Gemming for Dummies.

Been reading the stickies at the top of the page, and I seem to be getting some conflicting messages.

One of the stickies on this page (advises to socket pure blue stamina gems into blue sockets, while elsewhere Ive seen (On a number of peoples toons) people using Green +20 Mastery / +30 Stamina gems.

Can we get consensus on whats best?
Does this differ depending on gear level?
(ie stamina to start with on blue gear, changing to mastery/stam on purple)
Should I Always go for socket bonuses?
And JC only gems? Go for the +101 stam ones, or save those for +67mastery?

My rather sad lookin profile is here BTW. Got a fair few things to work on.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/k ... n/advanced
Stam is ok, but avoidance needs work.

masterpoobaa wrote:Can we get consensus on whats best?
Does this differ depending on gear level?
(ie stamina to start with on blue gear, changing to mastery/stam on purple)
Should I Always go for socket bonuses?
And JC only gems? Go for the +101 stam ones, or save those for +67mastery?

Minimum EH required, then mastery is best
Yes, also trinket choice swings it by quite a bit.
Most likely, unless pushing Heroic modes undergeared (or cutting edge) and not meeting the required EH.
For JC gems it doesn't matter.


I agree with your current gemming if you weren't using a 318 sta trinket and had a 333/346 mastery trinket instead. There is either Impetuous Query from the AH or the JC DPS trinket (str proc) which are easy enough to get.

The aim is to have 2 sta trinkets (for most fights) and match your gemming around them (so mastery) as the 346/359 sta trinkets have better on use/effect than their Mastery counterparts (the exception being Mirror of Broken Images whose on use is Godly for Heroic Conclave).

masterpoobaa wrote:Can we get consensus on whats best?
Does this differ depending on gear level?

There is no consensus. Even for (perhaps) majority of people who agree with the strategy to 1) gear for stamina minimum, then 2) stack mastery, gemming can vary from pure stamina to pure mastery. Why? Because it depends on the number of stamina vs mastery trinkets you wear. And because some people need to hit the stamina minimum in lower-quality gear so they can run heroics / raid earlier. I suggest sta/mastery gems in all non-red slots to make gemming easier, but switching from that to pure sta in blue slots (or pure mastery in yellow slots) is a minor, minor change.

Plus there are the people (including many world-best raiders) who are still stacking stamina over mastery in all situations. These people clearly know what works best for them even though this doesn't align with other people's experiences.

If there's any consensus at all, it's that you should talk to your healers and gear so that they feel best able to heal you.

Should I Always go for socket bonuses?

In general the answer is Yes, though non-tanking bonuses (i.e. +10 strength or some other threat stat) should be skipped when gemming for survival. You'll most likely have a bad socket bonus when using DPS gear (either strength or agility) as survival gear due to its agility and/or mastery.

And JC only gems? Go for the +101 stam ones, or save those for +67mastery?

See answer to first question. If you have cash use stamina gems to reach health minimum for your stage sooner, then switch to mastery as your gear improves and you gain stamina naturally. (Of course, if you have enough cash, you can buy purple epics and gain the stamina that way, so you don't need to use JC stamina gems at all. Unless you are in the camp that favors stamina over mastery.)

Sorry I can't provide consensus where there isn't any. My best suggestion? Find the balance that works best for you. Then, find the guide here that recommends what you like. Then you have a guide to follow to make further decisions without having to do all the math yourself. Vexryn, Petrus, yappo and I all have different circumstances and have made different decisions, and I don't think anyone can say that any one of us are overall "wrong" - just different.

Okies and TY.
As ive got my health to 150k it "feels" like a good figure and ive been doing ok in the heroics ive done thus far.
Will now start gradually replacing stamina with avoidance/mastery.

That green stamina trinket is quite powerful, when popped it gives me a boatload of extra mastery. Gonna be hard to replace.

I updated my gem guide to add a "gemming for dummies" section which explains the lack of consensus, and also provides three possible strategies to choose from.