As you all know by now, patch 2.4 will bring us many Haste Rating items, both melee and spell. Although there’s no doubt that melee haste is good, there has been some controversy behind Spell Haste.

With the buff of lowering GCD (global cooldown) from stacking Spell Haste, it would seem like that’s the direction Blizzard want us to go next. But is Spell Haste the way to go for your class? Let’s break it down and analyze.

Fact: At level 70, 15.7 (as of 2.2) points of spell haste rating grants 1% spell haste bonus. As of 2.4.0 spell haste also influences spellcasting global cooldown. (WoWWiki)

I will be using the Battlemaster trinkets (Battlemaster’s Alacrity, and Battlemaster’s Perseverance) in this case, since they were the only direct conversion on items I was able to locate between Spell Haste and Healing. In order to find the effectiveness of Spell Haste - because it influences time of the spells instead of the actual healing done by the spells, we have to break the spells down to HPS (healing per second).

The following math does the trick for Healing for figuring out HPS:

Amount Healed / Casting Time (in seconds) = HPS

Now we rework that to include the amount gained from Healing trinket (88) as well as the amount of time saved from Spell Haste trinket (2.54%). We’ll use a 3.5 second cast to simplify in the following example (100% spell coefficient).

(Amount Healed + 88 / 3.5) = HPS if Healing trinket was chosen.
Amount Healed / [3.5 * (1 - 0.0254)] = HPS if Spell Haste trinket was chosen.

In reality it’s a bit more complicated, we’ll use Shaman’s Healing Wave and Lesser Healing Wave as examples. We take the actual Healing amount of a decked out Arena geared Shaman, which is around 4000 for a Healing Wave and 2000 for a Lesser Healing Wave. The coefficient math is (Cast Time of Spell/3.5) * (Amount of +Healing).

Shaman’s Healing Wave has a 3 second coefficient, reduce to 2.5 casting time with talent.

Healing trinket HPS (Healing Wave): [4000 + ( 3/3.5 * 88)] / 2.5 = 1630.171 (HPS)
This will be increased by another 10% from the Shaman talent Purification, which will make it 1630.171 * 1.1 = 1793.188 (HPS).

Spell Haste trinket HPS (Healing Wave): 4000 / [2.5 * (1 - 0.0254)] = 1641.699 (HPS)
This will be increased by 10% as well from Purification, which makes it 1641.699 * 1.1 = 1805.868 (HPS).

As you can see, going for Spell Haste at this level will yield ~12 more heal per second for Healing Wave.

Next we look at Lesser Healing Wave.

Lesser Healing Wave has 1.5 coefficient and casting time of 1.5 as well.

Healing trinket HPS (Lesser Healing Wave): [2000 + ( 1.5/3.5 * 88)] / 1.5 = 1358.476 (HPS)
After Purification, 1358.476 * 1.1 = 1494.323 (HPS)

Spell Haste trinket HPS (Lesser Healing Wave): 2000 / [1.5 * (1 - 0.0254)] = 1368.082 (HPS)
After Purification, 1368.082 * 1.1 = 1504.890 (HPS)

So for Lesser Healing Wave, Spell Haste comes on top with ~10 heal per second as well.

Now that we know you get more actually healing over time from Spell Haste on decked out Shaman, what would be the threshold? After some plug and calculate, we came up with the magical number of… 991.85 HPS.

So if you can heal for more than 991.85 per second (which is 1487.775 for a 1.5 second cast - Flash Heal, Lesser Healing Wave, and Flash of Light), then Spell Haste is better than Healing for you.

Things to take into consideration:

Mana versus Time - It will take you more Mana to heal using Spell Haste, comparing to using Healing. However, the time you save can make some clutch plays possible.

Crits, Quick Recovery, Fel Armor - This will put your actually healing amount to 1.5 times of original (or more), which means your healing per second is multiplied by 1.5 times (or more) as well as the difference between your choice of trinket (on Crit: 12*1.5 = 18 for Healing Wave, 10*1.5 = 15 for Lesser Healing Wave).

Healing Debuffs - Mortal Strike, Aimed Shot, and Wound Poison. These will do the exact opposite of Crit heals and reduce the difference by half - 9 and 5 for Healing Wave and Lesser Healing Wave.

None Healing spells - Imo, this is where Spell Haste shines vs Healing, you will have a shorter global for totem dropping, shocks as well as faster casting on Mana Burns and more…

That about sums it up for Spell Haste vs Healing, next time I’ll cover Spell Haste vs Spell Damage…

Special thanks to Destromo for his assistance on math and logic.

Tags: General · Articles

16 Responses to “Spell Haste Rating and You, Part 1 (Healing)”

1. Perle Says:
   February 21st, 2008 at 7:34 pm

   I think spell haste is nice, but it seems we have to give up mana regen to get it. My main is a paladin and I’m still not sure if the trade off is worth it.

   But if you ignore mana regen, then spell haste alone is probably best for all but druids. Priests need for mana burn, and paladins and shamans (elemental and healing) need for heals.

2. Ziss Says:
   February 21st, 2008 at 7:47 pm

   Since spell haste is directly related to HPS, you can think of them as +healing. So after you convert it to healing then it’s easy to make the decision between picking up more spell haste or more mp5

3. Serrin Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 12:21 am

   Good article. Enjoyed it.

4. Deccard Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 2:15 am

   Indeed. Good read.

5. Dave Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 6:25 am

   There is the added benefit of faster heals = less pushbacks and interrupts too, particularly under focus.

6. Mizfit Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 11:55 am

   The only problem with the haste logic is that it assumes that every global immediately leads to another global, however, if you cast 1 spell, move, cast another spell move ect, then the haste is in fact useless except for that it reduces the casting time of the spell

7. Ziss Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm

   Mizfit - Well, actually spell haste makes it so that you get to ‘move’ earlier and hence be able to cast the next spell earlier as well. The debate gets a bit more complicated but over all there’s a reason why in PvP more Flash Heals are used over G.Heals (lesser chance to get CSed, ability to relocate or move in for a Fear). If anything, the movement factor favors spell haste even further IMO.

   The only thing I assume, is that you’ll always be doing something, either casting or moving. The only situation where your logic applies is when the healer stands still doing absolutely nothing after each cast for less than 5 seconds, then cast another spell (if they stop casting for longer than 5 seconds then spell haste just contributed in getting them in out of 5 seconds rule faster).

8. Iakona Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 2:05 pm

   It seems that you were comparing the effectiveness between two trinkets and not the benefit of spell haste. I understand you that must compare spell have to something in order to measure it but displaying each trinket mutually exclusive is probably not the way to go.

   Had you said that you were going to compare the values of two trinkets available in the game then that would be fair. To suggest the comparison show the value of spell haste in generat is not correct.

9. Vedran Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 2:18 pm

   “[3.5 * (1 - 0.0254)]”

   That’s not how you calculate casting time. Assume someone has 100% spell haste, this formula makes the casting time instant. The real formula is [3.5 / (1 + Spell Haste %)]
   or
   [3.5 / (1 + (Spell Haste Rating)/1570)]

10. Ziss Says:
    February 22nd, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    Hmm you’re right, looks like spell haste is subject to DR. This complicates the situation a LOT more… Fortunately at the low 2.54% I used, the difference is marginal. I’ll work on a chart.

11. thejib Says:
    February 22nd, 2008 at 4:10 pm

    I play a Holy Paladin, and I have been doing a great deal of thinking about spell haste. This article was informative, but I have a couple of questions. Is that 1487 figure just for shamans? Or for all 1.5 second cast heals? Also, is that an average that includes crits? Or is it the amount of healing a standard non-crit should do?

    I definitely see the advantages to being able to heal faster, and most of them are mentioned above. However, one of the great strengths of Holy Paladins is their ability to throw strong heals, and outlast the competition. Many of the games that my team has won have been the result of the other team running out of mana before I do. So wouldn’t trading in other stats for spell haste gimp that strength? I would really like to hear your take on this Ziss, It seems that this might also be the case for druid healers.

    Also, I read that spell haste will not improve the GCD for instant cast spells like cleanse or lifebloom for druids. Is this the case?

12. Ziss Says:
    February 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm

    The 1487 figure is for everyone, so it’s a little harder for Flash of Light to make it comparing to Flash Heal and Lesser Healing Wave.

    I haven’t included crits in my calculations but it’s linear increase. So if your healing amount doesn’t meet the threshold, critting won’t make it different, +healing would still be better. Like I mentioned, spell haste does take a hit on mana, so if you find yourself losing the mana war because of it then by all means skip on it (usually we beat pally teams by CCing the pally or killing the pally after bubble tho).

    And lastly, Spell Haste DOES improve the GCD for instant cast spells, all of them. Just had my friend logged on PTR and confirmed that.

13. Uka Says:
    February 25th, 2008 at 4:19 am

    well, saying it is not useful as restoration druid is not quiet true. since it lowers the gcd, it will allow you to throw more hots in the same time. this could help a lot against rogues between their stuns. with the new 4 piece bonus, regrowth might become useful when used with a bit of spellhaste. i wont say spellhaste is the way to go as restoration druid, but one or two pieces with spellhaste (maybe the trinket + the necklace) wont be useless.

14. Grabi Says:
    March 11th, 2008 at 2:40 am

    Hi,

    Some theorycraft for Flash of Light-lovers.

    Assumptions:
    - Blessing of Light
    - +12% Heal
    - Libram of Souls Redeemed (Note: +60 healing in 2.4)

    Unmodelled facts:
    - Spell crit (favors spell haste!)
    - Less CS
    - More time to run for your life

    Formula:
    hps=((0.43*(+Heal)+475+185)*1.12+60)/(1.5/(1+Spellhaste/1570))

    FL hps
    Heal\SpellH 0 45.46 90.92 136.38 181.84 227.3 272.76 318.22
    ———————————————————————-
    1500 | 1014.4 1043.77 1073.14 1102.52 1131.89 1161.26 1190.63 1220.01
    1600 | 1046.51 1076.81 1107.11 1137.41 1167.71 1198.02 1228.32 1258.62
    1700 | 1078.61 1109.85 1141.08 1172.31 1203.54 1234.77 1266 1297.24
    1800 | 1110.72 1142.88 1175.04 1207.2 1239.37 1271.53 1303.69 1335.85
    1900 | 1142.83 1175.92 1209.01 1242.1 1275.19 1308.28 1341.37 1374.46
    2000 | 1174.93 1208.95 1242.97 1277 1311.02 1345.04 1379.06 1413.08
    2100 | 1207.04 1241.99 1276.94 1311.89 1346.84 1381.79 1416.74 1451.69
    2200 | 1239.15 1275.03 1310.91 1346.79 1382.67 1418.55 1454.43 1490.31
    2300 | 1271.25 1308.06 1344.87 1381.68 1418.49 1455.3 1492.11 1528.92

    So, spell haste vs. +heal does hardly effect your hps in pvp (different for 2800 + eal T6 FL-bots).

15. Grabi Says:
    March 11th, 2008 at 2:41 am

    I forgot to mention that 45.46 spell haste equals 100+heal in terms of itemization costs.

16. hasty Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 2:25 pm

    I see formulas, I see math and discussions about whether faster heals are better opposed to bigger ones but how much time are we talking about ?? for 1.5 seconds a flash heal and supposedly you fill all your sockets with 10 spell haste epic gems ? my calculations give me a insignificant 1.4 seconds (more or less) and losing around 200 healing bonus.
    I’m puzzled! what’s the deal? we’re not machines, you can lose or gain 0.1 seconds just by hiting the button too fast or too slow.

    as for haste as a whole indeed the gain is procentual and more usefull on longer casting spells like a pyroblast but as implemented is just another thing to keep ppl busy

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