warrior meta gem, which one?

[Azain]

so with new changes in strats/specs/gear coming out, i'm looking for some general opinions as to meta gems.

i used relentless with boar's in s1 and s2, and think it a very powerful combo. given the lack of hit from the standard pvp set, many warriors are going for surefooted with swift. i will lay out a few combos, let me know what you think or what you have seen from experience...

surefooted + swift
10 hit rating, 5% root/snare resist, 24 attack power, speed increase

boar's speed + relentless
9 stamina, speed increase, 12 agility, 3% increased crit damage

boar's speed + enigmatic
9 stamina, speed increase, 12 crit rating, 5% root/snare resist

boar's speed + powerful
9 stamina, speed increase, 18 stamina, 5% stun resist

boar's speed + brutal
9 stamina, speed increase, 3 melee damage, chance to stun

boar's speed + thundering
9 stamina, speed increase, chance to increase melee/range attack speed

now, from all these let me say you must have a speed increase, so surefooted only affords you swift skyfire. also, brutal and thundering remain somewhat untested from initial release, but general consensus from there is that there a too low a proc rate/buff rate/hidden cooldown. brutal is more for rogues imo, but could be useful on something like a sword or axe warrior, as a random interrupt which will never see DR. rumor also is that its 2 seconds now or was on ptr or something? thundering with flurry and mongoose and some haste trinkets/gear could been seen as useful, but overall i think its meh.

bringing us to the heavy hitters. obviously as warriors we don't mind being stunned or rooted because of 2nd wind, but being chained CC is fairly annoying. if you are short on hit, surefooted + swift combo is probably the way to go. relentless offers a nice damage increase for crits, especially when accounting for armor pen and bigger numbers. enigmatic is great if you don't need the hit, as you gain crit and some stam, and also have that 5% snare/root resist to avoid some CC, however this requires more red and yellow, and for people who stack inscribed for steady, gemming your gear to accommodate this meta becomes a problem. last is powerful, more for casters perhaps, but with battlemater's trinket and possibly last stand, stacking some stam and resil as a warrior ensures that you will never be killed unless your healer is oom or completely locked down, which presents a very nice feeling.

as i said i have been boars + relentless, although im considering the switch to enigmatic even tho i generally play with a pally, and will definitely do so if resisted effects ever proc things like 2nd wind. however this will force me into a +hit gem or perhaps if im lucky something like a tsunami talisman on down the line, since i have seen some special ability misses when hovering at 5.5%

[Azain]

wow not a single reply...assclowns all of you.

anyway, picked up the helm last night and went with enigmatic, haven't done any arenas in a week cuz of the holiday, but i will be testing it out in the next few days and compare with the former relentless.

i guess i'll pose this to anyone: is there any updated literature on brutal/thundering? or has anyone considered any of the options in the op?

[skinminer]

Got Surefooted + Enigmatic Skyfire for +10% less chance to get slowed etc. but I am a hunter

P.S. Yes they stack

[Azain]

Got Surefooted + Enigmatic Skyfire for +10% less chance to get slowed etc. but I am a hunter

P.S. Yes they stack

i wasn't aware they did stack, i thought i remembered reading they don't. do you have a link or something to this?

also for a warrior that's not viable as i lose movement speed bonus, for pallies or rogues or any other class that has movement talent i'm sure its fine, but the two formerly mentioned classes don't have much of an issue with CC removal lol.

[Azain]

nvm, after some research i found it. interesting that they do stack, however again that is still not an option :P

[Rambobarbq]

i went boar speed enigmatic.

go with what you think will fit your playstyle, i prefer crit over a minor ap boost fo 24

[Sacristar]

surefooted + swift skyfire (2 yellow + 1 red)
10 hit rating, 5% root/snare resist, 24 attack power, speed increase
--> a very popular combination for good reasons: one of the easiest socketing requirements to activate the meta, 3,? extra dps from the 24 ap (with current top arena warriors sitting on 260 dps unbuffed, that's not insubstantial), 10 hit rating to help compensate for the lower hitrating on S3 gear and snare/root resist, you get a lot of value for your money. on the other hand, surefooted isn't the cheapest of enchants to get.

boar's speed + relentless earthstorm (2 red + 2 yellow + 2 blue)
9 stamina, speed increase, 12 agility, 3% increased crit damage
--> I'm no theorycrafter myself but if I have to believe the comments on wowhead, this meta only becomes worth it after 32.5% crit. Now I know that's a mark you'll likely hit with current arena gear and zerker stance but once you factor resillience in, you don't even come close to hitting that mark. With lvl 70 warriors requiring 33 agility for 1% crit, 12 agility isn't that lovely either.

boar's speed + enigmatic skyfire (more red then yellow)
9 stamina, speed increase, 12 crit rating, 5% root/snare resist
--> a nice balance of desirable stats but the socket requirements may pose a problem. personally I would opt for surefooted + swift skyfire over this one.

boar's speed + powerful earthstorm (3 blue)
9 stamina, speed increase, 18 stamina, 5% stun resist
--> the one I'm going for. having been a stamina oriented pvp'er pre-tbc I know how good stamina is vs pure ap/crit. second wind is pretty sweet but resisting a stun alltogether is still better, and some warriors even go without second wind in favor of other more dps oriented talents. perhaps not the best choice in arena but then I don't get to play much arena :P if your arena setup allows for you to be more dps oriented then I'd go surefooted + swift skyfire instead of this one.

boar's speed + brutal earthstorm (2 red + 2 yellow + 2 blue)
9 stamina, speed increase, 3 melee damage, chance to stun
--> the chance to stun is so low it's not worth considering and 3 melee damage is only good for fast weapon speed weapons. druids in catform get a nice dps boost from it with their 1.0 attack speed, and maybe dagger rogues won't do bad with this meta either, for druids in bearform and mace/sword/fist rogues this is already not worth it anymore so you can guess what good it'll do to us warriors with our 3.5-3.8 weapon speed 2handers =)

boar's speed + thundering skyfire (2 red + 2 yellow + 2 blue)
9 stamina, speed increase, chance to increase melee/range attack speed
--> 0.9 proc per minute, 15.23% increased attack speed for 4/6/10 seconds (going by the comments on wowhead, it used to proc for 6 seconds, but now it only procs for 4 seconds and apparently they expect to see it buffed to 10 seconds)? thx but no thx.

[Rambobarbq]

as a jewelcrafter all i had to do for the enigmatic/boar speed is placing a +24 AP gem on my bracer and voila !

[Azain]

as a jewelcrafter all i had to do for the enigmatic/boar speed is placing a +24 AP gem on my bracer and voila !

i am a JC'er as well. threw 24 ap and 12 crit in my shoulders, pvp gems in chest, and probably gonna use 18 stam in the bracers, losing 2 str 4 resil for 12 stam is well worth it (as i have a steady in there now). however i'm most likely going to go boar's with enigmatic, i like to keep some stam as well.

as for thundering

boar's speed + thundering skyfire (2 red + 2 yellow + 2 blue)
9 stamina, speed increase, chance to increase melee/range attack speed
--> 0.9 proc per minute, 15.23% increased attack speed for 4/6/10 seconds (going by the comments on wowhead, it used to proc for 6 seconds, but now it only procs for 4 seconds and apparently they expect to see it buffed to 10 seconds)? thx but no thx.

if that is correct no one else thinks that is GG?! 15.23% is the equiv of a 3/5 flurry, and 10 seconds is really nice. assume then 0.9ppm but with instants and possibly WF, you could have another flurry up in a typical 33/28 spec, or gain flurry from a 41/20 spec. and if it stacks with flurry, the days of 30% ias from flurry will be back, to me that would be amazing, far better than 5% root/snare resist or even 5% stun resist. only thing that would ruin this gem at 15.23% for 10 seconds would be if there was a hidden cooldown.