Cost ratio for two different gems vs. their relative benefit

[WeThotUWasAToad 0]

Hello,

I'm curious about the Icy Veins recommendation for Fire Mage gems:

Quote

"You should use Saber's Eye of Intellect in one socket, and Deadly Eye of Prophecy in all other sockets."

vs. the relative price for those two gems in the Auction House. I'm not taking issue with the recommendation at all but I'm just curious if I'm missing something.

 

For example:

Saber's Eye of Intellect adds 200 to Intellect and sells for around 12K+ Gold, while

Deadly Eye of Prophecy adds 150 to Critical Strike and sells for around 2K+ Gold

 

With a current iLvl of 858, those two stats (without buffs) in my case are: 

Intellect: 7,328 (base) + 25,792 (gear) = 33,120 (total)

Critical Strike: (base) + 7,409 [+21.17%] (gear) = 46.17%

 

I don't know exactly how the formulas for calculating stats are set up but it seems quite clear that adding 150 to Critical Strike is a significantly larger percentage bump than adding 200 to Intellect. At least from the standpoint of the gear contribution, the increase in Intellect is 200/25792 = 0.78% while the increase in Critical Strike is 150/7409 = 2.02%. And yet the cost ratio is ~6:1 in the other direction! 

 

I can only assume that I'm looking at this in the wrong way so I would appreciate it if someone could get me straightened out.

 

Thanks

[Lily 23]

Hey there,

 

Intellect is a MAIN-stat and a pure DMG-increase. And crit is a SECONDARY-stat, which gives you a higher chance to deal more DMG.

Just looking at the cost ratio you shouldn't buy the INT-gem. 200 INT is slightly over 150 crit (calculated with simcraft), but this depends on your gear. With 46% crit I would take +150 crit, unless you've got a high gearpiece with a socket and can afford the +200 INT, as a future investment :)

[Thazi 4]

People assume because int is lower on Icy Vein's stat weight that it isnt as important as Crit.

 

Int is your primary stat.  Every other stat is secondary.  You want to stack crit, but if you have a chance to get free int, take it in the form of the 200 int gem.  However, on gear, if you are losing 150+ int to gain 50 crit, you're screwing yourself out of damage overall.

 

You could have 1000% crit, and only 200 int and you'd do no damage.