Melee classes have a large variety of meta gems to choose from that are highly effective in any given situation. But it does raise the question as to which meta gem is right for your melee class?

There are two factors to take into account when picking the right meta gem for you, the first is its requirements of other color gems, the second is how well it fits with your class mechanics, below is in-depth information behind the melee based meta gems to make that choice easier.

Brutal Earthstorm Diamond - +3 Melee damage + chance to stun

Requires 2 of each gem

The stun chance on this meta gem is 1% and does not have a cooldown, it does however cause diminishing returns on other stun procs such as mace spec for warriors and rogues and as such most classes with passive stun procs from talents or weaponry choose to pass over this gem.

The main advantage of this meta gem is its base 3 melee damage increase, however it needs to be said that this damage increase does not scale with your weapon speed. As such the damage boost is best for classes with a very fast attack rate, the best being a feral druid in cat form for who this meta gem adds an effective 42 attack power.

If you use slow weapons however, give this meta gem a pass unless you really want the stun proc.

Enigmatic Skyfire Diamond - +12 Critical strike rating +5% Snare and Root resist

Requires more red gems than yellow

Normally a crit based gem would be passed over in PvP due to resilience but due to this gems special effect it suddenly becomes much more viable. The snare and root resist effect stacks with the surefooted enchant along with any talented snare and root resists such as a rogues fleet footed talent.

With snare and root resists stacked up from multiple sources you become much more mobile and in PvP it can mean the difference between catching your target to finish them off or being stuck in a frost nova eating shatter combos.

The requirements for this metagem are equally simple to meet if you do not favour yellow gems.

Eternal Earthstorm Diamond - +12 Defense rating +10% Shield block value

Requires 2 blue gems and one yellow

Strictly a tanking gem for prot paladins and warriors, the gem requirements are defensivly orientated and so easy to meet for a tank and the increase in block value scales well with your equipment to make it the best option for shield using tanks.

On top of the extra mitigation provided, the higher block value will also increase the damage output of a warriors shield slams to increase his threat capacity.

Powerful Earthstorm Diamond - 18 Stamina + 5% Stun resist

Requires 3 blue gems

A defensive based PvP gem; the requirements end up taking away from your offensive capability however the stun resist can be worth it if you have other ways of boosting it up.

5% Stun resist alone is almost a non factor in PvP, throw on the orc racial stun resist however and things quickly become a different matter, add on top any stun resist talents your class may have and you quickly become a rogues worst nightmare.

The conditions to fully exploit this gem are rather specific, but if you can then the rewards for doing so are well worth it. If not, then it is just a glorified stamina gem and not the best use of your meta slot.

Relentless Earthstorm Diamond - 12 Agility + 3% Critical damage

Requires 2 of each gem

The best offensive melee gem going for PvE, this scales well as your kit and crit rate improve. Not quite as effective in PvP situations however due to the effect of resilience.

This gem also makes a good tanking meta choice for a druid both for threat generation and proccing improved leader of the pack for self heals.

The main drawback to this gem is its requirements which can detract from your offensive capabilities but for PvE the bonus to your critical damage more than makes up for this loss.

Swift Skyfire Diamond - 24 Attack power + Minor run speed increase

Requires 2 yellow and one red gem

This gem is mostly used by those who want a surefooted enchant but do not wish to lose out on a run speed increase for catching their opponents in PvP if they do not have a talented movement speed increase.

The requirements are simple to meet and it provides a solid damage boost making this a safe choice, though unless you specifically want both the surefooted enchant and a boost to your run speed there are likely better meta gems for you.

Thundering Skyfire Diamond - Chance to increase attack speed

Requires 2 of each gem

The proc from this gem provides 240 haste rating for 6 seconds with a cool-down of 40 seconds. For most situations a Relentless Earthstorm Diamond will provide you a higher dps increase due to the lack of an internal cool-down.

That said there is one situation in which this gem excels, and that is for a blood elf retribution paladin using seal of blood, a class for whom haste is key. For any other melee dps class there are better options available.

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