The Early Story On Gems.

Hunter gemming just got fun.  Yes, I said gemming is fun.  The reason for that is because in the past every time I saw a blue gem slot I thought to myself, wasted bonus here.  I would generally use the nightmare tear in the blue slot that got me the best bonus. It made the most sense. 

Now I will not need a nightmare tear ever again.  It's use to a hunter was greatly decreased the moment we lost mana.  Being we no longer need intellect for mana having the 10 intellect from it has no value to us.  Being we no longer need intellect we no longer have a skill that turns our intellect into attack power further reducing the reasoning why nightmare tear was actually a very good gem for us before.

Gone are the days when we basically used red and red only with the rare case where we needed a yellow for hit.  At that, there was enough hit on gear and a talent to get even more hit that made it so we never needed hit at all.  So it was a world of red for us.  No matter what spec really.  AP(BM), ArP(MM), or Agility(SV/MM). Now our skill that gave us hit is gone as well as AP and ArP gems altogether.  Which means we will need hit gems again and we only have one choice in red which will be the same for all specs but there is one major difference now.

Hit is now blue.  How completely awesome is that?  We actually have a blue gem that has some use to us now.  We will need hit once again and hit is now blue.  So with hit now being needed and haste being a good thing for us Hunters we now have options for blue, red and yellow and will most likely use them all.  That means we will be getting all bonus stats on all gear if itemized correctly now.

Here is what I see our possible gem selections to look like.  Remember, anything can still change.  I left Critical in as an option even thought I see it as being possible the least useful one of everything listed.

Blue:
Rigid Ocean Sapphire - +40 Hit Rating

Purple:
Glinting Demonseye +20 Agility / +20 Hit Rating

Red:
Delicate Inferno Ruby +40 Agility

Orange:
Deft Ember Topaz +20 Agility / +20 Haste Rating
Deadly Ember Topaz +20 Agility / +20 Critical Strike Rating
Adept Ember Topaz +20 Agility / +20 Mastery Rating

Green:
Sensei's Dream Emerald +20 Mastery Rating / +20 Hit Rating
Piercing Dream Emerald +20 Critical Strike Rating / +20 Hit Rating
Lightning Dream Emerald +20 Haste Rating / +20 Hit Rating

Yellow:
Smooth Amberjewel +40 Critical Strike Rating
Quick Amberjewel +40 Haste Rating
Fractured Amberjewel +40 Mastery Rating

So, from the looks of things, it seems we have something that will be of use in every color gem.  That is something we could not say before.  Hit will be required I am sure without a talent for it unless they make another tier set like the T9 stuff that was so overloaded with hit it was stupid.  We will also always need agility as it is our main stat.  So that has blue and red covered. 

Our utility gems will be the yellow ones depending on how the weight of each stat and how it benefits us.  Early returns seem to suggest that Mastery might be the yellow of choice with Haste right behind it.  Critical Strike Rating, which was always something we took when we had no other option might not even play a part any more being we have so many options now. 

So for the "solid" colors we have + Agility, + Hit and + Mastery or Haste.  Having something useful in all three solid colors means we will always have many options when trying to get the most out of our gems while still getting bonuses on the gear.

For once I have to say this works out to be some serious Hunter love even if it were not intended to be.  It was almost as if they had us in mind with this change.  Hit being blue is a godsend for Hunters around the world. 

A+ for the initial outlook on gemming.  I can't wait for the changes so I can upgrade some stuff and make sure I get all the bonus stats and not have to stick myself with + Stamina on something just to make it there.