1)
Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Headpiece
2)
Rimetooth Pendant Normal
3)
Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Spaulders
4)
Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape
5)
Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Tunic
6)
Scourge Hunter's Vambraces Normal
7)
Quel'Delar, Ferocity of the Scorned
8)
Njorndar Bone Bow Normal
9)
Whispering Fanged Skull Normal
10)
Mirror of Truth
11)
Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance
12)
Frostbrood Sapphire Ring Normal
13)
Rock-Steady Treads
14)
Draconic Bonesplinter Legguards
15)
Nerub'ar Stalker's Cord Normal
16)
Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Handguards
No gems or enchants, and the hunter needs to decide what to gem and enchant.
With this gear the hunter has the following stats :-
1) Agility - 1804
2) AP - 6793
3) Hit - 4.67% (153)
4) Crit - 49.04% (1159)
5) ArP - 47.66% (667)
6) Haste - 0
The above stats are a distributed average of trinket and talent procs.
Now, according to Rawr, on a 120-second fight, with no buffs but self-buffs and a Retribution paladin's Judgments (to keep intellect from being the priority stat due to having mana problems). The DPS gain for this hunter with this gearset per point of a stat gained as calculated by Rawr are as follows :-
1) Hit Rating - 1.28
2) Agility - 1.18
3) ArP - 1.13
4) Crit Rating - 0.99
5) Scope Damage - 0.77
6) Intellect - 0.55
7) RAP - 0.54
8) Haste rating - 0.19
As you can see in the new list, several stats such as Mp5 have totally disappeared from the stat priority, the addition of a Ret with mana regen has pushed intellect much lower in the stat priority, and that stats such as Hit, ArP and Crit have climbed up to the top of the ladder.
Now, the given arbitrary hunter wants to start gemming with his Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance. A choice can be made by comparing the relative DPS gain from the stats. Because these stats are so high up the ladder he can choose to gem either hit, crit, agility or ArP. The socket is yellow and the bonus is +4 agility.
* Gemming +20 Hit gem - Hit cap is 164, so you get a gain of 1.28 DPS until you reach the hit cap then a total gain of 0 for the remaining 9 hit. You get 4 extra agility from the socket bonus. So the total DPS gain in this case is 1.28 * 11 + 4 * 1.18 = 18.8 DPS
* Gemming +20 Agility gem - Simply, 1.18 * 20 = 23.6 DPS
* Gemming +20 ArP gem - Again, 1.13 * 20 = 22.6 DPS
* Gemming +20 Crit gem - 20 * 0.99 + 1.18 * 4 = 24.52 DPS
* Gemming +10 agility and +10 crit - 14 * 1.18 + 10 * 0.99 = 26.42 DPS
* Gemming +10 agility and +10 hit - 14 * 1.18 + 10 * 1.28 = 29.32 DPS
Most hunters would choose this gem by default, or at least I would hope so. Let's say the next item to gem is Rimetooth Pendant. Now yellow sockets with a +4 bonus is something that is neglected by most hunters who go with the mainstream agility/ArP gem. Let us evaluate the possible gem combinations we could do. We have already concluded that extra hit is wasted and since we are at 1 below the hit cap, we could gem either agility, ArP or crit, which are the top three damage stats.
* Gemming +20 Agility gem - As calculated before, a DPS gain of 23.6 DPS.
* Gemming +20 ArP gem - As calculated before, a DPS gain of 22.6 DPS
* Gemming +10 agility and +10 crit - Again, as calculated before a net gain of 26.42 DPS which is the highest gain possible and gemming agility and crit is the most optimum way to go for hunters.