Hunter Gemming

This post is backdated to the date of the original post. It was imported to this blog on May 20, 2014.

I put together a Hunter Guide a couple of months ago and I would like to elaborate on one portion today: Gemming.

What gems should I use?
Meta:
[Relentless Earthstorm Diamond]

1) Red: [[Delicate Living Ruby]] = +agi
2a) Purple (R&B): [Shifting Nightseye] = +agi & stam
2b) Yellow: [Smooth Dawnstone] = +crit
2c) Orange (R&Y): [Glinting Noble Topaz] = +hit & agi
2d) Green (B&Y): [Jagged Talasite] = +crit & stam
3) Yellow: [Rigid Dawnstone] = +hit

(These are the rare-quality gems, uncommon and epic-quality use the same beginnings on their names.)

When should I use them?
The majority of the time straight agility gems will give more raw DPS (even without Blessing of Kings) than any other gem. Sometimes straight crit or hit gems can out-weigh the pure agility, but it completely depends on your individual gear stats, which is where Cheeky’s Spreadsheet comes into play. +AP gems are never better than Agility gems of the same level.

Example:
[Delicate Living Ruby] (8 agility, rare quality) vs. [Bright Crimson Spinel] (20 attack power, epic quality)
-> The [Bright Crimson Spinel] will give a bit more DPS than the [Delicate Living Ruby].

[Delicate Crimson Spinel] (10 agility, epic quality) vs. [Bright Crimson Spinel] (20 attack power, epic quality)
-> The [Delicate Crimson Spinel] will give more DPS than the [Bright Crimson Spinel].

One area where this comes into play is with the instance-drop epic gems. In comparison to rare-quality Delicate Living Rubies, the instance-drop epic gems are often a smidge better, which is why my tier 5 chest piece and legs have instance-drop epics in them as I only had Delicate Living Rubies available to me at the time. However, the instance-drop epics are NOT better than the normal epic [Delicate Crimson Spinel].

What about meeting my meta gem requirements?
2 blues, 2 reds and 2 yellows- This is the only reason that we ever use purple or green gems in our gear. Some hunters choose green gems (+crit/stam) instead of using 2 blues and 2 yellows and from the numbers I have run with Cheeky’s Spreadsheet, if you keep the same socket bonuses active/inactive, it will be equal DPS regardless of which set you choose.

Example gem set-up for meeting meta-
Helm:
Red socket – [Shifting Nightseye]
Meta socket – [Relentless Earthstorm Diamond]
Socket bonus: +4 Resilience – Met

Shoulders:
Red socket – [Delicate Living Ruby]
Yellow socket – [Delicate Living Ruby]
Socket bonus: +4 Stamina – Not Met

Chest:
Red socket – [Glinting Noble Topaz]
Blue socket – [Shifting Nightseye]
Yellow socket – [Smooth Dawnstone]
Socket bonus: +4 Agility – Met

Or with Green-color gems-
Helm:
Red socket – [Delicate Living Ruby]
Meta socket – [Relentless Earthstorm Diamond]
Socket bonus: +4 Resilience – Met

Shoulders:
Red socket – [Delicate Living Ruby]
Yellow socket – [Delicate Living Ruby]
Socket bonus: +4 Stamina – Not Met

Chest:
Red socket – [Delicate Living Ruby]
Blue socket – [Jagged Talasite]
Yellow socket – [Jagged Talasite]
Socket bonus: +4 Agility – Met

Why not meet the socket bonuses?
Very, very rarely is it worth it to meet the socket bonus for an item. Using straight agility gems will almost always net you more overall stats than socketing for the bonus. However- If you need to meet your meta gem requirement, then you can do something like the above example.

The only socket bonuses that are worth meeting are +agility or possibly +crit.

You keep saying that agility is more DPS, but what about Attack Power/Crit gems?
Math behind AP gems vs. Agility:

16 AP vs. 8 Agility-
16 AP = 16 AP – Does NOT scale with Blessing of Kings
8 Agility = 8 AP + 0.20% chance to crit – Scales with Blessing of Kings (+10%)

——-
[Wicked Noble Topaz] vs. [Delicate Living Ruby]

1 agi = 1 ap + .5525 crit rating

[Delicate Living Ruby] (8 agi) = 8 ap + 4.42 crit rating
[Wicked Noble Topaz] = 8 ap + 4 crit rating

Therefore 8 agi > 8 ap + 4 crit rating
Therefore a [Delicate Living Ruby] is better than a [Wicked Noble Topaz].

——-
The only time you’d want to take a 5crit/10ap gem over a 10agi gem is if it completes a socket bonus that, combined with the gem, exceeds the possible scaling of the agi gem by itself.

Most single item socket bonuses crit-wise are 2 crit rating, it doesn’t. Almost evens out, but thats from 1 socket. You’d need 4 crit rating for 2 sockets and 6 crit rating for 3 sockets, just to bring them almost even. And I can’t recall I’ve ever seen a 6 crit rating socket bonus on anything.

It’s the same with AP, although I don’t think AP holds as much sway regarding ‘worth’ as crit does when it comes to socket bonuses.

So take that into account, then factor in the extras you get from agi on top of the crit/ap, and you pretty much find that outside extremely rare cases, agi is always better. And the rare cases being if you find yourself sitting on a 20+ ap gem or something. And even then, its still sometimes better to take the agi gem.
From here.
——-

Summary:

12 Crit > 24 AP > 10 Agi > 10 Crit > 20 AP > 8 Agi > 8 Crit > 16 AP for personal DPS regardless of spec, meta gem requirements, or socket bonuses.

X-posted to here.