Gem

	Jewelcrafting (Profession)
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Were you looking for minerals, which were called "gems" before Burning Crusade?

A gem is generally an item that can be used as an ingredient primarily for Jewelcrafting recipes or 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 often 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.

Gem stats

For full length article, see gem properties.

There are three primary color: Red, Yellow, and Blue, matching socket colors. Each color is roughly associated with a concept: Red is generally raw power/offense, Yellow for modifiers, and Blue for recovery. More specifically:

Red gems	Yellow gems	Blue gems
Strength	Intellect	Spirit
Agility	Haste Rating	Stamina
Attack Power Spell Power	Hit Rating
Armor Penetration Rating Expertise Rating	Critical Strike Rating	Spell Penetration
Dodge Rating Parry Rating	Defense Rating Resilience Rating	Mana every 5 seconds

There are three secondary colors:

Orange - matching Red and Yellow
Green - matching Yellow and Blue
Purple - matching Blue and Red

These gems provide bonuses that are approximately half those provided by primary gems, but provide two bonuses, one from each of their color sets.

There is a set of prismatic gems, that match all three colors. There are two varieties of these gems: one variety that improves all resistances, and one that improves all five attributes.

Lastly, there are meta gems. As stated earlier, they only match (and can only be put into) meta sockets.

Gems may be placed by anyone into a item that has a socket via a drag-and-drop interface. Invoke this by shift-right-clicking (hold down the shift key and right click) the weapon or piece of armor you want socketed.

Outland gems

These pages concern the gems specific to the Burning Crusade era.

Complete list:

Outland gems

Specific articles:

Outland uncommon gems
Outland rare gems
Outland epic gems

Northrend gems

These pages concern the gems new to Wrath of the Lich King.

Northrend epic gems can also be purchased:

Purchased with 10000 from Jewelcrafting honor vendors in Stormwind and Orgrimmar:
- Captain O'Neal
- Lady Palanseer
Purchased with [Emblems of Heroism] (20 for primary colored gems, 10 for secondary) from vendors in Dalaran:

Notes

Multi-colored gems will match either of their colors when socketed. For example, an orange gem can be used to activate an item bonus with a red or yellow socket.
Multi-colored gems will count toward both of their colors when activating a meta gem. For example, a meta gem that requires 5 red and 5 yellow gems can be activated with 5 orange gems.
You can replace a gem already socketed in an item with another one, destroying only the gems you are replacing.
A gem does not have to match its socket color to count toward a meta gem's bonus.