Emerald's Feral Druid gear updated

As reported by Of Teeth and Claws recently, Emmerald’s oft-quoted ranked list of feral druid gear has been updated for patch 2.3 gear.

Of Teeth and Claws, along with Big Bear Butt Blogger, have become my two favorite blogs as of late. Both have a great mix of technical analysis, insightful comments and a dash of humor. Just please Karthis, for the love of Elune and all that is holy, deliver us from the evil that is your current green on green color scheme.

Now back to our regularly scheduled show…

As I, and virtually every blogger I read linking to Emmerald’s list also does, please remember that deep red (yes, not grey) organ between your ears. It has many functions, including critical analysis. Emmerald’s list, while a wonderful, time-saving tool, is only a tool and should not dictate your gear choices to you.

Emmerald has updated his site, adding a front page to his lists. He himself takes the time to point out that the rankings are based on mathematical formula, not actual gameplay or even simulations, and therefore should be used a quick reference. Also to keep in mind is the rankings do not factor in playstyle or party members. Make sure to read his comments on this front page, they are really helpful in understand what the rankings are all about and which is most appropriate to you. For more information, he provides a link to a forum where the list is discussed.

Emmerald has also updated his approach to gems. For each socket, he decides whether the socket is best fit with the matching color for the socket bonus, or a “best available” gem of another color. If a gem of a color other than the socket is used, then the sockets and the socket bonus is overstricken, and the gems that are recommended are listed after the actual socket colors.

It took me a little bit to figure out how exactly this works. The key is the “info” page for each category of gear. On this page, Emmerald lists the gems, and their rankings, used for that gear category (e.g. Bear Mitigation). So if the gem sockets are overstricken, just look at the end of the overstrike and you should see the colors that were used in the ranking calculation.

For example, on the Bear Mitigation - Head page, you should see the Stag Horn of Malorne listed as the seventh best piece of gear. The sockets for this item are a yellow and a meta; although you see they are struck through, as is the socket bonus of 4 agility. After the strikethrough is listed [MB]. This means Emmerald is recommending bypassing the socket bonus and using a meta and a blue gem instead. The meta and the blue gem recommended, along with his other recommendations, are on the info page. In this case, for Bear Mitigation, he recommends a Powerful Earthstorm Diamond for the meta slot and a Solid Star of Elune for the blue slot.

Note that Emmerald only uses rare gems for his calculations. If you are lucky enough to have epic gems, then certainly use them if appropriate.