How to Socket the Right Gems in WoW

Use Gems for a Socket Bonus and to Boost Stats in World of Warcraft

Oct 25, 2009

Many pieces of gear in World of Warcraft can be socketed. Socket the right gems to increase dps, healing, or tanking abilities and increase character customization.

The ability to create and socket gems in World of Warcraft was introduced with the release of the The Burning Crusade expansion. Gems enhance the stats a character already has and certain gem color combinations can occasionally provide a socket bonus.

Types of Gems Available

There are currently three types of gems available to WoW players for their characters:

Colored gems come in a variety of colors and each gem offers a bonus to a character’s stats. If placed in a corresponding color socket, these jewels offer a socket bonus to the player.

Meta gems are gems that offer much higher stat bonuses than any other variety of gems. These gems, however, can only be placed in a meta socket. Meta sockets are most commonly found on pieces worn on the head.

The Purpose of Socketing Gems in WoW

Although gems enhance a character’s current stats, they also allow the character to mix and match stats of lesser importance that he or she cannot gain through gear and enchants alone. The ability to socket gear provides a far more customizable playing experience since players have full control over the strength of different character abilities without being limited to the stats present on their current gear.

Unlike TBC, jewels do not drop from bosses in instances and raids. WotLK gems must be prospected from stacks of ore by a master jewelcrafter or purchased from a jewelcrafting quartermaster using PvP honor points.

Many raid groups and guilds will refuse to accept a character who is gemmed incorrectly. Certain stats are more favorable than others depending on a character’s class and spec. Veteran players know the differences and can be very critical of those who gem inappropriately.

Proper Gem Choice Will Result In a Socket Bonus

A socket bonus is an added stat available to players who opt to use jewels of the correct corresponding color with their gear sockets. A socket bonus is usually a very minimal character stat such as +4 Attack Power or +6 Intellect. It is rarely advisable to choose gems based solely on whether or not the color choice will grant the user a socket bonus. In doing so, players could end up sacrificing the stats their character truly needs in order to be granted a negligible bonus.

If, however, the stat the player wants to increase happens to be available in a jewel of a corresponding color to that of the player’s available gear socket, the socket bonus will provide the character with a small boost in ability.

How to Choose, Purchase, and Socket the Right Gems

Character research and personal preference are truly the only ways a WoW player can decide which gems reflect the character stats he or she wishes to build. Choosing the proper colors, however, is much easier.

Gear sockets, however, are not available in each of these colors. Differing color combinations are allowed, within reason, to achieve the socket bonus.

Any color gem may be placed in any color socket. In order to activate a meta gem, it is necessary to use gems of various colors. Each meta gem requires that the player have a certain number of different color gems socketed to benefit from the meta bonus.

Socketing and Replacing Jewels in WoW

In order to socket a jewel into a gear socket, a player must hold down the shift key while right clicking the piece of gear he or she wants to socket with the mouse. The gear piece will then pop up on the screen with the available sockets listed at the bottom.

The player may then drag the gem he or she wants to use into the socket. Selecting “Accept” will bind the gem to the piece of gear. If the player wants to replace the gem at any point in the future, he or she may do so but the previously socketed jewel will be destroyed.

The copyright of the article How to Socket the Right Gems in WoW in Role-Playing Video Games is owned by Candice Gillingwater. Permission to republish How to Socket the Right Gems in WoW in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.