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Vacaloco's complete jewel guide
One of the new puzzles I've had in the Outlands is figuring out just how good that socketed item is. For instance, Chemise of Rebirth without any gems in it is obviously worse than Goldweave Tunic. But what gems are available, and how much might they bump up the Chemise? Enter Vacaloco's complete jewel guide. It purports to be a list of every gem currently in the game, showing in easy-to-read format their color and what stats they give, as well as whether they're crafted, bought, dropped, or PvP rewards. I've had this list open in a browser window constantly for the past few days.Personally, what I'd like to see is an AddOn or web tool that would do the thinking for me. I want to be able to mouse over an item, or input the number and color of sockets on a web page somewhere, and get back the maximum stat boost, for my chosen type of stats, that I could get out of the item with gems socketed. That would make a lot of comparisons much easier. Unfortunately, I don't know any Lua, nor am I very familiar with WoW's API, so writing that AddOn is probably beyond me.In any case, Vacaloco's page is a great resource. Have you found any ridiculously useful references for this brave new world?
All About Jewelcrafting
Blizzard has released some new information about the jewelcrafting profession that we'll be seeing in the Burning Crusade expansion. Jewelcrafters will be able to make jewelry, trinkets, and insert gems into socketed items - imbuing them with additional powers. Raw gems may be used by the jewelcrafter to create jewelry and trinkets, or they may be cut into gems suitable for use in socketed items (cut gems may be inserted into socketed items by any player). Interesting, to me, is the article's mention of how jewels are found:By processing the raw ore mined from the various deposits and mineral veins, jewelcrafters can extract gems from the ore which they can then use for their craft. Although miners sometimes find gems while gathering ore, jewelcrafters mostly rely on their prospecting skills to get more of the precious stones.Does this imply that jewelcrafting will be a natural match with mining for a supply of gems? Or that there will be a new "prospecting" profession for gathering gems? While we have a lot of new details, much is still unclear.
