Jewelcrafting: A Guide to Gems

Mining and prospecting in Azeroth is an entirely different discipline to dealing with those shiny finds in Outland and Northrend. While still very useful, the likes of Jades, Citrines and Star Rubies served us a fairly generic purpose, lending few unique properties to the gadgets, weapons and armour they were put towards. Working from Apprentice to Artisan follows a very similar pattern to the other in-game professions, so instead I shall focus on the new opportunities in Draenor and Northrend.

The post-58 zones open up a whole new jewellery scheme, allowing you to cut jewels into gems alongside the usual crafting of rings and pendants. There are still some neck, trinket and finger adornments to be made, but a jewelcrafter’s true calling is in the enhancement of socketed armour.

Glossary

• Jewel: a standard jewel, such as a Jade, Bloodstone or King’s Amber, found either from mining a vein or prospecting a metal ore. Simple Jewels are found in Azeroth, while those found in the level 58+ zones are considered to be Coloured Jewels.
• Gem: A cut jewel, unsuitable for use in other trades but intended for placement in an armour piece. These too are classed by colour.
• Uncommon: a jewel or gem whose name appears in green inside World of Warcraft, e.g. [Bloodstone].
• Rare: a jewel or gem whose name appears in blue, e.g. [Living Ruby].
• Epic: a jewel or gem whose name appears in purple, e.g. [Cardinal Ruby].
• Master: the jewels and gems associated with work in Outland, from level 58 to 70.
• Grand Master: the jewels and gems associated with work in Northrend, from level 68 to 80.

Gems and Sockets

Key to slotting armour is understanding the colour of the gem socket. Take the gear example below:

This chest piece comes with the usual statistics one finds in gear from level 1, as well as two empty gem sockets and a socket bonus.

• Gem sockets come in only four colour types – red, yellow, blue and meta. These are usually filled by a gem of corresponding colour. I’ll detail the primary colour sockets in a moment, but it’s worth noting that the meta socket, usually only found on headgear, can only be filled by a special meta gem. These usually require you to equip additional gem types.
• Socket bonuses are added to the piece once all its gem slots are filled in the prescribed colour scheme. The type of bonus you have will usually lend a good suggestion as to the gear’s purpose. If I can expect a boost to my hit rating by wearing this item, I know that its other statistics will benefit a damage character class, and that I can likely benefit from similarly damage-boosting gem types.

The jewelcrafter’s bread-and-butter work will be in crafting these coloured gems. These come in six colours to the sockets’ three, but all six fit thanks to a simple primary colour scheme, as below:

• Red
• Orange (red or yellow)
• Yellow
• Green (yellow or blue)
• Blue
• Purple (blue or red)

All coloured gems and jewels match this scheme. Because of this, it is quite easy to trace Outland and Northrend jewel quality on a sliding scale:

Outland Jewels

Colour	Uncommon	Rare	Epic
Red	Blood Garnet	Living Ruby	Crimson Spinel
Orange	Flame Spessarite	Noble Topaz	Pyrestone
Yellow	Golden Draenite	Dawnstone	Lionseye
Green	Deep Peridot	Talasite	Seaspray Emerald
Blue	Azure Moonstone	Star of Elune	Empyrean Sapphire
Purple	Shadow Draenite	Nightseye	Shadowsong Amethyst

Northrend Jewels

Colour	Uncommon	Rare	Epic
Red	Bloodstone	Scarlet Ruby	Cardinal Ruby
Orange	Huge Citrine	Monarch Topaz	Ametrine
Yellow	Sun Crystal	Autumn’s Glow	King’s Amber
Green	Dark Jade	Forest Emerald	Eye of Zul
Blue	Chalcedony	Sky Sapphire	Majestic Zircon
Purple	Shadow Crystal	Twilight Opal	Dreadstone

How Do I Find Jewels?

Now you know what you’re looking for, it’s your task to find said jewels! Miners will come across these on a fairly irregular basis regardless of their secondary profession, most commonly through tapping rich veins.

Jewelcrafters will benefit most from their professional skill, Prospecting. Similar to the Milling skill for scribes, or Disenchanting, you ‘cast’ this skill upon a stack of 5 metal ores and gain 1 to 4 jewels for your effort. Titanium and Adamantite ores will also offer the occasional dust item, useful either as a means of bartering or for use in other designs. It is usually a good idea to pair the Jewelcrafting trade with Mining.

Prospecting in Outland

• Uncommon jewels are most commonly sought in Thorium and Fel Iron.
• Rare jewels are very unlikely to drop from common ores. They’re more commonly found in Adamantite, along with valuable Adamantite Powder, or inside Brilliant Glass – a jewelcrafter-made loot treasure.
• Epic jewels cannot be prospected or transmuted, and can only be mined from veins at Hyjal Summit, a 25-man raid. The only reliable sources of uncut, epic jewels, are the draenei Shaani and Ontuvo, in Quel’Danas and Shattrath respectively. Each costs 15 Badges of Justice, awarded for every heroic dungeon and raid boss kill.
• Unique, pre-cut epic gems (whose designs are unavailable to jewelcrafters) are most often bought from PvP vendors and heroic instance vendors, or looted from heroic enemies and bosses. Some uncommon gems may be bought from jewel vendors as early on as Thrallmar.

Prospecting in Northrend

• Uncommon jewels are most commonly sought in Cobalt and Saronite.
• Rare jewels will occasionally appear in Saronite, but have better odds of appearing inside Titanium.
• Epic jewels are most easily obtained through alchemistic transmutation and inside jewelcrafter-made Icy Prisms, but have low odds too of appearing in Titanium prospects. They may also be bought for 10,000 PvP honour points, or exchanged for Emblems of Heroism. Primary coloured gems cost 20 emblems, while secondary ones cost 10.

What Statistics Does Each Gem Offer?

As one might expect from a profession with this many potential outcomes, the various gem cuts are far too numerous to list. While many of the gems carry ambiguous names and offer a confusing array of paired statistics (e.g. Dazzling Eye of Zul: +10 intellect and +5 mana per 5 seconds), there is still a pattern to it.

Each statistic offered to any item of gear has a primary colour and therefore a primary gem, as follows below. The secondary colours (orange, green and purple) will offer a combination of two statistics.

• Red: Agility, Armour Penetration, Dodge Rating, Spell Penetration, Spell Power, Strength
  e.g. Runed Cardinal Ruby (+23 Spell Power)
• Yellow: Critical Strike, Defence, Haste, Hit Rating, Intellect,
  e.g. Brilliant King’s Amber (+20 Intellect)
• Blue: Mana per 5 Seconds, Stamina, Spirit.
  e.g. Sparkling Sky Sapphire (+16 Spirit)

It’s key to note that gems follow the same scale as uncut jewels. If we refer back to the jewel quality tables earlier, we can trace the gem designs’ quality not only across the various colour tiers, but also across the Outland (Master) and Northrend (Grand Master) professions. For example:

Statistic	Uncommon	Rare	Epic
Agility (Red) [Delicate]	Delicate Blood Garnet (+6 AGI)	Delicate Living Ruby (+8 AGI)	Delicate Crimson Spinel (+10 AGI)
	Delicate Bloodstone (+12 AGI)	Delicate Scarlet Ruby (+16 AGI)	Delicate Cardinal Ruby (+20 AGI)
Spell Power & Stamina (Purple) [Glowing]	Glowing Shadow Draenite (+4 SP, +4 STA)	Glowing Nightseye (+5 SP, +6 STA)	Glowing Shadowsong Amethyst (+6 SP, +7 STA)
	Glowing Shadow Crystal (+7 SP, +9 STA)	Glowing Twilight Opal (+9 SP, +12 STA)	Glowing Dreadstone (+12 SP, +15 STA)

Where Can I Find Jewelcrafting Designs?

As with most other professions, the designs come from far and wide. Gem designs are particularly highly prized by the various factional quartermasters, and so you’ll often find 4 or more available at various factional standings.

When you start questing in either Outland or Northrend you can expect a whopper of a trainers’ fee, as newly-inducted tradesmen are quickly exposed to the uncommon jewel cuts. Rare and epic cuts may only be sought in loot or purchased:

Master Level

• Uncommon: trainer-taught, factional quartermasters (~honoured)
• Rare: boss loot, factional quartermasters, Jewelcrafting Supplies vendors (~10g)
• Epic: heroic boss loot, Jewelcrafting Supplies vendors (~40g)

Grand Master Level

• Uncommon: trainer-taught
• Rare: boss loot, factional quartermasters, Jewelcrafting Supplies vendors (3 Jewelcrafters’ Tokens)
• Epic: heroic boss loot, Jewelcrafting Supplies vendors (4 Jewelcrafters’ Tokens)