A little help balancing stats

[DeadlySister]

First of all.. I love your site and your videos are amazing Kyth.

I cant seem to find a straight answer anywhere i go so I thought you might know.

Once you are hit capped 14% (assuming i get the other 3 from an s priest/oomkin)

Im also referring to TotW/Fire.. not FFB

Should it go SP > Crit > Haste > Spi?
or
SP > Haste > Crit > Spi

and do you have a preference of where to stop. For example 17% haste is the cut off before you try to go for more crit.

Also.. would you recommend taking out points in flamethrowing and capping out Student of the Mind?

I know its a lot of questions but everyone seems to think differently and I know you would know whats best.

Thanks

[Jarlyn]

At pre-T9 gear levels, SP > Haste = Crit > Spi

At T9 gear levels, SP > Haste > Crit > Spi

There's no cutoff for either haste or crit that's realistically obtainable right now, so don't worry about that.

For talents, Flame Throwing is strictly personal preference on a per-fight basis. I don't find it useful in Coliseum, for example, but there's plenty of situations in Ulduar where it's near required.

Student of the Mind is pretty much a filler talent - if you have points to spare (and you don't have mana issues, Arcane Meditation is significantly better for addressing mana concerns), then sure, throw points into SotM.

[Quavvy]

2pc T9 makes SotM slightly more effective and lets you lean a little more towards haste when you're making gear choices. As an example, I chose Flowing Robes of Ascent over Skyweaver Vestments. Ascent is Haste/Spirit and Skyweaver is Hit/haste. With the 2pc bonus I felt that Haste/Spirit was viable enough to make it my non-set item.

[Jarlyn]

It's one of the small ironies of T9 gear (and the 2pc bonus) that my spirit has actually dropped significantly since T9 was released. I came out of Ulduar with about 720 unbuffed spirit, I'm down to 570 now and I'll drop another 40 when I can buy Crusader Orbs for the crafted wrists.

Personally I never spec into more than 1/3 SotM, and that'll definitely be the case in 3.2.2 when Combustion is always worth having.

[Quavvy]

Yeah. I noticed alot more Crit/Haste items that don't have spirit on them in T9, both in the set and in the other pieces that are dropping. I wish that wasn't the case.

You going to use all five pieces of T9, Jarlyn? Or are you going to replace one? And if so, which one and with what? Like I said, I think I'm going to stick with Flowing Robes from Beasts and do something else to keep hit capped.

[Jarlyn]

I'm currently using 4pc + Merlin's Robe, and Skyweaver is probably going to be my ideal offset.

That's in a BiS-only world, though, and since there's a decent mix if 245/258 pieces that have no spirit but lots of hit, and then an alternate piece with spirit + crit or haste, you can end up very near min/maxed in a lot of different ways.

For instance, if you strictly follow Rawr you'd skip the 258 Belt of Biting Cold (which I have) and go for the spirit version with Dark Essence Bindings for wrists. But since loot luck fell to me this way, I'll be swapping the hit bracers for Ashen Saint or whatever they're called and sticking with my current belt.

[Quavvy]

Yeah. I'm pretty much in the same boat, though for different reasons, the end result is the same. This piece fell my way, and it's really close to best in slot so I'm going to structure my gear a different way than I may have if I'd been lucky enough to get Skyweaver. Still a little disappointed that only two set pieces in T9 had hit, and the one everyone is wanting to replace for best case scenarios is one of the hit items.

[defenestrate]

I noticed that many of the top mages are under the hit cap at the moment. Have the stat weights changed concerning hit where sometimes it's better to have the extra sp/haste/crit than to be hit capped?

[Tashur]

It's still worthwhile to be hit capped, but keep in mind that with Arcane being viable you may see people logged off in Fire spec with Arcane gear equipped. Depending on if/how many points you have in Arcane Focus, a normal Arcane spec will need 3-6% less hit than FB/TTW. If you have 3/3 Arcane Focus, 3/3 Precision, and can count on IFF/Misery being applied, you only need 210 hit rating to cap.

[Jarlyn]

"Under" hit cap is a relative term. The primary issue here is that with most ToC gear, hit comes in very large chunks - there's very few if any pieces that only have a little hit, and basically it means you can swing from being very far over the cap to very far under the cap just by changing a couple pieces.

Personally, I run at 13.91% hit in my Fire gear - adding an another orange hit gem would put me a reasonable bit over the cap, so having a 0.09% chance to miss is an acceptable risk for me. That level of acceptable risk many vary depending on your tastes, but basically I define anything within 0.2% of the hit cap to be "close enough," and won't socket additional hit to make up for it.

Beyond that yeah, you should definitely socket for it, but as always these kinds of decisions should be unique to your particular set of circumstances.

[Jarlyn]

To answer a couple questions and re-iterate a major point - if you see mages as Fire spec running well under the hit cap, they're probably in Arcane gear. I was messing around with it last night, but respecced after the raid and didn't put my hit gear back on. Armory is just a snapshot, rarely the whole picture.

[Philgood]

i have kind of done the opposite by making sure im always above cap. I'm slightly above hit cap (2%). (im not gemming for hit or anything.. its just the order in which i got the pieces) I know there is no use in being above hit but im thinking on Tuesday when i grab my leg piece to complete my 4pc T9 it should balanced out.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Vek%27nilash&n=Philgood

Also.. i see the irony in the T9 you mentioned.
My spirit in Uld. gear was like 900 or something retarded. Now i have like 500 in ToC loot.

I read that premonition requires ever raid member to drop the 12 crit/hit enchant on their boots and pick up the stam/movement speed or whatever.. he says their dps is actually higher.

I can see the reasoning behind it. (for example chasing after icehowl after a charge or in my case im a bubble eater/dps'er during Twins hard mode).. but have you guys messed around with that as a whole or anyone have a personal preference?

[Inza]

Back in March, Roywyn at Elitist Jerks posted some math (http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t42476-optimal_sets_item_discussion/p6/#post1130290) on Tuskarr's Vitality (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47901) vs. Icewalker (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60623).

Boiled down, the conclusion at the time was that if you are moving for >4 seconds per minute, Tuskarr's was better. Not much has changed since then, so it's probably still fairly accurate.