Yum. Epic Gems.

A friend of mine is in the process of gearing up a new level 80 character. So what does that mean? Yep. Lots and lots of heroics.

I don’t need gear from heroics for Cassandri. That doesn’t, however, mean that heroics are a complete waste of my time. I’m bringing in quite a bit of gold from looting, disenchanting mats, stacks of Frostweave Cloth and even the occasional Book of Glyph Mastery. It also helps that I quite enjoy running them.

I’m also accumulating a lot of Emblems of Conquest. I’m guessing approximately 6 per hour (I know it took us 25 minutes to do Heroic Trial of the Champion today because I had the oven timer on cooking my lunch before we started).

Assuming you don’t need gear purchasable with Emblems of Conquest, Valor or Heroism you have two options to turn those into gold:

• Buy epic gems
• Buy Runed Orbs

Runed Orbs can sell for about 150g. However, demand is incredibly low. Most players have skipped over the Ulduar crafted boots and belt items. Those that are interested in having these items crafted most likely will prefer to spend their gold purchasing the other components (harder to farm) than the Orbs.

If you can sell a Runed Orb you’re looking at 18 Emblems of Conquest for 150g. That’s 8g and change per Emblem.

You can also convert your Emblems of Conquest into epic gems. You’ll need to exchange your Emblems of Conquest for Emblems of Valor and then exchange those for Emblems of Heroism. The exchange rate is always 1:1 so if you have 100 Emblems of Conquest to spend, you actually have 100 Emblems of Heroism to spend.

1. Primary coloured (blue, red and yellow) epic gems cost 20 Emblems.
2. Secondary coloured (green, orange and purple) epic gems cost 10 Emblems.

Note: All the Auction House prices are averages across all servers, from wowecon.com. Prices on different servers will vary so it’s a good idea to check out where the action is on your server.

Primary Colours

• Blue Majestic Zircon – 20 Emblems – AH 140g – 7g per Emblem
• Red Cardinal Ruby – 20 Emblems – AH 160g – 8g per Emblem
• Yellow King’s Amber – 20 Emblems – AH 145g – 7g per Emblem

Secondary Colours

• Green Eye of Zul – 10 Emblems – AH 125g – 12g per Emblem
• Orange Ametrine – 10 Emblems – AH 135g – 13g per Emblem
• Purple Dreadstone – 10 Emblems – AH 140g – 14g per Emblem

Unless you can sell a primary colour gem for double or more the going rate for the secondary gems, it’s generally better buying and selling Ametrine, Dreadstone or Eye of Zul stones. The exception is, of course, if you discover one particular cut gem that sells for double that of any cut orange/purple/green gem on your server.

Cut gems are about 15g-20g more expensive than the rough gem. This saves the buyer from finding a Jewelcrafter with the right design recipe and tipping them for their services. If you have a friend who is willing to cut gems for you in order to sell them then it’s definitely worth your while to buy a stack of gems and have them cut into some popular, or rare, gems prior to listing them on Auction House.

Lets look at some of the most popular gem cuts selling on Auction House. Each cut is listed with the volume sold (over 7 days, I think) across all servers and the average sell price.

The popular cut gems that return the most gold for your emblems are:

1. Glowing/Purified/Shifting Dreadstone – 200g for 10 Emblems – 20g per Emblem
2. Vivid Eye of Zul – 198g for 10 Emblems – 19g per Emblem
3. Reckless Ametrine – 190g for 10 Emblems – 19g per Emblem

However, I think any secondary colour gem is a good investment. Aside from Runed Cardinal Rubies (a bad Emblem investment) I use quite a lot of Potent Ametrines and Purified Dreadstones. These are the gems I like to convert my Emblems into. That way I can stockpile some in the bank in case I get a new item, and sell the overflow on AH.