Epic Gems and Me
Posted 08-26-2008 at 11:02 AM by Thireas
I don't think epic gems are worth it. 160-200g for an extra three stamina is ridiculous.
That said, I'm considering upgrading my [item]Solid Star of Elune[/item]s to [item]Solid Empyrean Sapphire[/item]s. Why? For no other reason than to pimp out my toon as much as possible. Having 12 non-meta gem slots to fill with SES's, that would gain me 37.8 stamina (I don't really know how that rounds). Which is approximately another 378 health. I could then upgrade my [item]Clefthide Leg Armor[/item] to [item]Nethercleft Leg Armor[/item] (gaining another 105 health in the process).
Add this to my current unbuffed health of 15554, and you get about 16037 health. Hooray for breaking the 16k mark.
Like I said, however, this will come at a rather steep price. Let's say each of the gems (uncut, as I'm a Jewelcrafter) costs you 200g - a pretty cheap price, at least on my server. WowEcon is telling me that the median for a Nethercleft Leg Armor is 325g, but let's say you get one cheap at 250g. That's 12 * 200 + 250 = 2650g. So, what's the health to gold ratio? 483/2650 = ~.18 health per gold. For every 100g, you get 18 health out of this deal.
Like I said at the start, it's pretty ridiculous. Still, that means that for about 10 daily quests, you can get the cash for 18 health. If you do all your dailies every day (assume an average of 10g per daily completed), then that's 250g per day. About 10 days of that, plus selling trash loot you find should get you enough money to fund this experiment.
I rarely do more than 10-11 dailies per day, (when I do them at all) so it would be more like 25 days - approximately three and a half weeks of doing dailies, if I do them every day - to acquire the funds for this little project. For me, it would be about 19.3 health per day.
I could be leveling my shaman instead... or sending her the money for her epic mount.
Quick Update...
That said, I'm considering upgrading my [item]Solid Star of Elune[/item]s to [item]Solid Empyrean Sapphire[/item]s. Why? For no other reason than to pimp out my toon as much as possible. Having 12 non-meta gem slots to fill with SES's, that would gain me 37.8 stamina (I don't really know how that rounds). Which is approximately another 378 health. I could then upgrade my [item]Clefthide Leg Armor[/item] to [item]Nethercleft Leg Armor[/item] (gaining another 105 health in the process).
Add this to my current unbuffed health of 15554, and you get about 16037 health. Hooray for breaking the 16k mark.
Like I said, however, this will come at a rather steep price. Let's say each of the gems (uncut, as I'm a Jewelcrafter) costs you 200g - a pretty cheap price, at least on my server. WowEcon is telling me that the median for a Nethercleft Leg Armor is 325g, but let's say you get one cheap at 250g. That's 12 * 200 + 250 = 2650g. So, what's the health to gold ratio? 483/2650 = ~.18 health per gold. For every 100g, you get 18 health out of this deal.
Like I said at the start, it's pretty ridiculous. Still, that means that for about 10 daily quests, you can get the cash for 18 health. If you do all your dailies every day (assume an average of 10g per daily completed), then that's 250g per day. About 10 days of that, plus selling trash loot you find should get you enough money to fund this experiment.
I rarely do more than 10-11 dailies per day, (when I do them at all) so it would be more like 25 days - approximately three and a half weeks of doing dailies, if I do them every day - to acquire the funds for this little project. For me, it would be about 19.3 health per day.
I could be leveling my shaman instead... or sending her the money for her epic mount.
Quick Update...
Looks like ZA this Thursday! Maybe we'll down the big D-Hawk and get a look at Hex Lord.
Total Comments 16
Comments
 | I just use my badges I get from doing heroics/kara to fund my extra epic gems. I don't know where you are on progression, but Mag, MH, and BT are all good sources of epic gems. I don't seen any pressing need in your situation to hit 16k, unless you are looking at tanking the end of BT or sunwell (even then, that might be high). I hit 16k eventually, but was simply as we went. I didn't push to replace all my gems with it. |
Posted 08-26-2008 at 11:29 AM by jere  |
| |  I'm with Jere - my badges just go to gems. I see badges as being "cheaper" than gold, so 15 badges for an epic gem is cheaper than the 30 whatever gold for a regular solid star. |
| Posted 08-26-2008 at 11:55 AM by Alent |
| | That is a good point, and I think I'd be the same way at this point (I have pretty much all the badge gear I want), except for the fact that I don't really run heroics or Kara regularly any more. I haven't been raiding much in the past weeks, partly due to the fact that I got a little tired of kara, and partly due to the fact that my girlfriend is now raiding on my account with her priest. Also, I've been leveling a shaman in my spare time, as opposed to running heroics. She goes when there's Kara, I go when there's ZA or Gruul (usually only ZA, as we don't really do Gruul). And, as we know, ZA and Gruul aren't quite the badge piņata that Kara is. I think I currently have 6-10 badges. |
| Posted 08-26-2008 at 12:13 PM by Thireas |
| | If you're just looking to spend gold for the sake of spending gold, I'd suggest saving it to spend on leveling professions in Wrath. |
| Posted 08-26-2008 at 12:30 PM by Zigystardust |
| | ZA is (1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 3) = 13 badges for a full run. It is almost an epic gem by itself and can be run 2-3 times per week depending on how the resets fall. One gruul run and one ZA run (once you get it mastered) will easily become an epic gem per week. Kara is definitely better. While I know you don't really fancy heroics, consider the following options: 1. Heroic Shattered halls is a 30-45 min run for the average group and gives 5 badges (+2 more if it is the daily quest). 2. Botanica is also 5 badges and usually doesn't run over an hour (again +2 if it is the daily). Of course none of those beat the 22 badges from kara for 2.5-3.5 hours of time (depends on the group), but they are maybe less painful alternatives. |
| Posted 08-26-2008 at 12:37 PM by jere |
| | I am cheap, I will only put epic gems in pieces that I am confident will not be replaced till the xpac or beyond. Red bealt of abttle, nynja tabbi boots, bulwark of ancient kings. Other gear that I am still improving gets normal gems. Might be because the bastards are charging 400 gold plus for epic gems on my server  |
| Posted 08-26-2008 at 12:57 PM by Tatt |
| | Jere, the problem is that we don't have ZA or Gruul's on farm. We don't have the people to reliably farm Gruul, and ZA is progression for us. Also, the times you give for Heroic SH and Heroic Bot seem a little on the low side. I dread going back into SH for my Test of the Naaru quest... it's such a pain (admittedly, I haven't done it in a while, and I probably outgear it a little more than I did previously, but still). It's not that I don't like heroics, it's that I usually don't want to PuG them. If some guildies are getting a run together and need a tank, I'll tag along, but that honestly doesn't happen too often in a guild of 25-ish players. |
| Posted 08-26-2008 at 02:37 PM by Thireas |
| |  if u have all the badge gear u want/need go ahead and spend the badges otherwise drop some cash its now like its real money anyway  doing all the daylies will get u an epic gem a day and some change. i dont mind spending money on my toon to give him an edge over equally geared toonz. but again thats just me  |
| Posted 08-26-2008 at 03:52 PM by Kyvaan |
| | I look at money In WoW a bit differently. I'm somewhat of a casual player (as in I don't play every day and those days I do its only for a couple of hours). As a result everything that's a gold value gets converted to me into a time value. I've found for me on all my toons (epic'd out feral druid, epic'd out affliction warlock, and my Paladin who's in blues/epics) It takes me one hour to farm 100 gold. This is pretty much by any means (Farming primals, doing quests/dailies etc.) As a result I use this conversion...if the gems are going to cost you 2600 gold that's 26 hours of WoW playtime... Just something to consider |
| Posted 08-26-2008 at 06:34 PM by Snurf |
| | I have epic gems in maybe two items total, simply because I cannot motivate myself to fork out such large amounts of gold for such small upgrades. Badges are out of the question as well because frankly, trying to get all the good badge gear for both tanking and DPS while only being able to do anything substantial on weekends sucks. With Wrath on the near horizon, if blue gems are not hurting you (and unless you're in Sunwell they're really not) then just save the money to level your professions and such. That said, if I happen to get any more drops from BT or Hyjal from now until Wrath they are almost certainly getting epic gems in them. |
Posted 08-27-2008 at 02:02 AM by Arrivan  |
| |  I think for me that would solely depend on how soon it seems I will replace the to be gemmed item. Stuff like very good badge gear, I would definitely gem epic, but T4 or random epics that will get replaced by badge gear sooner or later I would just go with SSE. |
| Posted 08-27-2008 at 04:46 AM by Edge |
| | Yeah, once I hit 15 badges, I'll probably blow them on an epic gem for one of my pieces that wouldn't be replaced by anything on my "loots I want from ZA" list. The first one will probably be in my [item]Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer[/item], because it's been around forever, and it will be around forever. |
| Posted 08-27-2008 at 07:39 AM by Thireas |
| | Like others said I put epic gems on my main spec gear (tanking) when I reach my personal progression ceiling. Since I'm semi-casual and don't generally do 25-mans my ceiling is full badge gear or ZA gear. These items get epic gems, while all tank gear up to that point gets blues. It's handy in that respect that the top badge gear has fewer sockets. I keep also a fury set with whatever gear comes my way, and currently this is almost all epic plate with green quality gems. When it's my off-spec, cost matters. My attitude to time is when I have quality time to put in WoW I do instances and stay poor. When I have scraps of time I farm stuff and make money. So the less chance I have to do instances the more I'm able to buy gear or gems, which is good in a way. |
| Posted 08-27-2008 at 07:41 AM by Machus |
| | Gems make a big difference in my gear. I have just 1 piece of t6 gear, but with gems and such, I'm geared to tank all of MH and BT. However, I do have many toons that run various heroics and raids, so I can spare the badges for gems. At this point in time as well, it is indeed rather pointless to buy epic gems, I'd admit. |
| Posted 08-29-2008 at 07:32 AM by Elyvern |
| | I'll put epic gems in mainspec gear (tanking) that is the top I'm going to get for my level of raiding commitment (10-man). Does the 30 stamina make a material difference? No. Does the statement that you put in your tank the best investment possible make a material difference for you and your group? You bet! |
| Posted 09-04-2008 at 07:30 PM by Machus |
| | Epic gems are kind of a hard topic, but look at it this way: if you were going to cut down and carve a block of marble into a statue, and this was going to be a focal point of your life, a major accomplishment, the result of innumerable hours of work, would you get to the fine details and say "ah well, good enough" when you know you could do better? Not to stand on a soap box but I've payed over 2 thousand gold for a trinket that had +3 stamina more than my last one. [Read, Darkmoon card: vengeance over Gnomish chickenizer] Now that may seem dumb, but if the Commendation had never have come out, I would have had the best tanking stamina trinket in the game. It's all about the fine details. |
| Posted 09-10-2008 at 11:45 PM by thedrawrf |
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