Theoretically mastery seems better. Lava burst, which is our most damaging spell should always crit but you can get a double cast on it for +85% damage. Lightning Bolt also benefits more from a double cast than a crit, and elementals have a long CD, so the boost you get from their crits is situational. Earth Shock have far less casts than the other spells and won’t have many crits.
Of course there is reason why crit has a higher value but I would like to know the argument for it. I enjoy the multicast proc, because it’s more visually appealing than a crit that you don’t notice. Would people look down on me and take me for a noob if I use mastery gems?
On Icyveins versatility is above crit for some reason. What did they get that from?
Mastery helps with elemental overload, you can easily get elemental overload with elemental mastery talent.
The reason behind of the vers is Lava burst. Lava burst’s dps is not depenting on crit but more on vers.
for that reason now Vers/Crit/Haste is more reliable
I’m no theorycrafter but here is how I look at it:
Vers and crit scales with ALL spells. This means it makes your Lavaburst, Earth shock and Earthquake beefier aswell as everything else. Since our crits hit for 250% instead of 200% this brings up the value of crit (not on Lavaburst but for everything else). Mastery only scales the damage of Lightning bolt/Chain lightning/Lava burst (also Icefury but that damage is minimal). Of course it also gives you more maelstrom, but at this point it does’t seem to be enough.
Also, as far as I know we start with a high percentage of mastery, which lowers the need for more, while vers starts at 0.
-Haste faster casts and more frequent Flame Shock ticks = more Lava Burst procs
-Versa - flat dmg increase (Lava Burst always procs so crit does nothing to is)
-Crit - due to 250% damage passive is great to increase Earth Shock and Lightning Bolt damage
-Mastery - it sims the worst
But I can already tell you that at the end of the expansion when we will be able to build insane amount of all stats Mastery will be back with Unlimited Power but for now going Mastery makes you lose way too much.