Gemming for 3.2
Here it is, a more thorough reply to the recent question concerning armor penetration and agility. I know this has been on a lot of people’s minds lately – everyone appears to be asking the same thing. How do I gem? When do I switch?
Short answer: Fractured Cardinal Ruby and Nightmare Tear for your meta requirement.
My experience has been that, especially with the gear that is available in 3.2, armor penetration is the way to gem.
I would never recommend gemming strength, with everything else it’s not because attack power isn’t a good thing, it all has to do with relative values, and in any circumstance you’ll either have agility or armor penetration surpass strength on a point-for-point basis. Speaking of relative values, they’re not concrete. The value of one stat changes depending on what gear you have, what set bonuses you have, your idol, your buffs, and even your style and/or the type of boss fight. Sound complicated? It is. I haven’t gone through a good agility vs. armor penetration post yet because it requires a surprising amount of theorycraft (math) to explain, and right now because it’s so easy to get Conquest gear, the lazy part of me is saying.. there’s just no reason to any more. If your stats are low you might want to use cheep agility gems and stack armor penetration as you acquire pieces in the new instance and from emblems.
So let’s go over what stats affect for us ferals a moment.
Agility increases attack power and critical chance, instead of simply the attack power increase from strength. You really need both, but critical strikes are amazing for druids because of 2 things, one being the change to Rip now being able to crit, and the other is because when we do crit, we get more combo points. In a very short amount of time, with over 50% crit chance, I’ll have enough combo points to get my Savage Roar and Rip going and have some to spare for a Ferocious Bite before reapplying my Rip. FB crits for around 12k, and is more likely to result in a crit than not. Being able to FB in your cycle is going to benefit your DPS generously. Avoiding downtime on Rip is likewise needed.
If you’re over 50% crit chance you need agility slightly less because of lost combo points. This is where we get into armor penetration. Armor penetration is like TBC hit rating on crack. You’re taking a a boss with 2 tonnes of platemail and turning them into a squishy clothy. Nomming their butt after removing their legplates is so much more effective. But in all seriousness, even with good stats the relative value is at most ~ .05% in favor of armor penetration. This is why you’ll see me with agility gems in certain slots, until I finish collecting my tank and dps gear. I’m not going to use agility any more, I’m just not going to bother regemming until I upgrade, either.
If you want to see a sample of stat weighting, check here. This applies to pre-ToC Best-in-slot, and is according to Nightcrowler, the FeralbyNight author. He’s a really good source of info, you can read up at elitist jerks Here.
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Dear Ilaria,
Thanks for making this clear, this helped me, my guildy and some other ferals on my realm a lot, since like I said they had no clue what to actualy gem for in 3.2.
Again thanks and I’ll keep checking this site for new cat updates/changes in the near future, the next content patch for example, although I rather want that Blizzard waits before launching the next one.
Something I should have mentioned, as well, is that when comparing agility and armor penetration, you need to consider a few things. Do you have the grim toll, or mjolnir rune arpen trinket? They’re not strictly required to see an advantage, I’ve seen someone get results without them, but they really help break you into solid Arpen numbers.. also, you’ll notice some fights benefit more than others. Moving fights generally benefit more from agility, due to the higher AP and crit on your Rip damage, while still fights benefit from Armor pen. Also, Agility provides more burst and Armor pen more consistency. All this things factor into what you’ll personally find more appealing. My own experience has been that the armor penetration is worth taking, that the loss on my Rip damage is not great enough overall to affect that. If I had the opportunity to I’d try making an offset with agility stacked just for particular fights. I’ve got a lot to work on though so that’s unlikely.