Jewelcrafting and Item Socketing - Saturday, July 08, 2006

Blizzard has just released a new page of information on two exciting features that will be included in the Burning Crusade expansion. Jewelcrafting is a new profession that allows players to make trinkets, rings, and amulets. It sounds like the equipable items will be similar to items already found in the game. Jewelcrafters will also be able to process raw ore in an attempt to get more jewels out of the ore. Another main feature of jewelcrafting will be the ability to turn gems found in mining and processing ore into gems that can be used in item socketing.

Item socketing is a feature that was very popular in Diablo 2. High-level items will have slots that you can insert gems into. The individual gems will give bonuses similar to enchantments. These socketing gems are craftable by those with the new Jewelcrafting profession. However, jewelcrafting won't be the only way to find gems for sockets. Raid bosses will also drop rare gems that can be inserted into sockets. I imagine that these gems will be epic-quality and have some really nice bonuses. As a bonus, if you insert the right combination of gems, the socketed item will give you an additional bonus. For example, in the graphic above, by inserting a blue gem and two red gems in the proper slots, the Tribal Leather Tunic will grant a free +6 stamina bonus -- on top of the bonuses from all the inserted gems.

What does all this mean for now? It means that you should go out to the AH and buy out as much raw mineral ore and jewels as possible. When the expansion comes, I bet that their prices will sky-rocket.