This is the third post I’ve written for today. The first two aren’t finished, hopefully this’ll be the one you all see. If you’re reading this now then I succeeded 
GEMS!
<Unemployed> is raiding pretty officially, we’re looking to start 25-mans this week and that means that all my shiney new upgrades with their not-so-shiney empty gem slots need to be filled!
Reminds me of a rather annoying and never-ending song I sang as a child…
There’s a hole in my armor dear JC, dear JC
There’s a hole in my armor dear JC, a hole.
So fill it dear Tiger, dear Tiger, dear Tiger
so fill it dear Tiger, dear Tiger, so fill it.
With what shall I fill it dear JC, dear JC
With what shall I fill it dear JC, with what?
With epix dear Tiger, dear Tiger, dear Tiger,
with epix dear Tiger, dear Tiger, with epix.
But where shall I get them dear JC, dear JC
But where shall I get them dear JC, but where?
From me dear Tiger, dear Tiger, dear Tiger
From me dear Tiger, dear Tiger, from me!
Ok… ok, I promise I have a point, and I’m getting to it!
Right now I’m running as a Bear. I love to dps as a kitty, but I also love to tank as a bear and that’s what my guild needs me as right now and that’s what I’ve been upgrading my armor to do and that’s what I need gems for.
PS – I’m not covering epic gems here, just the Rare, or ‘blue’ gems.
So, I’m going to list, for every color, the gems that I think will work best for a bear, and then I’ll follow it up with the sockets I have available for myself and what I want to be filling them with.
Blue:
Solid Sky Sapphire
+24 Stamina
This is really the only option for a bear in the Blue gem category. Really, that’s it. I’m sure.
Purple:
Shifting Twilight Opal
+8 Agility
+12 Stamina
Regal Twilight Opal
+8 Dodge
+12 Stamina
These two are pretty similar as far as bears are concerned. I’m a little hazy on weather 8 agility or 8 dodge would give a higher dodge % increase, but I know we get more benefit from agility as a whole than just pure dodge. My first pick would be the Shifting with a Regal coming in a close second.
Yellow:
Thick Autumn’s Glow
+16 Defense
Now, I know that with 3/3 Survival Instincts (right?) Bears are uncrittable and do not need to stack Defense. More Defense, however, will add more mitigation, so it’s not a purely useless stat. When only a yellow gem will do, go with the Thick Autumn’s Glow. If you’re a cat, there’s a lot more options here, but that’s a topic for another post.
Orange:
Stalwart Monarch Topaz
+8 Dodge
+8 Defense
Lucent Monarch Topaz
+8 Agility
+8 Resilience
Resolute Monarch Topaz
+8 Expertise
+8 Defense
Deadly Monarch Topaz
+8 Agility
+8 Critical Strike Rating
Deft Monarch Topaz
+8 Agility
+8 Haste
Champion’s Monarch Topaz
+8 Strength
+8 Defense
Ugh… just… ugh. There’s SO MANY options here, and they ALL depend on what you have already. I’ve tried to rank them in order of benefit to Bears specifically. I’m sure about #1 and about #6, but in the middle it gets a bit muddy and very situational.
For example, I chose the dodge and defense as the best combination for me, but are you really hurting for agility? Do you REALLY want that extra 8 points into agility? Well, you could get Resilience, which is pretty useless in PvE since you’re already crit-immune, you could get Crit strike rating, which will give you a small amount of extra rage (if talented correctly) and a little bit more threat (I don’t see threat as being a problem right now), or you could go with haste which would, again, add to threat.
#6 is there for the sake of completeness. We don’t get much benefit from strength, it’s just not a stat we need to stack. And again, the defense, we’re already un-crittable, it’s sugar on the cake, not needed, but nice to have, and when coupled with strength produces a gem I really don’t see myself using… ever.
Red:
Delicate Scarlet Ruby
+16 Agility
Subtle Scarlet Ruby
+16 Dodge
Precise Scarlet Ruby
+16 Expertise
I think this ranking is pretty self-explanatory. Agility is King, followed by Dodge, and if you don’t need either of those take some Expertise from the Red side of things.
Green:
Enduring Forest Emerald
+8 Defense
+12 Stamina
Vivid Forest Emerald
+8 Hit Rating
+12 Stamina
Green gems are, on the whole, Stamina with a side of other stuff. There’s some other oddball options out there, but there were the only two I thought deserved a mention. I’ll definitely take the Defense over the Hit, but if you’ve got a JC handing out gems and all they have is a Vivid and no Enduring, take the Vivid.
Prismatic:
Enchanted Tear
+6 All Stats
Not much to see here. Get it, or don’t, up to you and what’s available.
Meta:
Austere Earthsiege Diamond
+32 Stamina
+2% Increased Armor Value from Items
Effulgent Skyflare Diamond
+32 Stamina
+2% Reduction in Damage Taken from Spells
Powerful Earthsiege Diamond
+32 Stamina
+10% Stun Duration Reduction
Relentless Earthsiege Diamond
+21 Agility
+3% Critical Strike Damage
Thundering Skyflare Diamond
Chance to Increase Melee/Ranged Attack Speed
Holy Bear Paws Batman! Look at those Meta Gems! Oooh I’m salivating. Even just looking through the list… the variety is STAGGERING and I’m getting SO MANY ideas about other classes, who will want what and how much of amazing it will bring to the party…. but before I get too incoherent in my excitement, here’s the breakdown of this list.
The Austere Earthsiege beats out the Effulgent mainly because armor is so huge for bears, and our main tank is a Death Knight. If you find yourself as Main Tank and taking a lot of magical damage don’t think twice about taking the Effulgent Skyflare instead, they’re very close.
The Powerful vs Relentless Earthsieges is another close one, I’d say too close for me to call, honestly. Take a look at your stats, do you need the agility or the stamina more? It’s up to you.
The Thundering Skyfire Diamond is there for threat, that’s it. If you’re not holding threat but not dying or stressing your healers then get this. I can’t ever see this happening but, eh, anything’s possible.
Personal Breakdown & Plan:
Yellow
Enduring Forest Emerald
+8 Defense
+12 Stamina
Stalwart Monarch Topaz
+8 Dodge
+8 Defense
Thick Autumn’s Glow
+16 Defense
The first two are VERY close on my list, I’m not exactly sure which would be more beneficial to me right now either. It might come down to what the JCs in my guild can make and what mats are available.
Red
Delicate Scarlet Ruby
+16 Agility
Shifting Twilight Opal
+8 Agility
+12 Stamina
Stalwart Monarch Topaz
+8 Dodge
+8 Defense
They don’t want us stacking Agility like crazy anymore, and I’m seeing now how they’re accomplishing this. There aren’t that many Agi gems out there at all. So for this one I think I’ll take the full +16. The Opal is a close… VERY close second.
Blue
Solid Sky Sapphire
+24 Stamina
Shifting Twilight Opal
+8 Agility
+12 Stamina
Enduring Forest Emerald
+8 Defense
+12 Stamina
Remember when I passed on that extra stamina on the Red socket? Yeah, that Solid Sky Sapphire makes up for it. +24 Stam baby oooooh yeeeaaaaaaah.
The Shifting Opal is second of course, check your own stats, but take the Emerald only if there’s no other option available to you.
