My dear WoW rookie, you've just looted your first socketed item. Sockets allow you to truly customize your gear to either augment your strengths or brace up your weaknesses (or both). Whether you just want to get down the road with a decent set of gear or you enjoy endlessly tweaking your armor's performance, we'll help you fill your first sockets and make your character stronger than ever.
First off, these recommendations are aimed squarely at non-jewelcrafting characters leveling their way through Outland and Northrend. Just the basics – that's what WoW Rookie is here for. That said, the best place to start is our Insider Trader guide, A diamond is forever: a consumer's guide to gems. You'll learn:
What are my choices in gems? What does each gem color do? Where do I get gems? How do I get my gems cut, and how do I know what type of cut I need? How do I put gems into the slots?
Read up, and you'll catch the general drift. A couple of updates to that guide:
A fourth type of gem (and gem slot) has been added. Prismatic gems and sockets accept (or "match") gems or sockets of any color. Blacksmiths can add a socket to their own one-handed weapons, bracers or gloves. They can create an Eternal Belt Buckle for other players, which adds a Prismatic socket when applied to your belt (and accepts/"matches" gems of any color). Being dual-specced has no effect on your gemming. Purchasing dual specialization does not grant you additional or secondary gem slots. Dual spec has no impact on your equipment at all; it changes your talents, your glyphs and your action bars. (You'll probably want to assemble two sets of gear and use the new Gear Manager to keep them straight.)
Still uncertain about how and when to gem your gear?
When to gem and enchant Lengthy reader discussion WoW Gem Finder helps you find the right gems My teenaged son (every writer needs a back-seat DPSer) reminds me to restate the obvious: fully gemmed, socketed items may look like hot stuff -- but they may not perform like hot stuff for your particular character and gear mix. Try things out before getting rid of older pieces.
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