Spell Haste to Reduce Global Cooldown

Feb

Spell Haste to Reduce Global Cooldown

Edit: This was written before the changes to mana regen were announced and we saw some of the new haste items in 2.4. SO, some of the comparisons of gains vs loss when stacking haste aren’t nearly as harsh.

Faster!

I was having writers block for my first post on Healer LFG and then patch notes yay!

Spell Haste: Spell haste now reduces the global cooldown on spells, down to a minimum of 1 second. This change does not apply to melee and ranged abilities.

Since spell haste was introduced it seemed of little use to Resto Druids. Since we cast primarily instant spells managing your global cooldown is sometimes limiting and frustrating, but something that must be done.

It remains to be seen if the formula will remain the same for the global reduction but we’ll do some math with the information we have right now. Right now 15.7 Spell Haste Rating grants 1% spell haste bonus. So in order to reach that 1 second global, you would need 50% spell haste or 785 Spell Haste Rating. That’s quite a number and I doubt many of us will be reaching half that and there are many things to consider.

Let’s take some Black Temple items with haste on them and compare them to their more traditional counterparts.

Botanist’s Gloves of Growth vs. Thunderheart Gloves
Both with +35 healing to gloves enchant. Healing/mp5 Gem in T6 and we’ll go with mp5 gems in the off tier item as well since that’s what we tend to lose most by going with haste, 4 int/2mp5 and 4mp5 gem.

What we gain from Botanist’s Gloves of Growth:

4 Stamina
2 Intellect
37 Haste Rating (2.35%) (1.465 global cooldown)

What we lose:

27 Spirit (5.2 mp5)
1 mp5
10 Healing

Belt of Primal Majesty vs. Life-Step Belt
We’ll put 2 11 healing/2mp5 gems in Life-step.

What we gain from Belt of Primal Majesty:

14 Stamina
6 Intellect
37 Haste Rating (2.35%) (1.465 global cooldown)

What we lose:

22 Spirit (4.3 mp5)
10 mp5
13Healing

Shroud of the Highborne vs. Shroud of Forgiveness

What we gain from Shroud of the Highborne:

4 Intellect
32 Haste Rating ( 2.03%) (1.47 global cooldown)

What we lose:

3 Stamina
20 Spirit (3.9 mp5)
11 Healing

So the big question is: Is it worth it? We see gains in stamina and intellect, but our losses are where we least like to take them, healing and mp5. If we equipped all 3 of these haste items over their tier or straight healing/regen based counterparts:

Total Gains:

15 Stamina (150 health)
12 Intellect (180 mana)
106 Haste Rating (6.74 %) (1.405 global cooldown)

Total Losses:

69 Spirit (13.4 mp5)
11 mp5
34 Healing

The result is a 1.405 Global at the cost of 24 mp5 and a pretty hefty hit to our innervate, 69 Spirit is just a little less than what I gain from my weapon swap.

(I originally posted the below calculations for 1.2 seconds, but decided to change it to 1.3 since it does give you an extra global, however if latency is an issue, a 1.3 global only gives you .5 seconds to play with, while 1.2 gives you a whole second before that first lifebloom “Bloooms” which is what we currently have with 1.5. For a 1.2 global you would need 25% haste or 393 haste rating)

As far as what haste will do for you during your Lifebloom rotation, in order to actually squeeze another spell out of the 7 seconds you’d need to get your global down to 1.3 seconds which would require a 15.38% haste bonus or 242 Haste Rating. With similar gains and losses to those above that would result in a loss of 155 Spirit (29 mp5), 25 mp5 and 76 healing. Approximately 70 healing and 59 mp5 lost for 1 extra spell cast every 7 seconds and don’t forget you will be spending more mana by casting more in a shorter amount of time. An extra Lifebloom in your rotation over a 5 minute fight is another 8800 mana spent with approximately 3500 mana less gained from mp5 and an innervate that will give you approximately 330 less mana.

As far as other healing classes go, this is great news, since they benefit equally from the casting time reduction, while druids do not. Before this change, Flash of Light, Flash Heal and Lesser Healing Wave received no benefit from haste being 1.5 cast and I am sure shaman will rejoice since their globals often cost them as much as druids while putting down totems. However, all healing classes will have to be careful of just how much they sacrifice for this expensive stat.

As it stands I think the best use for haste will be 2-3 exceptional pieces to make the fourth Lifebloom or other use for that fourth global more attainable in the hectic boss encounters. As of now it can be pretty tricky to keep four Lifeblooms rolling, unless in a fight where you have very little else to worry about. There are a lot of bosses I can think of, Reliquary of Souls, Illidari Council for example where having a little more time to cast 4 would be pretty valuable.

We can also hope for a change in itemization, I wouldn’t mind sacrificing a little stamina for more items like Brooch of Nature’s Mercy to get some regen back. Maybe we’ll see more items like that one soon.

What are your thoughts? Will you be putting together a haste set?

24 Responses to “Spell Haste to Reduce Global Cooldown”
Stantz said:
Feb 2, 2008, 17, Feb

First?
Swiss said:
Feb 4, 2008, 11, Feb

Would be pretty interesting to put together a few pieces to help with being able to catch the global cooldown for rolling 5 stacks in some cases, but that’s pretty specialized. I’d like to give it a try, but at this point our guild doesn’t have the Hearts to be “wasting” on this sort of specialized set. Maybe down the line.

Thanks for the comprehensive breakdown… and for putting up with that Stantz character.
Valyre said:
Feb 4, 2008, 12, Feb

From WoW Wiki, the forumula for spell cast time is:
New Casting Time = Base Casting Time / (1 + (Spell Haste Rating/1570))

This means if your base cast time is 1.5 sec (current GCD or pally Flash), then you need 785 haste rating or 50% spell haste to reach 1 sec. Or are you using a different formula or basis?
Stantz said:
Feb 4, 2008, 14, Feb

Hey Valyre
i think what the formula simply translates into is:
1% cast time increase = 15.7 haste
Valyre said:
Feb 4, 2008, 15, Feb

That equation is total cast time, not a percentage. And if I’m going from 1.5sec to 1.0 sec, don’t I need a 50% increase, not 33.3%? I just wanted to know if I was doing something wrong since this is the first time I’ve really looked at haste. Crit gives me enough problems as it is.
Stantz said:
Feb 4, 2008, 15, Feb

Well Valyrie anything is a percentage
Casting a spell that is normally 1.5 seconds in 1 second or reducing your global cooldown from 1.5 to 1 second means you are casting %33.3 faster
so using the formula of 1% = 15.7 haste , it would mean that you need about 523 haste to get to that point
Valyre said:
Feb 5, 2008, 15, Feb

Last time I harass you guys, I swear!

Casting Speed Increase (%) = 1-(1/(1+Haste%))

Thanks again!
Stantz said:
Feb 5, 2008, 16, Feb

Hey Valyre

not sure about the formula you showed right there.
but in general you gotta look at haste as a rating which allows you to reduce cast time (and now global cooldown) by a certain percentage (at lvl 70, just like crit changes as you level, im sure haste will drop and go up as you lvl to 80 with the xpac).
Since its a percentage if you want to look in actual “seconds” at the cast time reduction then obviously 500 haste rating will reduce your cast on Healing Touch, or Soulfire, or Pyroblast alot more then it would Immolate , Flash Heal, Flash of Light, or what have you, since its a percent of the original cast time.
part of the reason that instead of showing you a percent, they show a rating is
A. it will be kind of awkward to get an item that says “Decrease your spell cast time by 0.0678 Percent”
B. As you level later on the percent will change, much like when they changed Crit % to Crit Rating
Brelaine said:
Feb 5, 2008, 18, Feb

You’ve all met my math checker (and husband) Thanks Stantz

I based all my math on the 15.7 number since I knew that was 1%. So I would break the global down to what 1% would be (.015) and then multiply that by the haste Percentage.

To get the percentage from the Rating, I would just divide the rating by 15.7.

Same could apply to Casting Time for something like Holy Light if you had 37 Haste Rating:
1% of 2 seconds is .02
37/15.7 = 2.35 (% Haste Bonus)
.02 * 2.35 = .047 (actual time subtracted from your cast)

So your actual Cast Time for Holy Light (with Light’s Grace activated) would be:
2 - .047 = 1.953

May be an easier way to do it, but that’s how I broke it down, I am sure Stantz will correct me if I am wrong
Al said:
Feb 6, 2008, 20, Feb

Quoting “That equation is total cast time, not a percentage. And if I’m going from 1.5sec to 1.0 sec, don’t I need a 50% increase, not 33.3%? I just wanted to know if I was doing something wrong since this is the first time I’ve really looked at haste. Crit gives me enough problems as it is. :D”

From 1.0 to 1.5 would be a 50% increase. But this is about REDUCING the cooldown to 1 second. 50% of 1.5 is 0.75 seconds that would make the cooldown 45 seconds.33% of 1.5 is 0.4999999995 1.5 - 0.499999995 = 1.0 (Aprox).

Yes you would need a spell haste increase of 33.3% (which would be the equal decrease on the global cooldown) to reach 1.0 global cooldown. Not the 50% people are getting confused about.
Spi said:
Feb 7, 2008, 09, Feb

Your formula is wrong because your haste formula assumes that you only need total % of haste in order to bring it down from 1.5s to 1s. Another words, once you bring GCD down to 1.4seconds, it takes more haste rating to get to 1.3s GCD than it did from 1.5s -> 1.4s due to the diminishing marginal returns to haste.
Spi said:
Feb 7, 2008, 09, Feb

Besides unless you suck miserably you can keep four lifeblooms rolling without any reduction in global cooldown. You might want to play a druid in a raid before you post here.
Spi said:
Feb 7, 2008, 09, Feb

The formula person above has posted is the correct haste formula. New Casting Time = Base Casting Time / (1 + (Spell Haste Rating/1570))
Lumbendil said:
Feb 7, 2008, 19, Feb

Spi, the reference was mainly about insta-cast, so haste formula hasnt got much to do right here…about marginal diminishing returns…i think it’s quite near to lineal formula (not fully), but it simplifies the calculations alot doing it that way ^^
Nariyana said:
Feb 8, 2008, 08, Feb

Here’s why the math you’ve posted is wrong.

Haste is a multiplier applied to speed. Speed is the rate at which you cast your spell. Haste is a reduction in the time it takes to cast your spell. It is an increase in the rate at which you cast spells.

A normal spell has a cast speed of 1. No matter what the spell.

A person with 10% spell haste (157 rating) has a casting speed of 1.10.

In order to determine the necessary casting speed, you must divide your original cast time by your desired cast time (Base/Desired).

In the case of a 1.5s GCD to a 1.0s GCD, we’re looking at a required casting speed of 1.50. Basically, you’re looking to fit a spell and a half into the time it takes you to normally cast the spell.

With a casting speed of 1.50, we can easily determine a 50% spell haste requirement by reverse engineering my earlier declaration of 10% haste yielding a 1.10 casting speed.

50% spell haste is, using 15.7 rating / 1%, 785 haste rating.

To put it in different words… every spell has a casting unit (whether the spell is instant, 3s or 6s). A normal caster devours that unit in the spell’s normal casting time. When you receive spell haste, the spell’s casting unit does not change. The rate at which you devour that casting unit is increased. It is increased by your spell haste percentage.

If you are casting a 6s spell with no spell haste it takes you 6s. If you are casting a 6s spell with 50% spell haste, you cast that new spell in 4s. Your numbers would give you a 3s casting time, which is in fact DOUBLING your casting speed (or a 100% spell haste).
Brelaine said:
Feb 8, 2008, 12, Feb

Thanks for all the feedback on this post. I am doing some more research into the math since I’ve seen both versions in multiple places.

Good news being even if I am using the wrong way to figure out the haste rating, the lower amounts needed to receive only 1 extra global are only slightly off (25 haste rating or so).

I will update accordingly!
Shuror said:
Feb 14, 2008, 09, Feb

It is true that you need 50% haste to achieve a 1,00 second global cooldown.

If your GCD would be 1,50 seconds, you’d be able to cast 40 spells in 60 seconds.

If you reduce it to 1,00 seconds through haste, you’d be able to cast 60 spells. Voilà! A 50% increase.
Brelaine said:
Feb 14, 2008, 20, Feb

yup, ty will be updating this article with the new numbers later tonight. Apologize for the confusion. I read multiple solutions in many places and both seemed to make sense so I wanted to be sure before I made any changes.

Thanks again!
Zorrander said:
Feb 17, 2008, 11, Feb

Wouldn’t the new spirit/int regen offset the loss of spirit/mp5 a fair bit making spellhaste a lot more viable ?
Brelaine said:
Feb 21, 2008, 15, Feb

yup, this was written before that change was announced. Also, some of the items they’ve added with haste are definitely more regen friendly I may revisit the topic and put together a Haste set that allows for not losing too much healing and regen.
Lol said:
Apr 14, 2008, 18, Apr

just get some spell haste that all xD

+1 Spell Haste > nothing