Take lower ilvl to get 4 piece?

[Savannah]

I currently have tier gloves and pants (496). I'm using 489 Hood of Blind Eyes and Shadowsummoner Spaulders. Tonight in LFR, I got the 483 Raid Finder tokens for helm and shoulders.

I could get my shadow 4-piece, but I'll lose ~110 Int and trade haste and crit for a ton of mastery. Is it worth it? (Armory Profile)

Alternately I could get 2-piece for holy, my offspec, but I only heal a couple of fights currently as we are two-healing almost everything until we push farther in heroics.

[Silvertaurus]

TBH the easiest way to answer is just Sim it, as it might varies for different gear levels.

[Savannah]

le sigh, I was afraid that might get said. I've never run a sim, though I did bookmark that guide to doing it that someone posted recently. I will... give it a go...

Thanks for replying, I appreciate that you took the time <3

[Woaden]

Its only intimidating until you use it a couple times. Then you'll wonder why you hadn't done it sooner.

[Zarqa]

but to be thorough, there's so many combinations to use that I find it can be quite time consuming. 1/2 target, patch/light/heavy, talents. It adds up.

Or is there a consensus as to what setting people should use to compare 2 different gear sets?

[Woaden]

Light Movement, 10k iterations, both 1 and 2 targets. I run those two Sims generally, it's close enough to most encounters I consider that to be accurate enough for quick gear comparisons.