Several people have questioned my suggestion of the [Relentless Earthsiege Diamond] being the meta of choice for retribution, citing the [Chaotic Skyflare Diamond] as patently better.
Time for some napkin math. Hold on to your hats.
Assuming that the test subject is not a jewelcrafter and therefore does not have access to JC-only gems, let's take a look at the gem selection I will be using for this test.
[Bold Scarlet Ruby]
[Inscribed Monarch Topaz]
[Sovereign Twilight Opal]
Note that all gems in question are of the same item level, all have strength, and all are red-ish (red, orange, or purple). Please observe that at no time do my hands separate from my wrists, I have nothing up my sleeves, and there are no mirrors involved in the following mathematics. In addition, we need to know that ~46 crit rating = 1% crit, and ~52 agility = 1% crit.
To satisfy the RED's meta requirements, you will need at least 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 blue gem. To do that, we will be using 1 of each of the above non-meta gems and the RED, getting an aggregate stat allocation of:
32 strength
21 agility
8 crit rating
12 stamina
Boost the stats with Blessing of Kings and then convert the agility to crit rating, and you get a consolidated stat aggregation from RED + required gems of:
35.2 strength
28.5 crit rating (23.2 agility = ~.446% crit = ~20.5 crit rating)
14.2 stamina
Now, consider the Chaotic Skyflare and the same amount of gems. You need 2 purples to fulfill the "2 blue" requirement of CSD, so we'll take a sample of 1 red and 2 purple:
32 strength
21 crit rating
24 stamina
Boost it with Blessing of Kings, and you get:
35.2 strength
21 crit rating
26.4 stamina
So, the advantage of the RED is about 7.5 crit rating at the expense of stamina. The gap widens slightly with epic gems instead of rare gems, but I feel like I've performed enough mathematical magic for one evening.
For the jewelcrafters among us, the preceding math does not apply, as they can use a prismatic gem to fulfill one of the blue requirements, and therefore get more strength than either scenario, making jewelcrafting, as the kids would say, "total hax."
Until next time, this has been another episode of "Ret Math Revealed," with your host, Josh. Now if you'll excuse me, I've squandered a good half hour of my leveling time tonight doing arithmetic and algebraic calculations, I'm going to go grab my mace and smash some face.
Zebra, I know you beat me to this topic in the comments of the FAQ, but nyah, I'm posting this anyway.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Wrath 3.0 - Ret Meta Gems
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
you didnt take into account the fact that Relentless earthsiege requires 3 gems to fulfill the requirements, but Chaotic only requires 2.. So in order to have a fair assessment, you need to add another gem stat to Chaotic.
You can always make up for the 7.5 crit rating and add more str with the Inscribed monarch. With equal amount of gems, Chaotic now gives more str and more crit and more stam.
As I mentioned in the comments, a key scenario to keep in mind is if you need to have two Blues in sockets anyway in order to fulfil a number of items socket bonus requirements.
For example, the 25-man PvE Ret Set has 1 blue socket for +4 strength. Obviously taking that is a no-brainer for both gems, but consider if you also have the [Sabaton's of Sudden Reprisal] (I think that's the current Best-in-Boot-Slot DPS Plate item) which has a +4 Str socket bonus for a Blue socket. In this case you are forced into the 2-blue situation in order to get the bonus's you want, which will make the CSD better.
For the record, I'd prefer the RED in my gear because its' requirements are that much more easy to meet. However if we are talking about the absolute best I think we may have to work with 'If X... else Y' proposition.
@Anonymous
I did take into account the difference in requirements and normalized the discussion. I use 3 gems for both, despite Chaotic requiring 2. Bold Scarlet Ruby, Inscribed Monarch Topaz, and Sovereign Twilight Opal were used with RED, and Bold Scarlet Ruby & 2x Sovereign Twilight Opal were used with Chaotic.
If you add an Inscribed Monarch Topaz to the Chaotic side of the equation, you're now comparing 3 gems + meta to 4 gems + meta.
Ask any JC with access to daily patterns, but the Str/Stam Twilight Opal is currently not in the game. You might want to choose the AP/Stam gem instead for this analysis and for gearing in general.
Makes me sad as a Prot paladin but its the cold truth.
Thanks for the heads up, Salty. It doesn't alter the conclusion if I sub out the Sovereign purple gem for an AP-based one, though.
In fact, it might tip the scales slightly more in favor of the RED - now you'd be more strength in the RED situation because of the orange gem, and therefore more bang for your buck because of Divine Strength and BoKings.
I think the numbers above speak for themselves, though. Any further changes will likely be in RED's favor.
Its probely better to use 1 8-10 stats gem, and the rest 16-20 str gems.
Post a Comment