I'm making a savage for soloing, so I'm really interested in weighing the costs and benefits of higher savagery buffs. Under the assumption that I'd wants straight up melee fights to last no longer than 60 seconds if I expect to win, I did one 60 second round for each of three specs to compare how much damage you gain or lose by going higher or lower savagery. These were on a RR3 dwarf with 150 str, 180 dex, no damage RAs, crafted 4.0 thrust claws w/DD procs, and blue buff pots on top of that. The damage and haste savagery buffs were up at all times in each test. Here are the results:
50 H2H / 39 Savagery (yellow savagery buffs):
6647 total damage
110.78 DPS
44 H2H / 39 Savagery (yellow savagery buffs, higher parry):
5947 total damage
99.12 DPS
39 H2H / 49 Savagery (red savagery buffs):
9854 total damage
164.23 DPS
Keep in mind this is only one 60 second round for each, so much longer tests would be needed to make sure this isn't a chance result, but I was really surprised that the rather low H2H spec with high savagery did so much more damage. I'm thinking this has to do with the higher haste allowing for more swings in that time and, as a result, more crits/procs/etc. I also didn't test 44 H2H / 49 savagery, but that would obviously be better than the 39 / 49 spec. The reason I stopped at 39 was because I have 12 in hammer for the snare and I wanted the extra parry for soloing over the slightly higher H2H. Also keep in mind that celerity wasn't used for any of this, nor were capped buffs, so in a melee group, the 50 H2H could still certainly be superior damage, but it doesn't appear to be better damage for soloing.
50 H2H / 39 Savagery (yellow savagery buffs):
6647 total damage
110.78 DPS
44 H2H / 39 Savagery (yellow savagery buffs, higher parry):
5947 total damage
99.12 DPS
39 H2H / 49 Savagery (red savagery buffs):
9854 total damage
164.23 DPS
Keep in mind this is only one 60 second round for each, so much longer tests would be needed to make sure this isn't a chance result, but I was really surprised that the rather low H2H spec with high savagery did so much more damage. I'm thinking this has to do with the higher haste allowing for more swings in that time and, as a result, more crits/procs/etc. I also didn't test 44 H2H / 49 savagery, but that would obviously be better than the 39 / 49 spec. The reason I stopped at 39 was because I have 12 in hammer for the snare and I wanted the extra parry for soloing over the slightly higher H2H. Also keep in mind that celerity wasn't used for any of this, nor were capped buffs, so in a melee group, the 50 H2H could still certainly be superior damage, but it doesn't appear to be better damage for soloing.