Stat Priorities
Stat Ranking
Haste > Crit = Mastery >> Versatility
Stat Outline
Crit: For Destruction, Critical Strike rating has a lot of interactions with our toolkit. For example, Chaos Bolt always is a critical strike, and instead gets a flat % increase based off of our Critical Strike. Additionally, with the change to Conflagration Of Chaos, Conflagrate and Shadowburn also have a similar interaction to Chaos Bolt.
We also have the talent Ruin in our spec tree which increases critical strike damage done of our Destruction spells by 30%, the change to Mark or Peroth’arn increases the critical strike damage of Wither and Blackened Soul, causing them to deal 215% and 225% damage respectively, and lastly our critical strikes with Incinerate and Immolate or Wither grant us additional Soul Shard fragments.
Haste: Haste does not have nearly as many interactions as Critical Strike, and reduces the length of casts and the Global Cooldown. That said, Haste is still desirable as Haste allows us to cast more spells which generates more shards to spend.
Mastery: Increases all spell damage by X%, plus an additional random percentage up to X%. This means if you have 24% Mastery, your spell damage is increased by 12% plus an additional random percentage between 1 and 12%, making it a total of 13 to 24% each cast. If you take the ability Chaos Incarnate, when you will always have your spell damage increased by a minimum of 70% of your Mastery.
Versatility: Increases all damage done and reduces all damage taken by half the increase in damage done. Generally speaking the worst stat for Raid and M+, and in 12.1 you will still stack the other 3 stats as much as possible.
Races
Racial abilities change usefulness based on the season you’re playing, but the safest choices are as follows:
- Night Elf due to Shadowmeld
- Dwarf due to Stoneform
- Void Elf due to Spatial Rift
It is not recommended to pick a race purely for DPS and throughput, as the differences are extremely minimal. However, if you want to pick what is the absolute best for damage, the following are the best options
- Pandaren due to Epicurean
- Dwarf due to Might of the Mountain
- Tauren due to Brawn
Enchants
Main & Secondary Stat Enchants
Keep in mind that you should sim your character with regards to Weapon and Ring enchants.
Chest: Enchant Chest - Mark Of The Worldsoul (+50 Intellect)
Legs: Sunfire Silk Spellthread (+41 Intellect & 115 Stamina)
Rings: Enchant Ring - Eyes Of The Eagle (+2% Critical Strike Effectiveness)
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Acuity Of The Ren'dorei (Intellect Proc)
Tertiary Stat Enchants
These enchants are more personal preference. Generally, it is recommended to use leech enchants because avoidance doesn’t always reduce damage from specific abilities in encounters:
Head: Enchant Helm - Hex Of Leeching (+55 Leech)
Shoulders: Enchant Shoulders - Silvermoon's Mending (+166 Leech)
Boots: Enchant Boots - Shaladrassil's Roots (+28 Leech & +232 Stamina)
Gems
You should always sim your character to find the optimal combination of gems, but if you want a quick solution follow this priority:
- Equip a Powerful Eversong Diamond.
- Equip a Flawless Deadly Peridot, and Flawless Quick versions of all other gem colors.
- Equip Flawless Deadly Peridot in your remaining gem slots.
Consumables
Consumables, specifically flasks, are a great way to even out your stat budget if you’re over-budgeted in one direction or another with secondary stats. That being said, below are the suggested consumables:
Food: Royal Roast (Personal Main Stat Food) or Harandar Celebration / Silvermoon Parade (Main Stat Feasts)
Flasks: Flask Of The Blood Knights / Flask Of The Shattered Sun
Potions: Light's Potential / Potion Of Recklessness
Health Potions: Concentrated Silvermoon Health Potion
Weapon Oil: Thalassian Phoenix Oil
Runes: Void-Touched Augment Rune