Dropping JC?

[Pandragon]

I am the main Blood DK for my raiding guild I have as proff BS and JC. I picked up JC for several reason. The Chimera Eyes, and the option to prospect and cut gems on my main to make gold. But thanks to the 4.3 epic gems I am less wanting JC as a raiding proff. I have JC on an alt that can use it for gold making if I drop it so that's not my biggest concern.

What proff would be best to switch to? I'm thinking either Eng for the Deflection Plates or LW for the bracer enchant. The Pant ench isn't a big concern cause I have a lwer and skinner that I make my leg armor on.

[m3kira]

Depends what stats you are after I guess. JC will still allow you to have +67 secondary stats (e.g. Mastery for Blood), where as LW/Ench etc only do primary stats (if memory serves). Combined with BS for extra sockets, JC is handy.

Not sure about how armour rates for Blood DK /. deflection plates so can't comment there.

[roblina]

His point is he doesnt now get the full benefit of the epic JC gems as a normal epic gem in the slot is halfway there.

If I were you I'd just wait, Blizz said new JC gems weren't in yet as the transition from blue to epic gems was meant to be slow, I expect they will appearfairly soon though. Or I hope so.

I personally wouldn't lean towards engineering, unexpected spikes are more our problem than what we can predict, and for what we can predict we have many cooldowns for anyway.

[Deleted]

Well,

JC now gives you a 51 bonus stats over those who don't have JC (epic gems = 50 stat --> 67-50 = 17 *3 = 51). So yes there are indeed other and better options for you mathematicly speaking. However two things to keep in mind:

1) What is your stat priority? DK's can favor mastery all the way. JC is the only profession that can give you a mastery bonus!
2) You will most likely NOT be fully epic gemmed. So the JC bonus is still 27*3 = 81.

[Deleted]

As long as you don't have almost every socket with epic gem in, JC is still superior to other professions. Just saying.

[Deleted]

God, Engineering was a slight pain to max out (Back In the old days) & To this bloody day It's worthless. But we got to love these pets. Goblin should get some kind of mini enrage gizmo.

[Cymre]

I was considering dropping JC for Eng, sadly just for the gimmicky items but the 3 prismatic sockets are too good to pass up :P

[Profish13]

Well,

JC now gives you a 51 bonus stats over those who don't have JC (epic gems = 50 stat --> 67-50 = 17 *3 = 51). So yes there are indeed other and better options for you mathematicly speaking. However two things to keep in mind:

1) What is your stat priority? DK's can favor mastery all the way. JC is the only profession that can give you a mastery bonus!
2) You will most likely NOT be fully epic gemmed. So the JC bonus is still 27*3 = 81.

Blacksmith can actually give mastery as well since you can gem mastery in those two extra sockets. Fully agree with your second point though, very few people are anywhere close to fully epic gemmed yet.

[dmawhorde4life]

but still with a JC/BS combo you would gain the 67*2 for the 2 extra sockets which without jc would only net you a +100 or a +80 and then the 67-50 = 17 (epic gem) or 67-40 = 27 rare gem. personally I'd stick with JC/BS until you get atleast full epic gems.

[Eclipseop]

Gems give you more benefits even, the top for an epic game with str is 50, and the top you can get with 525 JC is 67+, so if you'r wanting that extra str then keep jc, but if your fine with the 40+ until you get the epics, then id get mining for you BS so you dont have to get it all from the ah.

[-Cynical-]

You should pretty much be gemming pure Mastery as a DK Tank so JC is still the biggest gain for you. Also BS + JC is still the best tanking combo.

Eng is pointless for Tanks unless you want the run speed, Deflection Plates only reduces damage taken from a Melee Swing by 200-300 damage and it only lasts 12 seconds.

[Deleted]

I think its still pretty good, not as much as before maybe, cause of the epic gems but being able to cut your own gems and the prismatic ones arent that bad tbh.

[Nylara]

I thought that jewelcrafting was actually one of the worst ones to get. We're so underpowered. All-in-all, having an extra 60 strength or so isn't going to make a worlds difference.

[Sadinar]

I think Riggnaros said it best about engineering as a profession back in t12: "Every tank has a 'small' cd that they can pop once per min and being able to macro the gloves into that ability provides a substantial gain by boosting the effectiveness of the cd. Given that you will only be using a cd when you NEED mitigation, it outweighs the constant stats of ~80 mastery/stm/etc. Not to mention the effectiveness of the belt tinker. Rocket boosts, Cardboard Assassin, and the 20k absorb shield give you the ability to tailor your character to the fight." Engineering used properly outweights the negligible stat benefits from the other stuff; however, it does require effective use and play to work properly.