Posted by Warcraftecon

Upcoming Epic Gems and Profession Changes (Source)

When the next major content patch launches we will be introducing epic quality gems and updating the perks for each profession. Please keep in mind that any of this information may see further changes before the patch launches.

The numbers should be available whenever the PTR is released. We didn’t want to provide them here as we are still changing them and they will likely undergo a few more changes during the testing phase but we felt it was important to let everyone know what the plan was for them.

The design recipes for cutting epic gems will be made available for purchase with Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens and there are several ways to obtain raw epic gems:

• Prospecting Titanium Ore
• Alchemy transmutations
• Purchased with Honor
• Purchased with Emblems of Heroism

Coinciding with the implementation of epic gems and the gain that Blacksmiths will receive through their perk from these new gems, we have gone through all of the perks in every profession and increased their values to match up accordingly.

Alchemy

• The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased
• Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from the honor potion vendor. The Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power, or Strength for 1 hour, and is usable in arenas. It is not consumed when used.
• Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced. They are still usable everywhere else.

Blacksmithing

• No changes will be made to this profession; it will continue to have the 2 additional prismatic sockets (which can hold the new epic gems)

Enchanting

• Values on Northrend ring enchants increased

Engineering

• Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications

Herbalism

• Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6)
• Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health
• Lifeblood no longer affected by global cooldown

Inscription

• Master’s Inscriptions increased

Jewelcrafting

• Dragon’s Eye gems stat bonuses increased

Leatherworking

• Fur Lining values increased

Mining

• Toughness (Rank 6) provides more Stamina

Skinning

• Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating

Tailoring

• Embroideries improved

What does this all mean?

Shortly after the Jewelcrafting nerf (more like balance), theorycrafters were starting to lean towards Blacksmithing as the new min/max profession. If epic gems were introduced, they would put BS on top of every other profession in terms of raw stats, with 2 prismatic sockets that can hold any epic gem of your choice. This is why there are no changes to the BS professions in the blue posts, all the other changes are based around the advantage that BS would have if epic gems were introduced. Although not every profession will give the exact same amount of stats, some were buffed with bonuses to compensate. The numbers have not been released at this time, but epic gems have been in the game files since beta. Some have the same stats as the Stormjewels in the game. For example;

• 16 Agility [Delicate Scarlet Ruby] – Rare (blue quality) gem
• 20 Agility [Delicate Stormjewel] – Epic (unique fishing daily) gem
• 20 Agility [Delicate Cardinal Ruby] – Epic (introduced in 3.2) gem

Expect upgrades to the majority of rare cuts, if not all of them. For example;

• 8 Agility 12 Stamina [Shifting Twilight Opal] – Rare (blue quality) gem
• 10 Agility 15 Stamina [Shifting Dreadstone] – Epic (introduced in 3.2) gem

According to game files, here are the names of the Epic gems:

• Red [Cardinal Ruby] 8 Cuts
• Blue [Majestic Zircon] 4 Cuts
• Yellow [King's Amber] 6 Cuts
• Purple [Dreadstone] 13 Cuts
• Green [Eye of Zul] 19 Cuts
• Orange [Flawless Amytrine] 22 Cuts

Obtaining Epic Gems

Prospecting [Titanium Ore] – Still very early to tell if prospecting rates will be similar to [Saronite Ore]. I believe that at certain price points, this may become a very profitably venture. In most economies, expect [Titanium Ore] to go up in price as everyone starts stockpiling it, just like the Stockpiling frenzy for 3.1. Some players have already reported that prices have increased on their servers already and/or they are buying up any cheap ore they can find. We still are unsure if investing or holding on to ore is the best thing to do until more information is released. PTR’s should be up with in the next few weeks, so we will try some prospecting on it and report our findings.

Alchemy Transmutation – Materials for this is still unknown, but will most likely be like an [Icy Prism] with cooldown, but possibly with eternals and/or rare gems.

Purchased with [Emblem of Heroism] – The emblem cost will probably be similar to the current 10 for a rare gem, but has the possibility of costing more. As for profit, we recommend saving them till patch 3.2 where the profit from epic gems will overshadow the current rare gems or [Frozen Orb] players are trading them in for. Remember you can also trade down from [Emblem of Valor] if prices of BOE Bracers have crashed.

Purchased with Honor – If you have run out of things to buy with honor as we get closer to 3.2, you may end up at the honor cap of 75,000. There are a few ways to stockpile honor once you are at the cap:

• 30 [Stone Keeper's Shard] = (2000 Honor)  [Wintergrasp Commendation]
• 9 [Wintergrasp Mark of Honor] = (2000 Honor) [Wintergrasp Commendation]
• 100 Arena Points = (2000 Honor) [Commendation of Bracery]
• 5 different Battleground marks = (1241 Honor) For Great Honor/Concerted Efforts Repeatable Quest

Obtaining the Recipes

We knew there was a reason why we started saving [Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Token] instead of buying [Dragon's Eye] to sell. Doing this was risky because there was a chance that new types of tokens being introduced, however this is not the case. If you are a JC, start doing those the daily quest again and save up your tokens. From what we can tell by looking at the game files, there are 72 epic gem cuts. Will 3.2 JC be like the craziness of 3.1 Inscription? Prices, meta cuts, world drops, and other recipes are still known. Hopefully the new information will be out soon!

Looking to make more WoW gold?

Check out the secret tactics you can use to legally and easily generate up to 427 gold per hour or more in World of Warcraft without using hacks or cheats.

Get ready to make more gold playing WoW than you have ever seen before.

World of Warcraft In-game Leveling Guides

World of Warcraft leveling take a huge leap forward with Zygor Guides 2.0, the fastest, most powerful leveling guides in the world.

Leveling has NEVER been this easy! You will be leveling so fast with this, you might think you’re cheating. But you’re not, Joana’s leveling guide mod is 100% legal with Blizzard.

Related posts:

1. Patch 3.2 Preparation: Epic Gems & Dragon’s Eye Stats Posted by Warcraftecon The 3.2 PTR recently went live and...
2. Patch 3.2 profession change analysis by Amanda Miller Over the past few days, some upcoming...
3. WoW Gold Guide: Profiting With The Jewelcrafting Profession Jewelcrafting is often regarded as the most profitable profession, it...
4. WoW Hunter Guide: Hunter gems by Brian Wood If you take the average hunter and...
5. WoW Rogue Guide: Profession perks for rogues by Chase Christian If you look at the game as...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Tags: epic-gems, making-gold, patch-3.2, profession-changes, prospecting-titanium, warcraft, world-of-warcraft, wotlk, wow, wow-gold, wrath-of-the-lich-king