Whether you are Questing, doing Dungeons, Raiding or farming mobs and with the wide range of different Gems in Pandaria Remix, there are some Gems that are better suited to the situation than others. Since you have the opportunity to quickly own all of the Gems and swap them when you like, there are a lot of options for you to choose from. Because of this, we wanted to share what we think the best gem builds are for each scenario.
Prismatic Gems
The best prismatic gems vary from class to class, and for that reason we will not give suggestions on Prismatics. However, if you are pulling big and taking a lot of damage, stacking Versatility and Leech allows you to survive the hits you take and keep your health topped up.
Also, keep in mind Secondary and Tertiary stats have increasing diminishing returns the more of a stat you have. The table shows how much rating you need to be affected by the diminishing returns.
| Secondary Stat | -10% | -20% | -30% | -40% | -50% | -100% |
| Critical Strike | 5400 | 7200 | 9000 | 10800 | 14400 | 36000 |
| Haste | 5100 | 6800 | 8500 | 10200 | 13600 | 34000 |
| Mastery | 5400 | 7200 | 9000 | 10800 | 14400 | 36000 |
| Versatility | 6150 | 8200 | 10250 | 12300 | 16400 | 41000 |
Best Gems for Questing
Most of the best gems for Questing are chosen to improve your ability to keep yourself alive, deal higher AoE damage, quest elites and get yourself to objectives quickly.
Tinker Gems
Overall, we think a balance between offensive and defensive gems is the best choice.
Victory Fire is exceptionally strong in any situation where you can AoE pull, as it will create nice chain reactions of damage, but since it also heals you it will still have value in single target pulls.
Slay has the potential to execute both weak and strong enemies, which makes it great for questing.
Brittle is very strong in any situation where you can AoE pull. A nice additional bonus is that mobs affected by brittle create an explosion animation which can be visually satisfying to chain.
Brilliance grants 5% versatility by just being equipped, and the 2% class resource regeneration feels really good on classes that benefit from it. Even if you don’t really need the regen, this gem is still worth using.
Vampiric Aura grants 10% leech, which will for the most part keep you very healthy. If you feel like you have enough leech from your gear already, then this gem is not as valuable.
Flat damage gems are also going to be good. Some standout ones are Explosive Barrage as it's decent on both AoE and single target, Meteor storm which deals damage and stuns for 3 seconds, and Wildfire which will do moderate single target and AoE damage on targets that live a while.
Meta Gems
There is only one standout Meta gem for questing and that is Thundering Orb. Pairing this with the Battle Horn (a toy originally from MoP that can be purchased for bronze) will allow you to pull huge areas, and AoE them down with huge arcs of lightning. With a little leech, you’ll also be completely healed to full health.
That being said, if you have not managed to get Thundering Orb yet, Lifestorm or Oblivion Sphere are pretty good alternatives.
Cogwheel Gem
There is one cogwheel gem that makes questing much easier, and that is Trailblazer; gaining 30% movespeed inside buildings or caves feels amazing. There is an argument to take Vanish, as this gem could potentially save you or allow you to mount quicker, but we think Trailblazer is generally a lot nicer.
Best Gems for Dungeons
The best Gems to choose for Dungeons is going to vary a little from spec to spec, we however have outlined some gems that are great choices for each role.
Tinker Gems
Storm Overload deals massive damage whenever you use your class cooldown, the value will change depending on how often you get to use your cooldown, but is still strong even on 3 minute classes.
Brilliance grants 5% versatility, this alone makes it a great choice for most specs and the 2% class resource generation is a really nice bonus for specs that rely on resources, such as balance druid.
Quick Strike is really good for melee specs, the extra 4-7 melee attacks definitely add up.
Sunstrider’s Flourish is great for all specs and just increases in value the more critical strike rating you gain.
Righteous Frenzy is amazing for healers, increasing haste on an ally by 7% will increase the proc rate of their tinker gems.
Ankh of Reincarnation provides a personal cheat death, great for specs which do not have one naturally.
Mark of Arrogance is great for tanks, it does substantial damage and procs leech, creating a drip healing effect similar to Blood Plague on Blood DK.
Meta Gems
Thundering Orb is great in lower gear levels to maximize AoE damage output, once you start getting a bit of gear, Funeral Pyre will perform great and give your healer something to heal when you are killing bosses.
Cogwheel
Blink is amazing for everyone, it's instant and will get you out of mechanics instantly. Alternatively, Dark Pact can be taken if you want an extra defensive button.
Best Gems for Raids
The best choice of Gems for Raiding is going to depend a little on what boss you are on and what role you are performing, but we have outlined some strong ones for most situations.
Tinker Gems
Lightning Rod is a great choice, it will deal decent damage and increases your own and your group's Critical Strike Rating, meaning it has great synergy with some specs and other Gem choices.
Sunstrider’s Flourish does decent damage and scales with critical strike rating, meaning the more gear and Threads you get, the more damage you deal.
Righteous Frenzy is a great addition for healers, increasing the amount of haste the group has.
Mark of Arrogance will still do substantial damage on a single target encounter, even with tank swapping it will perform well.
Storm Overload is exceptionally strong on classes with short cooldowns, such as Fury Warrior, and is still good on longer cooldown classes.
Meta Gems
Ward of salvation is currently doing very high damage, especially when you use multiple together, making it especially strong in the 25 man Siege of Orgrimmar; because of how strong it is, this could potentially get changed in the future.
Funeral Pyre is a great alternative choice, granting a stacking increase to primary stat. Finally, Thundering orb could potentially be useful on AoE encounters.
Cogwheel
Blink is great for dodging mechanics, no other movement skill really comes close. If you don’t want movement, you could use dark pact as a strong additional defensive cooldown.
Best Gems for Farming Mobs
The choices for farming mobs are going to be similar to questing, however, there will be little reason to be moving about and you will want to be doing as much damage as possible and as quickly as possible.
Tinker Gems
A good balance of damage and defense is a good choice.
Victory Fire as long as you are grinding AoE mobs this gem will do consistently good damage and healing.
Slay will have the potential to proc a lot depending on the speed you are killing stuff, meaning it can end up a large portion of your damage.
Sunstrider’s Flourish, although this looks like it needs high critical strike rating to be useful, it's actually great damage on most specs due to the nature of the cloak granting everyone an increasing amount of critical strike rating.
Frost Armor and Enkindle are both shields that proc from you using your abilities; they are great for keeping you alive and deal small amounts of damage if something does manage to hit you.
Meteor Storm and Explosive Barrage are great instant damage. Although Meteor Storm damage is very high, it comes with a stun that can potentially cause mobs to end up spread out, reducing your efficiency a little, it's not a deal breaker but something to keep in mind.
Meta Gems
Thundering Orb is a great choice, it has a huge area it can affect and keeps you healthy at the same time. Both Lifestorm and Oblivion Sphere are pretty good alternatives.
Cogwheel Gem
Dark Pact is a great choice as it grants a fairly large shield, meaning you can increase the amount you pull by a large amount.
Spiritwalker’s Grace is great for spell casters if they have to move from pack to pack at all, as they can then cast while moving, although it has a fairly long 2 minute cooldown.
World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria introduced a huge amount of gems and increased customizability, we hope this guide helped you make choices on how best to utilize these gems for the content you are tackling.