Raiding Horizons Part Three: Gems
I’m going to do a four-part series on getting your Enhancement Shaman properly geared, gemmed and enchanted/glyphed for raiding and then what goodies to bring to said raids. Consider this as a guide to follow and not a strict set of rules. You may find things that work differently or even better for you (in which case, let me know!).
Every guild has different rules for their raiders, so I recommend checking with your particular guild as to what raiding requirements they have set. Then do your best to not only achieve those, but to exceed them. As for this series, I’ll show you guys a few things to get that will help get your overall DPS up and situate your stats on the right path to raiding glory.
Onward to Part Three: Gems!
It’s a well known fact that girls love their gems and jewelry. Well, at least, this girl does – which makes present shopping for me easy, albeit expensive. My husband can attest to this.
Gems in WoW are not only pretty but give a nice boost to your stats and help you attain your hit cap (17% minus racial and talents) and your expertise cap (6.5%) and add more Attack Power and Haste and anything else you want to pump up.
Focus on attain your melee hit cap (17% ~ 330 w/ dreanei racial and talents) and your expertise cap (26) first. Then gem/gear/enchant for Attack Power and Haste.
Keep in mind that you will swap out gems constantly. You may have your stats situated just right and then get a new piece of gear that has more hit, more expertise or no crit on it and have to re-gem a few items (if not everything). I have to swap out at least 2 gems every time I upgrade a piece. So either make friends with a Jewelcrafter (like me!) or be prepared to spend some cash on the AH.
This list can be used for just about all melee DPS but we’ll pretend it’s Enhancement Shaman specific shall we? I’m going to leave out the Jewelcrafter uber-gems since those are BoP. But they do come in handy, I must say.
First we’ll do the “one color” gems. These are your primary colors of Red, Blue and Yellow.
- Precise Bloodstone – +12 Expertise
- Perfect Precise Bloodstone – +14 Expertise
- Precise Scarlet Ruby – +16 Expertise
- Precise Cardinal Ruby – +20 Expertise
- Bright Bloodstone – +24 Attack Power
- Perfect Bright Bloodstone – +28 Attack Power
- Bright Scarlet Ruby – +32 Attack Power
- Bright Cardinal Ruby – +40 Attack Power
I’m only listing a Blue category so people don’t go, “wait, where’s the blue category?” Blue gems come in four flavors – Stamina, MP5, Spell Penetration and Spirit. So Tank, Heals, PvP and Caster/Heals/Non-Shaman. You are much better served going with Green or Purple in a Blue slot if you care about your socket bonus or need a Blue gem to activate a Meta.
- Quick Sun Crystal – +12 Haste Rating
- Perfect Quick Sun Crystal – +14 Haste Rating
- Quick Autumn’s Glow – +16 Haste Rating
- Quick King’s Amber – +20 Haste Rating
- Rigid Sun Crystal – +12 Hit Rating
- Perfect Rigid Sun Crystal – +14 Hit Rating
- Rigid Autumn’s Glow – +16 Hit Rating
- Rigid King’s Amber – +20 Hit Rating
Next, we have the multi-color gems, which will have attributes of two colors and can fit in either color’s slots. For example, Orange is made of Red and Yellow so and Orange gem can go in either a Red or Yellow slot and still maintain the socket bonus.
Purple (Red and Blue)
- Balanced Shadow Crystal – +12 Attack Power and +9 Stamina
- Perfect Balanced Shadow Crystal – +14 Attack Power and +11 Stamina
- Balanced Twilight Opal – +16 Attack Power and +12 Stamina
- Balanced Dreadstone – +20 Attack Power and +15 Stamina
- Guardian’s Shadow Crystal – +6 Expertise and +9 Stamina
- Perfect Guardian’s Shadow Crystal – +7 Expertise and +11 Stamina
- Guardian’s Twilight Opal – +8 Expertise and +12 Stamina
- Guardian’s Dreadstone – +10 Expertise and +15 Stamina
Green (Yellow and Blue)
- Forceful Dark Jade – +6 Haste Rating and +9 Stamina
- Perfect Forceful Dark Jade – +7 Haste Rating and +11 Stamina
- Forceful Forest Emerald – +8 Haste Rating and +12 Stamina
- Forceful Eye of Zul – +10 Haste Rating and +15 Stamina
- Vivid Dark Jade – +6 Hit Rating and +9 Stamina
- Perfect Vivid Dark Jade – +7 Hit Rating and +11 Stamina
- Vivid Forest Emerald – +8 Hit Rating and +12 Stamina
- Vivid Eye of Zul – +10 Hit Rating and +15 Stamina
Orange (Red and Yellow)
- Stark Huge Citrine – +12 Attack Power and +6 Haste Rating
- Perfect Stark Huge Citrine – +14 Attack Power and +7 Haste Rating
- Stark Monarch Topaz – +18 Attack Power and +8 Haste Rating
- Stark Ametrine – +20 Attack Power and +10 Haste Rating
- Accurate Huge Citrine – +6 Expertise and +6 Hit Rating
- Perfect Accurate Huge Citrine – +7 Expertise and +7 Hit Rating
- Accurate Monarch Topaz – +8 Expertise and +8 Hit Rating
- Accurate Ametrine – +10 Expertise and +10 Hit Rating
- Pristine Huge Citrine – +12 Attack Power and +6 Hit Rating
- Perfect Pristine Huge Citrine – +14 Attack Power and +7 Hit Rating
- Pristine Monarch Topaz – +18 Attack Power and +8 Hit Rating
- Pristine Ametrine – +20 Attack Power and +10 Hit Rating
As you can see from the above lists, our favorite gems are Red, Yellow and Orange. Hit, Expertise, Attack Power, and Haste in any combination is a huge boon to the Enhancement Shaman. If you don’t care about the socket bonus, go for one of those colors. Again, cap your Hit and Expertise first, then move onto your other stats. I cannot stress this enough.
For Prismatics, you have three gems to pick from – Nightmare Tear, Enchanted Tear, or Enchanted Pearl. There are raid buffs and consumables that give you the same end result so you don’t have to use these. Some players do like to use one in their prismatic belt slot to take care of any and all meta requirements and to give an additional stat boost in conjunction with the enchant to chest.
Meta Gems are a crazy little animal in themselves. Found pretty much only on head pieces, they require a certain number of gem colors on your gear in order to activate. This means, if it says it requires 1 Red, 1 Blue and 1 Yellow to activate you better have at least 1 Red/Orange/Purple, 1 Blue/Green/Purple and 1 Yellow/Orange/Green somewhere in any of your other gear gem slots. Yes, combo colored gems count for this. So be careful when you’re foregoing socket bonuses or swapping gems out that you don’t accidentally deactivate your meta gem.
- Chaotic Skyflare Diamond - +21 Critical Strike Rating and 3% Increased Critical Damage (Requires at least 2 Blue gems)
- Relentless Earthsiege Diamond - +21 Agility and 3% Increased Critical Damage (Requires at least 1 Red gem, 1 Yellow gem, and 1 Blue gem)
The Chaotic Skyflare Diamond is, by far, the best choice for the Enhancement Shaman.
But, what about Haste, you say? Ah, Haste. As of Tier 9, as I said in the gear article, Haste is the new black. Just about every class that uses anything resembling spell damage has been urged to regem for Haste. Since Enhancement Shamans do Spell Damage on top of melee damage, haste is especially beneficial for us.
Now, some sites will tell you to gem straight Yellow Gem Haste in every socket, regardless of bonus. Ehhhh….I would say pay attention to the bonuses. If the bonus is Agility, yeah, ignore it. But if it’s Attack Power or even Hit, use it.
But Agility gives us AP, Crit, Dodge and Armor, right? Yes.
However.
The AP that comes from Agility is for your melee attacks only. Your spell attacks (yellow damage) are not affected by the AP from Agility in the same way that raw AP will affect them due to Mental Quickness. This is what sets us apart from hunters.
The final installment of this series will be raiding goodies like flasks, elixirs, potions, and food.
Raiding Horizons Series
- Part One: Gear
- Part Two: Enchants & Glyphs
- Part Three: Gems
- Part Four: Consumables
