s3: meta gems!

[Caligula]

So far I've been noobing around with the 18 sta/5% stun resist meta (perception beats cheap shot!), but the stun resist never really helped me and 18 stamina is becoming a bit less worth now than it was when I first got that helm and had horrid gear.

I've been looking into the half cast meta, but the requirements seem a bit steep for me considering I'm a +8 resilience whore.

What's the best gem setup to enable the meta without destroying my stats?

The season 3 set has three yellow sockets, two red, and a blue(in addition to the meta, obviously); the bracers and neck both yellow. I don't like neglecting socket bonuses, though I could see it as a possible solution.

Thought this would be a half-decent plan:

2x red sockets: 2 glowing nightseye (purple)
5 yellow sockets: 2 mystic dawnstone(yellow), 3 steady talasite(green)
1 blue socket: 10 spell penetration (blue)

For a sum of
10 spell damage
10 spell penetration
30 stamina
28 resilience

Other alternative I've been looking at is

2x red sockets: +12 damage and +9 damage (both red)
5x yellow sockets: Steady Talsite (Green)
1 blue socket: 10 spell penetration (blue)

For a total of
21 spell damage
10 spell penetration
30 stamina
20 resilience

Both of these alternatives will give me the socket bonuses of 11 resilience total in addition to enabling the half cast meta.

Input/suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

[Shadowborne]

Mystical Skyfire Diamond is a MUST-HAVE, no amount of +8 resilience is worth passing that gem up.

2x red sockets: +12 damage and +9 damage (both red)
5x yellow sockets: Steady Talsite (Green)
1 blue socket: 10 spell penetration (blue)

For a total of
21 spell damage
10 spell penetration
30 stamina
20 resilience

That set-up seems the most viable IMO. Spell damage> Stamina past 11k health IMO.

[Caligula]

I was leaning towards that as well.
I guess getting an arena weapon will make up for the lost resilience - started PvP at the start of this season so still very new to arena and not yet full s2. Oh well, s3 I'll get a decent start on =)

[kyoshi]

mystical skyfire is the way to go. i mean, i went back and forth between the earthstorm and that one. its just better. 2.5 second mana drain or life drain? half of the spell is done before they even get a cooldown to dispell it!

[Caligula]

Thanks, always good to get advice from more people who've tried it. :)
Will pick up s3 helm in the second week and stick a mystical skyfire diamond in it.

[laydee]

Hi caligula - Yeah the gem owns, it's just a free 1000 mana drain for 2.5 seconds. Or soulfire, or howl of terror while you're being hit on - Lifedrain if you're being attacked, a fear if it procs as you're being chased and he's closing in, a proc in a nuke - endless possiblities really. I would always recommend it.

[Rycho]

why would you waste a perfectly good blue socket with a 10 spell penetration gem

[Caligula]

hai2u Laydee ^^

@Rycho: I don't really consider it a waste. Would have used my s2 set for spell penetration gems, but armour swapping isn't really viable at this point. I don't really like the multi-coloured spell penetration gems, so gonna have to stick with the mono blue one.

... they did remove the spell penetration off hand, right? :/

[Shadowborne]

why would you waste a perfectly good blue socket with a 10 spell penetration gem

Shadow Resist Aura, Shadow Protection, Master Demonologist, Landing Banishes, people who cheese with SR gear or wear BT neck/cloak.

It's really nice to have spell penetration as it can effect game-breaking stats like shadow resist whereas an extra +12 stam is rarely gamebreaking.

Just depends on your playstyle, battlegroup, and teams you fight I guess.

[laydee]

You won't need more spell penetration next patch, afaik the default for full arena gear is 99. Which pritty much makes the resist ganined from felhunters non existant to all casters. (Apart from when stacked). It also makes the priest buff usless too if they're not wearing shadow res. Just get the +15 stamina gems, or +10 resilience gems if you can get a guild nice enough to give them to you!

[Shadowborne]

You won't need more spell penetration next patch, afaik the default for full arena gear is 99. Which pritty much makes the resist ganined from felhunters non existant to all casters. (Apart from when stacked). It also makes the priest buff usless too if they're not wearing shadow res. Just get the +15 stamina gems, or +10 resilience gems if you can get a guild nice enough to give them to you!

99-35 unless you use the staff, which sucks for knocking down totems. But yeah, even 64 is really enough to nearly bypass most resists minus Felhunters.

[laydee]

Ok :p

[Dravan]

99-35 unless you use the staff, which sucks for knocking down totems. But yeah, even 64 is really enough to nearly bypass most resists minus Felhunters.

Errr..... MH spelldagger + http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34033 ?

[Caligula]

Errr..... MH spelldagger + http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34033 ?

Obvious choice for me, but I hear rumours they removed that off hand?

[Rycho]

i wish they would give us more red sockets

also i hate the mystical skyfire requirement, everything but damage gems are ftl

[Shadowborne]

Errr..... MH spelldagger + http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34033 ?

They removed the OH, so if you want spell pen on weapon gotta get the staff. I'm planning on getting both and using the staff against SR teams and situations where I need more then the SR I have through gear and gems.

[Antega]

Wasn't MSD getting HEAVILY nerfed?

[Shadowborne]

Wasn't MSD getting HEAVILY nerfed?

Yes, but it's still so much better then anything else it's the obvious choice

[kyoshi]

Wasn't MSD getting HEAVILY nerfed?

how so?

[Rycho]

how so?

they're buffing the proc rate to 15% but its a 45 sec cd iirc

[Volition]

they're buffing the proc rate to 15% but its a 45 sec cd iirc

30% proc rate I thought... but the 45 second cooldown is correct.

[Lylona]

I play on a 4dps (healshami, rogue, icemage, ua-warlock, shadow).
Its extremly important to get UA as fast as possible on the focus target, even if they focus me, heroism und metagemproc help alot. A extremly fast fear with proc, heroism und 4er bonus can be gamebreaking also.
Skyfire best.

[sadris]

Next patch MSD is shit.

[Caligula]

Next patch MSD is shit.

The question is, compared to what? The 18 sta and 5% stun resist gem seems to be utter shit, spelldamage and run speed is a waste since I can get that from other slots.

[Kcolraw]

The question is, compared to what? The 18 sta and 5% stun resist gem seems to be utter shit, spelldamage and run speed is a waste since I can get that from other slots.


i think ima just stick with the stun resist one, more stam never hurts, plus i'm orc already, stack that stun resist yo

[Lylona]

Next patch MSD is shit.

I don't need multiple procs, most of my spells are instant anyway. I need to get UA or fear off while get focused.
Pummel/Counterspell/kick while casting UA can be lose on my 5on5 nuke setup.
Get a fear off instead of get interrupted can be a win also, a bit more stam wont most of the time.

[Noknees]

I was wondering if anyone good at socketing could look at my current setup and tell me if i have the reqs for MSD, or what changes need to be made, i honestly must have socketing add, horrible at meta reqs :S

[Woo]

I'm planning on going 6/44/11 with felshroud/silk and battle staff next season, and it's my first time attempting a build that'd have a crit% that wasn't completely negated by 400 resilience. Anyone have any advice on gemming, meta and regular?

[Siliana]

Recently replaced 18 sta/ 5% stun resist with a Mystical Skyfire Diamond. After playing with it for a few weeks I gotta hop on the bandwagon, it's the one and only meta gem for PvP warlocks, despite the changes in the patch.

[Inevidable]

Agreed stamina + resilience plx, it stacks better than spell dmg

[Escabar]

MSD sucks now i wont lie

[Rycho]

MSD sucks now i wont lie

pretty much

[Escabar]

for now im back to powerful earthstorm

[Caligula]

Any more input would be appreciated =)

As for other gems I would be using with the powerful earthstorm diamond should I decide to go for that:

2x red sockets: +12 damage and +9 damage
5 yellow sockets: 3 mystic dawnstone(might replace one of these with a great dawnstone or veiled noble topaz actually if it allows me to drop the point in supression), 1 steady talasite, 1 steady chrysoprase (/love heroic ramparts for actually dropping it by now)
1 blue socket: Stormy star of Elune

Which is a sum of
+10 spell penetration
+21 damage
+33 resilience
+12 stamina

I'm pretty set on the spell penetration gem for the blue socket by now after running into a million paladins. +24 penetration from rings, 20 from cloak, 10 from gem and 20 from the new want should negate the resistance of UD players with SR aura :)

[Optimuus]

MSD sucks now i wont lie

Can you guys elaborate? I was thinking of moving from powerful earthstorm diamond to MSD in season 3 but wanted to hear some more about what people thought of the 2.3 MSD.

[Escabar]

msd is just bad

-it has a 45 second internal cooldown

*i can live with this one, its more "predicatable" now seeing as the proc chance is increased but a cooldown added, so pretty much u can guarntee a proc every 45seconds (however allows other teams to "prepare" for it and be ready to dispel it/cc you) also proccing during arena prep really sucks

-the "focus" buff duration was nerfed from 10 seconds to 4 seconds

*this is where the big nerf is, 4 seconds is just too short
1) hardly lets you decide what spell to use, its basically whatever your key is on, can no longer be used strategically. (least not if your being FFd)

2) if your being FFd that 4 second duration is near useless and is a wasted proc every time. (if being FFd by a rogue/warrior/hunter) they will see it proc (cuz they can see your buffs now, indirectly nerfs MSD) then either dispel it or CC u during ur proc.

warrior/ charge/intercept/pummel
rogue/ stuns....nuff said
hunter/ silence shot/conc/scatter (arcane shot to purge it off)

heck i know i CC people every time i see theirs about to proc.

its just very very lackluster. its still good in newb brackets i guess

[Optimuus]

Appreciate the additional feedback. I guess I won't try to gem for it then, since the earthstorm diamond lets me gem how I prefer. Wasn't it 4 secs in 2.1 then changed to 10 in 2.2. Seems dumb to change it back to 4 secs :(

[Rycho]

to be fair it was a little too good with soul siphon the way it was, one proc could literally win you the game in 2v2 and 3v3 because it was worth 1500 mana or so in a couple seconds.

it was nice to be able to actually use an offensive meta though like rogue/warriors/hunters get to do, i'll probably end up switching to powerful earthstorm since there really isn't anything else out there.

[soulbane]

yep im also switching to powerful earthstorm, the rest just dont really appeal

[Caligula]

What about the +12 damage and run speed one from spirit shards? Is the run speed increase the same as boar's speed (ie save money and get +12 stamina on boots)?

[sadris]

wtf...

save 200 gold, are you that poor?

[Caligula]

wtf...

save 200 gold, are you that poor?

Thanks for that useful contribution. Why have 200g less?