Note: this post contains information on Wrath of the Lich King, although it’s mostly mechanical and thus not hugely spoilery.

The most recent WotLK beta patch introduced a number of new Jewelcrafting recipes, showing us the Northrend equivalent of some very familiar Outland gems – as well as some new contenders.

Read on for details of Northrend’s new uncommon, rare and meta gems, the many new gem cuts included in the expansion, and a new Jewelcrafter ability: Gem Perfection.

The Raw Gems
The raw uncommon gems are:

• Blue: Chalcedony (equivalent of Azure Moonstone)
• Green: Dark Jade (equivalent of Deep Peridot)
• Yellow: Sun Crystal (equivalent of Golden Draenite)
• Orange: Huge Citrine (equivalent of Flame Spessarite)
• Red: Bloodstone (equivalent of Blood Garnet)
• Purple: Shadow Crystal (equivalent of Shadow Draenite)

The raw rare gems are:

• Blue: Sky Sapphire (equivalent of Star of Elune)
• Green: Forest Emerald (equivalent of Talasite)
• Yellow: Autumn’s Glow (equivalent of Dawnstone)
• Orange: Monarch Topaz (equivalent of Noble Topaz)
• Red: Scarlet Ruby (equivalent of Living Ruby)
• Purple: Twilight Opal (equivalent of Nightseye)

The raw meta gems are:

• Earthsiege Diamond
• Skyflare Diamond

There will doubtless be epic gems as well, but they haven’t been discovered. They may be yet to be implemented, or they may be scheduled for a content patch after release (like the epic gems of TBC, which came in patch 2.1 along with Mt Hyjal).

There may or may not be jewellery recipes – I’d be surprised if there weren’t, to be honest – but none are available from trainers yet.

The Recipes

The recipes follow the same pattern as gem cuts in TBC: gems of one color tend to give certain bonuses (eg blue and blue-hybrid gems give stamina bonuses), and many of the cut names are very similar. For example:

• Bright Living Ruby (TBC) and Bright Scarlet Ruby (WotLK)
• Balanced Nightseye (TBC) and Balanced Twilight Opal (WotLK)

There are a lot of adjusted and replaced cuts:

• No sign so far of the Reckless orange gem cuts (Spell Haste/Spell Damage), nor any replacement with Haste & Spellpower rating. Given the variety of new gems, there’s no reason for these to be removed.
• Cuts with +heal or +spell damage (Runed red cuts, Luminous, Potent and Veiled orange cuts, Glowing, Purified and Royal purple cuts) now give +spellpower. Teardrop cuts (red +heal gems) do not exist for WotLK gems; TBC-level Teardrop cuts give +spellpower equivalent to the Runed cuts.
• Cuts with +spell crit, +spell hit or +spell haste now give crit, hit or haste instead. Any of these with no other stats have been replaced by the multipurpose variant. For example, Great yellow cuts (spell hit rating) are replaced by Rigid yellow cuts (hit rating). TBC-level variants of these cuts still exist, with revised mechanics.

And there are a lot of new cuts:

• Red: Fractured (Ignore Armor), Precise (Expertise)
• Orange: Accurate (Expertise/Hit), Champion’s (Strength/Defense), Deft (Agi/Haste), Etched (Str/Hit), Fierce (Str/Haste), Glimmering (Parry/Def), Pristine (AP/Hit), Resolute (Expertise/Def), Stalwart (Dodge/Def), Stark (AP/Haste)
• Green: Energized (Haste/mp5), Lambent (Hit/mp5), Misty (Crit/Spi), Shining (Hit/Spi), Sundered (Crit/mp5), Tenuous (Agi/mp5), Timeless (Int/Sta)
• Purple: Guardian’s (Expertise/Sta), Puissant (Ignore Armor/Sta)

Looking at the list, I imagine there are still a number of cuts that have yet to be implemented. The lack of spellpower/spell haste (the gap filled by the missing Reckless cuts) stands out, and there are other combinations that haven’t been covered too. (Such as the complete lack of Resilience gems – which may indicate the minimization of Resilience as a stat, or maybe they’re being held back for a 3.x content patch.) However, this is a huge step forward in terms of gem versatility; now there’s useful gems for every socket color for pretty much everyone.

As an example, because it’s dear to my heart, there’s been quite some debate about what yellow gems a Holy Paladin should use – Gleaming (+Spell Crit) or Luminous (+Heal/Int gems)? WotLK will expand our options considerably, allowing us to choose from Smooth (Crit), Luminous (Spellpower/Int), Energized (Haste/mp5), and Sundered (Crit/mp5). There will still be plenty of debate, of course, but versatility that caters to different playstyles, specs and gearing levels can only be a good thing.

Gem Perfection

This is a new benefit offered to Jewelcrafters; it’s granted from a crafting quest (the Alliance version of which is given by Ounhulo in Valgarde). It gives the Jewelcrafter the chance to cut uncommon quality Northrend gems into perfect gems.

The quest isn’t currently completable because Northrend gemcutting is broken right now, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what Gem Perfection actually grants. (Even Google knows nothing.) The quest text reads “this will allow you to sometimes cut a perfect gem with increased bonuses when cutting a[n] uncommon quality gem from Northrend”.

It could be:

• the Northrend equivalent of [Brilliant Glass];
• a random proc that gives you a standard rare cut gem from uncommon mats – for instance, cutting a Bloodstone into a [Bright Bloodstone] and actually getting a [Bright Scarlet Ruby] instead;
• a random proc that gives you a non-standard cut gem from uncommon mats – for instance, cutting a Bloodstone into a [Bright Bloodstone] and actually getting something like a “Perfect Bright Bloodstone” instead (which would presumably have better stats than the uncommon Bright Bloodstone, though not as good as the rare Bright Scarlet Ruby);
• …or something completely different.

Whatever it is, I look forward to finding out!