by Forward:
(Version: 0.93 - updated 05/06/2009)
All the information is from the Test Live Forums and therefore "subject to change". At present I just cut & paste the information and took some screenshoots from the gems you can get there. I probably will in the next 1 - 2 weeks copy my gem carrying character over and see how the impact is on crafting itself. etc.
The links below are the links to a post from a AoC developer up the gem chances and the discussion thread (or one of them).
Link:
http://forums-tl.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=42445
http://forums-tl.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=42449
Other Link:
Gert supplied link(see post below):
http://conanvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Editorials.Detail&id=255
General
- Number of Gem Colours has been reduced from 8 to 6.
- Removed the concept of Flawless uncut gems.
- Cut gems will now stack (Uncut gems stack to 500, and cut gems stack to 100)
- Higher quality levels of uncut gems will be reserved for future updates to denote new uncut gem drop types. Some examples might be: dungeon, raid, bosses, PvP, etc.
- The total number of uncut gems has been reduced from 96 to 36.
Pre-Patch Uncut and Flawless Gems
When a player logs in after the Gem Revamp hits the live servers, the total number of uncut gems in the inventory will be greater than or equal to the number (plus flawless) prior to the Gem Revamp.
- An uncut gem of tier X will remain an uncut gem of tier X.
- The colour will be different if that colour was removed.
- The name will also likely change to accommodate its new gem family (Lore reasons)
- Flawless uncut gems will be converted at a favourable ratio (1 flawless gem yielding 3 uncut gems)
Leftover Cut Gems
- The gems will be converted over to their uncut versions
- Power-tier blue (from flawless gems) cut gems converted in the same 1-to-3 ratio as the flawless uncut gems.
Other changes
- The following concepts have been removed from cut gems:
- Stacking lines, gem size, and the random element.
- The number of cut gems has been reduced from around 1380 to under 100 (It's currently 70, but this may change slightly).
Specific Changes
Socket Colours in items
- Every gem socket has a colour, which matches one of the 6 gem colours.
For a comparison to the present cultural armour pieces for necromancers see links below:
Present Pictish Cryptbearer Hood ... Present Pictish Cryptbearer Gloves
Remarks:
Any crafted item type may, in principle, have gem sockets of any colour. But players should never see a crafted item with multiple sockets of the same colour (e.g. no 2 +Intelligence gems in the necro cultural armour helmet). That does not mean that you can create an item and decide yourself with colour the sockets are.
- Each colour loosely follows a theme and related mods tend to be in the same colour.
- White: Armour, Evade, Immunity, Protection, ...
- Black: Strength, Unholy, Hate, Fatality, ...
- Green: Dexterity, Stamina, Rouges, ...
- Blue: Intelligence, Cold, Fire, Electric, Mages, Protection, ...
- Red: Constitution, Health, Taps, generic combat ...
- Yellow: Wisdom, Holy & Unholy Protection, Priests ...
These description is just my own observations and I left some things out. I will provide some picture of how gems stand later on.
Remarks:
for some material types/weapon types, sockets of certain colours tend to make more sense than others and this is represented in the distribution of socket colours to those types.
Most classes should find useful gems in most colours lines, but each class has at least two colours that are absolutely relevant, and provide a range of options. Some classes/specs have more.
The goal:
Create meaningful choices for players within each colour line. Examples of some meaningful choices are:
- DPS vs. damage mitigation
DPS:
Protection: 
- Burst DPS vs. sustained DPS
- Generic damage vs. specific damage
- Magic damage mitigation vs. physical damage mitigation
- Hit rate vs. critical rate, & etc.
Scaling Mechanic
- A single gem scales its value depending on the tier of the gear it's being socketed into.
Example: Black cut Tier 5 - Strength
Remarks:
At present cultural armour gear seems to be Tier 9 gear (I guess as they are level 79 or less – somewhat equivalent to present Tier 5 recipes).
- Gems only scale upwards
Remarks:
A Tier 6 gem may be socketed into Tier 6 up to Tier 10 gear, but never into Tier 5 gear (The tool-tip of a cut gem displays its value at all valid tiers.). At present cultural armour gear seems to be Tier 9 gear.
- ‘Sexiness’ for gems generally increases with the Tier within a colour line.
Specific weapon damage types are offered at higher tiers than generic weapon damage types.
--> --> 
--> 
Which, in turn, are offered at higher tiers than base attributes that ultimately trickle down into physical DPS.
In a general sense, what's increasing with tier is the ability to min/max
So generally speaking: Specific weapon damage types > generic weapon damage types > base attributes that trickle down into physical DPS
- Tier 5 gems will still be useful within Tier 10 gear.
- Tier 5 gear: 1 option for a given colour socket – that colour’s gem at Tier 5.
- Tier 10 gear: All tiers within that colour provide gems of varying utility
Remarks:
The usefulness of the Tier 5 gem is greatly diluted, but sometimes players will want to forgo all the fancy options and just socket the more generic gem, depending on what they are trying to achieve with their crafted gear.
Other Mechanics
Some gems will be marked in the tool-tip as “Armour Only” or “Weapon Only.”
- Such gems will generally be seen at Tier 9 and Tier 10.
- Reactive and Active procs are a good example of gems that require this sort of mechanic
Tier 9: Garnet of the Blood --- Tier 10: Divine Benediction
Others
Recipes & Gem Power Tiers
2 Power tiers for cut gems:
- Green Power Tier: learned from the trainer
- Blue Power Tier: learned from recipe drops
Remarks:
The blue gems are not necessarily better than green gems in terms of pure numeric values, but they will provide more choices, especially in cases where we want to offer mods outside of their normal colour association.
Alchemical Transformation and Gem Families
- Every gem has been given a Gem Family.
- There are 6 Gem Families, with one gem of a different colour assigned to each tier. Every gem within a tier has a unique colour and unique family at that tier.
- Gem families have no bearing on the actual cutting or socketing of gems, and solely exist for the purpose of converting different uncut gems within a group.
- Transformation Recipes will be introduced enable alchemists to transform uncut gems across colours and tiers.
Example:
A higher level uncut gem may be transformed to multiple lower level uncut gems within its Gem Family. This is to allow higher level players a method to obtain uncut gems at lower tiers (should they choose) without having to farm humanoids at that lower tier.
Existing Items and Crafting Quests
Changes with Existing Gear
- Existing socketed gems should be left mostly as they are.
Remarks:
This should be true even if the gem would otherwise be invalid given the socket colour (as all existing gear will be given coloured sockets). However, the new gems are definitively better, so players will naturally cycle out the old gems using the gem solvent introduced with Patch 4.
- Progression items (formerly had 3 gem slots) are reduced to 1 gem slot and given normal innate mods.
Remarks:
Players wanting to socket one of the new gems will have to delete the 3 existing gems down to 0. The new gems are balanced around a greatly reduced number of slots. For any cases that crop up where 3 old gems are better than 1 new gem, old gems maybe reduced a little bit in power so they do not surpass the power of the new gems.
- City & Crafted Culture/Regional items will retain the same number of gem slots
- Base items will continue to have no gem slot.
- On paper: world drop blues < blue progression gear – gemmed < dungeon blues
Gemcutter Progression Quest
- Many gem recipes will be removed from the game, and what's left will be modified to fit the revamp.
- Players with a gem cutting quest in an incomplete state when the Revamp goes Live will have to re-acquire the quest.
Remarks:
The process will be as painless as Funcom can make it, presumable with something like a refund or equivalent
Additional Informations
Cut Gems - Test Live 13/05/2009
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rWQvuOxIFZ8Qz-PX0H2Y2YQ
Pictures of cut gems
Thread Changes:
- added links to pictures for cut black and green gems
- added link to spread sheet
