WoW Guides: Gems and Enchants for Your Paladin

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WoW Guides: Gems and Enchants for Your Paladin

Posted April 20th, 2009 by Medeor

Enhancement means a lot...to your gear!

This week we look at how to improve the gear that you’ve worked so hard to get. Gear enhancements include gems, enchants, crafted items and reputation rewards. While these enhancements can really boost productivity, they can’t completely overhaul your gear for a different spec (i.e. your healing legs won’t turn into great tanking legs by re-gemming and putting some enchants on them). While you can’t rely on enhancements to provide a complete make-over, you can really fill in the gaps of your gear with the right decisions.

First and foremost your crafting professions will determine the ease of gathering some of the gear enhancements. In addition to Belt Buckles from Blacksmithing (discussed below), Tailors may create special “threads,” Jewelcrafters can make self-applied gems, Inscribers create self-applied glyphs, and even Engineers have a few tricks that only they can use. We’ll list out these crafter-specific items later, but keep them in mind when evaluating which gems and enchants you plan on using.

The goal is to use gear enhancements to fill in the gaps in your gear. If your Protection tanking set doesn’t quite reach 540 in defense, use a few gems or put the +20 defense enchant on your shield. By reviewing the basic raiding stats you’ll get a sense of how to best slot the enhancements to meet the minimum specs for raiding.

Gems

The first thing you will notice is that most of the starting gear in Northrend does not include gem sockets. Luckily Blacksmiths can make Belt Buckles (yeehaw!) which will add a gem socket to your belt. Always attach an “Eternal Belt Buckle” to your belts! This gem slot is very useful.

Once a Paladin starts receiving gear with gem sockets, there are plenty of options. The choices made will of course depend on the play style and talent spec chosen, but following is a handy reference when you’re standing at the auction house trying to decide which gems to choose:

	Gems
Gem Types	Holy	Protection	Retribution
Blue
Good	Sparking Star of Elune (+8 Spirit)	Solid Star of Elune (+12 Stamina)	Solid Star of Elune (+12 Stamina)
Better	Sparkling Empyrean Sapphire (+10 Spirit)	Solid Chalcedony (+18 Stamina)	Solid Chalcedony (+18 Stamina)
Best	Sparking Sky Sapphire (+16 Spirit)	Solid Sky Sapphire (+24 Stamina)	Solid Sky Sapphire (+24 Stamina)
Red
Good	Runed Living Ruby (+9 Spell Power)	Bold Bloodstone (+12 Strength)	Bold Bloodstone (+12 Strength)
Better	Runed Ornate Ruby (+12 Spell Power)	Subtle Scarlet Ruby (+16 Dodge Rating)	Bold Scarlet Ruby (+16 Strength)
Best	Runed Scarlet Ruby (+19 Spell Power)	Bold Scarlet Ruby (+16 Strength)	Bold Cardinal Ruby (+20 Strength)
Yellow
Good	Brilliant Dawnstone (+8 Intellect)	Thick Dawnstone (+8 Defense)	Rigid Sun Crystal (+12 Hit Rating)
Better	Brilliant Lionseye (+10 Intellect)	Thick Sun Crystal (+12 Defense)	Rigid Autumn's Glow (+16 Hit Rating)
Best	Brilliant Autumn's Glow (+16 Intellect)	Thick Autumn's Glow (+16 Defense)	Rigid King's Amber (+20 Hit Rating)
Purple
Good	Royal Twilight Opal (+9 Spell Power and +3 Mana per 5)	Defender's Twilight Opal (+8 Parry Rating and +12 Stamina)	Balanced Twilight Opal (+16 Attack Power and +12 Stamina)
Better	Purified Twilight Opal (+9 Spell Power and +8 Spirit)	Regal Twilight Opal (+8 Dodge and +12 Stamina)	Sovereign Twilight Opal (+8 Strength and +12 Stamina)
Best	Glowing Twilight Opal (+9 Spell Power and +12 Stamina)	Sovereign Twilight Opal (+8 Strength and +12 Stamina)	Balanced Dreadstone (+20 Attack Power and +15 Stamina)
Orange
Good	Reckless Monarch Topaz (+9 Spell Power and +8 Haste Rating)	Glimmering Monarch Topaz (+8 Parry Rating and +8 Defense)	Inscribed Monarch Topaz (+8 Strength and +8 Critical Strike Rating)
Better	Potent Monarch Topaz (+9 Spell Power and +8 Critical Strike Rating)	Stalwart Monarch Topaz (+8 Dodge Rating and +8 Defense)	Etched Monarch Topaz (+8 Strength and + 8 Hit Rating)
Best	Luminous Monarch Topaz (+9 Spell Power and +8 Intellect)	Champion's Monarch Topaz (+8 Strength and +8 Defense)	Etched Flawless Amatrine (+10 Strength and +10 Hit Rating)
Green
Good	Timeless Forest Emerald (+8 Intellect and +12 Stamina)	Enduring Dark Jade (+6 Defense and +9 Stamina)	Perfect Vivid Dark Jade (+7 Hit Rating and +11 Stamina)
Better	Dazzling Forest Emerald (+8 Intellect and +3 mana per 5)	Vivid Forest Emerald (+8 Hit Rating and +12 Stamina)	Vivid Forest Emerald (+8 Hit Rating and +12 Stamina)
Best	Seer's Forest Emerald (+8 Intellect and +8 Spirit)	Enduring Forest Emerald (+8 Defense and +12 Stamina)	Vivid Eye of Zul (+10 Hit Rating and +15 Stamina)
Meta
Good	Ember Skyflare Diamond (+25 Spell Power and +2% Intellect)	Effulgent Skyflare Diamond (+32 Stamina and -2% Spell Damage taken)	Beaming Earthsiege Diamond (+21 Critical Strike and +2% Mana)
Better	Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond (+8 mana per 5 and +3% Increased Critical Healing Effect)	Eternal Earthsiege Diamond (+21 Defense Rating and +5% Shield Block Value)	Chaotic Skyflare Diamond (+21 Critical Strike Rating and 3% Increased Critical Rating)
Best	Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (+21 Intellect and chance to restore mana on spellcast)	Austere Earthsiege Diamond (+32 Stamina and +2% Increased Armor Values from Items)	Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (+21 Agility and +3% Increased Critical Damage)

If you can't cut your own gems, make sure to stay up on the latest prices at the Auction House. Sometimes you can set yourself up without breaking the bank.

Enchanting your gear.

Once the gems are socketed, it’s time to evaluate enchants that are available. Enchanting has come a long way and now provides some significant bonuses to your gear.

A couple of notes on the enchanting options:

Some require reputation with various factions which you will find in parenthesis)
Whenever you can’t find, afford or get one of the recommended enchants, look for the lesser version. If all else fails, add an armor patch (i.e. Borean Armor Kit for +18 Stamina). Stamina is always a stat you can use.

Recommended Enchants for each of the talent specs:

	Enchants
	Holy	Protection	Retribution
Head	Arcanum of Blissful Mending (Revered - Wyrmrest Accord) +30 Spell Power and +8 mana per 5	Arcanum of the Stalward Protector (Argent Crusade - Revered) +37 Stamin and +20 Defense	Arcanum of Torment (Argent Crusade - Revered) +50 Attack power and +20 Critical Strike Rating
Shoulder	Greater Inscription of the Storm (Sons of Hodir - Exalted) +24 Spell Power and +15 Crit Rating	Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle (Sons of Hodir - Exalted) +20 Dodge rating and +15 Defense Rating	Greater Inscription of the Axe (Sons of Hodir - Exalted) +40 Attack power and 15 Critical Strike Rating
Chest	Powerful Stats +10 All Stats	Greater Defense +22 Defense Rating	Powerful Stats +10 All Stats
Cloak	Enchant Cloak - Greater Speed (+23 Haste Rating)	Titanweave +16 Defense Rating	Greater speed adds 25 Haste Rating
Wrist	Superior Spell Power +30 Spell Power	Major Stamina +40 Stamina	Greater Assault adds 50 Attack Power
Hands	Exceptional Spell Power +28 Spell Power	Armsman +10 Parry Rating and +2% Threat Generation	Crusher adds +44 Attack Power
Legs	Sapphire Spellthread +50 Spell Power and +30 Stamina	Frosthide Leg Armor +55 Stamina and +20 Agility	Icescale Leg Armor Adds +75 Attack Power and +22 Critical Strike Rating
Waist	Eternal Belt Buckle	Eternal Belt Buckle	Eternal Belt Buckle
Boots	Icewalker +12 Crit Rating and +12 Hit Rating	Greater Fortitude +22 Stamina	Icewalker adds +12 to Critical and Hit Rating
Weapon	Mighty Spell Power +63 Spell Power	Accuracy +25 Critical Strike and +25 Hit Ratings	Berserking adds a chance to increase attack power by 400 at the cost of reduced armor.
Shield	Greater Intellect +25 Intellect	Defense +20 Defense	N/A

Being Crafty:

In addition to all of the gear enhancements highlighted above, the following list shows some of the advantages to choosing a profession to aid you:

Alchemy	Increased effects and durations for your elixirs and flasks.
Blacksmithing	Add gem sockets to gloves and bracers.
Enchanting	Special Ring enchants.
Engineering	Speed boosts to gloves and boots for bonus haste and speed.
Inscription	Shoulder glyphs that are some of the best in the game.
Jewelcrafting	Special jewelcrafter only gems.
Leatherworking	Fur lining for added spell power, attack power and effects.
Mining	Toughness provides an additional bonus to stamina.
Skinning	Mastering Anatomy adds 25 spell crit or 32 Crit Rating.
Tailoring	Spell threads and Titansteel Weaves add +50 Spell Power or +16 Defense.

World of Warcraft offers plenty of ways to outfit a character and they pay special attention to provide alternate paths to the same conclusion. With this guide and some elbow grease, there is no reason you can’t be ready to raid with the best of them.