Armor pen gems are going away in 4.0, and that means strength, agility and haste gems are going to be what every player needs to replace their new (and somewhat useless) crit gems. Especially for classes like the warrior who love to gem tons of armor pen in order to reach the 100% cap will suddenly find themselves crowding the auction house for a new set of strength gems.
Cataclysm Points
With the conversion of badges plus honor points into cataclysm points people will be less likely to buy epic gems with their badges and honor because they'd rather save up for cataclysm. This will directly affect the cut epic gem market since less cheap uncut gems will be appearing. Expect prices to rise a significant amount (20-40%) from this change.
Happy Jewelcrafters
These two factors will surely lead to an increase in the value of strength, haste and agility gems once 4.0 goes live and beyond. You may even see people saving up honor points and badges now instead of buying uncut gems since the word has gotten out about 4.0's point changes.
In cataclysm the colors will probably change for which gems become which stats. For instance, blue gems will become the new strength cut instead of red ones. Even though I believe that blizzard will wait until post 4.0 to implement this change on wotlk gems (if the ever do implement it for content older than cataclysm), it would be wise to cut your gems and have them sitting in your bank ready to sell come 4.0.
Don't expect prices to remain high for very long, with the coming expansion so close and the resurgence of farmers on most servers I have seen titanium ore drop as well as the price of epic gems. Use this opportunity to make one last batch of sales and liquidate your gem stockpiles.
14 comments: on "Patch 4.0: Armor Pen Removal; Cataclysm Points; Happy Jewelcrafters"
Anonymous said... September 20, 2010 at 8:15 AM
The rise will be short-lived, if mmo-champion's source proves to be right, we've got six weeks till cataclysm hits the stores. The now pricey epic gems, will be vendortrash as green cataclysm gems have better stats on them.
If the usual PTR to LIVE timing applies, we've got two or three more weeks until 4.0.1.
No other professions get such a reset like Jewelcrafting.
Tyberiuss said... September 20, 2010 at 8:46 AM
Instead of having to replace useless gems, has Blizz indicated if the stats would just change to the more useful stats? .... making initial regeming unneeded.
Grump said... September 20, 2010 at 9:47 AM
Last I saw, armor pen becomes haste. I know I'll be regemming my warrior. I don't need over 1400 haste.
Which classes gem for armor pen? To the best of my knowledge, it's warriors, DKs, rogues, hunters, and feral druids. What cuts will be the best replacements for these classes? I'm thinking the following:
strength
strength/crit
strength/hit (this is a big maybe. Are they removing all the hit bonuses when they remove armor pen?)
agility
agility/hit (same question as str/hit)
I'm not as knowledgeable on the agility-based classes. Anyone think of anything else I'm missing?
Zifmia said... September 20, 2010 at 10:40 AM
Presumably nobody will be buying level 80 epic gems and top-level enchants the day before Cataclysm drops. Or even 2 days. A week?
Is this too soon to liquidate all gems, abyss crystals and dream shards, eternals? I was not involved in the AH market when WotLK dropped, so I don't have a good gauge for comparison?
Also, I just got a JC up to 450. What should I do with my daily JC quest tokens for the next 6 weeks? Is there any point in learning additional cuts at this point? Is there still a market for dragon eyes? Or will it be profitable to learn a couple more cuts just for the next month? (Currently the only token cuts I know are solid majestic zircon, which I have been using with my alchemist's daily transmute, and chaotic skyflare diamond, which I used to level up.)
Zifmia said... September 20, 2010 at 10:51 AM
Anonymous said... September 20, 2010 at 2:05 PM
Warriors and DKs will want strength. Hunters, Rogues, and Feral Druids will want Agility.
Brian said... September 20, 2010 at 2:10 PM
I think people will still be hit capped come 4.0, so I don't know if Str/Hit or Agi/Hit will see a lot of play. Unless people are gemming in anticipation of Cataclysm and gaining levels, at which point hit will be all kinds of important.
I would use those JC tokens on Dragon Eyes, and turn them into NM tears. I have to imagine that people will want to have a few of those handy to gem intermediate Cata gear. Also, Dragon Eyes might be pretty valuable - JCs don't want to spend their tokens for new JC gems on gear that won't last, so they might be buying Dragon Eyes.
I wouldn't liquidate Dream Shards and Eternals. Both have uses in the next expansion, and as supply dries up, I have to imagine prices will rise.
Elliott said... September 20, 2010 at 2:24 PM
Yea this is a great idea for making some quick easy gold before Cata hits. On Mal'Ganis (Largest horde pop) I've found a great way to make some quick gold with people who are liquidating their stockpiles too early. We still have 5-6 weeks before launch and people will still raid up until Cataclysm!
Bought two stacks of Scarlet Rubies for 7g50s per gem and am currently reselling them all as cuts, banking upwards of 300% markup per cut.
blacksage said... September 20, 2010 at 2:39 PM
Good post. The price of most gems should go up. Don't forget that in the few weeks post 4.0.1 players of all sorts are going to be able to farm Justice Points from heroics and in turn convert them into shiny new 251 t10 for their alts. And if your servers are anything like mine that influx of t10 will mean an influx of people into ICC as their GS inevitably rises ;)
Daniel Mckibbin said... September 20, 2010 at 3:28 PM
Very nice tip, I guess my JC will become much more richer soon, hope you don't mind if I use this on my gold blog?
Will obviously credit there and post a link to your blog :)
Marxman said... September 20, 2010 at 3:44 PM
Small clarification. Strength gems are NOT becoming Blue, Hit is changing from Yellow to Blue. Strength remains Red, as does Agility. Intellect is also changing from Yellow to Red.
I'll personally be stocking up on Cardinal Rubies, hopefully enough for 50-60 each of Strength and Agility. Haste... not quite sure why you'd swap from ArPen to Haste. I know Hunters and Feral Druids will definitely be using Agility, and I know all 3 Plate DPS classes will be using Strength. Not quite sure about Rogues and Enhance Shaman.
Markco said... September 20, 2010 at 4:04 PM
@Daniel course not, have fun
Anonymous said... September 20, 2010 at 9:15 PM
I think there will be a sharp rise in the +16 superior quality gem. Many players will see the end of LK raiding and inevitable equiping of L82 quest gear and go the cheap route on regemming. Just my 2 copper.
Anolaana said... September 21, 2010 at 4:26 AM
Hey Marko. Long time lurker, haven't posted yet. xD
I think the changes to JCing will be beneficial- the clutter and uselessness of recipies *cough* use dalies to buy actually useful ones *cough* will be reduced. I might actally produce something useful by just levelling up! On the other hand, if there isn't enough junk (well, there are the dual-colour gems) then then market will get swamped.
Maybe we should get random trained spells if we use the above? Cancelling the economic woe, it might be interesting, profitable - and above all, fun, to level professions again!
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