Gems and Sockets

A socket is a special slot on a piece of gear. Placing a gem in it gives the item an extra bonus, much like an enchant does. Gems are mostly made by Jewelcrafters, who cut raw stones into socket gems and also use them in rings and necklaces.

Since Warlords of Draenor, gear no longer comes with sockets as a rule. Instead, items can sometimes drop with a prismatic socket already on them, depending on where they come from, so a socketed version of an item is usually the better find.

• Hold Shift and right-click the item that has a socket. The Item Socketing window opens.
• Drag the gem from your bags into the empty slot.
• Press the Socket Gems button to confirm. The bonus works while the item is worn.

Almost every socket you meet is prismatic. The other kinds are tied to a few special items from one expansion each and accept only their own matching gem.

Before patch 7.0.3, most sockets were red, yellow or blue. Any gem fitted any of them, but an item's socket bonus only switched on when every socket held a gem of the matching color. Hybrid gems counted for both parent colors: orange for red or yellow, purple for red or blue, green for blue or yellow. Prismatic gems matched every color.

Patch 7.0.3 turned all colored sockets into prismatic ones. Socket bonuses still exist, but mainly on older gear. Blizzard modeled sockets on a similar gem system in Diablo II, though the way gems are replaced is different.

Enchants are the other way to make an item stronger. Enchanters add a permanent bonus, such as strength or intellect, to armor, weapons and other items. Their materials (dust, essences, shards and crystals) come mainly from disenchanting items of uncommon quality or better; Legendary items cannot be disenchanted.

• An enchant can be put on an Enchanting Vellum, which turns it into an item that can be sold on the Auction House or sent by mail.
• Players doing dungeons, raids and PvP at the end of the game are generally expected to have every slot enchanted.
• Blacksmiths can also add extra prismatic sockets to some gear, which is why gems, enchants and Blacksmithing often go together when you finish a set.