Well, since the meta gem requirements will be reverted back at some point, the question is whether it is worth regemming now to get that 21 agi and 3% crit damage bonus for the undisclosed amount of time until the patch comes to revert the change.

Obviously the answer may not be the same for everyone, but I believe that for most hunters, the answer is that it is NOT worth regemming to get the meta bonus until the fix to revert the requirements.

Using my hunter as an example and using both hand calculations and Female Dwarf to show the differences, I illustrate why.

My hunter currently has the following gem color credits:
4 blue
21 red
2 yellow

First, I regemmed so that I ended up with:
12 blue
11 red
4 yellow

To accomplish this, I did the following regemming:
- Changed 2 Delicates in 2 yellow sockets to Smooths for -40 agi and +40 crit
- Changed 2 Deadlies in 2 yellow sockets to Smooths for -20 agi and +20 crit
- Changed 2 Delicates in 2 blue sockets to Rigids for -40 agi and +40 hit
- Changed 4 Glintings in 4 blue sockets to Rigids for -40 agi and +40 hit
- Changed 6 Delicates in 6 red sockets to Glintings for -60 agi and +60 hit

This is a net trade off of +60 crit, +140 hit (to put me 141 hit over cap), and +3% bonus crit damage for -179 agi. That is a lot of agility to lose and resulted in a -234 DPS.

Alternatively, I made the same changes except with using Quicks (+20 haste) instead of Smooths for the yellow sockets, but that was -286 DPS, so 52 DPS worse.

Then I looked at ways to reduce that extra 141 hit to try to make up the DPS gap. I only had 4 items with hit rating on them, and one already had the hit reforged. I reforged the other 3 pieces, with each individual reforge being a DPS improvement, despite losing some net mastery. The reforge trade off was +82 crit versus -66 hit and -16 mastery. This still left me at -143 DPS and 75 hit over the cap. (Note that for the haste gemming case, the difference closed a little as it was only -168 DPS.)

The final option was to replace hit gear with non-hit gear. The hit pieces I had were:
- T10 gloves - can't replace them since need for the 4-set bonus
- Neck - I do not have a better neck to replace it with
- Ashen Verdict rep ring - not replacing that either
- Belt - this was my only option for replacing where I had a worthwhile gear option

The regear still was -86 DPS and 26 hit over the cap. (Note that I lost 14 DPS when regearing with the haste setup.)

Thus, it definitely does not behoove me to spend the cost to regem 16 gems now to temporarily get the meta bonus until the requirements get reverted and I need to regem 16 gems again back to what I currently have.

Others should not take my results as being truth for them since the answer does vary with gear and spec. Still do a similar analysis for yourself and see the differences.

What seems like a smarter and cheaper change than regemming your non-meta gems to met the Relentless meta requirements is to regem your meta gem to meet your current gemming. Of the worthwhile options for hunters, here are the results I got in FD:

Thundering: +92 (chance to increase attack speed)
Destructive: +44 (25 crit and 1% spell reflect for survivability)
Swift: +37 (21 crit and minor run speed) (overall this was +72 DPS for me since could replace the run speed enchant on my boots to gain 10 agi)
Engimatic: +37 (21 crit and reduce snare/root by 10%)
Invigorating: +21 (21 haste and sometimes heals on crits for survivability)

GC seems to read this thread and quickly fixed it as part of 4.0.3a, you no longer see buff that stack on your buff window. Currently the TSA is not appearing anymore if you have another raid buff that provides the same effect.

Well... I guess I was wrong about Wolverine Bite's change. I've mistakenly taken it as a buff, but practically at 80 it was cut by half.

Sad.

Is there any consensus yet as to which professions will provide the best effect at 85? Leatherworking seems to provide a lot better results this time around due to LW-only agility bracer enchant.
I've leveled engineering lately, however Cataclysm raid bonuses don't seem so obviously good for us anymore. Casters get a great +int engineering tinker, while an agility one doesn't exist. Coupled with the fact that Nitro Boosts are now eligible to failure in a raid enviroment, it makes it even more unlikeable.

I was wondering about JC / Alchemy, what do you guys think?

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Just a quick question: Do point of no escape actually work on raidbosses? I have tried searching for a definite answer, but find myself getting conflicting answers.

I am new to hunter in PvP, and specifically I am wondering what the hunter role is in battlegrounds and what the preferrable spec is currently with 4.0.3. I ask because it seems like I run out of focus before being able to do a significant amount of damage and am currently looking at my role as a support role (traps, scatter shot, venom shot, concussion shot, etc.) saving my focus for those. I have been BM and have started experimenting with Survival because of those support role bonuses.