So it turns out that domination gear can’t be socketed using the items obtained at rank 6 in Korthia.
This means the following:
Leather gets 5 gem sockets.
Plate gets 4 gem sockets.
Mail gets 4 gem sockets.
Cloth gets 3 gem sockets.
What kind of hair-brained system is this? We can’t even say “lol time played metrics.” It’s just a silly oversight.
Just baffled as to how the devs can overlook such simple things on such a regular basis.
Pretty sure it’s an oversight, wouldn’t put it past incompetence.
lmao.
You could do it on PTR.
Just saying.
All I see is leather gang needs to grind out a lot more research 
Fixed
The whole shards system was incredibly rushed. They’ve been scrambling to catch-up. I don’t know what put them so far behind (COVID hasn’t hit other devs nearly as hard).
I really do like 9.1 and I do like the set bonus powers themselves and the overall feel of loot in SoD, but the Shards are just so janky and ill-conceived in their implementation. It was very obviously rushed when they were patching core features of the mechanic as hotfixes post-launch of the patch.
The shard system will be “fixed” in 9.1.5 before it becomes obselete in 9.2.
This.
I saw someone running around with a 239 helm with both a Domination and a regular socket on the PTR one time.
This isn’t even a “this was tested on the PTR” thing at this point.
Exactly, which is why it seems deliberate. Hopefully it changes sooner rather than later because it’s just silly.
In other words leather wins?
Yea. This is really stupid.
I would think this further devalues the standard socket, so leather doesn’t really win, and we have to farm more.
Really won’t know til players have their dom shards and extra sockets and sim everything.
That’s wrong. 5 > 3. You don’t need sims for simple math.
Devs pet class druids will never be neglected.
Oof what a mistake lol. I imagine the pitch meeting went like this:
Dev: We’re gonna introduce domination sockets on particular armor slots for character power.
Blizz: Everyone is going to get the same amount for even balancing right?
Dev: Yea yea yea. I added all the socket slots per armor type up and then divided by 4 and it equals 4, so the math checks out.
Blizz: You brilliant SOB, you did it again! Green light all around.
Did heart of azeroth essences become obsolete after 8.2?
Never attribute to incompetence what can be adequately explained by malice.
Most leather-wearing / agi-based DPS don’t get any weapons from the last two bosses. Cloth casters get a staff and Strength users get a 2-hander.
The spec that comes out the most ahead is - drumroll please… MOONKIN.
Everyone else suffers in one way or another, whether it comes to sockets, bad loot tables form the raid, etc.
Even balancing? Have you looked at the raid loot table? It’s kind of a mess. It’s pretty obvious Blizzard isn’t aiming for “even balancing”, they’re aiming for “Just put stuff out there and players will figure out what’s good”.
No, they also weren’t restricted to only certain zones. We don’t know where the story is going but with 4 sigils I don’t think the Jailer is stuck in the Maw anymore, so domination socket gear would need its own plot device to remain important.
Outside of the Maw content not all the shards are equally powerful. The socket bonus would need to carry on in 9.2 content to keep all the shards relevant.
The HoA was the backbone of all BFA content, it wasn’t expected to only be restricted to Eternal Palace or such.