Jcing Changes

In the next major content patch we will be removing the prismatic quality of the jewelcrafter-only Dragon’s Eye gems. Like other gems, they will have to match the socket color to receive a socket bonus. When this change occurs, players with qualifying jewelcrafting skill will be provided a yet to be determined amount of Dalaran Jewelecrafter Tokens as compensation.

At first, I was pretty pissed at blizzard. Now, I'm just mad at the rest of the raiding community.

For those of us who have been Jcers since the start of Burning Crusade, we have seen some small but nifty things come our way. Primatics were a joke in BC so when Wrath came out with the super stat-ed Prismatics (Limit Three) I was pretty happy with it. Then, a strange thing occured that I did not realize was happening. Folks would take Blacksmithing and Jcing together. Not only did you by pass the Meta and Socket bonus requirements, but you were able to plop the gems into Prismatic Sockets and still be full of win.

I suppose I can't blame those folks for wanting to min max as such. But, like those stupid drums for Black Temple and Sunwell, this combination, or at the very least taking up Jewelcrafting alone, seemed like a standard requirement for raiding.

I kept telling people in my guild that Jewelcrafting would suck their souls and to not take it up. So much money spent on one tradeskill. My total cash dumped is enormous, and then there are folks who helped me get a rare but essential pattern (and one player who helped me get each pattern from the Sunwell Island). Total cash spent is easily in the tens of thousands.

I took it up in the beginning to help my guildies. Why pay money in the AH when you can ask me and save some cash? Especially with raw gems purchasable by emblems, all you have to do is spend a few heroics worth of time and energy and BAM, new gem. Ok, maybe that part is a pain the ass, but I have always enjoyed being able to provide a service to the needy in my guild. And, I suppose always having the gem I needed was nice.

Then, despite my pleas and warnings, more and more guildies grabbed the tradeskill. Other guilds did the same. And blizzard responded with a nerf.

Now, a nerf is fine for me. I had been doing things wrong all along and did not use the Dragon's Eye gems to fill socket requirements. I used them just like an enchanter would for their rings or a leatherworker for their bracer enchants. They were an extra bonus for me that no one else had. What I hope is that they change them correctly to be solid colors.

I am sure they had to decide at some point to choose between changing all the JC only gems to the pure colors they represented (sparkling to blue, subtle to red, brillant to yellow) or remove them and force players to start over, with compensation. I personally would have liked to have made them the solid colors and fix sockets accordingly (which wouldn't have been terribly difficult).

Blacksmith/JCers are still edging out in the win column. BS sockets are still going to be prismatic, which means they can still keep those dragon's eye gems and use regular gems to fill their metas.

What I don't understand is the 77 current pages of "This tradeskill is worthless now." Really? Having an extra daily to work on the Horrible Kirin Tor rep must be worthless. Having a cut you want any time is worthless. Having an extra powered gem when you want is not worthless.

In addition, epic gems still haven't come out. Stormjewels are just a taste of whats to come and there is still a light at the end of the tunnel. There are many things that could be better with Jewelcrafting, but this nerf to the Min Maxers is not going to hurt me.

Hell, maybe enough will drop the GD thing so I can go back to selling my gems at a good price :)