MOGS

Best Mastery for each class in WOW Cataclysm

Mastery’s are one of the new additions in Cataclysm, and they provide a passive buff to each class for putting 31 points into a talent tree. The buff can also be increased, by equipping Items that have “Mastery” points on them. The idea behind this is to force player’s to fully commit to one tree with the majority of their talent points, so that they only have 10 other points to put into another tree.

Before Mastery’s, players were sometimes able to find viable hybrid talent spec’s, where they would split their talent points up between 2 trees. You would pass up the powerful last talent for a specific talent tree, in lieu of a number of mid range talents from another tree. Examples of this were Frost/Fire mages, and Unholy/Frost Death Knights.

The Mastery’s have killed a bit of the uniqueness of the customization of talent specializations. On the other hand, the talent trees are much cleaner and easier to use. Bloated talents that took 5 points, have been reduced to two or three, and most passive bonus’ from talents have been removed.

One example of this is a Mage’s impact talent. It use to randomly proc a 2 second stun 10% of the time you used one of your fire spells. Now, any damaging move has a 10% chance to reset the cool down on fire blast, and cause the next fire blast you cast wtihin 10 seconds, to stun the target for 2 seconds. This is a great example of the positive changes to the talent trees, since it turns the stun from a random occurrence, to something that you can control. It still proc’s 10% of the time, but you decide exactly when you want to use the stun once it procs.

Another improvement comes in the first two tiers of talents for each Tree. Blizzard knows that each character will have 10 extra points to spend, so they accordingly made the first 2 tiers of talents in each tree generally very useful. As a Frost mage, I can get improved counterspell (4 second silence on counterspell, a must have talent for pvp) in the first tier of arcane. I can also get a 3 second 70% sprint added to my blink on the second arcane tier. If i choose to subspec fire instead of arcane ,I get 70% chance to not lose casting time while being hit, 30% mana back on crits, 1/2 Blazing speed (5% chance on melee hit for a 8 second 50% sprint), and the impact talent outlined above. Blizzard did a great job of trimming the fat from the talent trees, and moving some of the must have talents down lower in the trees.

Here, I will outline what I think are the best Mastery’s for each class, from a PvP Perspective. I will rank them, one through three.

Death Knight

• Blood Mastery
  Blood Shield – Each time you heal yourself via Death Strike, you gain 50% of the amount healed as a damage absorption shield. Each point of Mastery increases the shield by an additional 6.25%.
• Frost Mastery
  Frozen Heart – Increases all frost damage done by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases frost damage by an additional 2.0%.
• Unholy Mastery
  Blightcaller – Increases the damage done by your diseases by 40%. Each point of Mastery increases disease damage by an additional 5.0%.

1. Unholy Mastery. 2. Blood Mastery 3. Frost Mastery. I picked Unholy Mastery as the best since extra disease damage means your damage over time effects will hit harder, so you will essentially be doing more damage without needing to “stick” on the target. Blood Mastery is interesting, and edges out Frost Mastery since it provides a scalable shield, which should help a blood DK’s survivability in PVP.

Druid

• Balance Mastery
  Total Eclipse – Increases the bonus damage from Eclipse by 12%. Each point of Mastery increases the bonus by an additional 1.5%.
• Feral Mastery
  Savage Defender – Requires Bear Form. Increases the damage absorbed by your Savage Defense ability by 32%. Each point of Mastery increases the absorb by an additional 4%.
  Razor Claws – Requires Cat Form. Increases the damage done by your bleed abilities by 25.04%. Each point of Mastery increases bleed damage by an additional 3.1%
• Restoration Mastery
  Symbiosis – Increases the potency of your healing spells by 10% on targets already affected by one of your heal over time spells. Each point of Mastery increases heal potency by an additional 1.25%.

1. Feral Mastery. 2 Restoration Mastery. 3 Balance Mastery. Feral Druids are pretty strong in PVP now, due in part to their their bleed effects. They can’t be dispelled off like many other DOTS, so the damage needs to be mitigated in other ways. Therefore, the more bleed damage for ferals, the better. Restoration mastery is good, since druids almost always have HOTs on a target. It will result in a 10% increase to a Druids healing for the majority of their spells. Balance Mastery comes in last since its an uninspired mastery, and since Balance druids are the least represented spec of Druids in PVP.

Hunter

• Beast Mastery
  Master of Beasts – Increases the damage done by your pets by 13.6%. Each point of Mastery increases pet damage by an additional 1.7%.
• Marksmanship Mastery
  Wild Quiver – Grants a 14.4% chance for your ranged attacks to also instantly fire an additional ranged shot. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 1.8%.
• Survival Mastery
  Essence of the Viper – Increases all elemental damage you deal by 8%. Each point of Mastery increases elemental damage by an additional 1.0%.

1. Marksmanship Mastery. 2. Survival Mastery. 3. Beast Mastery. Marks mastery is by far the best, since it can provide some random burst damage. It is essential a 10% proc for “double” damage on your ranged auto-attack, since it gives you an entirely new attack, which aslo has the potential to crit. Survival mastery comes in second, since it applies to a multitude of moves, such as cobra shot, serpent sting, explosive shot, arcane shot, etc. Beast mastery comes in last since its just a passive increase in damage to your pet.

Mage

• Arcane Mastery
  Mana Adept – Increases all spell damage done by up to 12%, based on the amount of mana the Mage has unspent. Each point of Mastery increases damage done by up to an additional 1.5%.
• Fire Mastery
  Flashburn – Increases the damage done by all your periodic fire damage effects by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases periodic damage done by an additional 2.5%.
• Frost Mastery
  Frostburn – All your spells deal 20% increased damage against Frozen targets. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%.

1. Frost Mastery. 2. Arcane Mastery. 3. Fire Mastery. Frost Mastery comes in first since it amplifies a mage’s burst damage. Frost mages rely on the increased damage and critical strike chance they get against frozen targets to help set up kills. This Mastery will help a mage squeeze out a little extra damage on their shatter combos. Arcane Mastery comes in second, because it increases the damage on all your spells. Also, with Mage armor restoring 3% of your maximum mana every 5 seconds, your Mana pool will almost always be at 75% plus, unless its a very mana intensive fight. Fire Mastery comes in last, since the majority of the damage fire mage’s do is a result of direct damage spells, and not DOTS.

Paladin

• Holy Mastery
  Illuminated Healing – Your direct healing spells also place an absorb shield on your target for 10% of the amount healed lasting 8 sec. Each point of Mastery increases the absorb amount by an addtional 1.25%.
• Protection Mastery
  Divine Bulwark – Increases your chance to block melee attacks by 18%. Each point of Mastery increases block chance by an additional 2.25%.
• Retribution Mastery
  Hand of Light – Your auto attacks have a 8% chance to grant Hand of Light, causing your next Holy Power ability to consume no Holy Power and to cast as if 3 Holy Power were consumed. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 1%.

1. Holy Mastery. 2. Retribution Mastery. 3. Protection Mastery. Holy Mastery comes in number one, because it is amazing. The shield effect occurs 100% of the time, and will proc off all of your direct healing spells. And since its a shield instead of additional healing, it helps to add some utility to a Holy Paladins repertoire of abilities. Retribution Mastery comes in second. Ret paladins have typically just hit their abilities as they come off of cooldown, so this will help to add some unpredictable burst to their game, while conserving resources. Protection Mastery comes in last, because it’s only useful against melee classes in PVP.

Priest

• Discipline Mastery
  Shield Discipline – Increases the potency of all your damage absorption spells by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases the potency of absorbs by an additional 2.5%.
• Holy mastery
  Echo of Light – Your direct healing spells heal for an additional 10% over 6 sec. Each point of Mastery provides an additional 1.25% healing over 6 sec.
• Shadow Mastery
  Shadow Orb Power – Increases the damage done by your Shadow Orbs. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 1.3%.

1. Holy Mastery. 2. Discipline Mastery. 3. Shadow Mastery. Holy Mastery takes the cake here because it adds the 10% bonus heal over time over 6 seconds to all of your heals. This should help to remedy Priests lack of HOT’s, and also help them to conserve mana. Discipline Mastery comes in second, only because dispell’s are so powerful at the moment. 20% more absorption on your power word shield does not help much if the shield is dispelled. Shadow Mastery comes in last, because it provides a sub-par damage boost to only your shadow orbs, which in turn only boosts your mind spike and mind blast moves. Blizzard stated they were still working on these shadow orbs, and in the end they may provide you with things like instant mind blast’s and mind spike’s. Hopefully Blizzard buff’s this mastery if/when the tweak shadow orbs.

Rogue

• Assassination Mastery
  Potent Poisons – Increases the damage done by your poisons by 28%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 3.5%.
• Combat Mastery
  Main Gauche – Your main hand attacks have a 16% chance to grant you an extra off hand attack. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 2.00%.
• Subtlety Mastery
  Executioner – Increases the damage done by all your finishing moves, and the effectiveness of your Slice and Dice, by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.0%.

1. Subtlety Mastery. 2. Assassination Mastery. 3. Combat Mastery. Subtlety Mastery is the best, because it gives you two strong bonuses. More damage on finisher moves means you are more likely to get a kill with a finisher in a PVP scenario. Moreover, an increased effectiveness on Slice and Dice means you will be getting more auto-attacks on a target within a given timeframe, which will also help you score kills. Assassination Mastery comes in second, since Envenom scales with Potent Poisons, is a finisher, and already hits pretty hard with 5 combo points. Combat mastery comes in last since it seems this will most likely result in a increase in damage for PVE, rather than PVP.

Shaman

• Elemental Mastery
  Elemental Overload – Grants a 16% chance for Elemental Overload to occur. Elemental Overload causes a Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Lava Burst spell you cast to trigger a second, similar spell on the same target at no additional cost that causes 75% of normal damage and no threat. Each point of Mastery increases the chance of Elemental Overload by an additional 2%.
• Enhancement Mastery
  Enhanced Elements – Increases all Fire, Frost, and Nature damage done by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%
• Restoration Mastery
  Deep Healing – Increases the potency of your direct healing spells by up to 20%, based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Each point of Mastery increases direct heals by up to an additional 2.5%.

1. Restoration Mastery. 2. Elemental Mastery. 3. Enhancement Mastery. Restoration Mastery is a great Mastery, since it makes Shamans an even better clutch healer. Even better, is that you get closer to the 20% bonus in direct heals, the more you need it at any given time. Seems to be a perfectly designed PVP oriented mastery. Elemental Mastery is second, because it provide some extra burst, that is also under you control (since you can decide when to trigger it). Enhancement Mastery comes in last because it does not add anything special to the class.

Warlock

1. Affliction Mastery. 2. Destruction Mastery 3. Affliction Mastery. The Warlock Mastery’s seem very sub-par overall. I’ll give the affliction mastery the top spot, since most of their DOTS are dealing shadow damage, so this should have a noticeable increase. Destruction Mastery comes next, since its a flat increase to all Fire damage, which is the focus of a destro locks damage. Last is Demonology Mastery, because it only increases pet damage, and only increases your damage when you are in demon form, which has a long coo down.

Warrior

• Arms Mastery
  Strikes of Opportunity – Grants a 16% chance for your melee attacks to instantly trigger an additional melee attack for 100% normal damage. Each point of Mastery increases this chance by 2%.
• Fury Mastery
  Unshackled Fury – Increases the benefit of abilities that cause or require you to be enraged by 37.6%. Each point of Mastery increases enrage effects by an additional 4.70%.
• Protection Mastery
  Increases your chance to block by 12% and your chance to critically block by 12%. Each point of Mastery increases your block chance by an additional 1.5% and your critical block chance by an additional 1.5%.

1. Arms Mastery. 2. Fury Mastery. Protection Mastery. Arms Mastery is the top choice here, since you will be dual wielding two handed weapons. An occasional additional auto-attack with one of those will add up after awhile, and provides some surprise burst. Unshackled Fury comes in second, because it provides such a huge benefit to those abilities that require you to be enraged, close to 40%. Protection mastery comes in last because it is more of PVE talent, and would only be useful against melee classes in PVP.

Questions or Comments? Drop me a line, Jake@mogs.com