In my opinion, the best place to farm gems quickly is act 1 inferno. In act 1 inferno, flawless squared gems are dropped, and those are the highest gems that can be dropped. If you'd go to act 4 inferno, the same quality of gems would drop, but the pace at which you could kill enemies would very likely be much slower. There isn't one special place to farm gems AFAIK. Your best bet is probably playing Nephalem Rifts in Adventure mode. You can potentially find goblin packs there and goblins tend to drop a lot of.
Jewelcrafting in Diablo 3 is all about gems, tons of gems. When you play Diablo 3 you will meet your very own Artisan Jeweler (named Covetous Shen) who you can work with and train to higher levels. Similar to your Blacksmith Artisan. You will level these two Artisans up as you progress through Diablo 3 and they will allow you to craft an expanding assortment of equipment and other bonus items.
Warning: It is currently not possible to make gold combining most gems. You will actually lose gold combining gems (except some high level rubies and other rare ones). If you have 3 Flawless Emeralds and want 1 Perfect Emerald just sell the 3 flawless on the auction house and then buy 1 emerald with the cash you get. You will get paid to do it this way. This is true for the first 8 tiers of gems right now. If you want to make gold, join the Diablo 3 Secrets community forum to find out how people are doing it right now.
The Purpose of Gems
In Diablo 3, just about everyone wants or needs gems to enhance the power of their gear. Gems are inserted into their gear just like in Diablo 2 and in World of Warcraft. Head, chest, wrists, waist, amulets, shields and weapons can be socketed with gems. You can place gems into sockets and even remove them. Removed gems can be traded and sold with other players or even combined with 2 other gems of the same color and quality to make the next tier of quality.
Throughout the game, you will only find up to tier 8 of gems while there are a total of 14 different tiers. This will make the upper tiers extremely rare early in Diablo 3. It is not necessary to level your own Jeweler since you can trade with others on the auction house and in trade chat with friends. There is no ‘bind on equip’ or ‘bind on pickup’ aspect to Diablo 3.
Leveling your Artisan Jeweler
Leveling your artisan Jeweler works differently than leveling your Blacksmith. Your Artisan Jeweler will begin as an Apprentice and work their way to the 10th level: Exalted. The process will require gold and 3 types of reagents: Pages of Jewelcrafting, Tomes of Jewelcrafting and Tomes of Secrets. pages of Jewelcrafting are found throughout Nightmare difficulty. Tomes of Jewelcrafting are found throughout Hell difficulty and Tomes of Secrets are found throughout Inferno difficulty. Tomes of Secrets are also shared with Blacksmiths and are, as you can see, needed in larger quantity than the lower level reagents. These reagents are also needed to combine gems.
Leveling an Apprentice Jeweler to Exalted will be expensive, here is what it will cost:
- 20 Pages of Jewelcrafting
- 20 Tomes of Jewelcrafting
- 40 Tomes of Secrets
- 140,000 gold
Here is what each level will cost you:
Apprentice -> Journeyman (5,000 gold)
Journeyman -> Adept (5,000 gold)
Adept -> Master (10,000 gold and 10 Pages of Jewelcrafting)
Master -> Grandmaster (10,000 gold and 10 Pages of Jewelcrafting)
Grandmaster -> Illustrious (10,000 gold and 10 Tomes of Jewelcrafting)
Illustrious -> Magnificent (10,000 gold and 10 Tomes of Jewelcrafting)
Magnificent -> Resplendent (20,000 gold and 10 Tomes of Secrets)
Resplendent -> Glorious (30,000 gold and 10 Tomes of Secrets)
Glorious -> Exalted (40,000 gold and 20 Tomes of Secrets)
Once you reach Exalted with your Jewel your will be able to combine every type of gem into its next tier. For example, you will be able to combine 3 L1 gems into 1 L2 gems and even 3 L13 gems into 1 L14 gem. More about types of gems types and qualities below.
Types of Gems
There are only 4 types of gems in Diablo 3: Topaz, Ruby, Emerald and Amesthyst. Each one comes in 14 different qualities from chipped to radiant star. Each tier of gems (tier 1 to 14) requires 3 of the previous tier to create. Three chipped amethysts can be turned into 1 flawed amethysts if you’re Jewel is high enough level.
Each gem offers an added attribute depending on whether its used in a helmet or another slot of gear. Here’s the breakdown of the 4 known gems:
Amethyst | + % Life (in helm) + Vitality + Life Steal (in weapon) |
Emerald | + % Extra Gold From Monsters (in helm) + Dexterity + Critical Damage Increased by 15% |
Ruby | Increases experienced rewarded per kill by % (in helm) + Strength + Damage (in weapon) |
Topaz | + % Better Chance of Finding Magical Items (in helm) + Intelligence Attackers take damage per hit (in weapon) |
Gem Qualities
Each gem comes in 14 different qualities which can be improved by finding 3 of the lower-quality and combining them at your Jeweler top make a single next-quality gem. For instance, if you have 3 Chipped Emeralds they can be combined to 1 Flawed Emerald and 3 Flawed Emeralds can be turned into 1 Normal Emerald.
The progression of gem qualities works like this:
Diablo 3 Gems Cost
Chipped -> Flawed -> Normal -> Flawless -> Perfect -> Radiant -> Square -> Flawless Square -> Perfect Square -> Radiant Square -> Star ->Flawless Star -> Perfect Star -> Radiant Star
As you level your Jewel you will unlock the next gem quality except once you reach level 10 you will unlock Star, Flawless Star, Perfect Star and Radiant Star qualities.
Diablo 3 Gem Farming
Checkout my gem calculator to determine which gems you can make, how much they will cost to craft and what level you need to be in order to craft them.