Project Lore

This news makes me a sad panda. Currently, Jewelcrafters are able to cut Dragon's Eyes for themselves which give higher stats than any other currently available gems. For example a Bright Dragon's Eye gives +54 attack power, 22 more than the Bright Scarlet Ruby. With a maximum of three socketed in equipped gear, this gives Jewelcrafters 66 extra attack power (or the equivalent in other stats). That's on par with most other professions. For example, Enchanting adds 32 attack power to each ring, or 64 total. Alchemists get added effect from elixirs and flasks, so a Flask of Endless Rage gives 244 attack power to an alchemist instead of the 180 it normally gives (a bonus of 64).

The difference is in the prismatics. This quality of the Dragon's Eye gems allow jewelcrafters to activate metagems without sacrificing a single stat. It also allows them to gain socket bonuses that they normally wouldn't get. Bornakk just announced an upcoming change that will remove that feature once the next major content patch lands (presumably patch 3.2):

In the next major content patch we will be removing the prismatic quality of the jewelcrafter-only Dragon’s Eye gems. Like other gems, they will have to match the socket color to receive a socket bonus. When this change occurs, players with qualifying jewelcrafting skill will be provided a yet to be determined amount of Dalaran Jewelecrafter Tokens as compensation.

Using me as an example, Dragon's Eyes being prismatic mean I was able to gem for an extra 66 attack power, gained three socket bonuses of 12, 8, and 8 attack power, and replaced a blue gem that had 12 stamina (something I don't want to gem for in PvE) with a gem that gives a pure stat. The total bonus from switching to jewelcrafting for me? 110 attack power. That's a lot more than any other profession could hope to give me from a Min-Max PvE standpoint. So I switched from Herbalism to Jewelcrafting.

Epic gems are coming sometime in the future. Since they should be on-par with the currently obtainable stormjewels, which are unique equipped, Each one will give 40 attack power. Developer's plans to make epic gems much more obtainable than they were in BC mean my bonus from being a jewelcrafter will from 110 attack power to 32 attack power once those become available. Blacksmiths, who get two extra sockets on their gear, will go from a profession bonus of 64 attack power (on par with other professions) to 80 attack power. Looks like there's going to be a new best profession in town.