Gems, inscriptions, enchantments… all of these things improve our gear and our performance. But which ones should we seek out? Allow me to attempt to clear up some of the confusion. 
Gems
Gems were introduced to us with the release of The Burning Crusade expansion pack, and while the expansion has been out for almost a year now, there are still people left puzzling over which gems they should be looking for to supplement their gear. The stats you look for in your gems should mirror or compliment the stats you seek out from gear in general. For Marksman hunters, this means stacking more attack power. For Survivalists, this means stacking more agility, crit and hit. For Beast Masters, it means stacking more stamina, intellect and agility/attack power. Knowing this, how do we identify the gems out there that we should be looking for?
Before I get into identifying the specific gems hunters will want to look for, I’d like to take some time to explain how gems work, since I’ve been asked about this a fair number of times now, and it’s certainly worth repeating here.
First, with the exception of Meta gems, you can put any color gem in any socket and receive that gem’s bonus on your gear. However, socketed gear often specifies what is referred to as a “socket bonus” which will grant an additional stat when you fill all the gem sockets on your piece of gear. To receive this socket bonus, the gems you place into the sockets on that item must match the sockets’ colors. Sockets come in three primary colors: red, blue and yellow. In addition to these colored sockets, there are also Meta sockets (usually found on head-slot gear items) that only Meta gems can be placed in. To receive socket bonuses from colored sockets, you can place a gem of matching primary color or one of two complimentary colors into that socket.
- Red Sockets: red, orange or purple gems placed in this slot will allow the socket bonus
- Blue Sockets: blue, purple or green gems placed into this slot will allow the socket bonus
- Yellow Sockets: yellow, green or orange gems placed into this slot will allow the socket bonus
You can receive gems from a number of sources, but most commonly you’ll be either creating them yourself (if you’re a Jewelcrafter), collecting mats to have a friend make them, or purchasing them off the Auction House. You can also receive gems from killing final bosses in Heroic dungeons, or turning in various tokens to NPCs.
That said, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. What gems should you look for?
Red Gems
- Bright Living Ruby – Crafted
- Delicate Living Ruby – Crafted
- Bright Blood Garnet – Crafted
- Delicate Blood Garnet – Crafted
- Bold Ornate Ruby – PvP (Battlegrounds)
- Mighty Blood Garnet – Vendor (10xMark of Honor Hold or 10xMark of Thrallmar)
Orange Gems
- Glinting Noble Topaz – Crafted
- Wicked Noble Topaz – Crafted
- Glinting Flame Spessarite – Crafted
- Deadly Fire Opal – Drop (Heroic Arcatraz)
- Glinting Fire Opal – Drop (Heroic Black Morass)
- Pristine Fire Opal – Drop (Heroic Sethekk Halls)
- Inscribed Ornate Topaz – PvP (Battlegrounds)
- Unstable Citrine – Vendor (40xApexis Shard)
Purple Gems
- Balanced Nightseye – Crafted
- Shifting Nightseye – Crafted
- Balanced Shadow Draenite – Crafted
- Shifting Shadow Draenite – Crafted
- Pulsing Amethyst – Quest Reward (Karazhan: Nightbane)
- Brutal Tanzanite – Drop (Heroic Botanica)
- Unstable Amethyst – Vendor (40xApexis Shard)
Blue Gems
- Solid Star of Elune – Crafted
- Solid Azure Moonstone – Crafted
Green Gems
- Jagged Talasite – Crafted
- Jagged Deep Peridot – Crafted
Yellow Gems
- Rigid Dawnstone – Crafted
- Smooth Dawnstone – Crafted
- Rigid Golden Draenite – Crafted
- Smooth Golden Draenite – Crafted
- Smooth Ornate Dawnstone – PvP (Battlegrounds)
Meta Gems
- Relentless Earthstorm Diamond – Crafted
- Swift Skyfire Diamond – Crafted
- Swift Windfire Diamond – Vendor (8xSpirit Shard)
There are several gems I’ve excluded from this list because the mats for the gems drop in higher-end raid dungeons such as Black Temple and Mount Hyjal. Also, there may have been gems I missed unintentionally. I’m not a Jewelcrafter, so I’m by no means an expert on the subject. The moral of the story: it may behoove you to do your own research on the subject. However, I hope to have provided enough information on specific gems to at least point you in the right direction.
The gems you choose should compliment your talent spec and help round-out the gear you have equipped. For example, if you feel a certain stat could use a boost in particular, gems are a great way to do that. Otherwise, gems are a great way to further boost the stats you’re already stacking for a little extra “oomph”. In the above list I’ve included gems that are obviously of great benefit to hunters, but also I’ve included gems that may help boost secondary stats as well, depending on your spec.
The next part of this series will focus on enchantments to look for. (And don’t think I’ve forgotten, I still owe one more talent spec article–Beast Mastery. Don’t worry, I’m getting to it!)
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Thanks for all the infos !
I really like what you’re writing … keep it coming !
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Sounds complicated… but thanks for the heads up for when I get into Outland! =]
I guess the colors make sense if you think like orange and purple have the red component in common where orange is red + yellow and purple is red + blue.
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I’m not yet into “Gemming” gear, but I’ll keep a mental note to come back when ready for that, so thanks for the work!
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very informative post… much handier than digging through thotbott or wowhead! Thanks!
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Huge thanks for this post, I’m getting closer to the time when I’ll have to start looking into gems and stuff and I had no idea where to begin. This will be a big help though
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Hehe, I’m glad everyone found it helpful! I know for me, when TBC first came out, gems seemed very confusing, and I had no idea which ones were out there that I should be looking to acquire to augment my stats. With that in mind, I figured others would likely benefit from the info I found.
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Xornot’s gem finder is an excellent general resource for gems & jewelcrafting.
Thanks for this article, Lassirra–as both a hunter, and with a jewelcrafting alt, it’s double helpful to me!
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Glad you liked it, Kestrel! Also, a good place to find gems is Lootables. You can do a search on gems based on color and/or desired stat. (It’s the method I used to find the gems appropriate for this article, in fact.) And the returned results will also tell you what mats are required to make the gems, and where those mats can be found. For gems that are world drops, the results tell you were they can be found. For vendor gems, though, it only mentions that they can be purchased from a vendor. But, a quick WoW Head search can tell you more.
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Fantastic gem guide specifically for one spec. First I have seen… gz
samownall – recent article = wow gold guide
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Well researched article. I like my info to be simple and to the point. Just one question though. Can I put a cheap Gem into a socket just as a temportary measure and then replace it when I get someting better, or do I have to wait with an empty socket until I get the specific Gem I want.
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Very good question, Saber! Yes! You can put temp gems in, and resocket the item later. When you resocket the item, the previous gem you had in there is destroyed. Gems placed into items are there permanently, but you can “over write” them with new gems. They just can’t be moved to different pieces of gear once socketed.
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Thanks for the quick reply Lassirra. Another question just occurred to me though. Can you apply an Enchant or an Armour kit on top of the Gems. It would be great if you could get all of the advantages of the Gems, Socket Bonus and an Enchant as well on the one piece of armour.
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Another good question, Saber! Yes, you can also add enchants on top of gem sockets. Gems are the one exception to the rule that you cannot add more than one “enhancement” to an item.
When enhancing an item, normally you would have to choose either 1 enchant or 1 armor kit only. You could not stack the enhancements. However, sockets are considered “built-in” enhancements, and do not count against the “1 enhancement” rule, specifically.
So, by socketing an item, you (potentially) get:
1. The bonus of the gem itself
2. If all sockets are filled appropriately, the socket bonus (if there is one specified)
3. Any enhancements from 1 armor kit or 1 enchant placed on the item
On top of the item’s existing base stats.
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