Stat Priorities
Stat Ranking
For ST: Mastery > Haste > Versatility > Critical Strike
For AOE: Mastery > Haste > Critical Strike = Versatility
Stat Outline
Mastery: Increases your Nature and Arcane damage to the target, increased further when Sunfire and Moonfire are applied to a target, respectively.
Haste: Makes it so you cast faster, reduces the global cooldown on most abilities, and increases the rate at which your damage over time effects tick.
Versatility: Solid overall stat for increasing damage done and reducing damage taken; making it a nice defensive stat for progress.
Crit: Grants a chance to deal double damage on all spells. Synergizes well with Astral Smolder.
With Convoke the Spirits being a large part of our damage profile again on Single Target, Versatility has become ever more appealing to help amp up that burst alongside Mastery. With the change to crit scaling on Astral Smolder as well as the change to make the second point in Balance of All Things not have diminishing returns, Critical Strike chance from gear has fallen off slightly.
Races
Horde:
- Zandalari Troll has some flexibility depending on your character and may end up simming the highest depending on what your stat weights are.
- Highmountain Tauren is also pretty good due to Bull Rush and the 1% versatility passive. Bull Rush adds another stop that you can use in m+ which makes it pretty good depending on the team composition you are running. It also gives you a bit of extra mobility.
- Tauren sims fairly high still, and it gives you War Stomp which can be very useful in certain situations in Mythic+.
- Troll was previously the highest simming race because of Berserking aligning with Celestial Alignment/Incarnation, but with most people electing for 2min cooldowns, Berserking loses a bit of value.
Alliance:
- Night Elf is currently the highest simming out of any race, Horde or Alliance. Furthermore, Shadowmeld is really good for Mythic+ and is also very strong for Feral Druid.
- Kul’tiran also sims fairly well and may provide some additional utility through Haymaker.
Enchants
Cloak: Chant of Leeching Fangs
Chest: Crystalline Radiance
Bracers: Chant of Armored Leech
Boots: Defender’s March
Legs: Sunset Spellthread
Rings: Radiant Mastery
Weapon: Authority of the Depths for Single Target. Radiant Power is another option for AoE.
Gems
I strongly advise simming to find out what the current best gems are for you.
You want to have one Culminating Blasphemite or Elusive Blasphemite and so pick different socket colours on other slots. Mastery/Haste Gems are generally speaking always a good pick.
Consumables
Food: Feast Food from The Sushi Special or Chippy Tea (Haste/Mastery) or Marinated Tenderloins (Vers/Mastery)
Phials: Flask of Tempered Mastery
Potions: Tempered Potion or Potion of Unwavering Focus
Health Potions: Algari Healing Potion
Weapon Oil: Algari Weapon Oil