Meta gems

In my mind, there are two standout choices for meta gems, the Ember Skyflare Diamond (ESD) and the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (IED). Of those two, the IED is almost always the better choice, despite what people will tell you.

Here’s why.


Why the Ember Skyflare is hardly ever right

I’m bound to start some fights with this one, but it’s a genuine problem that I see all over the place, and very few people understand the mistake they are making. That’s not saying they’re dumb or “noobs” or anything – if nobody explained it to you, it’s quite logical to consider the ESD to be the best because it has our favourite stat – spell power.


I certainly don’t consider myself an expert on every facet of druidism; I learn new things all the time, and I’m constantly looking for ways to improve. So if you’re using the Skyflare – please don’t take this as a criticism – I would just like to make sure people are open to all of the information and don’t simply adopt a choice because it seems logical.

The catchcry of the diehard ESD fan goes like this:

I never have any mana problems, so why would I want a mana restore meta?


Makes perfect sense, right? Remember, too much regen is a waste – so if you have all the regen you need, why pick up a meta gem that gives you even more mana back? That would be a waste – might as well pick up a small amount of spellpower instead.

Wrong!

So what’s the problem with the above statement? Nothing, if it’s true. The problem though is that most people say “I never have mana problems” but when you look at their Armory – often they are wearing double mana regen trinkets. Some even admit to using mp5 flasks or regen food. You can’t really claim to “never” have mana problems if you are still using regen trinkets – or you wouldn’t be using those regen trinkets at all – you’d have swapped them out for throughput (spell power) trinkets long ago.

You can’t say you “never” have mana problems
if you usually have pure regen trinkets equipped.


This is not a criticism of people who use pure regen trinkets. I just want to try to explain to people that the reason that you perceive yourself to be immune to mana troubles is due in part to the fact that you have those mana trinkets.


That’s not a bad thing. If you’re still using regen trinkets, I assume it’s because you believe you need them for adequate longevity in a fight. So you do need regen – it’s just a case of adjusting our thinking to make sure we’re getting it in the most efficient way. If you team regen trinkets and consumables up with the ESD and justify the spell power meta by saying you “never have mana problems”, then that’s not really true.

Follow me? :)



Expanding on metas and trinkets a little

It’s all about trade-offs.

The ESD gives you +25 spell power and +2% Intellect.

The IED gives you +21 Intellect and a chance to restore 600 mana on spellcast. This has no internal cooldown, and due to resto druids’ ever-casting style, can be equal to anywhere from 40mp5 to 100mp5, depending on the fight.

For druids with around 1000 Intellect, the Intellect on these two diamonds basically cancel (although the ESD will scale slightly). So let’s discard that and focus purely on the ESD’s spell power and the IED’s mana return.

So you’re effectively weighing 25 spellpower against 40-100mp5 (let’s say 60mp5 average). This is key.

I found some examples of people at Elitist Jerks who are better at explaining than I am!


Trismegistus:
I think the point here is the stats that are available in slot. The two major sources of MP5 are Meta and Trinket.


Let’s compare the four stats on these two gems.


[Insightful Earthsiege Diamond] – +21 Int and [assumed] 75MP5
[Ember Skyflare Diamond] – +25 Spell Power and [assumed 1000 Int] +20Int


If we look at the available trinkets, they offer significantly more Spell Power than this meta, but the MP5 is much lower. It is therefore better to sacrifice the Spell Power from the Meta slot and use it for MP5 because it is the best slot on the entire gear sheet for that stat.

Boevis:
The proc is actually 5% chance to restore 600 mana which works out to be 100 mp5 if you cast every 1.5 seconds, 75 mp5 casting every 2 seconds, or 50 mp5 casting every 3 seconds.


Considering the HoT nature of druids (and the everpresent haste on gear) it’s going to trend toward the upper values. In comparison, 25 spell power is fairly weak when you take into account what trinkets you could swap out, 100 spell power trinkets are easy to find ([Darkmoon Card: Illusion]) and the best ones easily exceed 100 [Illustration of the Dragon Soul], while the best mana regen trinkets are likely [Soul of the Dead] or one of the 3 high Spirit ones.

Bregalad:
if I trade off ember skyflare for IED, I’m getting 70+ mp5 at a cost of only 25 spellpower (the int roughly cancels for most trees). There is no place on your gear where you can get a 50+ mp5 effective result that only costs you 25 spellpower. It’s only on special procs for trinkets/rings etc. that it even gets as close as my example. On regular gear, you typically give up almost 3 spellpower to get 1Mp5. That’s a tradeoff you generally don’t want to make unless you already have IED and regen trinkets and *still* can run out of mana on hard fights.


IED is the most efficient tradeoff, so it’s the first thing you should do in the regen department.

(Note: since these comments were posted, new items have come into the game and there are better trinkets available – but the underlying principle remains the same – particularly if you’re not raiding hard modes and TOC25, for example)


So in short, the IED is better “value” because you’re getting ~60mp5 for a trade of 25 spell power, which is something you can’t get in any other slot. Provided, of course, that you still have a need for more regen. If you are gearing straight spell power, have spell power trinkets, and still find you are comfortable with your mana, then opt for the ESD.


If you’re using the ESD and you still have pure regen trinkets, that’s not an efficient trade. You would be better having the mana restore meta and spell power trinket than a (weaker) spell power meta and (weaker) mana regen trinkets. Even better, grab one of the yummy +Spell Power/+regen trinkets out there.



Better options than ESD + regen trinkets


If you’re still using pure regen trinkets for everyday encounters, but you’ve opted for the ESD, it makes more sense to change to the IED and replace your trinket/s with throughput (spell power). Obviously, some hard mode encounters may demand more regen, so you might swap gear around and put in a regen trinket – there are special cases. Plenty of people keep particular trinkets on hand for hard modes. But if your standard gear for your standard weekly raiding includes pure regen trinkets and the ESD, you should consider swapping in the IED and a throughput trinket.

If you find you have plenty of regen and you want to dump some of it, you should leave the IED til last – because it is simply the best value, the best bang for your buck. Swap out regen trinket firsts, and DEFINITELY stop using regen flasks and food.

Here are a few of the spellpower trinkets available:


Or, even better, go for a balance of spell power and regen:


To have a look at all of your trinket options, try a Wowhead filter: http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.-4&filter=minrl=80;maxrl=80


Once your normal gear and your usual content dictates that you don’t need regen trinkets, gems, consumables etc – feel free to swap to the ESD. Just make sure the IED is the last thing you ditch – because it really is the best value for regen.

If you need regen – the IED should be your first port of call.



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