I know that every guide says that versatility > haste/mastery > crit but I somehow have crit being the highest stat closely followed by versatility and then haste/mastery lags way behind. Of course I can change it but not only it would lower my ilvl significantly (so lower agility/stam) but also it would actually lower my versatility too.
Is crit really that bad for bear?
Crit is dodge. Dodge has value but DRs on every dodge. Haste and vers is ideal but you need to take iLevel over everything except on rings and neck.
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Stats are relative to each other and always different for every toon. That said, crit obviously gives zero benefit for defense as far as I’m aware so it giving you more dps technically isn’t necessarily something to care about since bears don’t do much dmg anyway.
You’ll end up seeing stuff like that when you just have a lot of the other stats. The game kind of tries to say a “balance” of stats is ideal hence their diminishing return system.
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Crit = dodge
The value of dodge as a defensive mechanic depends on scaling and content design. Currently dodge isn’t the best stat. But it still adds defensive benefit.
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Ah ok. I didn’t know that, I’ve never really tanked. Not in over a decade anyway. Thanks for the info.
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I’d follow the general addage of ilvl over stats. Don’t give up agility/sta just to adjust for vers/mastery/haste.
The decision on those stats comes down when you have gear of equal ilvl, then you look at stats to make a decision. And even then, the guides are just that, guides. If you like crit, ask your healers if you are putting too much load on them. Find that balance that works for you.
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Edit: removed that crit gives more rage.
Crit gives bigger shields from thrash (if you have Ursoc’s Fury Remembered legendary) in addition to dodge others mentioned above.
Obviously it’s not the preferred stat, but helps more than you think.
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Crit hasn’t given more rage for several expansions now, that’s part of the problem with it.
Crit’s actual saving grace is that it’s technically much stronger than any other stat for pure damage reduction against dodgeable attacks (e.g. it takes ~40-50 crit rating to take 1% fewer hits, depending on your current agi/crit, while vers takes ~70-80 rating for 1% less damage taken, depending on how much vers you already have). The problem is, it’s dodge, so:
- A decent portion of incoming damage ignores it, which tends to cancel out this benefit and make crit no better (often worse) than other stats for damage reduction in a lot of situations.
- It’s unreliable against slower, larger hits, making it undesirable in raids.
- It doesn’t really do anything else but reduce autos and some abilities. Most of our healing can’t crit, and dodge has almost 0 synergy with the rest of the kit (it technically helps earthwarden uptime, so not completely 0).
Crit is actually pretty strong at what it does, the problem is that what it does isn’t that desirable. It’s not something you have to feel bad about having a bunch of (particularly for M+), so don’t drop ilvl to shed it, but ideally more vers would be better.
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I was not aware of this. Thanks for clearing that up.
I would also add that whether you favor Vers/Crit or Vers/Haste for M+ will depend on the covenant choice you’ve made.
For Venthyr Guardian druids, the Vers/Haste build will pull ahead as you’ll want to be able to get as many stacks during Ravenous Frenzy as possible. With Unchecked Aggression and high haste baseline, it’s easier to get decently high stacks.
For Night Fae Guardian druids, the Vers/Crit build will pull ahead as long as you’re able to make use of Moonkin Form + HotW + Convoke paired with the Korayn soulbind. It’s a very high risk yet high reward play style that takes a bit of mastering, but I find it enjoyable and fun.
But yes, vers should be your top stat, no question.
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Offensively, crit is devalued both for venthyr druids (through endless thirst) and night fae running Korayn (through first strike, especially with said combo). Given that haste is pointless for convoke and crit is devalued by the flat +25% from the soulbind, Mastery would be the better 2nd choice for that burst setup.
Granted, crit’s probably better defensively in m+ than mastery (particularly with necrotic this week), so I wouldn’t call the overall recommendation wrong. Just pointing out that it is devalued offensively in most of our common setups.