Making Gold with Gems in Diablo 3

In Blizzard's upcoming MMO Diablo 3, there will be a system of gems and socket'able equipment to place those gems in. You will have access to your own personal Jeweler who will be able to insert, remove and combine gems. While this certainly is not new to Blizzard games, the implementation of the gem mechanic in Diablo 3 is striking. Of course, gems provide powerful improvements to gear when inserted and therefore will command proportional prices on the gold based and real money auction houses in Diablo 3.

There are exactly 4 types of gems being included in the initial release of Diablo 3. They include the Amethyst, Emerald Ruby and Topaz. While you may be wondering what happened to the Diamond, Sapphire and Skull? Presumably they will be included another day in another expansion. For now, we're left with these 4 basic gem types.

The Amethyst is, just like in real life, a purple'ish tint. It offers Vitality when inserted into regular gear. When it's inserted into a helm it will increase your total health by a percentage. The potency of any gem is based on the gem's quality, which we will discuss below.

The Emerald is a green rock, inserted into helm and regular equipment. When in a helmet, it increases your chance of finding a magical item by a percentage. When in other gear, it increases your Dexterity.

The Ruby is the traditioinal red rock, offering Strength when inserted into regular gear and a percentage based boost to your experience earned when inserted into your helmet.

The Topaz is the yellow gem offering either Intellect (in your gear) but when inserted into your helmet it offers an increased % gold found from monsters killed in dungeons and other areas.

While there are only 4 different types of gems, there are 14 different qualities of each gem. So you'll see a total of 56 different gems in the game. These range from Chipped Topaz to Radiant Star Emeralds and every thing in between.

In all, there is a chipped (L1) version of each of the 4 gems. There is also a flawed (L2) version as well as: regular (L3), flawless (L4), perfect, radiant, square, flawless square, perfect square, radiant square, star, flawless star, perfect star (L13) and radiant star (L14) versions. Notice how I used the L# notation, this applies to all 14 levels and will make it easier for players to identify them.

The Jeweler is one of two artisans available in the initial release of Diablo 3. His basic abilities will be to combine gems, remove them from gear and insert them into gear. It will cost 50 gold to combine any 3 of the same type and quality gems into the next tier of that type of gem. For instance, if you have 3 chipped topaz you can combine them, for 50 gold, into 1 flawed topaz. If you find 2 more flawed topaz you can combine all 3, for 50 gold, into 1 regular topaz.

All Jewelers are not created equal though. Well, they are created equal but they can be trained to reach higher levels. There are 10 levels, the first level can turn L1 into L2 while the second level can turn L2 into L3. This pattern holds true until the 10th level can turn L10 into L11, L11 into L12, L12 into L13 and L13 into L14 gems.

Well there are the facts, what's it all mean? Well you may have noticed the exponential aspects of gem combining. It means that, in order to create a single L14 gem you would need to combine 1.6 million L1 gems... yeah, 1.6 million. This comes from that fact that an L2 gem requires 3 L1 gems, an L3 gem requires 3^2, or 9, L1 gems and an L4 gem requires 3^3 (27) L1 gems. So a single L14 gem will require 3^13 or 1.6 million L1 gems... needless to say, L1 gems are going to be a dime a dozen but are still going to manage to make L14 gems extremely rare.

Not only do high level gems require an exponential number of lower level gems but they also require a ton of gold to combine. Remember when I said it costs 50 gold to combine 3 gems into their next quality tier? This exponential increase in cost applies here too. Without explaining the math (see my gem calculator in the resources section) a single L14 gem will cost nearly 40 million gold in combining costs if you start with L1 gems. This gold isn't exchanged with other players, instead it's taken out of the economy disappears completely :\. This is called a gold sink, and is a popular way to prevent inflation.

You won't be able to find L14 gems in dungeon though, you'll only be able to find up to L5 gems from slaughtering monsters in the depths of hell. So don't expect relief from drops.

The economy is going to be vibrant and full of exclusivity. High tier gems are going to be practically unobtainable at first. As prices drop and more L5 gems are posted on the auction house for fair prices, higher level gems will become available. The top 1% of players will feast on the efforts of the bottom 99%, hopefully we'll see less rioting. It will certainly be valuable to buy, combine and resell gems for a reasonable profit margin, otherwise players simply won't do it. While players may not pay for an L14 gem with margins included, they sure as heck won't buy 27 L11 gems to make one, instead they may consider buying 9 L12 or 3 L13 gems. This will be an opportunity for players to make gold once they understand and master the gem marketing in Diablo 3. Best of luck to you!