Javaed posted on November 02, 2009
I've been holding off on this post, as the data that's been coming out on Shadow Priest itemization has frankly looked a bit fishy. I also didn't want to comment on any changes until the PTR had been up for a few weeks, in case some of the buffs we've gotten wound up getting rescinded. Well, things look a bit more stable now, and I've seen some newer sources of theorycraft data, so here are my recommendations post 3.3.
First, our stat Priorities change slightly. The order of priority I would now recommend is Hit > Spell Power > Haste > Crit > Spirit > Int. Not a huge difference, basically one point of Haste is now a stronger increase than one point of Crit. Also remember, once you reach the Hit Cap, you no longer need any more of the stat, and it drops to the back of the priority system.
So the question you should be asking yourself now is, should I regem? The answer is maybe. Right now, you'll probably see a bunch of people saying you should just gem for Haste after 3.3 hits. Much of the early theorycraft showed 1 point of haste equaling anywhere from 1.5 to 2 times the DPS increase of 1 point of Spell Power. More recent data is showing that while Haste is still very good, Spell Power is still our strongest DPS stat, point for point. Odds are that switching all of your gems to Haste Gems would be dumb.
What 3.3 really means is that we now can actually use different colored gems in every slot. Currently, with very few exceptions, simply socketing a Pure Spell Power gem is your best option. We follow this gemming method because every other stat just isn't terribly powerful. With Patch 3.3 though, our scaling with both Spirit and Haste is significantly stronger. Both Blue and Yellow sockets are now significantly stronger, so the smart Priest will now start paying attention to those Socket bonuses. Here are the gems that we should start looking at:
Red Sockets
Runed Cardinal Ruby
Reckless Amertrine
Yellow Sockets
Quick Kings Amber
Reckless Amertrine
Blue Sockets
Purified Dreadstone
Intricate Eye of Zul
The biggest change we're going to see is Yellow Sockets going from nearly useless to almost of the same value as Red Sockets. Haste is slightly less of a DPS increase than Spell Power, but you may want to consider socketing all Red and Yellow sockets with the Orange gem, Reckless Amertrine, in order to boost both stats.
Blue Sockets are still poor, but we need two in order to activate our Meta Gem bonus (Assuming you're using a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond, which you should be). Luckily, these sockets aren't nearly as bad as they used to be. Since we now convert 50% of our Spirit to Spell Power, the 10 Spirit provided by Purple and Green gems converts to 5 Spell Power. This means Purified Dreadstone provides us with 17 SP, Intricate Eye of Zul gives us 5 SP and 10 Haste. The Dreadston is equal to a Runed Cardinal Ruby with a socket bonus of just 6 SP. The Eye of Zull needs a bit stronger of a bonus, 7 SP or 8 Haste to make up the difference of not socketing a Runed Cardinal Ruby. It's still a decent option though, espicially if you're low on Haste.
Basically, we now get to actually pay attention to those Socket Bonuses. Yellow gem slots are worth using Yellow gems in now, as long as you're using one of the two gems I've indicated. Blue sockets can now be used to get socket bonuses, provided the bonus is at least 6 points of SP, 7 points of Haste, or a significant amount Crit.