At the moment there are only two types of gems in Cataclysm available to all players, Green Quality (Common) and Blue Quality (Rare). Purple Quality gems (Epic) have not yet been added to the game however Jewelcrafters have Epic Equivalent soul bound gems they can use called Chimera's Eye.
Jewelcrafting
Chimera's Eye gems can be obtained from completing the Jewelcrafting daily and exchanging the Token reward for a Chimera's Eye. All blue gem patterns must also be obtained in this way. The Jewelcrafting daily can be obtained next to the JC Trainer in Stormwind or Orgrimmar at JC skill 475. If you are a Jewelcrafter it's highly recommended you obtain the [Delicate Chimera's Eye] pattern first as it will give you a powerful edge in heroics and raids. You can use up to a maximum of three Chimera's Eye in your gear.
Blue Gems
Blue Quality gems are the current highest level of gems you can obtain excluding Jewelcrafter only gems. The blue gem patterns require JC tokens to be obtained so you may find it difficult at first to find a Jewelcrafter who does the gem cuts you need.
Gems For a Rogue
As a rogue you will need to assign the following blue quality gems to your gem sockets:
YELLOW: [Deft Ember Topaz] or Mutilate only: [Adept Amber Topaz]
BLUE: [Glinting Demonseye]
As you can see Mutilate rogues now no longer benefit as much from Haste and this has allowed Mastery to overtake Haste slightly. However, it's important to remember that a balance of stats is needed so when choosing gear as a Mutilate rogue Mastery and Haste are always your best stats to go for after you are expertise and poison hit capped.
Meta Gems
There seems to be only two new Cataclysm Meta gems to choose from for a rogue and it looks like neither of them have our favourite mix of Agility and Critical Damage. First is the [Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond] because even though the +54 critical strike bonus is weak for us, the 3% increased Critical Strike Damage is extremely powerful.
The second option is the [Fleet Shadowspirit Diamond] which provides a more powerful +54 Mastery Rating but only an extra minor run speed increase. Mutilate rogues will find the run speed increase entirely worthless due to their build even though they benefit more from Mastery than other rogues do. This makes this meta gem all in all a poor choice unless you are after the run speed increase for damage up time. However, it pales in comparison to the Critical Damage bonus of the [Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond].
Now I have also been reminded that the [Relentless Earthsiege Diamond] is a reasonable option still despite it being a Wrath gem. Here's how the 21 Agility stacks up next to 54 crit and 54 mastery:
| Gem Type | Combat | Mutilate | Subtlety |
| +54 Crit | 51.3 EP (+3% crit dmg) | 48.6 EP (+3% crit dmg) | 59.4 EP (+3% crit dmg) |
| +52 Mastery | 48.6 EP (+ run speed) | 70.2 EP (no extras) | 37.8 EP (+ run speed) |
| +21 Agility | 56.7 EP (+3% crit dmg) | 54.6 EP(+3% crit dmg) | 73.5 EP (+3% crit dmg) |
As you can see Mutilate rogues benefit the most from the Mastery stat gem but because the run speed increase pales in comparison to 3% increased critical strike damage it's much more beneficial to use the 21 agility meta gem instead for Mutilate rogues too.
Meta Gem Requirements
In recent patches, the meta gem requirements changed to be "More blue then red gems" on many of our favourite meta gems. However, Blizzard blue posters announced that they realise this was a bad move and will be reverting these gems back to their usual gem requirements as soon as possible in a future patch. I have double checked the status of the gems and it seems that so far the Meta gems have not been fixed yet.
With this in mind until the meta gems have been fixed you should instead go for a Meta gem with a more suitable gem requirement. This means either the [Fleet Shadowspirit Diamond] or a Wrath meta gem such as [Thundering Skyflare Diamond] which is a popular rogue choice for those who need a meta gem while we wait for the patch.
[Thundering Skyflare Diamond] = 480 haste for 6 seconds every 45~ seconds. 13.3% up time of 480 is 64~ haste:
| Gem Type | Combat | Mutilate | Subtlety |
| +64 haste | 96 EP (no extras) | 76.8 EP (no extras) | 83.2 EP (no extras) |
As you can see the [Thundering Skyflare Diamond] is better than the [Fleet Shadowspirit Diamond], particularly for Mutilate rogues who already have a run speed increase anyway.
The best meta gem for the rogue is the *old* agi/crit of Wotlk, the 54 crit is just weaker.
ReplyDeletehmm, it would appear that going off the current ep values alone the relentless is marginally better (3.3 ep but much more significant for sub rogues). ill update the information as soon as i can but readers should expect this not to be a final change as gearing up develops. well have to wait and see ofc :) thanks for the heads up too.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it is impossible to use the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond with it's requirement change. Looking at your post above, you will never have more blue gems than red. It's impossible. The reason for this is that all gems you put in your red slots will obviously be red, the best yellow gems are also red (because they are orange) and even the blue gem listed is purple (which is counted towards red). Therefore, if even your blue gems are red you will never have more without huge sacrifices to dps. You would literally have to make all of your blue gems +hit (no agi) and might even have to fill some of your yellow slots with green gems to get your blue count up.
ReplyDeletehehe hey khamol your a bit behind on the times i think :P blue posts are already addressing this issue and we discussed it in the previous gemming post for level 80.
ReplyDeleteWowhead is out of date afaik they have already reverted the gems back to thier original requirements, if they havent then know that they will do as soon as they can so this is no longer an issue for us really.
ill double check what the status of the requirements are at the moment when in log in later. and if not fixed yet ill give an alternative for those few desperate in the meantime :) but as above the fleet shadowspirit diamond could be an option or perhaps the alternative thundering skyflare diamond as discussed previously. illmake a note about it in the post anyway if they havnt fixed it yet.
cheers
post fixed, now includes wrath meta gem, also fixed skyflare to say shadowspirit as it was meant to be. Finally i double checked the meta gems looks liek they havnt fixed them yet so alternatives added in the meantime :D
ReplyDeletecheers
I think it's key to mention the importance of Expertise and certainly the strategy of gemming/reforging for it to the cap. Purple slots you could use Exp/Hit gems where needed or even enchant your gloves with +50 expertise.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to metagem at this stage, until they fix the blue/red gem requirements to activate your meta (which will be in the next patch), it's probably best to stick with the Thundering Skyflare Diamond.
ReplyDeleteheya matt h,
ReplyDeletei wouldnt go so far as to gem for it as youd be losing out on agility which is always better than even the expertise when not capped. BUT definatley shoudl reforge all your gear to be expertise capped, crit and mastery can both be reforged to make the expertise cap.
with regards to the meta gem yeh id go for that one too.
actually i think until they fix the 'more blue than red' requirement, the best meta would be the old BC meta that gives +3% to critical strike damage (and 12 crit strike rating or something) - BUT you have to be exalted with the consortium to get it. yikes.
ReplyDeletehumm not sure how to factor in the damage bonus there versus the haste so i cant really comment but id hazard a guess that many peeps dont have exalted with consortium these days :s
ReplyDeletei love you ...
ReplyDeletelol, if you arent my b/f be prepared for a visit from an axe weilding maniac on your door soon =o
ReplyDeletereforge mastery to expertise? According to elitistjerks spreadsheet, mastery value is our second best after poison hit cap and expertise is our 2nd worst just above crit.
ReplyDeletecombat rogues and sub rogues have a much higher value for expertise than mastery. its only muti that's the odd one out.
ReplyDeleteif you happen to be muti, then i wont tell you what to do here. i know i would still get the hit caps and poison caps, is standard good practice, but reforge your crit to expertise instead and job done.