Maximize your Stats in WoW using JewelCrafting

Maximizing your stats isn’t just about loading one particular aspect such as attack power as high as it will go. In order to properly maximize your stats you need to learn more about what stats you need and exactly how much of them you will require. Firstly, if you are a tank, you main concentration should be on defense. Until you have enough defense you will be unable to tank in any instance or raid at all so it is vitally important you get the right crafted gear, gems and enchants before you begin. Secondly you should work on your expertise rating up to the value of 26 expertise skill and finally you can ensure your hit rating id hard hit capped (or at least poison hit capped for rogues). Once you have these three main stats optimized to their ideal number, you can work on stockpiling your main stats such as Agility or Strength.

Many players of the World of Warcraft game have given up their gathering profession in favor JewelCrafting. This means you will now see many combinations such as Leatherworking and Jewel Crafting or Blacksmithing and Jewel Crafting. This is particularly popular amongst raiders because of the flexibility the Jewel Crafting profession provides allowing the player to better maximize their stats.

JewelCrafting provides one key benefit for players known as “Dragon’s Eye” gems. These gems are of epic quality and were available to Jewel Crafters only even before epic quality gems were made readily available in patch 3.2. Even now that epic quality gems can be obtained through prospecting titanium ore or transmuting rare gems, Dragon’s Eye gems still provide the biggest stat improvements. When you compare a Delicate Dragon’s Eye gem to a Delicate Cardinal Ruby you can clearly see the Dragon’s Eye gem provides 14 more Agility than the regular Epic gem. This value is almost as much as the cardinal Ruby provides itself and Jewel Crafter’s can obtain up to three of these fantastic gems per gear set. While these gems are no longer prismatic they can still provide the necessary boost for players to free up other gems and enchants and achieve their caps sooner in defense, expertise and hit.

For example, if you needed 6 more expertise skill to reach 26 total expertise you could gem one Precise Dragon’s Eye (+34 Expertise) and one Precise Cardinal Ruby (+20 expertise). This would make a total of 54 expertise rating which would translate into roughly 6.75 expertise skill allowing you to reach your goal quite comfortably. However, without the Dragon’s eye gems you would be unable to obtain 6 expertise with just two gems. Two normal Epic gems would only provide +40 expertise ratings which makes approximately 5 expertise skill. That means you would have to socket a third expertise gem to bring the total up to 60 expertise rating (7.5 expertise skill). As you can see, with Jewel Crafting you only exceed 6 skill by 0.75 whereas without it you need an extra socket and exceed the cap by a whole 1.5 skill. This is highly wasteful and would be much better spent on other stats such as Agility.

So, with JewelCrafting you are able to reach your expertise cap quickly by arranging your gems appropriately. Let us assume you still have one red socket and one yellow socket to spare, and you have gemmed for expertise as per the previous example with a Dragon’s Eye. Using just one Dragon’s Eye gem means you still have two Dragon’s Eye gems you can use in your gear set. After your expertise is capped, you will need to work on your hit rating and therefore it’s a good idea to socket the yellow slot with a hit rating gem to help you reach the cap until you get better gear. Since you have two slots left you can use a Rigid Dragon’s Eye (+34 hit rating) in the yellow slot allowing you to either use a split orange hit gem in the red slot or a full red gem for your main stats. If you are a rogue for example, you can use a Delicate Dragon’s Eye (+34 Agility) in the red slot. Therefore you have gained the ability to become expertise capped (0.75 over), gain +34 hit and gain +34 agility by being a Jewel Crafter.

If we examine the same situation again but this time without Dragon’s Eye gems we will find we have to use that third socket on expertise and not agility just to get up to the expertise cap. This means you will only have one yellow socket remaining which you will then need to use for hit and because you don’t have Dragon’s Eye gems this will only provide you with +20 hit rating. You therefore fill up all your gem slots and become expertise capped (1.5 over), +20 hit, and no extra agility.

Now lets pretend that you only need 34 hit rating more to become hit capped and you can quickly see why Jewel Crafting can make all the difference to your character stats. Having the extra stats to spend on your character and having the choice on where to place them can mean the difference between being hit and expertise capped and being able to concentrate on other main stats and struggling to improve your stats or maximize and minimize your stats appropriately.

Dugi's Professions and Gold Guide provides the most in depth look at WoW Professions, including how to max their levels quickly and cheaply.