Retribution Gemming

I've been trying to sort out my Ret Set recently and the gemming guides and Ask Mr Robot all say prioritize haste over strength in gems. But I can't for the life of me figure out why. Str is still ret's primary stat right? Are gems less generous for primary over secondary stats? Since we can't reforge to strength the only way to add it is gems and enchants, shouldn't we take that?

If I remember correctly, you get 1.5x secondary stats as you do primary stats on gems. In which case if your stat weights are set up so that 1.5 haste is better than 1 str, then it'll pick haste as the gem choice.

Ask mr Robot stat weight for Rets -

Str = 3.52
Haste = 1.93

Haste gem = 1.93*320 = 617.6
Strength gem 3.52*160 = 563.2

Strength is still Ret's best stat, nearly double that of haste but as secondary stat itemisation on gems is doubled, haste wins for gemming.

Skye1013 wrote:If I remember correctly, you get 1.5x secondary stats as you do primary stats on gems. In which case if your stat weights are set up so that 1.5 haste is better than 1 str, then it'll pick haste as the gem choice.

Its 1 Primary to 1.5 stamina, to 2 secondary for gems.

You'll have to sim it to get an accurate idea of how you personally should be gemming at your gear level.

When you start collecting enough gear haste will overtake strength. Weapon, tier bonus and talent choice play a large factor in strength vs haste weights. For example haste is usually going to be a little more valuable if you are taking HA instead of SW.

In dungeon heroic gear simc showed strength being a significantly higher contributor to dps but now that I am ~495 ilvl with a 496 shin'ka/gem haste has overtaken strength. I believe my weights are now something like haste = 1.6 and strength = 3.12. So a haste gem = 512 (320*1.6) and a strength gem = 499 (160*3.12).

Edit: Current weights for my gear (496 ilvl, 496 weapon, Sanctified Wrath no 2/4 pc bonus)



In heroic blues it was more like str = 2.8 and haste = 1.2. Strength increases in value but not nearly as quickly as haste for most circumstances. HA will favor haste even further as will 2/4 pc I imagine.

Nooska wrote:

Skye1013 wrote:If I remember correctly, you get 1.5x secondary stats as you do primary stats on gems. In which case if your stat weights are set up so that 1.5 haste is better than 1 str, then it'll pick haste as the gem choice.

Its 1 Primary to 1.5 stamina, to 2 secondary for gems.

So I was on the right track, I just had the wrong numbers

Generally once you hit raid gear haste in yellow, str/haste in red and hit/haste in blue, before then the str alternatives. I gem haste because it's cheaper, I'm lazy and I'm only slightly below the transition point anyway.

Levantine wrote:Generally once you hit raid gear haste in yellow, str/haste in red and hit/haste in blue, before then the str alternatives. I gem haste because it's cheaper, I'm lazy and I'm only slightly below the transition point anyway.

Note that if you don't have Expertise coming out of your ears and nose, gemming Expertise/Haste in red slots and reforging away from Expertise would be slightly more advantageous.