Wrath of the Lich King Beta - Jewelcrafting and New Epic Gems

First, all I have to say about the new gems that have been released is….WOW. If these gems stay in their current state it will really change the game. The way you gear will be completely different, and certainly the value of gem slots will increase significantly.

As a disclaimer though, these gems have simply been scraped from the game files, and it is not at all apparent how difficult to obtain these gems will be. I mean if these are drops from the final dungeon of the game it changes my story a bit, however I would not expect that to be the case as Arthas’ dungeon is probably barely under construction.. if it is under construction at all.

So without further adieu I present to you some of the scraped game fles for the new Epic Gems in Wrath of the Lich King. Keep in mind these are just a few examples and not all of the gems…there are 72 epic gems in total right now.

For this example I decided to take all Physical Damage / Tanki9ng gems to keep the playing field even. First off you will notice a gem with expertise, FINALLY! There is also a straight 20 expertise gem, but for most players a mixed agiliy and expertise gem will be better as it gives you more versatility in gear.

Now the next thing you will notice, is holy crap tahts a lot of freaking stats. You would also be exactly correct, in fact that is exactly double the stats you can currently reap from a BoE Black Temple/Mount Hyjal/Sunwell Plateau Epic gem.

Now we have seen gear up into level 78 and even a few pieces from level 80 at this point. There is no wya the stats on the gear have double from level 70 to 80. Maybe one and a half times the stat points but not double. Remember we have only seen blue quality gear to this point and no tier pieces are available at this time…at least we haven’t found them yet.

So it still could remain an even playing field between the gear and the gems. On the other side I think that blizzard found a gear customization system taht they really liked with gems. This allows players to take an amazing piece of gear and possible add some hit rating or crit rating too it, instead of Blizzard dictating every single stat on the item.

Blizzard saw that the gem system was wildly successful, and they have decided to take it one step further. Now I would guess they are actually stipping off a few stat points from gear, and allowing you to make up for it with gem choices. Giving the character more choice in exactly how thier gear stat allocation falls.

I don’t know about you but I am really getting excited about the game… I mean where is my beta invitation already! Well I guess I will have to sit and wait patiently, keep reading and keep hoping for that invite!