Gem mastery over stam now?

[digitalrob]

Quick question...all the guides I have built my pally around have suggested gemming stam for prot when you can. Someone in my guild was telling me that they saw somewhere that since the patch I mastery dominates stam and should become the priority when gemming...

Is this the case now? Has anyone heard this?

[fuzzygeek]

It depends heavily on your progression level. As a rule of thumb for an intro-level raider, I would recommend going for 150k hp unbuffed, then stack mastery until your nose bleeds.

Recent armorydiving suggests raiders pushing high end heroic content are swiveling back towards stam, but until you get to that point, heavy mastery isn't a bad way to go.

[econ21]

This has been discussed a lot here:

http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/ ... =viewtopic

http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/ ... =viewtopic

http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/ ... =viewtopic

http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/ ... =viewtopic

My impression is that it remains an open question - good points are made on both sides, with neither landing a knockout blow. It's so close, you are probably wise to meet slot bonuses either way (unless you have such good gear that 102.4% combat table coverage (CTC) is achievable).

Personally, my gemming is weighted towards mastery as I can bulk up stamina if needed via trinkets but to get to 102.4% CTC would need every point of mastery I can get. I suspect if ordinary folk could get to 102.4% - e.g. later in the expansion, when new tiers of gear trickle down - the case for mastery would be overwhelming (at least for those not doing hard modes). However, it would not surprise me if Blizzard moved the goalposts (e.g. reduced mastery's conversion rates) to prevent that.

[Digren]

Has anyone heard this?

There's a lot of other discussion about this, including two other threads on the first page of this forum and several technical discussions in the advanced theory forum, not to mention the recommendations in the gear and gem guides stickied at the top. Please continue the discussion in one of those places.