Since the removal of
[Pearlescent Butterfly Wristbands] from the BiS list, I went over a few of the stat weights to determine whether or not they had changed since we originally discussed them. More specifically, I wanted to see if the burning primal meta theoretically beat the gain in secondary stats from the revitalising meta (spoiler: they're equal).
This lead me to tabulate each of the stat weights when using either meta gem.
Stat weightings with burning
Int: 4.52
Hit: 2.44
Crit: 2.25
Mastery: 1.83
Haste: 1.40
Stat weightings with revitalising
Int: 4.55
Hit: 2.44
Crit: 2.25
Mastery: 1.83
Haste: 1.40
These results make sense, as haste/hit/mastery/crit weights shouldn't change much, as their values only differ slightly (or in the case of haste/hit/mastery, not at all). However, as we have been avoiding int for this gearset, it pulls ahead slightly in the 1:2 ratio of gems. Therefore, until some point, the int/crit gems will outweigh the pure crit gems.
What does this mean overall? Essentially, all I'm saying is that the two meta gems are
equivalent. Just as we reforge in and out of hit/crit/haste, making them all equal in "weight", so too can we gem in and out of int/crit. Therefore, we have a new "cap" - namely, the point at which Int = 2x Crit. This occurs (assuming perfect haste/hit cap) at roughly 16161 Int and 7500 Crit, where int = 4.5 and crit = 2.25.
Furthermore, this is not possible to reach with a revitalising gem. If you gem for revitalising and switch out all pure crit gems for int/crit, you fall 100 int short of the "int cap". Thus, precious ints are wasted, and DPS is lowered. Hence, and only in this situation where stats are maxed in heroic gear, we can say pretty confidently that the burning meta gem is best in the BiS scenario. This is a lot more difficult to measure with intermediate gear, since the stat weights between int and crit change dynamically on all the other stats (and themselves), so I can't vouch for when int = 2x crit beneath these levels.
In the burning primal situation, changing two crit -> int/crit gems results in 16197 int and 7428 crit, the closest possible outcome to the 16161/7500 optimised int/crit ratio. Thus, the theoretical
maximum DPS attainable is
110229.22, and due to wasted reforge stats (~9.78 DPS) and an inability to reach the optimised int/crit ratio (~0.09 DPS), DPS now sits at
110219.35.
You may think that these tiny numbers don't mean much, but they do shine a lot of light on how dynamic our stats are. There are two things that I find most interesting: 1. haste drops significantly below mastery once at the BiS stat levels, and 2. crit's weight increases as more crit is added. Now, the latter part is purely theoretical, as adding additional crit means sacrificing the other stats, therefore most likely reducing the value of crit anyway, but I thought it was just interesting to note. The former part is irrelevant, as we cut back on excess haste and put it into crit, which is above mastery anyway.
Anyway, I'll be updating the BiS list to accommodate for the bracers change, and also to note the change in gems. I just want to clarify that the int/crit gems are in
no means the best gem to use pre-BiS gear. We'll be following the general rule of 2x secondary > 1x int until we reach stat levels close enough to what we see here, so it should only be followed as an advanced tip to hardcore raiders rounding off their sets. Use WrathCalcs when in doubt.