The jewelcrafting market on my realm Garona is starting to heat up. And I%26#39;m starting to get new gear with sockets. So what are the best gems for feral druids to be using? As always, I rely on Toskk to help me out. I%26#39;m going to focus on the rare quality gems, but uncommons and epics follow the same basic names and cuts.
One caveat about this table: many recipes for rare gems are currently missing from the game. The gems themselves are in the database, but no one has found a recipe to cut them. My guess is it%26#39;s an oversight and the missing patterns will be added soon. In the meantime I%26#39;ve listed the best available, cuttable gem below.
Bear Tank gems
Red: +6 Agility / +9 Stamina Shifting Shadow Crystal (85ms)
Yellow: +8 Defense / +12 Stamina Enduring Forest Emerald (101ms)
Blue: +24 Stamina Solid Sky Sapphire (172ms)
Meta: +32 Stamina, 2% armor Austere Earthsiege Diamond (229ms +)
%26#0160;%26#0160;%26#0160;%26#0160; or +32 Stamina, 2% spell damage reduction Effulgent Skyflare Diamond (229ms +)
For red gems bears really want Shifting Twilight Opal (114ms) but the cut is currently missing. The uncommon gem is better than any other rare gem option.
Interesting choice for the meta gem. If the 2% armor is applied before the bear multiplier it%26#39;ll be the clear choice. It%26#39;s not. Otherwise the spell damage reduction could be an interesting little help in an area we have problems with.
Cat DPS gems
Red: +16 Strength.%26#0160;Bold Scarlet Ruby (37.31)
Yellow:%26#0160; +16 Attack Power / +8 Hit.%26#0160;Pristine Monarch Topaz (28.01)
Blue: +16 Attack Power / +12 Stamina. Balanced Twilight Opal (16.00)
Meta: +21 Agility / +3% crit damage. Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (107.4)
Again, ferals are disadvantaged by the missing cuts. For yellow we want the Etched Noble Topaz (30.40) and for blue we want Sovereign Twilight Opal (18.66), but those gems cannot currently be cut. For uncommon gems there is an Etched Huge Citrine and Sovereign Shadow Crystal available.
Hybrid gems
Red: +16 Agility. Delicate Scarlet Ruby (55ms / 30.68)
Yellow: +8 Hit / +12 Stamina. Vivid Forest Emerald (86ms / 11.75)
Blue: +6 Agility / +9 Stamina Shifting Shadow Crystal (85ms / 11.50)
Meta: +21 Agility / +3% crit damage. Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (72ms / 107.4)
Gems that are a compromise between tanking and DPS so you can use them in gear for both roles. Once Shifting Twilight Opal gets in the game that will be a better choice for blue.
Discussion
Not much changed for feral gems in Wrath of the Lich King. The big difference is cats now favour strength over agility, but otherwise choices stay mostly the same. Surprisingly defense is still the best pure tank option for bears in yellow sockets despite us not needing it anymore for crit immunity.
I listed rare gems above, but uncommons will also work just fine too. Be on the lookout for %26quot;perfect%26quot; uncommon gems: they%26#39;re halfway between uncommon and rare gems in stats and seem to be going for about half the price of a rare. And as in Burning Crusade, there%26#39;s no
need to necessarily match socket colour: weigh the value of the socket
bonus vs. the cost of using a less than ideal gem.