Meta gem for 4DPS 5v5 - Elemental

[Keepeer]

Hey guys,

Just poppin' in for a quick question. What would you guys suggest for an elemental shaman's meta gem for a 4DPS 5v5 team makeup? Right now the class makeup is:

Shadow Priest
Elemental Shaman
UA Warlock
MS Warrior
Holy Paladin.

I've heard everything from 18 stam gem, the new chaotic gem that gives 3 percent increased crit damage, and the 5 percent on spellcast for next spell cast in half time. Break down of my opinions:

18 stam gem: Usually in our 4DPS setup, either the priest or the warrior gets targeted first, making my survivabilty usually not an issue until our priest drops first anyway.

12 crit + 3% increase dam gem: Although this sounds nice for when im laying out those crits and my Elemental Mastery, it just doesn't seem like its worth it because of all the resilence these days.

5%- half time cast gem: This gem seems ideal because it will speed up DPS in possibly-crucial moments while at the same time letting me use its benefit to throw off a 5 second rez on a teammate if necesary.

Thoughts? Opinions?

[Cloctoc]

Hey guys,

Just poppin' in for a quick question. What would you guys suggest for an elemental shaman's meta gem for a 4DPS 5v5 team makeup? Right now the class makeup is:

Shadow Priest
Elemental Shaman
UA Warlock
MS Warrior
Holy Paladin.

I've heard everything from 18 stam gem, the new chaotic gem that gives 3 percent increased crit damage, and the 5 percent on spellcast for next spell cast in half time. Break down of my opinions:

18 stam gem: Usually in our 4DPS setup, either the priest or the warrior gets targeted first, making my survivabilty usually not an issue until our priest drops first anyway.

12 crit + 3% increase dam gem: Although this sounds nice for when im laying out those crits and my Elemental Mastery, it just doesn't seem like its worth it because of all the resilence these days.

5%- half time cast gem: This gem seems ideal because it will speed up DPS in possibly-crucial moments while at the same time letting me use its benefit to throw off a 5 second rez on a teammate if necesary.

Thoughts? Opinions?

The MSD is going to be nerfed in 2.3 (the 50% cast reduction gem). It really will not be nearly as effective as it is now. Personally I am going to give the 3% to crit dmg gem a try this next season. Anything to help my burst out is worth a shot. We shall see though as the season moves on.

[Adiara]

Focus gem is dominant, even in 2.3. Every proc will still be hugely valuable (and every 45 seconds is still reasonably often), there won't just be the random RNG chain stupid procs anymore.

[Zulmaluka]

i tell u ...go stun ressist or 5% cast thing...ur choise purely...a bit more
dmg vs a bit more survability..

[Tnewor]

I've always gone for the 18 stamina one. I have like 10.7k unbuffed HP and like 14.5k buffed (Kings, Fort and I think Commanding) in Arena gear. I think thats alot more than usual Shaman have (around 10.1k I think) but, damn it does help alot. I might go with cast reduction one. Anything to help me cast faster in pvp = win

I guess running a 3 DPS team anything to help the DPS for me anyways, would probably benefit us now.

[Keepeer]

Well, the 5v5 composition makeup my team has changed slightly to 2.5 healer, with a holy paly, holy priest, elemental shaman, ms warrior, and warlock.

Now what do you guys thing? Stay with the cast reduction gem?

[Cloctoc]

Well, the 5v5 composition makeup my team has changed slightly to 2.5 healer, with a holy paly, holy priest, elemental shaman, ms warrior, and warlock.

Now what do you guys thing? Stay with the cast reduction gem?

The cast reduction is nice but to say that every 45s isnt that long is not realizing that it doesn't always proc when you need it. A lot of times it is going to proc when we are purge spamming and playing our utility role. When you add everything up it's going to be more than 45s cooldown. IMO the only 2 gems really worth using for ele shaman is going to be 18 stam 5% stun resist and the +dmg on crit. Time will tell for s3 though.

Hands down with 2.2 MSD is the superior gem for any caster. The nerf is pretty severe though and is making other gems more desirable. My job in our 2.5 team is support and burst. As I said before anything that can help your burst during a burn is nothing to shun away. If your 2.5 healer team is solid and the players including yourself know what they are doing you won't find yourself getting gibbed all too often. Good teams will realize that there are other threats on your team that they will need to deal with first. In the beginning I geared myself more defensively but as time went on I realized that increasing my dps was the way to go.

All in all try one if it doesn't seem that great try another one and see what works best for you and your team.

[gatoja]

pre 2.3= MSD
post 2.3= CSD (chaotic skyfire diamond)

[Keepeer]

The cast reduction is nice but to say that every 45s isnt that long is not realizing that it doesn't always proc when you need it. A lot of times it is going to proc when we are purge spamming and playing our utility role. When you add everything up it's going to be more than 45s cooldown. IMO the only 2 gems really worth using for ele shaman is going to be 18 stam 5% stun resist and the +dmg on crit. Time will tell for s3 though.

Hands down with 2.2 MSD is the superior gem for any caster. The nerf is pretty severe though and is making other gems more desirable. My job in our 2.5 team is support and burst. As I said before anything that can help your burst during a burn is nothing to shun away. If your 2.5 healer team is solid and the players including yourself know what they are doing you won't find yourself getting gibbed all too often. Good teams will realize that there are other threats on your team that they will need to deal with first. In the beginning I geared myself more defensively but as time went on I realized that increasing my dps was the way to go.

All in all try one if it doesn't seem that great try another one and see what works best for you and your team.

Thanks Cloctoc. You really helped.

I am going with the chaotic for the extra UMPH in DPS instead of the mystical which could easily be misused and unreliable.

The CSD is also alot easier to socket accord to my PvP gear.

[gatoja]

oh yeah, lets not forget that you only need to run 2 blue gems.

[xarg]

Sticking with focus gem. It still procs quite a reasonable amount, as mentioned before the main thing being eliminated is the random chance for it to be completely game-winning by proccing back to back either twice or more.

[gatoja]

Sticking with focus gem. It still procs quite a reasonable amount, as mentioned before the main thing being eliminated is the random chance for it to be completely game-winning by proccing back to back either twice or more.

by reasonable you mean once every 45 seconds eh?