Expensive gems?Follow

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

A little background: I relatively recently hit 80 on my first toon, holy pally. Loving the play style and I've been PUGging a ton of raids. I'm guildless, planning on staying that way (because I'm unable to schedule to a set few days / times that I can definitely be on), and don't care about World Firsts or seeing content ASAP.

I'm trying to gem correctly - intellect first - but the price difference between blue gems and purple gems is HUGE for what I see as a relatively insignificant increase in stats (1 - 3 additional points in most cases). I can understand this probably makes a difference to the top-end raiders and people looking to join great guilds. Does it really matter that much for me? I just got into my first ICC Lower PUG about 3 weeks ago and just this week did my first ToC 25, if that gives you an idea of my progress.

Note: I can afford the purple gems (although regemming everything would be expensive), but I'm a mount collector and try to save everything.

My armory is below:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Alleria&n=Breelyssa

Please ignore the green gems in the chest, the chest piece will be replaced imminently as I just got a Trophy from ToC 25.

Any other insights or suggestions are welcome, as I've pretty much gone through my journey to 80 with no "mentor". I'm trying to find ways to pick up more haste as I'm only around 262 and I hear that 600 is a good target number. My back piece is the only thing not enchanted, and it will be soon for haste.

Playing casually you will still be able to gear up to at least triumph (ilvl245) gear relatively quickly, just doing heroics, the odd pug raid and weekly raid quest. However, getting the current tier of gear will take you longer although you'll get the pieces in the end.

I would say when you get a decent piece that you know you will keep for a while (the Triumph badge shoulders for example, or even proper t9 if you get lucky with an emblem in PuG ToC25) put epic gems in it, but anything you think might be replaced, stick lesser quality gems in it and don't go for the top level enchant. The item level you want to be aiming at for epic gems is 245 (or 251 if you get into some ICC10 pugs), anything else you can replace to that level fairly easily.

Don't forget you dont have to buy epic gems for hundreds of gold from the AH. You can get uncut gems for honor (10k a pop), and you can get loads of honor from Wintergrasp. Just doing the weekly quests and winning WG will probably get you enough honor for an epic, so thats 1 epic gem a week right there. You can also trade in badges, wintergrasp marks, and stone keepers shards for honor. Once you have your gem, just hit up the trade channel and a Jewelcrafter will probably charge you ~10g to cut it for you.

As a Paladin I collect two offsets of gear. I generally don't enchant and gem an offset piece until I need to use it (even if I have the gems in the bank). With the flow of gear nowadays it is very possible to replace and offset piece of gear before you even use it, so you don't want to be throwing your gold down the pan so easily :)

Edited, Jan 21st 2010 7:18pm by Chamual

Edited, Jan 21st 2010 7:18pm by Chamual

You can also PvP in your free time for Honor points ===> trade honor points for Gems in Stormwind.

On all my alts, I put "Perfect" green-level gems in green/blue gear, blue-level gems in epics up to 226 (T8 level), and epics ONLY in 232 or higher (T9 level) because I don't expect them to gear up much past that.

If you're getting into ICC and ToC pugs, save your money for the gems and enchants for that stuff.

And I have to suggest you pick up the Heroism emblem Libram of Renewal. It's still the best holy libram.

That is honestly a solid gemming strategy. Even if you expect to gear up higher just based on how long gear will last at those gear levels. I could see epics in really well itemized T8 level gear but other wise ya spot on.