Resto Rocks! (But am I doing it wrong?)

And by doing it, I mean cutting them.  I am, after all, a Jewelcrafter!

Point for point, intellect > *.  I know that.

… But at the time that I won these legs off of the Four Horsemen event in Naxx 25, almost all of my sockets were yellow and gemmed with +16 intellect (Brilliant Autumn’s Glow).  I had a red socket in my Heroes’ Earthshatter Tunic, gemmed with a +27 intellect prismatic (Brilliant Dragon’s Eye) to secure the socket bonus of +2 mp5, and two green sockets in my Sapphire Owl, gemmed with +8 intellect and +3 mp5 (via Dazzling Forest Emeralds) for a second +2 mp5 bonus.  (Not the best choice, perhaps … but the idea of foregoing an mp5 bonus on my mana trinket makes me /twitch, even if the math supports it.  Seriously.  Not twitching in raids = not missing the nanosecond I have to heal after Loatheb’s necrotic aura wanes or a third of our melee simulanteously decide to cast Feign Mage(Rank 1) during Kel’Thuzad.  This alone makes a trade of 16 intellect for 8 mp5 totally worth it … for me.  But I am a unique snowflake.)  

Oh, I also picked up a pair of Eruption Scarred Boots in the same run as the Legguards of  Voracious Shadows, with another blue socket and a +5 spellpower bonus to contend with.

Stupid.  Blue.  Sockets.

In the off-chance that all of the /twitching didn’t give it away, I should probably mention that I am absolutely OCD about matching sockets.  Unless the bonuses are simply awful (as in, spell penetration on PvE gear awful), I try to socket reds with spellpower, yellows with intellect and blues with prismatics.  But here I had three new blue sockets, and one of my three allotted prismatics already invested in my T7 chest.  

/frown

I suppose I could have replaced the red socket in my chest with a Runed Scarlet Ruby and cut three more Brilliant Dragon’s Eyes for those pesky blue sockets — but I’m still buying jewelcrafting patterns with my tokens, and really didn’t want to spend them regemming ilevel 200 gear I’m hoping to upgrade relatively quickly now that my shaman is my declared main.  The other thing to consider was that I was about two weeks away from being able to purchase my Valorous Earthshatter Legguards, at which point the Leggings of Voracious Shadows would be retired to my elemental off-set.

So with all of this in mind, I went ahead and gemmed the Leggings with two Runed Dragon’s Eyes, which I figured would make them a versatile resto/elemental piece (there are currently no prismatics in my sketchy elemental set), and put a Dazzling Forest Emerald in my new boots.  Someone looking at my character sheet on Armory might be left scratching their head in confusion, but it made sense to me at the time based on what I had and could reasonably expect to have in the future. 

It was a “big picture” decision, y’know?

A couple of days later, one of the resto druids in my guild happened to get a look at my Leggings (Silly me, I linked them in /g as part of a playful “I tank in a DRESS!”/”Oh yeah? I heal in PANTS!”/”It’s a WAR KILT!” exchange), and asked … “Two 23’s?  Really?”

<cue sad, Broken-Hearted Newbie Shaman Mewling Noises® here>

(It’s like a /whimper in Ghost Wolf, only infinitely more pathetic.)

I explained my reasoning, briefly, in /guild chat and asked for suggestions … but the druid had just zoned into a battleground (or realized that he had damned near made his GM cry?) and didn’t answer.  Another one of our resto shamans chimed in with the recommendation to gem for intellect until about 20K mana, and then gem for spellpower instead. 

I had over 21K mana, and said so.

*crickets*

My Paladin-turned-Death Knight friend /whispered me and said that it was unusual to see two prismatics in the same item — unusual, but not necessarily wrong. 

My Rogue officer scoffed at the entire situation in /officer chat.  “Did a restoration druid seriously just ask you why you were gemming for spellpower?” he asked.  It’s not like I’d socketed for agility or equipped bullets in my wand or something silly like that.  >.>

And my boyfriend reassured me that my decisions all made perfect logical sense, and not to worry about the Tree’s criticism because it was based on one piece of gear and not my entire set. 

I want to believe him, but … he’s my boyfriend.  And therefore biased.  Not to mention a flea-ridden feral druid who tanks with his face.  So do I really want to trust his critique on healing gems?

No.  No, I don’t.

I am going to break out a calculator when I get home and do shaman maths for the first time … ever.  o.o