Shifttusk Does Gems!!

Hey People Its that time!

What the heck am I going to put in my shiny new linked chain shirt thats soon to be covered in gnome guts!

I received an email with some questions about gemming/chanting up so after chatting it up with
our subject Skipshrike we decided to make him our pet hunter for the day!

Armory

So taking a gander out our subject we can see he's looking pretty good. His dodge and parry total to about 20% with over 6000 armor and 226 resilience pre gem-athon! I think he also has another 20 from his pvp trinket which wasn't equipped in the armory.

In our email skip says:

"I have been told that putting +12 stm gems all over the
place would be the best thing to do till I started to get S3 pieces. I
like the survivability of that, but I would like to be able to do some
damage in BG's (for pve I have some gear for that). Which gems would
you recommend?"

This is 100% acurate increased resilience and stamina help out a ton in pvp expecialy arena, not being able to be bursted down before catching a heal is essential. But to support your email. So is unleashing a crap ton of damage to your opponents! Just to note our reader also has a S1 Headpiece coming so we're going to review that as well.

So first off skip, theres no simple answer should I always gem for survivability or pew. To me its all about the balance. I'm going to kinda push that with you. Luckily your pvp gear is not shabby and with the addition of the S1 head you'll be pushing 250 resilience before we gem your behind up.

So lets go piece by piece!

Gladiators Helmet - I'm going to assume you're not going to grab your season 3 helmet for a bit so I'm going to go all out.
[Red] - 20 ATP Gem, its purple but you can afford it. For around 7k honor this beauty can be yours. Is it worth it over 16ap? Not by much but its purple, its 4 free attack power and you should get it. Investing high quality in your gems is important, glad S1 gear although now easy to get is very good and worth spending the cash/honor on.
[Meta] - +12 agility +3% critical strike bonus damage. Say what shift? No 18 stamina? Heck no! Our boy is rocking almost an even 10khp at this point and will be getting more in enchants later 5% stun resist for a BM is silly. You have 18seconds out of every 2 minutes that you're immune to stuns! Instead you get 12 agility. Thats 12atp and around .25% critical you're also getting 3% bonus to your critical output to help offset your opponents resilience. Think about it +133% damage on a critical. With the resilience cap out at -25% damage on crit you're really helping to boost your output and offset your opponents mitigation!
Enchant - I agree with your choice of the cenarion enchant. Some people have opted for 20 shadow resistance to offset dot but you're BM, and warlocks have a ton to fear of you. The head enchant will also help you stay hit capped in arena (5% to hit is needed to not miss pvp targets)

Total Gain: 54 ATP 12 Agility 14 hit rating 3% critical strike damage. A whole lot of hurting!

Gladiators Chain Armor - I still got mine! And you are gonna be my twin.
[Red]x2 - Now with the exception of the PvP honor gems I always go hybrid in red slots. For this slot I recommend 4 agility 6 stamina gems. These give you a nice balance of attack power critical dodge and stamina and make great gems for these slots. Buy them and smile politely at all the noobs with 8 attack power 6 stamina gems.
[Yellow] - Heres where you stack some survivability. Unlike PvE gear where yellow gems are given to critical or hit rating for pvp I go with 4 resilience 6 stamina gems. Mitigation and big HP. I likes it!
Enchant - 15 resilience. Its a ton of mitigation for this slot. Get it and don't look back thinking about the 6 to all stats.

Total gain: 18 Stamina 8 Agility 19 Resilience a lot of balance!

Gladiators Gloves - No gems on this slot but you have room for a nice enchant!
Enchant - 15 agility ALL THE FREAKING WAY. I see tons of hunters PvE and PvP slap on 26 attack power here. Now think about it 1 agility is worth 2 attack power in the item budge why would you gimp yourself? More importantly in pvp why would you take less than 1 dps increase over more than .25% critical dodge and 30 armor? Don't do it get the agility my hunter cousins!

Total gain: 15 Agility

Gladiators Chain Leggings - Once again no gems, but now its leg armor time. Now I've constantly hated this. Warriors, who have better mitigation and stamina on their gear get to go HEY GEIF 50 ATP. You MR hunter do not. I have the nethercleft armor on mine. 40 stamina for a class that has issues getting focused is essential. The cobra kits are far too imbalanced and do not present any defensive stats while the cleft kits provide a bit of offensive stats with a chunk of stamina. They're more balanced and that is the key.

Total gain: 40 Stamina 12 Agility

Now I saw you had your boots already enchanted with 12 agility so I am guessing that you use these for PvE as well. From a long time world PvPer (I love being on a PvP server) you need the minor run speed. If you want to keep the agility find an enchanter and buck up for cat's swiftness. You'll never be able to put your finger on it but that 8% movement buff is HUGE!

I hope this helped you with your dilemma. If you get anymore gear soon write back so we can put some other pieces of gear into the mix! Thanks for being our experiment Skipshrike!