Post by Victarious
Yeah, it sucks to
gem expertise, but if your gear is lacking, do so. Getting hit/expertise capped is priority #1. Once you're at those caps (or very near -- you don't want to waste a socket on expertise when you're only one point short of the cap), STR all the way.
Bold Dragon's Eye x3,
Bold Cardinal Rubies everywhere else, or
Scarlet if you can't afford (or maybe if it's a junk piece of gear or one you know you'll replace soon).
Relentless Earthsiege Diamond is your meta; it is in every possible way better than
Chaotic Skyflare. Use one
Nightmare Tear to socket it.
In case anyone is thinking of rolling up here and defending Chaotic Skyflare, here's some science from you. Taken from the Paladin forums, the point still holds:
Math because I'm a math nerd.
Let's assume Giez is right, and 1 point of agility gives you .67 points of crit. 21 agility, then is worth 14 crit, meaning Chaotic Skyflare gives you 7 more crit.
To activate your Skyflare, since you can't double up on Nightmare Tears, you have to socket something like a Sovereign Dreadstone, which gives you 10 strength. It also gives you 15 stamina, but you shouldn't need that as DPS.
Now, if you had used Relentless Earthsiege, you wouldn't have to putz around with that, and could just socket straight Bold Cardinal Rubies. Not having to use a purple gem, then, nets you 10 extra strength.
And, for those keeping score at home, 10 strength beats 7 crit for a Ret paladin in every way possible.
Of note, for those too poor or too cheap to socket epic gems, if you run the numbers with superior gems like Sky Sapphires and Scarlet Rubies, you still gain 8 strength by going with Relentless Earthsiege.
Skyflare is sexy, but the numbers don't lie. Relentless Earthsiege is the ONLY meta for a Retadin.
EDIT: I can't say for sure that Giez IS right and 1 AGI = .67 crit. But it sure sounds right. Anyway, you'd need like 20 crit to match that 10 strength, so unless 1 agility gives ZERO crit, Relentless Earthsiege still wins.
I'm not sure what the agility to crit ratio is on warriors, but the point holds: to make Chaotic Skyflare worthwhile, the ratio would have to be nearly zero crit rating per point of agility.
So anyway, that's gems. Have fun killing!