| Diablo II Items [e] | |
|---|---|
| Weapons | |
| Axes • Bows • Crossbows • Daggers • Javelins • Maces • Polearms • Scepters • Spears • Staves • Swords • Throwing • Wands | |
| Armor | |
| Belts • Body Armor • Boots • Circlets • Gloves • Helms • Shields | |
| Class-specific | |
| Assassin Items • Amazon Items • Barbarian Items • Druid Items • Necromancer Items • Paladin Items • Sorceress Items | |
| Other | |
| Charms • Class Items • Crafted • Horadric Cube • Runes • Set Items • Uniques • Jewels • Sockets | |
| Guides and Stats | |
| Calculations • Gambling • Item Generation • Modifiers • Runewords • Quest Items • Potions • Ethereal • Gems • Base Item Levels • Misc |
Functionless on their own, gems possess great power when utilized with a weapon, shield, or helm, bestowing potent magical enchantments upon the item and its wearer. Socketed armor was added with the release of the Expansion, but all items have identical stats in either armor or helms. Gems, once socketed, add special bonuses to the items.
- Gems return, much changed, in Diablo III. See the gems page in the D3 section of this wiki for full details.
Gem Varieties
There are seven different types of gems:
All have different effects depending on the item in which they are "socketed". There are five levels of quality for gems, from worst to best they are:
- Chipped
- Flawed
- Normal (simply called by the gem type in the game, i.e. "ruby")
- Flawless
- Perfect
Gems can not be bought, only found from monster drops, chests, and as a reward for some quests. Better quality gems are found as you progress in the game. Gem quality dropped is based on Mlvl. Perfect gems are never dropped, though one may be found as a reward for the Hellforge Quest.
Socketed Items
Only weapons, helms, shields and body armor can have sockets, with body armor being the new addition to the list with the release of the Expansion. No boots, gloves, belts, or jewelry will ever be socketed, and this includes Uniques.
Items can vary in their number of sockets, depending on type and quality. Helms can have from 1-3, Body armor 1-4, weapons 1-6, and shields 1-4. Full details elsewhere in the Items section.
Once a gem is inserted into a socket, it is there forever in D2C, and can't be removed or upgraded in quality. In D2X gems can be removed from sockets by destroying them with a Horadric cube recipe. This does not damage the item, but destroys whatever was socketed in it.
Upgrading Gems
Three gems of the same type and quality combine in the Horadric Cube to upgrade one level of quality.
Gem shrines are found only rarely, but they are worth preparing for and using, as they'll upgrade one gem from your inventory one level. It's best to carry around a flawless gem of whatever type you want upgraded and be sure it's the only gem in your inventory when you click the shrine. If you don't have any gems, or only have perfect gems, one random chipped gem will be dropped.
Gem Effects
Gem effects vary, but are logical: Gems placed into weapons generally add damage, while gems in shields provide resistance, and gems in helms/armor add to hit points or other attributes. Exactly how much benefit a socketed gem provides depends on the quality of the gem.
You can see how gems look in an item here in this shot. The sockets display down the left side of the image for all socketed items, and if they are filled the gem is visible there, rather than an empty hole. Socketed items in the game appear brightly-coloured, and their appearance is based on the first gem socketed. An item with an Amethyst first, then two Emeralds will be purple, not green.
The bonuses from gems of the same type stack, so if you had two rubies in a sword, the fire damage would be added together. It is arithmetic, never geometric, so if you had say three sapphires, all of them chilling for 3 seconds, you wouldn't move up to freezing the monster, you'd just chill it for longer. The same goes for other gems. For example rubies add fire damage to your attack. Three perfect rubies would do a lot of fire damage, but they wouldn't create a small firewall under the monster.
Gems in shields do nothing for the Paladin's Smite attack.
Gem Stats
Amethyst
| Quality | Weapon | Helm or Armor | Shield | Clvl Req | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chipped |  | +40 to Attack Rating | +3 to Strength | +8 to Defense | 1 |
| Flawed |  | +60 to Attack Rating | +4 to Strength | +12 to Defense | 5 |
| Normal |  | +80 to Attack Rating | +6 to Strength | +18 to Defense | 12 |
| Flawless |  | +100 to Attack Rating | +8 to Strength | +24 to Defense | 15 |
| Perfect |  | +150 to Attack Rating | +10 to Strength | +30 to Defense | 18 |
Diamond
| Quality | Weapon | Helm or Armor | Shield | Clvl Req | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chipped |  | +28% damage vs. the undead | +20 to Attack Rating | +6% Resistance to All | 1 |
| Flawed |  | +34% damage vs. the undead | +40 to Attack Rating | +8% Resistance to All | 5 |
| Normal |  | +44% damage vs. the undead | +60 to Attack Rating | +11% Resistance to All | 12 |
| Flawless |  | +54% damage vs. the undead | +80 to Attack Rating | +14% Resistance to All | 15 |
| Perfect |  | +68% damage vs. the undead | +100 to Attack Rating | +19% Resistance to All | 18 |
Emerald
Emeralds are popular weapon sockets for their stacking poison damage.
| Quality | Weapon | Helm or Armor | Shield | Clvl Req | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chipped |  | Adds 5 (5.9) poison damage in 1 sec | +3 to Dexterity | +12% Poison Resistance | 1 |
| Flawed |  | Adds 11 (11.7) poison damage in 1 sec | +4 to Dexterity | +16% Poison Resistance | 5 |
| Normal |  | Adds 17 (17.6) poison damage in 1 sec | +6 to Dexterity | +22% Poison Resistance | 12 |
| Flawless |  | Adds 23 (23.4) poison damage in 1 sec | +8 to Dexterity | +28% Poison Resistance | 15 |
| Perfect |  | Adds 29 (29.3) poison damage in 1 sec | +10 to Dexterity | +40% Poison Resistance | 18 |
Ruby
Rubies are popular sockets in armor and helms for the +hit points. Mercs can often benefit from this boost.
| Quality | Weapon | Helm or Armor | Shield | Clvl Req | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chipped |  | +3-4 Fire Damage | +10 to Maximum Life | +12% fire resistance | 1 |
| Flawed |  | +5-8 to Fire Damage | +17 to Maximum Life | +16% to Fire Resistance | 5 |
| Normal |  | +8-12 to Fire Damage | +24 to Maximum Life | +22% fire resistance | 12 |
| Flawless |  | +10-16 to Fire Damage | +31 to Maximum Life | +28% fire resistance | 15 |
| Perfect |  | +15-20 Fire Damage | +38 to Maximum Life | +40% fire resistance | 18 |
Sapphire
Sapphires are little socketed by high level characters, but a sapphire in a weapon is hugely useful for a low level character, for the chilling property of cold damage.
| Quality | Weapon | Helm or Armor | Shield | Clvl Req | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chipped |  | +1-3 Cold Damage 1 second Cold Time | +10 to Maximum Mana | +12% to Cold Resistance | 1 |
| Flawed |  | +3-5 Cold Damage 1.4 second Cold Time | +17 to Maximum Mana | +16% to Cold Resistance | 5 |
| Normal |  | +4-7 Cold Damage 2 second Cold Time | +24 to Maximum Mana | +22% to Cold Resistance | 12 |
| Flawless |  | +6-10 Cold Damage 2.4 second Cold Time | +31 to Maximum Mana | +28% to Cold Resistance | 15 |
| Perfect |  | +10-14 Cold Damage 3 second Cold Time | +38 to Maximum Mana | +40% to Cold Resistance | 18 |
Topaz
Topaz are very popular sockets in body armor and helms for the Magic Find bonuses they provide.
| Quality | Weapon | Helm or Armor | Shield | Clvl Req | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chipped |  | +1-8 Lightning Damage | +9% chance to find magical items | +12% Lightning Resistance | 1 |
| Flawed |  | +1-14 Lightning Damage | +13% chance to find magical items | +16% Lightning Resistance | 5 |
| Normal |  | +1-22 Lightning Damage | +16% chance to find magical items | +22% Lightning Resistance | 12 |
| Flawless |  | +1-30 Lightning Damage | +20% chance to find magical items | +28% Lightning Resistance | 15 |
| Perfect |  | +1-40 Lightning Damage | +24% chance to find magical items | +40% Lightning Resistance | 18 |
Skulls
Skulls were popular sockets in weapons in D2C for the dual leech they provided, but with leech available on so many items in the expansion, skulls are seldom used any longer.
| Quality | Weapon | Helm or Armor | Shield | Clvl Req | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chipped |  | Steals 2% life and 1% mana per hit | Replenish life +2 and mana regen. 8% | Attacker takes damage of 4 | 1 |
| Flawed |  | Steals 2% life and 2% mana per hit | Replenish life +3 and mana regen. 8% | Attacker takes damage of 8 | 5 |
| Normal |  | Steals 3% life and 2% mana per hit | Replenish life +3 and mana regen. 12% | Attacker takes damage of 12 | 12 |
| Flawless |  | Steals 3% life and 3% mana per hit | Replenish life +4 and mana regen. 12% | Attacker takes damage of 16 | 15 |
| Perfect |  | Steals 4% life and 3% mana per hit | Replenish life +5 and mana regen 19% | Attacker takes damage of 20 | 18 |