Socketing Guide

Socketing Guide

With the release of the first expansion, The Burning Crusade, a new way to improve your armor pieces was introduced - socketed items. A socketed item is like any other item, except that it can be upgraded by attaching magical gemstones into the item itself. This imbues the item with additional powers similar to an enchantment. A question that is raised a lot is "what gems should I use for xxx item?" - this guide is here to help solve those questions!

Contents:

• General F.A.Q.
• What Warlocks Want
• Jewelcrafting and Gem Websites
• Gem Add-ons

General F.A.Q.

What are Gems?
A gem is generally an item that can be placed into a socket of another item to give that item additional bonuses, powers and/or procs. Jewelcrafters can turn raw gems into socket gems or various jewelry items like rings and necklaces. The term "gem" can be used for raw or cut stones, but is generally only used to describe cut gems. A gem cannot be removed once it is placed into a socket, however it can be overwritten by another, destroying it in the process.


How do I place a gem into a socketed item?
If an item has sockets, shift-right-click on it to bring up the item's socketing window. Here, you can simply drag and drop gems from your inventory to the sockets. Once you are satisfied with your selections, click the "Socket Gems" button at the bottom of the window. Be aware that socketing is permanent - the gems are permanently affixed to your socketed item and there is no way to undo your decision.


What can you put into a socketed item?
There are three primary colors of gems that can be placed into a socketed item: red, blue, and yellow. In addition, there are "secondary colored" gems - orange, purple, and green - that match two colors. Players can place any color gem into a socket; however, matching all of an item's sockets with their corresponding colored gems can award additional bonuses. These dormant bonuses appear in grey text below the sockets. The only exception to this rule is the very powerful meta gem, which can only be placed into a meta socket and you must complete the meta gem requirements in order to activate it, while you don't need it to be activated in order to socket it into an item. Additionally no gem except a meta gem can be placed in a meta socket. So far, only high-end helms have meta sockets.

• Red Socket can host:
  • Red Gem
  • Purple Gem
  • Orange Gem
• Yellow socket can host:
  • Yellow Gem
  • Orange Gem
  • Green Gem
• Blue socket can host:
  • Blue Gem
  • Green Gem
  • Purple Gem

Do I have to use only gems of a certain color in a socket?
No. You can place a red gem in a yellow socket, or a blue gem in a red socket. The only downside to not matching the colors with the sockets and the gems is not receiving the item's socket bonus.

Again, it's important to note that you can put any color gem in any socket (except meta gems / meta sockets). Thus, you may decide you would rather take the benefits from individual gems that don't match instead of going for the socket bonus. In that case it would be better to ignore the suggested gems and pick the ones you want to use instead. In this way, you can tailor an item to your needs. You can take an item that you might not otherwise use and make it suit your needs by picking your own gems.


How do I gain a socket bonus?
As stated above, socketed items have dormant bonuses which appear in grey text below the sockets. This bonus will become active when certain criteria are met - usually when all an item's sockets are filled with gems that match the colors of the sockets. If an item has a red socket and two blue sockets, placing a red and two blue gems into the corresponding colored sockets will activate the socket bonus. The socket bonus stacks on top of the stat bonuses the three gems would normally provide. Note: If a gem matches the socket it is being placed into, the socket will begin to sparkle.


What are meta sockets and meta gems?
Meta sockets and gems are rare and provide powerful bonuses. Meta sockets will only accept meta gems, and meta gems can only be used in meta sockets. Meta gems can have their own special requirements unique to each meta gem. If these particular requirements are not met, the gem will not work and remain greyed out. Meta gems have their own requirements before they will activate. If a gem requires a specific number of other gems, it counts this based on all other gems currently socketed in equipped items on the character. Secondary colored gems will count towards both colors they are eligible for.

For example, "Requires at least 5 Red gems" means that for the meta-gem to function, you must have 5 gems that can be socketed in red sockets, installed on your equipped items. For example, an orange gem counts as a red gem. Incidentally, it also counts as a yellow gem.


Can I use meta gems in a normal socket?
No. Meta gems can only be used in a meta socket.


Can meta-gem effects stack?
Since only head slot items can bear meta gems, you cannot have more than one equipped ad once. Unless you have multiple heads.


Can I put a different gem into a socket that already has a gem in it?
Yes. However, any gems that were already socketed will be destroyed in the process - think of it as "overwriting" the old gem with the new one. You can not remove a gem once it has been socketed.


Do I have to fill all the sockets in an item at once?
No. You can fill one socket at a time until you find the right gems for other slots, or fill them all at once.


What does "Unique-Equipped" mean?
"Unique-Equipped" means you can only have one of these gems equipped at a time - you can carry or socket as many as you like, but you may only wear one of them. For example, you might use [legs of uberness] which you put on in raids and [shoulders of godlike ability] which you swap in when PvPing.. You can have a "Unique-Equipped" gem in both pieces of armor, but you can not equip both pieces of armor at the same time.

What Warlocks Want

Once you've gotten your hands on an item with sockets the next thing is to fill it up with gems! If you've got sockets on any item, fill them up immediately! Even if it's just with 1g cheap gems that provide extra damage or stamina while you decide what better gem you want. A little is better than nothing while you figure it out.

When you gem an item, first look at the socket bonus, and how many gems are needed to get to the socket bonus. Next, take note of what stats you need to work on, especially if you are not hit capped through stats on gear only. If you are not hit capped, the best way to gem is by putting pure spell hit gems into sockets in this order of preference. Remember though - ever situation is different and your choices will depend on your individual situation.

Note: When Warlocks (or any spell caster) is talking about "+damage" or "+crit" gems, we are talking about +spell damage or +spell crit gems. If they don't have the word spell in them, then they only affect melee damage which doesn't help us much.

+Damage Gems
Since a large portion of the damage we deal comes via the spells we cast (the rest coming from our pets), anything that increases the amount of damage they do is something we want to get our hands on. After all, why would we choose to only do say 500 damage from one spell, when we can load up on +damage gear and do 750 damage from the same spell, for the same mana cost? Basically, the more +damage you have, the more damage you do!! So when it comes to picking gems, +damage gems are one of the first ones to look at!


+Hit gems Vs +Damage gems
If you are not hit capped through gear improvements alone, the best way to gem is by putting pure +Spell Hit gems into any sockets you can. Whether or not +Hit is valued over +Damage or +Stamina however depends on your game play style. I would suggest having a look at the About +Damage Gear guide and reading the "+damage Vs +Crit Vs +Hit - what to choose?" section.


PvE Gems Vs PvP Gems
Yet another choice you have to make depends on if you spend most of your time PvP'ing, or hanging out in raids and instances. The general rule of thumb is that PvP = stack on the stamina, while PvE = never drop the damage!


Single Stat Gems Vs Combo Stat Gems
When discussing gems, one thing that can arise is the single stat vs combo stat gem argument. For example: 2 x Runed Living Ruby's which provides +18 Damage, vs the 2 x Glowing Nightseye which produces +10 Spell Damage with the added bonus of +12 Stamina. What's the better choice? Is sacrificing +8 Damage worth it for the stamina increase? Etc... To hear what the members think, please see the Single Stat Gems Vs Combo Stat Gems thread.

What gems to use?
Below is the most common gems Warlocks will go for. From Canadiampimp's Gearing your Warlock guide:

Yellow - always put pure spell hit gems in UNLESS you are hit capped
Blue - put pure spell hit gems in UNLESS hit capped AND don't need 2 blue gems for meta gem
Red - only put pure spell hit gems if not hit capped AND the socket bonus is worthless

Red Socket

• Runed Ornate Ruby +12 Spell Damage
  For those happy to do a little PvP, this is available for 6,885 honor points. This gem is is "Unique-Equipped" which means you can only have one of these gems equipped at a time.
  
• Runed Living Ruby +9 Spell Damage
  Purchasable from your local jewel crafter or Auction house, they can set you back a little or a lot depending on your server.
  
• Glowing Nightseye +5 spell damage, +6 stamina
  Purchasable from your local jewel crafter or Auction house, they can set you back a little or a lot depending on your server.
  
• Veiled Noble Topaz +5 Spell Damage, +4 Spell Hit Rating
  Purchasable from your local jewel crafter or Auction house, they can set you back a little or a lot depending on your server.

For a list of all the gems Warlocks would go for that can be placed in a red socket, please see the What to put in a Red Socket? This will be the final "what gem do I get" thread if it's for a red socket. ALL questions, assistance and discussions for gems in red sockets is to go in this thread please.


Yellow Socket

• Gleaming Ornate Dawnstone +10 Spell Crit
  For those happy to do a little PvP, this is available for 6,885 honor points. This gem is is "Unique-Equipped" which means you can only have one of these gems equipped at a time.
• Gleaming Dawnstone +8 Spell Crit
  Purchasable from your local jewel crafter or Auction house, they can set you back a little or a lot depending on your server.
  
• Polished Chrysoprase +5 Spell Crit, +6 Stamina
  Chance to drops in heroic mode Shattered Halls, from any of the bosses. WoWhead has it at 6-7% drop rate however, so you might be running it a lot to get one. Patch 2.4 will see this gem lose the "Unique-Equipped" tag.
  
• Veiled Noble Topaz +5 Spell Damage, +4 Spell Hit
  Purchasable from your local jewel crafter or Auction house, they can set you back a little or a lot depending on your server.

For a list of all the gems Warlocks would go for that can be placed in a yellow socket, please see the What to put in a Yellow Socket? This will be the final "what gem do I get" thread if it's for a yellow socket. ALL questions, assistance and discussions for gems in yellow sockets is to go in this thread please.


Blue Socket

• Charmed Amani Jewel +15 stamina
  Quest reward from "Playin' With Dolls" inside Zul'Aman (reward for finding Zungam, cousin of the guy near the flight path outside ZA). Zungam is held prisoner in a hut in Halazzis area (lynx god), by the water. Once you release him from his ball and chain, he walked down stairs and then allows you to finish the quest to find him, and pick up "Playin' with dolls", which involves taking a voodoo doll he gives you to Griftah in Lower City. This gem is BOP and "Unique-Equipped".
  
• Solid Star of Elune +12 Stamina
  Purchasable from your local jewel crafter or Auction house, they can set you back a little or a lot depending on your server.
  
• Glowing Nightseye +5 spell damage, +6 stamina
  Purchasable from your local jewel crafter or Auction house, they can set you back a little or a lot depending on your server.
  
• Polished Chrysoprase +5 Spell Crit, +6 Stamina
  Chance to drops in heroic mode Shattered Halls, from any of the bosses. WoWhead has it at 6-7% drop rate however, so you might be running it a lot to get one. Patch 2.4 will see this gem lose the "Unique-Equipped" tag.

Meta Socket
Being worked on - see http://wowmb.net/forums/showthread.php?p=176677


And if, after all that information, you still can't figure out for yourself what gems you want - post a reply to the Socket Recommendation thread outlining the gear piece you have to socket, any current sockets you have previously filled, your stats and what you primarily spend your time doing. Please do not start a new thread.

Jewelcrafting and Gem Websites

WoW Gem Finder - http://www.wowgemfinder.com
The Jewelcrafting Search Engine for World of Warcraft Socket Gems

If you're wanting to know what gems are out there, what different ones you can use in your item, this is the site to go to! You can click any filter in the right bar to view a gem list. You can also stack multiple filters: clicking + will add a filter, and clicking – will add an inverted filter. Stacking filters makes it easy to build complex queries, such as gems that give increase damage, but don't increase intellect. Similar site: http://www.wow-gem.com


World of Warcraft Jewelcrafting Helper - http://jesta.us/gems/
Another gem finding site. If you are a jewelcrafter though, you can register and fill the database with your known cuts so people can come to you with the gem cuts that they want.

Gem Add-ons

• GemList - An add-on that allows people to whisper !gem stat to get a list of gems matching that criteria (such as red, blue, crit, stam, etc) that the Jewelcrafter can craft.
• GemHelper - An add-on that functions as a searchable/filterable complete database of all 140 gems available in the game and where to get them. If you are a Jewelcrafter, you can also craft directly from this add-on with additional options such as "Have Materials" and the ability to replace the default JC UI.
• Gemologist - A Fizzwidget addon that whenever you see a gem (in your tradeskill window, on the Auction House, or wherever), the tooltip will provide a list of what types of common minerals a miner can find that type of gem with.
• GemWatch - An addon that will show you a count of the colors you have equipped the way a meta-gem will count. It takes into account all the gems that are multicolored and give you a result back.

[Roast]

very nice guide there.

only suggestion i have is to change the "What Warlocks want" bit, so that the titles have the word "Spell" in them. the reason for this small addition is because i see time and time again caster classes with +hit gems and +crit gems, when they are actually looking for +spell hit and +Spell Crit.

i know, im a fussy person; but it may steer people into gemming their items correctly, without accidentally spending gold on something which is useless to them.

a very interesting and informative read.

[Malevevely]

I love melee locks with the +8 hit gems :P

[El Tanakh]

Originally Posted by Akasha

The general rule of thumb is that PvP = stack on the stamina

Yes, but not always, if you have state of the art items that alone put you around 12-13k HP it's probably better to go for resilience and after 460ish resilience i have seen most locks go for spell damage. Not sure if this is the best alternative, as i am far from having excellent gear.

Also, i think you need to include the mystic gems, like mystic dawnstone, and the steady ones, like steady talasite.

But good guide, indeed, a great PvE guide.

[Akasha]

But, if you have state of the art items, you're less likely to need to read a guide to help you socket...

[El Tanakh]

Pfff, what about the spirit of covering things as in deep as we could and not making this a newby guide site (an ideal that i share, even though i might not cooperate too much towards it), besides, with this long S3 everyone and his aunt have every non rated item.

Anyway, yes, i supposed that was the reason for leving resilience/spell damage considerations out, and as it is i think the guide it's great, but still think its a good idea (if just for completeness reasons) to say that after a "healthy ammount" of HP your next best friend its resilience, and then spell damage, and to include those mystic and steady gems.

[Akasha]

By all means, write something up and I will include it. No rule here that says I must do it all...

[El Tanakh]

Originally Posted by Akasha

No rule here that says I must do it all...

Really?!?! Thats new for me.

Well, here it goes, as i don't think its enough to make his own thread, ill post it here:

Short list of useful gems for the SL/SL lock.

So, you decided to go SL/SL? Well, then you must be aiming at arena, or at least PvP of some sort.

Having that in mind your main objectives statwise are stamina, resilience and spell damage, why? because we are DPS that hardly burst, but are hard as heck to kill and do good steady damage. This is also true to a lesser extent to deep affliction and demo builds, so this list might help them as well.

In my opinion you must first have a good ammount of HP, then protect it with resilience and then try to kill faster, so first i would try to get Sta, then resilience and finally, but very importantly, spell damage, my ideal stats would be something like:

12.5k HP
470 resilience
As much spell damage as possible (i think 1030 or so unbuffed is as good as it gets with S3 gear)

But in the mean time, while you grind your way to better gear, gems can help you get better sta/resilience, or that spell damage, so here's the list of useful gems by color:

Red
Runed Living Ruby - +9 spell damage

Yellow
Mystic Dawnstone - +8 resilience
Qick Dawnstone - +8 spell haste *usually subpar choice

Blue
Solid Star of Elune - +12 stamina
Stormy Star of Elune - +10 spell penetration *usually subpar choice

Purple
Glowing Nightseye - +5 spell damage & +6 stamina *interesting to note that 2 of these are better than one runed living ruby and one solid star of elune, so it might be worth it if you need sta and spell damage

Orange
Mysterious Fire Opal - +6 spell damage & +5 spell penetration *usually subpar choice
Reckless Noble Topaz - +4 spell haste & +5 spell damage *usually subpar choice

Green
Forceful Talasite - +4 spell haste & +6 stamina *usually subpar choice
Steady Talasite - +4 resilience & +6 stamina

Metagems
Mystical Skyfire Diamond - 15% chance to grant a buff that gives 6 seconds of 320 Spell Haste Rating till a spell with casting time is casted. Useful because it can proc out of instant spells.
Swift Starfire Diamond - +12 spell damage and minor run speed *usually subpar choice as the minor run speed doesn't stack with your boot's enchant
Powerful Earthstorm Diamond - +18 samina and 5% stun resistance
Imbuted Unstable Diamond - +14 spell damage and 5% stun resistance
Ember Skyfire Diamond - +14 spell damage and +2% intellect


I included the "subpar choices" because there might be wierd item combinations that would benefit more from a bit more of supression or haste than of the usual PvP stats.