Holy Paladin Gear - Haste or Crit?
Note: With the changes to Patch 3.2, haste has become better when compared to crit to the point where they’re probably both about even. The numbers in this post have been updated for Patch 3.2.
Haste and Crit are both very useful stats for a Holy Paladin. However, if given the choice, which one should you go for?
What does Haste do?
Haste is a very simple stat for Holy Paladins. Unlike Crit, Haste doesn’t do anything special. Haste simply decreases the cast time of two of our three healing spells: Holy Light and Flash of Light. It also increases our swing speed slightly in case we want to get a few whacks in with Seal of Wisdom. How is this useful? If you haven’t been in the situation where you frantically throw a Holy Light on the tank only to have the spell canceled at 90% because the tank died… you will be soon. Haste (like Spell Power and Crit) allows you to pump out more heals faster. However, Haste does it by improving your ability to deal with emergency burst damage, which often happens quite frequently in 5-man dungeons. Haste also gives you more consistent healing over time with less bursty healing and less overhealing, which is a very good thing.
One downside of haste is that it essentially has a cap. Haste not only reduces the cast time of your spells, it also reduces the duration of your global cooldown. The global cooldown is the time between each spell where you can not cast anything. Without any haste, your global cooldown is 1.5 seconds. With enough haste, you can reduce this global cooldown to 1 second, however it won’t go any lower than that. This means that, if you stack enough haste (about 675 haste rating with buffs) to get your Flash of Light down lower than a 1 second cast, you still won’t be able to cast any other spells for another 0.1 seconds (or whatever). Yes, your Flash of Light will land faster, but your total healing output will not improve.
But we still have Holy Light, you say? You’re right, you could keep stacking haste to reduce your Holy Light cast time. However, Haste also has the unfortunate drawback of decreasing its usefulness the more of it you get, in terms of cast time reduction. Because of how percentages work, the more haste you get, the less it reduces your cast time. You will still get the same improvement in healing output, but your ability to react to emergency damage won’t get much of an improvement. This drawback can get quite noticeable about the same time you’ve reached the global cooldown cap. In other words, once you’re able to cast Flash of Lights in under 1 second (while raid buffed), you should probaby stop looking for more haste. In fact, 40% haste is probably plenty for anyone because of these diminishing returns and because of the hit to other stats you’d have to take to stack haste so high.
What about Crit?
Crit is a very complex stat for Holy Paladins because Crit benefits us in a number of ways. The most basic thing Crit does is increases our healing output. On average, for every percent of crit you have, you will do half a percent more healing total. This is because a critical heal is 50% stronger than a non-critical heal. In other words, if you had 100% crit, you would always heal for 50% more than you would if your heals never crit. Unfortunately, its not really this simple, since a critical heal is often wasted by overhealing. Because you never know when a critical heal is going to happen, you can’t really plan for it. Crit increases our burst healing ability but it is random and uncontrollable, which is not a good thing.
However, Crit has the added bonus of increasing our mana efficiency through the Illumination talent and through its mechanics. On average, for every percent of crit you have, your spells will cost 0.3% less total because of Illumination. Also, your heals will heal more per mana spent, since crit heals will do more healing for the same amount of mana (even without Illumination). This is a very good thing, especially if you use Holy Light often. The high mana cost gets cut down quite a bit with each percentage of crit. This is very different from Haste, which does the same healing per mana no matter how much of it you have.
Lastly, Crit gives us an extra added bonus whenever we use Holy Shock because of the Infusion of Light talent. Whenever your Holy Shock spell crits, you will have access to either an instant Flash of Light, or a Holy Light with a whopping 20% increased chance to crit.
Unlike haste, crit definitely becomes better the more of it you get. The more Crit you have, the more often your heals will crit and the more mana you will get back from crit heals. You can then use this mana to cast more heals which also have an improved chance to crit, giving you more mana. It’s a nice circle of crit healing and mana restoration that makes crit very powerful.
So which one is better?
There’s a few things to look at when comparing the two stats. They both serve many of the same functions. They both increase the amount of healing you can do and they both improve your ability to handle emergency burst damage (crit through the Infusion of Light talent). However, Crit is almost always going to be better than haste for four reasons.
1. Where crit really wins out is in the mana efficiency department. Haste does not improve mana efficiency. Every spell cast will cost the same no matter how fast the cast speed is. Regardless of which stat you stack, mobs are going to dish out the same amount of damage that all needs to be healed up, which means there’s a set amount of healing that needs to be done to cover that damage. Healing faster will not make the damage come in any less. With crit, you’ll be able to cover all of that healing while spending less mana, as long as you can get the heals off quickly enough without someone dying.
2. Another point against Haste on gear is the fact that Holy Paladins already have the Judgements of the Pure talent, increasing our haste by 15% right off the bat. We also have the Light’s Grace talent, decreasing the cast time of Holy Light even further. I mentioned that haste gives less cast time reduction the more you get of it, so we’re already at a slight deficit there when putting it on our gear. 15% Haste is quite a lot and is usually enough to get your heals off in time.
3. A third point against Haste is that it doesn’t improve the cast time of Holy Shock at all. It will help reduce the global cooldown which will help you get off another heal after a Holy Shock slightly quicker. However, regardless of how much Haste you have, you’re going to be able to do more burst healing in a shorter amount of time with a Holy Shock followed by an instant Flash of Light than you can with Flash of Light or Holy Light alone. Crit improves the power, mana efficiency, and utility of Holy Shock, while Haste does absolutely nothing to improve Holy Shock except indirectly through the global cooldown. The more you use Holy Shock, the better crit will be for you (and you should use Holy Shock often), compared to someone who uses Holy Shock rarely and focuses more on Holy Light.
4. The last point against haste on gear is that haste is everywhere already. It’s going to be hard for you to avoid haste on your gear. With all of the different haste buffs and trinkets in the game, and the amount of haste you get on gear, its not difficult to reach the soft cap for haste without looking for it at all.
Stat Choices while gearing up
Spell Power should be your first priority when first gearing up in blues and greens. It doesn’t matter how much haste or crit you have if you don’t have the Spell Power to support it. Once you’re able to keep people alive for awhile, you can focus on getting more Intellect and Crit so that you can keep them alive for awhile longer. You don’t usually need to worry about haste, it will come on your gear on its own. Ultimately you should go with whichever piece of Spell Power gear has the highest item level. If you find a blue or green piece that has the same item level as you’re wearing, you’ll usually want to follow the below stat priority:
- Spell Power
- Crit
- Intellect
- Haste
- Mp5
- Stamina
Check out my other posts for more information about haste, item levels and choosing gear for your Holy Paladin.
I have seen some posts on whether to get crit or haste, however your post clearly points to crit as the winner. Now that I know this my gear decisions will be much easier.
Your site has been a wonderful tool for me as a secondary spec Holy Paladin. The content is sensible and well presented and backed up. Most of what I find is “do this because that is how I do it and it works”.
Thanks,
Mr Magu
How much Haste would be considered a soft cap considering all the other haste talents we have to allow us to get that HL to hit when we need it most?
Dave
I don’t really think you need to worry about gearing for haste at all, Dave. Its a good stat, but crit is almost always better. If you’re primarily tank healing and the tank gets a burst, use a Holy Shock (and instant flash of light) before firing your next Holy Light. The same thing is true for raid healing. You can’t expect Holy Light to do the job every time, the cast time is just too long, no matter how much haste you stack. Stacking haste causes you to give up other (more useful) stats.
As for the cap, 50% haste is the soft cap for the global cooldown. You get 15% of that from Judgements of the Pure, another 5% from Wrath of Air. Which means you need 30% more to get to the cap. Heroism will do that by itself for 40 seconds per fight. If you have one of the trinkets I listed, that will give you over 15% more haste when it procs, meaning you only need about 15% from gear, which is about 500 haste rating. So, if you have a trinket proc and heroism at the same time, you’ll be well over the haste cap. There’s really no compelling reason to be right at the cap though. If you have 400 - 500 haste rating, you should be good.
whats Soft cap mean? and is that also good for pvp?
I guess its an actual cap for the global cooldown. Its a soft cap for your haste, meaning haste still provides a benefit beyond it, but the benefit is reduced.
And yeah, haste works the same way for PvP. Crit is a great stat for PvP as well for those powerful Holy Shocks and instant flash of lights.
Int>haste/crit>spellpower seems alot more accurate i dont include mp5 cus it is so unnecessary. I dont know why mana efficiency matters for us holy pallies the reason crit is equal to haste is becus u want ur lightning fast holy lights to crit as much as possible once u hit 2k spellpower dont worry about it anymore most of our heals overheal neway as it is n as u get better gear it will get well over 2200 on its own. Int is the most important because it gives u more mana a little bit of spellpower and a little bit of crit. Also in most fights in ulduar 25 u do hav time to pop divine plea although most of the time it isnt really necessary to do so. Holy light and holy shock should be the heals you use. On boss fights in 25 mans i never use flash of light. with 31k raid buffed mana our mana efficiency is not an issue if ur in 25 man content it is easy to obtain 45-50% crit raid buffed and its just as easy to hav over 600 haste at the same time unbuffed. i dont go oom i crit all the time so why wouldnt i stack haste past 500 just dusnt make sense to me putting spellpower over crit or haste and especially int is just flawed logic becus tons of spellpower comes on ur gear int is the stat to stack and gear with both crit and haste is the gear to get putting crit over int is ridiculous also thats my opinion n i prove myself right everytime im number one in the fights with heavy damage in 25 mans. 10k hps healing adds in the razuvius fight is also a blast it makes it my favorite fight newhere =D
Oh one more all this depends on ur playstyle and ur individual stats and mana as well. I don’t even take into account the mana i get back from stacking crit just because i so rarely drop below 50% mana so i just look at crit as making my heals crit more im not saying avoid crit it is necessary and valuable even with say around 35-40%crit raid buffed you should be critting enuf to giv urself plenty of mana back i don’t worry about being mana efficient because i don’t need to be i rarely use mana pots rarely need to use divine plea rarely go below 50% mana so mana efficiencey is the last thing im worried about. If you still have mana problems then obviously thats an issue u need to deal with n the best way to do it is thru stacking int and crit. now go out there n show all those aoe heal classes how to top the charts sorry im long winded but i keep seeing all these forums on google negating haste but i love it and i really dont see any reason to hav more then 45-50% raid buffed crit so why not GET MOAR HASTE
My only question, Bizurn, is if you never go below 50% mana even without using Divine Plea or Flash of Light, then why not stack more Spell Power instead of Int? 50% of your mana pool is being completely wasted. But yeah, if you’re at that point, then stacking haste is a good idea too.
I don’t agree on: “The last point against haste on gear is that haste is everywhere already. It’s going to be hard for you to avoid haste on your gear.”
Since i’ve been running ulduar 10/25 and even some hardmodes the upgrades i managed to get dropped my haste from somewhere around 500 to somewhere around 300.
So i’m forced to keep some of my pre-ulduar 25 man gear around.
I suppose i will be able to balance this out as I pick up some more pieces in ulduar but it sure has me worried and it’s the reason I ended up in this post.
Any ideas on this?
Before Patch 3.2 it might be a good idea to keep some of that Naxx gear around. However, after Patch 3.2 you can probably get away with not having quite as much haste.
I agree with Bizurn and Decide, I dont see the point in Mp5 on gear at all - you dont need it, and most Holy Pally Ulduar gear has it. What was Blizzard thinking? I’m still running my Naxx spell/haste/crit pieces in Uld so i can keep my full complement of haste and crit - i dont want to drop either of them.
I wear one piece of Ulduar gear for vanity reasons - even the new badge gear isn’t worth getting - it all has useless Mp5…
I’m worried too Deicide - are they going to keep making gear that makes us perform WORSE??
Reason why Blizzard includes MP5 in our gears because they intend to make MP5 not an entirely useless stat for holy pallies in future, as stated in their Q&A for pallies. Starting from 3.2, our Illumination will only return 30% of the mana during crit, instead of the current 60%. that’s a 50% reduction. Crit will still be a channel for us to return our mana, but it won’t be as effective as it is now.
Thus, it’ll be crucial as well to get a balance on crit and MP5 in future, which are on most of our ulduar gear for pallies.
Heh, I stacked Mp5 for my heals set. When i saw the patch notes for 3.2, I knew that our Mana regen was going to take a beating because I’m pretty sure all of us has stacked crit to make sure we got full benefit of Illumination. When healing, in my opinion if you have this 30K mana pool, its being wasted, with good dps and a great tank a fight won’t last too long. I’m assuming you have good dpsers and tanks since you’re saying you never drop below 50% (which if we do tha math right, you’re only using 15K mana). In my honest opinion 20 to 25K probably the best middle ground for it. I say stack to around that, I myself have 24K mana with kings 26 to 27 with druid and mage buffs, so that those empty gem slots can be used to stack either SP, Crit, Haste, or Mp5 (because of 3.2). Just my two cents on the issue. Oh, and to keep it on topic, Crit > haste.
Hi. Thanks for the post: great learnings. I’d felt so far also that crit was > haste but was wondering whether there was a cap. With 30.6% crit (35.6% holy crit) do I have too much? Until 3.2 I wasn’t even wondering as I was never OOM and felt crit was better than haste and intell as well. Now, I’m more hestiating: I only have 17.5k mana and though it seems still manageable in EDC10 or Ulduar 10, I have to pay much more attention to it. My haste is 320 and my mana regen is 228 (169 mp5) while my spell power (which was and is my #1 focus) is at 2163. Would be very happy to read any advice from you guys! Thanks!
I think you might want to swap in some more Intellect, Julietta. All of your stats seem like a pretty good balance except your mana pool could be a little higher. If you could lower them all equally a bit for Intellect it might help you more with your mana issues. Divine Plea still uses Intellect to determine returns and Intellect is still a powerful stat for us.
However, there’s nothing wrong with paying attention to your mana pool and how you improve yourself really should be determined by where you’re having the most problems. Low spell power can cause mana issues too if it means you have to use Holy Light more than you should. I’ve always been a big propoent of high spell power and careful use of mana so I wouldn’t be surprised if your current setup is working well for you as is.
ok so i have read alot about pallys and i think i love this site more than other so here is my Q on my pally i was told to stack intl the more the better so i got a but load of gems here is my link http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Hydraxis&n=Morfeen
am i good do i need to work on somthing i have done the game by my self with sum pugs and body help me out plz and how is my talint tree look any body
and i know i can use a lot of work but i am trying
ha ha now i fill stupid lol i found the index andam reading all that i c an find i have no SP at all and crit is not all that great so i will work on that but stil point me in the right dir lol thanks and keep up the good work love this site i have learnd mor in a few min than i have reading other foram for gides love it
Brandon,
It is kind of hard to analyze your toon since you are currently specced as ret, but based on your gear, here are a few tips:
1. Swap your meta gem to an Insightful Earthsiege Diamond. It is really the only choice for healers. The 600 mana every 45 seconds is just too much to pass up (and you get 21 more int. You will need at least 1 red, 1 blue, and 1 yellow gem to fulfil the meta requirements. Most Holy Paladins are doing this by putting a Nightmare Tear in one of their Blue or Red gem slots. This will fufill your meta requirement and you can continue stacking 20 int gems in all other gem slots.
2. You have the right idea with stacking all int gems, but the more you can get the better. Run the heroic daily every day and get 50 Emblems of Triumph so you can buy the Talisman of Resurgence trinket. It will add 128 int. It is one of the best upgrades you can get. People often argue with me that I have “too much” int, but I have 36.5k mana and I still don’t feel that it is enough. The more mana I have the more haste I can push without going OOM. I’d rather have a 1.3 sec Holy Light that averages 15k heals than a 1.8 sec Holy Light that averages 20k.
3. Use Badges of Conquest to upgrade as much of your gear as possible and you should be set for entry into ToC raiding. Remember, there are some really great upgrades in the 5 Man ToC dungeon.
Good luck!
Dartanlla - WildHammer - Synergized GM
Your spec is completely normal, brandon. It should serve you well. I do have a couple small commments. I take Improved Blessing of Might over Improved Judgements. Neither helps you personally, but Improved Blessing of Might could help your group depending on who’s in it. I also take Improved Lay on Hands and Improved Blessing of Wisdom over Aura Mastery and Improved Concentration Aura, mainly because Silence and Interrupt effects don’t happen often in raids (with some notable exceptions). On the other hand, Lay on Hands and Wisdom are abilities you could find useful every single fight.
Your game play changes a lot depending on if you stack Intellect or Spell Power or a mix of both. You’ll need to use Flash of Light more and be a more reactive raid healer if you stack Spell Power. You’ll need to use Holy Light more and be more proactive and more of a tank healer if you stack Intellect. Your choice even affects how your other healers heal because if you are doing more raid healing, then they will need to do more tank healing.
I find that stacking spell power with multiple healers on the tank leads to more stable health for both the tank and the raid, but it is also a more difficult and reactive way to heal. I like Spell Power because it improves all of your abilities. Stacking Intellect gives you a weaker FoL (and HoT), HS, and SS (and HL) but it allows you to use Holy Light more, which is your strongest heal, so both methods are valid. One thing to note is that as far as stat budget points go, gemming for Intellect is the clear choice if you’re just looking to get the most out of your stats.
Definitely listen to Dartanlla about getting the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond.
ok thanks for the help i think i did good we will soon see and agin thanks for the help anf info i will be reading this page for a long time do you have others on diff classes like shadow priest
I stumbled across this site while trying to find info about haste for healadins, so I hope it’s not too late to get some feedback. In my current gear, I have 383 haste (11.6%). I have a ton of triumph badges and I’m thinking of getting the 245 helm, shoulders and the healing ring. My biggest concern is that every one of those items will result in a substantial loss of haste. I am guessing I will lose well over a hundred haste after switching in the new items.
I’ve heard people suggest that having at least 400 haste is recommended. Am I flirting with disaster if I try to upgrade with the Triumph items?
Is there a recomended amount of crit to shoot for? Currently my number is 464 giving me 29.47% regular and 34.49% holy. I was just wondering what I should be looking to get?
You don’t really need any crit if you are using Holy Light a lot. If you’re using Holy Shock and Flash of Light a lot though then crit will help you out quite a bit and is one of your more important stats. If that’s the case, there really isn’t a limit to how much crit you should have as long as you’re not neglecting your other stats. Since I don’t know what your other stats are, or your build, I can’t really tell you if 34.49% holy is good or not. But in general there is no specific number to shoot for. There’s no specific reason not to go above 50% crit, for example.
haste helps with gcd. therefore it does help with holy shock. point 3 should be taken off
You’re right z, that’s a good point. I’ll add it to the article.
I disagree with the notion that you don’t need to worry about crit if you’re casting HL all the time. The more crit you have the more you’re only using a 1/3 of your mana. I mean fol only costs about 250 man per cast where as HL costs about 1200 mana. With the new GS craze, the old HL libram is out plus the new blinding light sp stacks are nice to keep up. So with more crit, you are doing HL’s for 800 mana more often and only 170 mana with fol. I think the correct combinations for fol/hs spammer (mucho sp, mucho haste and moderate crit/int) for hl spammer, (moderate sp/haste, mucho crit and mucho int)
Have to be carefull if you’re a haste nut, faster you cast heals, the faster you go oom. And if you’re only using 15k mana in ICC fights, you should be dropped. Haste is more of a “Oh Sh*t let me heal that guy real fast” where as holydins are usually tank healers dealing with spike damage and cant afford to wait (be reactive healers).
wouldnt Int be more importnt then Crit becuz of the talent tht increazez spell pwer by Total intellect?