Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsInsider Trader: Jewelcrafting nerf incoming
by Amanda Miller 
May 22nd 2009 at 4:00PM
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Bornakk just announced on the forums that Jewelcrafters are about to see a new nerf, and as a result, people are already beginning to weigh the benefits of switching to a different profession for min-maxing, or working out how they are going to re-itemize their gear.
Bornakk:
In the next major content patch we will be removing the prismatic quality of the jewelcrafter-only Dragon's Eye gems. Like other gems, they will have to match the socket color to receive a socket bonus. When this change occurs, players with qualifying jewelcrafting skill will be provided a yet to be determined amount of Dalaran Jewelecrafter Tokens as compensation.
This probably won't be enough to entice players to drop the profession, but it is a bit of a blow. Stratfu points out that because Mage T8 is equipped primarily with yellow and blue sockets, the only way to actually meet socket bonus requirements will be to use sub-par gems.
The JC-only Runed Dragon's Eye offers +32 spell power, and currently fits into any socket, conforming to meet the necessary color requirements. This is compared to the +19 spell power that the rest of us folks get from Runed Scarlet Rubies. While Jewelcrafters will still be able to use these gems, they won't be able to stick them just anywhere.
Breaking it down
Jewelcrafters can equip three of these soon-to-be-not-prismatic gems, and the fact is that for many classes, red gems offer the best stats in many cases. That is the main reason that Scarlet Rubies sell for often double the price of any other comparable gem on the market. For some classes, their gear simply will not include three red sockets.
Another example would be tier 8 and tier 8.5 sets for protection Paladins. While they benefit most from blue gems, their sets have only one blue socket!
While it may seem to some to be an easy compromise to forgo a socket bonus or use a different gem, it does mean that some classes simply won't benefit from being Jewelcrafters as much as other classes. Not being able to take advantage of your own profession's rewards for leveling it seems counter-intuitive, and unfair to the affected classes.
Would this mean that min-maxing guilds would suddenly prefer, for example, a Jewelcrafting prot Warrior over a JC prot Paladin, simply because the Warrior can squeeze more out of his/her stats? After all, tanks are becoming increasingly homogenized. Many fights no longer require a specific class. Unfortunately, many high-end guilds do block people from raid slots for not having the right profession, for example.
Compensation
The Jewelcrafting Token compensation is also a curious mechanic. Will the Dragons Eyes disappear entirely, or will your equipped and/or cut gems disappear? Unlikely. Most likely, you will log in to find your once prismatic gems converted into their corresponding colors. The tokens will be handed out as a means of compensation for the fact that many players will have to replace them.
But why JC?
Presumably this nerf comes as a response to the popularity of the profession. Not only is it one of, if not the, best gold making professions in the game, it is also considered a must for min-maxing your raiding gear. In fact, many high-end guilds require that their raiders become Jewelcrafters and either Enchanters or Blacksmiths in addition.
When Blizzard finally decides to add epic gems into the game, this nerf will hit the JC community even harder if the gems aren't buffed significantly, as Stratfu mentions. After all, each profession has its profession-only perks, and if they don't scale, and new ones are not introduced in their place, we'd all feel like Engineers carrying around old Arcanite Dragonlings and the like.
Of course, there is no need for panic. Patch 3.2 may not be the epic gem patch, meaning that we may yet see buffs to the Dragon's Eye gems that have not yet been announced.
Discussion
What do you think about this change? How are you going to have to re-work your gear? Is this actually going to affect your decision to take up, or keep, the Jewelcrafting profession?
We want to know your take on the matter. Hop on Twitter, leave a comment here, or blog about it with your new WoW.com profile feature! Don't forget to add the #wowcom tag to the end of your tweet!
Each week, Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness. Check out our analysis of patch 3.1 profession changes, or read through our in-depth analysis of the changes to flasks in 3.1. Filed under: Mage, Paladin, Enchanting, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Economy, Jewelcrafting, Features, Raiding, Enchants, Insider Trader (Professions)
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 6)
Obi-Habby May 22nd 2009 9:35PM
Remember Blizzard's stance on Buffs/Nerfs? They have been preaching it since WOTLK was released. Nerfs make more sense then buffs. If an ability out performs everything else you do not make that the basis for what is good or OP. Instead you bring it down to a level playing field with everything else.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. The many needs JC on par with eveything else. The few want everything else buffed to JCs level. I for one am glad I kept engineering for 4+ years now.
Sloegin May 22nd 2009 4:18PM
Wouldn't be so bad if Blizzard designers didn't consistently park such asinine socket colors on most of the gear.
SaintStryfe May 22nd 2009 4:39PM
agreed. This change would suck a whole lot less if they did a few things:
1) change so not every good stat (STR, AGL, SP) for more then half the classes was on one gem color. As it is I have to s
2) put the gem color of an associated stat on that classes' tier gear. Blue gives MP5, Int and Sta and Spr. There is absolutely no reason why my T7.5 gear should have two blue stats for an ENH shaman as we don't use a single one of those stats.
3) when the change goes into effect to refund us uncut versions of every gem we have, prismatics included.
whowhatme May 22nd 2009 4:47PM
i don't think blizz was like 'hey let's play spin the wheel to choose the colors of these gem slots' ...i would bet that they have a design philosophy that says that choosing to gem for the bonus should be a difficult choice for players. i like the fact that i have to choose between using a red gem for the +SP, but at the cost of not matching for the +4int bonus, rather than some other professions, where it's basically 'hmm i guess i should get the ONE weapon enchant that everybody else has'
lockanon May 23rd 2009 11:46PM
I know....
I just wish they would put in, like, you know, hybrid gems that could match other colors...
you know, orange gems could go in red or yellow....
wait a minute-
Daedhir May 22nd 2009 4:22PM
A message to rerollers of all stripes:
Rerolling, either a profession or a class, because it's the "best" for min/maxing is always going to bring you pain and heartache. If you only play the overpowered stuff, you'll always be setting yourself up for disappointment once they decide to nerf it.
Play what you enjoy, the way you enjoy it, and this will never be a problem.
Fuseitana May 22nd 2009 4:36PM
I didn't choose JC for the min/max potential, in fact there weren't even prismatics when I picked the first copper pimple and whooshed the first copper wire. And I'm really hoping that my other professions can be as entertaining as the JC has been. But, this isn't the way they should be going. Nerfing a good prof while the others just languish. Give the others dailies and something new to discover - my alchemist hasn't even tried a discovery in months. The inscribers got the books last drop, that was a change in the right direction - this is not.
Turtlehead May 24th 2009 9:36AM
"Give the others dailies and something new to discover"
You're seriously asking for other professions to have to repeat a short list of quests EVERY DAY FOR SIX MONTHS to train all their stuff and you'd consider it a feature? And that's not including some of the most important cuts being exalted rep and/or drop patterns. Some BoE, some BoP. Oh, and the PvP ones too.
That'd be [bleeping] fantastic.
[pounds head on desk]
joerendous May 22nd 2009 4:23PM
So, instead of adjusting the rest of the professions to not be sucktacular, tehy're just suckulating JC.
GG Blizz.
Magius May 22nd 2009 10:14PM
That was close for me, I just decided to min/max a bit and was trying to choose between JC or BS. They just made the choice for me.
Seems like Blizz way of "fixing" things will always be nerfing, what a shame.
Cedric May 22nd 2009 4:29PM
Or, just like non-JC'ers do, people will continue to simply socket the gems that give them the greatest bonus, and forgo the socket color bonus entirely. Since on every single piece of gear ever it's a negligble bonus. After all, should I put a +16 hit gem in a stupid yellow socket for my tank that's already hit capped... or a +41 stamina gem, even if I lose out on a whole +4 sta socket bonus on the item.... gee, lets think about this.
Ahnz May 22nd 2009 4:34PM
You're missing the bigger issue that JC'ers will have: Meta Gem requirements.
kashback May 23rd 2009 7:38AM
That's hardly an 'issue'. It's just what everyone else in the game has to do at least some planning for.
Tridus May 22nd 2009 4:32PM
Given how lousy every other profession is in Wrath, this is in no way surprising at all. JC has been OP compared to every other profession all of Wrath, as shown by the constant influx of people switching to it.
The entire paradigm now appears to be for crappy professions. Welcome to the club.
matt May 22nd 2009 4:30PM
The logic of this change reminds me a lot of the change wintergrasp in the last patch. Rather than fixing the Lag in wintergrasp they try to keep people from playing it so it seems they are going to down the same road with jewelcrafting. The other professions are in a terrible state right now. Also Why does Jewelcrafting the only one to get a dally quest it would seem to be a small mater to give with professions there own dally quests. Say nothing about how basely most of the professions scale. So rather than bring everying up to the level of Jewelcrafting they are trying to bring Jewelcrafting down to the level of the others. It is there right but seems backwards to me.
theRaptor May 22nd 2009 4:49PM
Right because Blizzard had the ability to just "fix the lag" but couldn't be bothered. /eye roll
No, they would much rather just annoy everyone for the hell of it.
matt May 22nd 2009 6:10PM
not saying they can just fix but rather than fix it for instance the area they took the path of least work. Which for devoled content you can understand why they do that. My issue is that the problem isn't really fixed its just doesn't seem as bad. So to goes the professions. I like making stuff. I like it even more when the stuff I make has value if not for myself then for someone else. Right now that is not case with most of the crafting professions. With Letherworking, and taloring getting hit the hardest but people aren't doing blacksmithing for the gear either. I would just rather see a Vallian wow approach where they take there time and bring all the professions up the level of Jewelcrafting much like they with the Class rebalancings. Nerfing Jewelcrafting is a quick fix but does nothing to address the other professions that need help. I know that what i am suggesting takes time and time they might not want to spend. It is there game and there right but end of the day I think if they did spend the take to rebalance the professions it would make everyone happier.
aelfscine May 22nd 2009 4:33PM
Although it might be painful now, this will make Blizz's new MMO all the better. Why?
They've obviously pulled all their talented/sane people off of WoW and into the new project, and for now, that sucks. But when the new game comes out, we'll be playing THAT, while the current Ghostfailer crew will still be stuck working on WoW. The good people will be making the good game, while the WoW team will be going 'Nerf Skinning LOLZ'
Quidamtyra May 22nd 2009 4:32PM
I can see why their reasoning behind this: not only were JCs getting better gems, but they were getting most of their socket bonuses along with it.
I can also see why they decided to nerf JC instead of buffing all the other professions: if one thing is OP, then nerf that one thing, don't buff everything else or you will get a whole bunch of OP professions, which will lead to boss buffing, which will put us right back where we were in TBC. Which is somewhere Blizzard is trying to get away from.
I just hope the compensation to JCs is good, and the Dragon's Eyes themselves offer higher stats per gem to make up for a bit of the socket-matching problems. We can only wait and see.
SaintStryfe May 22nd 2009 4:45PM
EVERY PROFESSION should have something as good and useful as Dragon's Eye gems, though, Quid. The fact that they do not is the problem.