Resto druid gems – part 1
Lately I’ve noticed a lot of questions on the druid forums, plus a little general confusion surrounding gems choices. The topic of “how to gem” is something that has been done many times, almost to death, really – but it’s one of those fundamental topics that people will always ask about, because (as with my article on stats) there will always be new druids on the scene who want to know how best to gear themselves.
How to gem
Everything should be straight SP except for a few caveats.
1. If you need more regen, then use SP/Spi or SP/Int hybrids.
2. If you have a nice socket bonus, use a hybrid gem to activate it.
3. If you need to activate a meta, use hybrid gems to activate it.
If you follow this advice, you can’t go far wrong. Spellpower gems are your first choice, even in non-red sockets. Then, if you need more regen, if a socket bonus is particularly good (usually 5+ spellpower), or if your meta gem calls for different colours, use the hybrid (orange and purple) gems (orange gems count as both a yellow and a red gem, purple gems count as both a blue and a red gem).
- you need more regen
- you need to match a good bonus
- you need to activate a meta gem
Easy! 
Matching socket colours
| Type | Red | Yellow | Blue |
| JC only | Runed Dragon’s Eye +39 Spell Power |
- | - |
| Epic | Runed Cardinal Ruby +23 Spell Power |
Luminous Ametrine +12 Spell Power, +10 Intellect |
Purified Dreadstone +12 Spell Power, +10 Spirit |
| Rare | Runed Scarlet Ruby +19 Spell Power |
Luminous Monarch Topaz +9 Spell Power, +8 Intellect |
Purified Twilight Opal +9 Spell Power, +8 Spirit |
| Perfect | Perfect Runed Bloodstone +16 Spell Power |
Perfect Luminous Huge Citrine +8 Spell Power, +7 Intellect |
Perfect Purified Shadow Crystal +8 Spell Power, +7 Spirit |
| Uncommon | Runed Bloodstone +14 Spell Power |
Luminous Huge Citrine +7 Spell Power, +6 Intellect |
Purified Shadow Crystal +7 Spell Power, +6 Spirit |
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I…just started working on a gemming guide.
Curse you and your psychic powers!
I’m gonna keep going on mine anyway.
(Very nice on yours!)
Aww, sorry!
Happens ALL the time to me, too!
You know, I never thought about it, even though I know you both HATE repeating topics from other blogs.. but with all the resto druid blogs out there, yes, it’s going to happen.
And you certainly nailed all the ones I use, Keeva! I am rather fond of socket bonuses, so I get them the vast majority of the time. I admit to having one pure spirit gem, because it was one I got from my fishing daily and I didn’t have to transmute or buy the sucker myself! ::chuckle:: The rest are hybrides or runed cardinal rubies.
I used a couple of pure spirit ones way back when the sp/spi gems weren’t around, and there were no green quality gems on the AH (very early days). Then I forgot all about them.
Months later I realised I was wearing my Dreamwalker chest and still had a spirit gem in it.. oops.
I am surprised you left out the Seer’s Eye of Zul (10int+10spirit).
With that one Gem in a Yellow OR Blue socket one can get both requirements for the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond and has all other slots free for pure red gems.
That’s really interesting and I hadn’t though of it. I think you’d still come out slightly behind, but it might come down to the socket bonuses…? I’m not sure.
My normal gemming would be this:
Blue: 12sp/10spi
Yellow: 12sp/10int
Total: 24sp, 10spi, 10int
You’d go:
Blue or Yellow: 10int/10spi
Blue or Yellow: 23sp
Total: 23sp, 10spi, 10int
So almost identical, but possibly giving you a bit more flexibility to throw more red gems around.
I looked at my current gems – if I swap around my gems I come out 1sp behind, even taking bonuses into account. I think. I’m not great with math
But I’ll certainly keep that in mind as a possibility. In the past I have thought my gems have been good – but someone has pointed out if I swapped something around I could squeeze a few more points out. I’m never afraid to be corrected!
I guess it always comes down to what sockets you have available.
For example in my current equipment there is no yellow socket, so I can put the Seer’s Eye in the blue socket that (in combination with a red one) gives the biggest bonus and in the other blue sockets I can put spellpower gems.
If I had 2 items with blue and yellow I would put spell/spirit and spell/int in the non-red sockets and catch 2 socket boni (and +1 spellpower from the rounding) with the same “sacrifice”. (edit: basicly what you listed above)
Then again, we are talking about less than 10 spellpower differences, wich in the grand scheme of things are not that gamebreaking.
People fall into two basic categories:
- who cares about a few extra points?
- if you don’t squeeze out every last point, ur doin’ it wrong.
I’ll definitely keep it in mind for times that my sockets aren’t very forgiving. Thanks
How did I miss this post last night.. *bookmark*
Abi´s last blog ..Ulduar 1 – Clique 0
question: why hybrid intel? I find more use out of the +12SP & +10 haste hybrids.. I hate gemming intel as a druid.. It makes me *cringe* all it does is..[DUN DUN DUN] mana regen!!! ..And I can get just as much from the sp and spirit hybrids.. Plus Spirit gives us SP as well..Not much(only about 4-6SP per hybrid) BUT every little bit counts. I just dont see the point of gemming intel :3
maybe these were the changes you meant?
I hope so xD
<3 your PowerAuras exports though.
And your loremaster guide <3
^ gemming intel as a resto druid* I could have swore I typed resto >_>
Boomy on the other hand…They cheat
They get SP from intel AND spirit.. Which is hax, imo :3
This gems guide was done prior to the big changes to our haste soft cap; it was relatively easy to reach the cap, so there was no need to gem haste back then. Sp/int was our yellow gem of choice.
These days I would only really suggest the int hybrid if you’re at low levels of gear and really struggling for mana; that is, struggling so much that you’re going OOM on fights and it’s really giving you a hard time. In that case I would consider sp/int gems temporarily – until I could get a bit more regen, but then quickly swap them out for sp/haste to start working towards the cap.
At top levels of gear, yellow slots should always be sp/haste, never reverting back to sp/int. I intend to clarify this a bit more when I redo my resto guide. I may even split the gems section into a fresh 80 vs standard gemming format.
Keeva´s last blog ..Thinking of going druid in Cataclysm?
I kinda thought those were the haste changes you meant :3 But yeah, I used to gem intel a bit back then..But even then[and now once I hit haste cap], Spirit and Sp were/are my top priorities :3 mainly because im an SP whore and like my rejuvs to tick for 3k+
and the 20% buff in ICC is just a pushover 