will start showing up on gear, levels 80-85. If you have that, it’ll improve the passive bonuses unique to your mastered talent tree. There’s 30 of them, and that’s a way of ensuring mastery is important to everyone because it affects something that’s important to them.

There’s also a slight Mastery bonus you’ll get for wearing the correct type of armour, so for example, it’s a way of making sure warriors wear plate instead of taking mail or leather.

So originally I thought that mastery was a way of making gear itemization easier because mastery gear would be useful across all specs. I think they got really far away from that and now it's just another stat to balance that's good for some specs and crappy for others. Personally I don't think it's added much to the game except some unnecessary complexity.

[Aruhen]

It sounded fun when it was first announced but it just ended up being another stat that was either good or bad for most specs. Most specs have bland flat % masteries that are just as boring as any other stat also.

[lopk]

It sounded fun when it was first announced but it just ended up being another stat that was either good or bad for most specs. Most specs have bland flat % masteries that are just as boring as any other stat also.

Exactly. Shadow priest mastery is a chance for your dots to tick twice. Isn't that pretty much what crit does? Okay, I realize that it's not exactly the same (and I'll probably get some nasty comments about it ), but the general idea is. In a perfect world, I would want mastery to completely change one's playstyle. Maybe go for a lot of mastery and do a certain rotation, or try to avoid it and go for something completely different.

[Itisamuh]

Honestly, I think it's the most interesting stat, secondary or not. Some specs don't have very good ones, that's true, but overall I like it.

[Flutterguy]

I like mastery as a concept but the balancing for it gets tricky. I remember when stacking mastery was a thing for most classes, but now it's a select set of specs and classes that utilize mastery while others actively forge out of it.

[Deleted]

I still think its interesting that one third of over 400 people don't like mastery. That isn't exactly a minority, a trend is starting to appearing that 1 in 3 people dislike mastery.

I dislike it because it has nothing to do with mastery. Its just a direct damage increasing stats, one which name suggests it is better than everything else and is unnecessarily complicated.

[ACES]

I like the concept of each spec having a mastery, but I don't like it being weighed as a stat. I think it should just be a flat random occurrence, mechanic, or buff that happens in combat. I also do not like reforging at all. Not one bit.

[TheWindWalker]

I dislike it because it has nothing to do with mastery. Its just a direct damage increasing stats, one which name suggests it is better than everything else and is unnecessarily complicated.

You're gonna have to name a class because it's not that for any healing class, tanking class and as many as half the DPS classes. There's even lists in this thread of the "flat damage increase" masteries and they aren't the majority.

I also do not like reforging at all. Not one bit.

To each their own. I happen to like the idea that if I have 11% hit and 9% expertise on my Arms warrior I can take some of those stats and put them elsewhere so they'll have an effect. It makes it so that you don't have to run dungeons over and over and over and over and over and over (continue for a few weeks) trying to get the exact item you want and not just one that works for your class.