The State of Gems

[Onomarl]

Will Blizzard be doing anything to address the current state of gems in the game? What I mean of course is, the fact that inferno's go for anywhere from 70-150g on my server whereas pretty much all other gems almost never get above 20. It's so bad that ocean sapphires and such often times it's more profitable just to vendor the countless stacks of them. Will there be any attempt to balance gems more or make other gems more viable? I don't know about everyone else but the current system seems kind of silly to me.

[thedingleberry]

Personally, I like that all non-red gems are dirt cheap. Makes gemming my tank offspec very inexpensive.

[Kaneiac]

It'd be interesting to see if they could move each primary stat to a different color, but I think that'd open up more issues than we have now.

[mysticx]

I agree, Blizz should IMO spread the primary stats across gem colours (STR on red, AGI on yellow, INT on blue, something like that), now every class' primary-stat gems are red and the rest are sub-optimal at best (And worthless otherwise)...

When prospecting becomes a slot machine (Red is huge profit, rest is loss), something isn't quite "working as intended", unless intended means that 5/6 of the gem colours are nigh-useless.

[Onomarl]

My mainspec is tank spec, however I'd be completely fine if gems were 2-4 times their current prices. As a pretty apt jewelcrafter, I move anywhere from 5-30k ore a week. I have a full guild vault tab now with all the useless gems. My only hope is that in Mists their prices will rise slightly and profit will be made. However, all color gems should have a viable and usable gem cut and a demand for them. It shouldn't just be that inferno rubies are the only gem used.

[Deleted]

i'd prefer it if they just removed primary stats from gems all together, i mean what kind of choice is it between your main stat that you try to boost as much as possible because it's clearly better, and choosing between haste/mastery/spirit/crit ? for most dps if you inspect them they have like 12-13 red gems and only 1-2 orange to match bonuses that either give the same intellect with extra secondary stat or losing small amount of intellect for a secondary stat

to me, gemming is only interesting on tanks, where it has a tangible effect on trinket and gear choices

[PBitt]

I agree, Blizz should IMO spread the primary stats across gem colours (STR on red, AGI on yellow, INT on blue, something like that), now every class' primary-stat gems are red and the rest are sub-optimal at best (And worthless otherwise)...

When prospecting becomes a slot machine (Red is huge profit, rest is loss), something isn't quite "working as intended", unless intended means that 5/6 of the gem colours are nigh-useless.

What this guy said. It is kind of silly, especially with the values of stacking the primary stats are for every dps spec, that the most needed gems are all one color for most players, and it's not like that color is any easier to come by than the others.

[shokter]

They should up the socket bonuses to make hybrid gems more attractive. Or, yknow...don't. No skin off my back.

[Onomarl]

425 dream emeralds... I mean what DO I do with all those? Lol

[beanman12345]

i'd prefer it if they just removed primary stats from gems all together, i mean what kind of choice is it between your main stat that you try to boost as much as possible because it's clearly better, and choosing between haste/mastery/spirit/crit ? for most dps if you inspect them they have like 12-13 red gems and only 1-2 orange to match bonuses that either give the same intellect with extra secondary stat or losing small amount of intellect for a secondary stat

to me, gemming is only interesting on tanks, where it has a tangible effect on trinket and gear choices

Not a bad idea. Would make gemming a bit more meaningful and about choice.

[Galbrei]

I agree, Blizz should IMO spread the primary stats across gem colours (STR on red, AGI on yellow, INT on blue, something like that), now every class' primary-stat gems are red and the rest are sub-optimal at best (And worthless otherwise)...

When prospecting becomes a slot machine (Red is huge profit, rest is loss), something isn't quite "working as intended", unless intended means that 5/6 of the gem colours are nigh-useless.

If we do that then we risk making gem colors even more obsolete then it is atm. If Yellow is the Agi color then Blizzard better make every single rogue gear socket yellow because even if they don't people are never going to slap in a Int or Str gem in it just to please the requirements, unless the socket bonus is ridiculously high, that is.

[foxHeart]

425 dream emeralds... I mean what DO I do with all those? Lol

Puissant Dream Emerald yw
Also, this doesn't really have anything to do with the op, but it does with the current state of gems in another sense - there's no reason for gems to exist at the moment. I realize it's the final tier of an expansion so we're gonna see red sockets out the ass with primary stat socket bonuses, but honestly? Gems serve absolutely no purpose at the moment other than to be a gold sink. They're not interesting because there are no choices to be made. It's almost always a red socket with the occasional yellow here and there.

[WarpKnight]

It'd be interesting to see if they could move each primary stat to a different color, but I think that'd open up more issues than we have now.

This is a cool idea. What issues would come of this, that come to your mind?

Int blue, Strength red, Agility yellow. Makes sense already.

[Kaneiac]

This is a cool idea. What issues would come of this, that come to your mind?

Int blue, Strength red, Agility yellow. Makes sense already.

Well, as already stated, they'd have to rework the gem bonus system. If Strength was tied to red gems, for example, then there'd be absolutely no benefit to having red gem slots on healer gear, else they'd just always skip the slot bonuses.

I guess it'd be possible if they worked it sort of like...

Blue - Int
Red - Str
Yellow - Agil

And then had...

Purple - Int Hybrids
Green - Agil Hybrids
Orange - Str Hybrids

Or some system like that, but there would still be colors that are entirely useless to some classes.

[Marxman]

It'd be interesting to see if they could move each primary stat to a different color, but I think that'd open up more issues than we have now.

Such as?

-It would reduce the cost of Red gems, which is a good thing.
-It would increase the cost of Blue, Yellow, and Green gems, which is a good thing.
-As a consequence of the above 2 effects, the gem market would be much less cut-throat because there's a larger diversity of viable items to craft and sell, as opposed to the same 7 or 8 cuts being the only viable cuts for all 10 classes.

[xskarma]

I can pretty much guarantee you that this would make blue gems the new red, or to a degree at least. I sell INT gems about twice as much as STR or AGI, because DPS casters and healers both use INT gems, and there are simply more of them combined.

I do kinda like the idea to be honest, it would spread gems a bit more evenly, and a bad yield of reds from a load of ore would be less of a problem. They'd have to redo the entire gem build though, again, not sure Blizz wants that head ache again. There were a fair few complaints when they redid things last time with the stat changes.

[Sinndra]

I can pretty much guarantee you that this would make blue gems the new red, or to a degree at least. I sell INT gems about twice as much as STR or AGI, because DPS casters and healers both use INT gems, and there are simply more of them combined.

just to elaborate a little on this.. one change that is coming in Mists is that Int no longer increases mana pools, and mana is set at a per level basis. meaning once you hit lvl 90.. thats it for mana.. no amount of gemming or chanting will change that. thus.. spirit will have a new light shining on it. spirit right now is blue.. so for healers they are gonna be looking into at least a couple of spirit gems until things settle down a bit. but this change alone should start to push healers away from being just another caster. there will be choice in this respect.. heal hard but short.. or long but weak. in a general concept of course.

and from what im reading here.. is that nobody wants the hybrid cuts to change the color they are now.. but that the pure cuts should be distributed among the color scheme instead of all being red. making socket colors more interesting in that you could still use hybrid cuts that give a bit of main stat + a second stat. a player could still have red sockets on their gear.. they would simply look to the purple or orange hybrid cuts, provided the socket bonus was worth matching, instead of seeing red and going.. well thats my main stat gem cut no question there.

[Deleted]

OR they could just remove strength, agi and intel gems which would solve the problem since the only reason red gems are used is because those primary stats are so over powered compared to the rest

[Vulpei]

Or they could make secondary stats worth more so people don't stack straight primary.

[xskarma]

OR they could just remove strength, agi and intel gems which would solve the problem since the only reason red gems are used is because those primary stats are so over powered compared to the rest

Well Blizz did say they will be trying to make secondary stats more attractive in Mists, so that might be fixed in other ways too.

I just asked in /g how they would feel about this, and there was a pretty unanimous NO to the plan. Most felt that changing stuff for gems again would be just too much of a pain to deal with.