I need geming advice

[Xeba12]

Hello everyone! I've been reading guides since I created my char, and have been really clarifying, but now I'm at a crossroad of gear where I don't know if I should stay with my current agi geming or change to arp already.
I'm MM with classic 7/57/7 pve spec,I have 6039 gs, and 595 arpen at the moment. From what I've seen I have to gem arpen when I get closer to fill the soft cap, so kind of 700+ arpen right? But I can't seem to get any more base arpen from anything else than STS or DBW, and It's really hard to get those 2.
So you think I should stick to agi until I can get those trinkets? Or should I start changing agi for arpen at this point?

My char:
https://armory.warmane.com/character...daeron/summary

I'm okay with my damage and all, but I see other chars with similar gs getting pretty much more damage than me at most bosses (I'm around 8/9k dps, top 11k with all lucky procs and 0 movement).

I'd really appreciate your advices! Thanks!!

[Crystalleia]

From http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=327458 :

8) Do not blindly rush after the ArP cap, it is better advised to gem agility and agility / crit at lower levels of gear. In the example above, at 667 passive ArP, ArP and Agility were really close. The threshold point where ArP overtakes agility comes at around 700 passive ArP from gear, until then Agility is superior.

Okay, so as this would imply, gemming full Arpen is definitely not the way to go (it also shoots your ArP over the cap with Needle proc so yeah. It's possible that gemming ArP up to 722 (where Needle proc will bring it to cap) would be beneficial - not quite sure on this, but it's a pretty reasonable assumption.

As for how you can get more ArP: Banner of Victory.

Yes, it's an ilevel 200 trinket, but it gives you 84 passive ArP, and its proc has higher overall uptime than Needle's since Needle only procs off critical hits. Ofc, Needle's 114 Crit rating passive probably beats out Banner's ArP, but with the proc in mind, I'd place Banner quite a bit above Needle.

With Banner, your ArP will stand at 679, which, while still puts Agility as the slightly superior stat, places you only only 21 gear ArP away from 700.

In general, there are several options to gain these remaining ArPs (ofc, not including DBW/STS, which you already know).
1) Ranged Weapons. Zod's Repeating Longbow is... awkward. It's not exactly horrible thanks to its weapon damage (and proc), but it still doesn't give you crit or ArP, and most of your replacements are either HC versions of other guns/bows, or the bow drops from LK. Nevertheless, when you find something with ArP to replace it, this would bump you above 700.
2) Weapons. While Scourgeborne Waraxe has an item level of 277, a quick comparison with Tainted Twig of Nordrassil, which has an item level of 258, shows that the overall stats you get are similar (with double Waraxes having a slight edge overall). Compared to something like Oathbinder, Charge of the Ranger General, it's pretty clear that Oathbinder gives you more stats despite having a lower item level. Note that changing to Oathbinder normal will give you like 27 extra ArP, which again will bring you over 700.
3) Neck. Rimetooth Pendant (Sindra 10) or Sindragosa's Cruel Claw (Sindra 25) give you ArP. Switching Wodin away wouldn't be a bad idea in this case, since you're over the Hit cap.
4) Ring. Signet of Twilight is great, but again, you are over the Hit Cap, in which case Frostbrood Sapphire Ring stands superior (its HC version is also BiS).

In conclusion, rather than your DPS itself being 'bad', it's more that you have some higher-level items whose stats aren't as optimized (e.g. Needle vs Banner, Waraxes vs Twig/Oathbinder, extra Hit). You can definitely improve your gearscore-to-DPS ratio by say, changing for a more optimized lower level item (such a change can at times even slightly improve your overall DPS), but considering many PuG raids have a gearscore requirement, this may not always be beneficial in the grand scheme of things. So don't worry too much about it, and just be patient until you can get one of the aforementioned upgrades (since admittedly, many of them can be pretty difficult/expensive to get your hands on).

Of course, all of these is based on my own (at the end of the day) not-so-extensive Hunter knowledge and I might be wrong one stuff, but I hope that it should help you at least a little bit.

[Xeba12]

Oh I see, I was kinda confused about stats rating vs gs, I'll follow your advice and try to change some of the hit rating items for something that helps me cap arpen proc from needle, at least until I get one of those juicy trinkets.
Luckly I'm in a guild for most high lvl raids, so I'm not worry about gs that much, I'd rather optimize my dps and utility, so I'll start testing some of the options you've gave me.
Thank you very much, you've been very helpful and clarifying!! :)

[dabozz]

Oh I see, I was kinda confused about stats rating vs gs, I'll follow your advice and try to change some of the hit rating items for something that helps me cap arpen proc from needle, at least until I get one of those juicy trinkets.
Luckly I'm in a guild for most high lvl raids, so I'm not worry about gs that much, I'd rather optimize my dps and utility, so I'll start testing some of the options you've gave me.
Thank you very much, you've been very helpful and clarifying!! :)

IDK if you changed the gems after Crystalleia replied to you, but those gems are exactly the perfect setup for maximum DPS right now, and the gear, proff and gem setup also almost at the exact threshold where ArP overtakes Agility. Whilst I remember the maths, I don't remember the game anymore, but any next Red gem on a 13 iLvL upgrade should be either +20ArP if it is red or +10Arp, Crit (IDK if such a gem exists, if it does not then just Agi, Crit) for yellow.