Druid Gems

With the release of The Burning Crusade, we began to see “socketed” items. Items may have one or more sockets, into which you can place different color gems. Each socket has a color, and while you can place any color gem into any socket, matching all the sockets with gems of the same color enables a “socket bonus”. There are also Meta gem sockets. Meta gems generally add a greater bonus, but have requirements; usually a certain combination of gem colors already socketed.

Different than Diablo II which this mechanic reminds me of, is that a new gem can be re-socketed over a gem already in place. Socketing a new gem does replace the old gem (which is lost forever), however this allows you to put whatever gem you can find at the moment into a socket for bonuses right away, then upgrade the socket when you find or buy a better gem.

There are all kinds of gems, with more and more showing up in each patch. In order to always give you the most up to date gem listings, I will not be providing simple lists of gems; rather I will provide links to wowhead with various filters so you can see all gems that match the socket and/or stat you are looking to fill.

I have my filters broken into three categories: simple lists for basic research, lists by playstyle, and lists by instance/raid. At the end of this page you’ll find some other gem research resources on the web.

These lists will return primarily gems that can be socketed, but may also return “simple gems” - gems that cannot be socketed (yet) and are used in crafting recipies.

Simple Gem Lists for basic research

Simple Gem list by color (highest level gems first)
All | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange | Simple | Prismatic | Non-Socketable gems
Crafted gems - You’ll need to ask your guild JC to make these for you.
All | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange
Gems by Rarity
Epic | Rare | Uncommon | Common
Dropped Gems - Wowhead doesn’t currently allow filtering on gems that are “drops” (except by particular instance), but here is a list of all gems that are BoP which should be close to the same.
BoP Gems

Gems by Playstyle

These links will help you narrow down particular gems by the type of build you want to augment.

Balance Enchantments - Plusses to Intellect, Spirit, Spell damage, Spell Crit, Spell Penetration, Spell Haste, or Mana Regen.
All | Epics | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange
Feral Enchantments (Tanking) - Armor, Defense, Dodge, Stamina or Agility.
All | Epics | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange
Feral Enchantments (DPS) - Agility, Strength, AP (feral), Crit, Haste or Hit.
All | Epics | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange
Resto Enchantments - Intellect, +Healing, +Spirit, Spell Crit, or Mana Regen.
All | Epics | Meta | Red | Yellow | Blue | Purple | Green | Orange

Gems by Heroic Instances and Raids
While maybe not as useful as the other lists above, these filters will let you see what gems are in each particular instance and raid. I’m only referencing Heroic instances to identify the better gems you are probably looking for. I’d love to provide a comprehensive list of gems with the instance/raid they are in, but wowhead does not current offer that feature. (Note: at the time I put this together, the only raid with any worthwhile gem drops was The Black Temple).

Heroic Instance Gems
Arcatraz | Auchenai Crypts | Black Morass | Blood Furnace | Botanica | Hellfire Ramparts | Mana-Tombs | Mechanar | Old Hillsbrad Foothills | Sethekk Halls | Shadow Labyrinth | Shattered Halls | Slave Pens | Steamvault | Underbog
Raid Gems
Black Temple | Gruul’s Lair | Hyjal Summit | Karazhan | Magtheridon’s Lair | Serpentshrine Cavern | The Eye |