First off, the fundamental reason why haste gained so much value has not changed. It is still centered around the idea of breakpoints, with some residual added value coming from haste giving you more pets/4pc uptime. The only question is now the magnitude of the gains haste makes, since the pets are now no longer an overwhelming force of single target destruction.
We start out simple. Compare a mastery optimized profile to a haste optimized profile. These profiles are posted a few posts back. The "mastery" profile is my old profile which I optimized for mastery gear/enchants, and the haste profile is the one Deathshinobi optimized for haste gear/enchants.
At first glace, mastery seems to be winning. But I wanted to get something a bit more rigorous than that. Keeping breakpoints in mind, I thought that what could be happening was that the haste profile is too far beyond the breakpoint - that it's essentially gone into territory where haste has lost a lot of its value; so I looked at DPS scaling plots for mastery/int/haste.
Here I used the mastery profile, because I was most interested in seeing what happened to haste as we approach, and then pass, the breakponint - which the haste profile may not have let me do. We can see the breakpoint really clearly (indicated with the arrow). It's not nearly as strong as it once was, which makes sense, but it's still a clear jump in DPS. Seeing this, I remain confident that gearing for that 20% breakpoint is correct. (The exact value here in the scaling sim is around 1224, but that from eyeballing the graph - I think using the actual swingspeed vs haste formula is a better way to determine the actual value, which is the 1300 I cited earlier).
Interestingly, haste continues to have a high value for a brief period, before declining below int and mastery. Remember here that you're mainly interested in the slope of the lines. Just because the haste scaled DPS value is above the mastery does NOT mean it is actually scaling better still. That is what is actually telling you how the DPS is changing with the stat increase. And the slope for haste is looking as if it decreases after the breakpoint - so there is some value, slightly beyond the breakpoint, which it's worth it to drop everything else to gear for, and then beyond that it loses value below int/mastery again.
To ensure nothing wonky was happening, I extended the stat scaling out another 400 rating:
The decline in the value of haste is more obvious here, as we see the addition of raw int overtake just stacking haste. The conclusion from this is: It is NOT worth it is blindly stack haste. Haste > * is not acceptable, we must keep in mind the ilvl of the gear (and thus the amount of int involved) when making decision. Therefore, explicitly stating haste (20% breakpoint) haste > Int > haste/mastery? is mandatory in this case.
To go further into figuring out exactly how much haste we're allowed to gear for, I used reforge plots.
This what what happens to your DPS as you trade off, point for point, mastery and haste. The breakpoint is extremely obvious here, as is the continued value of haste..but at the end of the +haste/-mastery range, haste still has value. So I extended it further.
The clear trend of haste > mastery only extends a few hundred rating after the breakpoint. Then, it fluctuates/flatlines a bit before finally diving down sharply.
Keeping this in mind, I replaced all the enchants on the mastery gear with haste. If the reforge plot was right, this should be a straight DPS increase (as we're not involving any int trade-offs here, just simple mastery for haste).
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63035 50.7% Mage_Arcane_T18N_Mastery_haste_mix
61379 49.3% Mage_Arcane_T18N_Mastery
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head=demon_princes_ascendant_crown,id=124159
neck=choker_of_forbidden_indulgence,id=124391,enchant=gift_of_haste
shoulders=mantle_of_the_arcanic_conclave,id=124177
back=cloak_of_hideous_unity,id=124138,enchant=gift_of_haste
chest=robe_of_the_arcanic_conclave,id=124171
wrists=powdersinged_bracers,id=124183
hands=gloves_of_the_arcanic_conclave,id=124154
waist=demonbuckle_sash_of_argus,id=124200
legs=pantaloons_of_the_arcanic_conclave,id=124165
feet=bloody_daggerheeled_pumps,id=124149
finger1=loathful_encrusted_band,id=124192,enchant=gift_of_haste
finger2=spellbound_runic_band_of_the_allseeing_eye,id=118306,enchant=gift_of_haste
trinket1=tome_of_shifting_words,id=124516
trinket2=prophecy_of_fear,id=124230
main_hand=edict_of_argus,id=124382,enchant=mark_of_warsong
Which is the best performing profile, above gearing straight haste or mastery, at each ilvl snapshot (normal/heoric/mythic). Trading off any additional mastery items for haste items is a DPS loss, because the haste items are almost always a lower ilvl than the mastery items, and the value of haste as dropped to where the haste gains can no longer support the loss of intellect.
Here is the stat scaling for this profile (keep in mind, this is a general feel for stats. It has a hard time seeing the decayed value of haste as it's continuously stacked and cannot handle breakpoints well):
Here are the talents you want:
Here are your trinkets:
Note: You really want prophecy. Like. You REALLY want it. I haven't gone into trinket specifics here (much confuse, many variable), but prophecy loves haste. and haste loves prophecy. Plus it's insane on multi-target when it procs and you dump a bunch of AMs into it. You want it.
The only odd variable in all of this is the pet delay. I posted it earlier in the thread, but you seem to need at least 25% haste to begin seeing reductions in pet delay. Only the full haste profile can obtain this. The profile which mixes haste/mastery can only achieve ~23% at mythic item levels. So I think this leads to two potential gearing schemes.
1) Conservative Haste Gearing - Haste 20% (1300rating) > Int > Mastery > Haste > Mult > Crit > Vers
2) Aggressive Haste Gearing - Haste 20% (1300rating) > Int > Haste (~25-26%) > Mastery > Haste > Mult > Crit > Vers
Conservative Haste Gearing is essentially "going with the sim." Because it cannot quantify the effects of haste delay, you are betting against it being worth the DPS tradeoffs the sim would see in order to get it.
Aggressive Haste Gearing is gearing for pet delay reductions, you are betting that the pets are worth any DPS loss the sim may see due to whatever you did to get that haste.
If you want my personal opinion, I'd go with #2. I think that if you're smart about it and a bit lucky, you can use gems to get yourself to the 25-26% haste rating, and never have to compromise the above profile I posted. I do not advocate tanking your int/ilvl to reach that haste level though. I do not believe it is worth it.