LvL 20 F2P Gems and Jewelcrafting guide.

Intro:

Hey everyone, I’ve recently gone through Jewelcrafting on my linked F2P, and this guide is basically everything I wish I knew before I got into it. This guide is not meant to help you decide which gems to use, just what gems are available to you and how to get them.

The only gems lvl 20’s benefit from are TBC and Wrath gems. Everything from later expansions has item level requirements that we can’t hit. Both TBC and Wrath offer functionally identical gems (+3’s and +2/+2’s) with notable exceptions being Steady talasite from TBC and Nightmare Tear from Wrath. @Chubakass has made a great database for lots of things including gems and how they scale in their WoW 20's Atlas.

Unfortunately, the majority of +3 and +2/+2 gem recipes from TBC are not available to F2P’s. Most of them are either dropped from, or require rep from high-level instances. So it seems to me that excluding world drop recipes, Steady talasite and meta gems are basically the only things F2P’s want from TBC JC. And it may be easier to get the wrath equivalent of the meta gems since they don’t require a reputation grind. I can add more details on acquiring the TBC metas if there's interest.​

Before we get into leveling JC there are gems available from vendors.
​

Vendor gems:

Hellfire PvP daily tokens

Battlecryer Blackeye and Tracy Proudwell sell:

• Brilliant Blood Garnet +2 Int
• Delicate Blood Garnet +2 Agi
• Jagged Deep Peridot +3 Stam +4 Crit
• Bold Blood Garnet +2 Str

for Marks of Honor Hold/Marks of Thrallmar
Bold blood garnet doesn't have a Wowhead page, but I've seen it in-game from Blackeye, so I assume they both sell it.

Marks of Honor

Brave Stonehide and Sergeant Biggins sell:

• Delicate Ornate Ruby +3 Agi
• Brilliant Ornate Ruby +3 Int
• Smooth Ornate Dawnstone +3 Crit
• Deadly Ornate Topaz +2 Agi +2 Crit
• Potent Ornate Topaz +2 Int +2 Crit

Again Wowhead says these are unavailable but I have seen them in-game.

Gold

Markus Scylan and Reagan Mancuso sell:

• Bold Tourmaline +1 Str
• Brilliant Tourmaline +1 Int
• Delicate Tourmaline +1 Agi
• Rigid Zircon +1 Crit
• Solid Zircon +1 Stam
• Sparkling Zircon +1 Vers
• Smooth Amber +1 Crit
• Subtle Amber +1 Dodge

Thanks to @Weko for posting this info in the baseline guide!
​

Useful links:

Outland JC

• Outland Jewelcrafting Leveling Guide
• Fel Iron Mining Routes

Northrend JC

• Northrend Jewelcrafting Leveling Guide
• Saronite Ore Mining Routes
• Crystallized Elements Farming
• Northrend Alchemy Leveling Guide

Tier one use order

For levels 1-25 craft recipes in order by what gems they require. Note that shadow crystals can only be used from levels 1-20 so plan accordingly.

1. Sun crystal use these first, but leave 8 for dailies.
2. Bloodstone, Huge Citrine, Shadow Crystal use in equal amounts
3. Dark Jade, Chalcedony use in equal amounts

Shopping lists:

Materials: Outland JC

• 250 Fel Iron ore
• 400 Adamantite +100 for each steady talasite you want.

Materials: Northrend JC

• 1400 Saronite ore
• 40 Talandra's Rose
• 40 Tiger Lily +15 for alchemist stone
• 120 Goldclover +20 for alchemist stone
• 48 Adder's Tongue +15 for alchemist stone
• 115 Icethorn
• 200 Lichbloom
• 30 Frost Lotus

Changelog and notes:

Notes

• Ore estimates: I calculated how much ore you needed based on the assumption that every 5 ore, would prospect exactly one tier 1 gem. It is possible to get two, or, to get zero and only get a tier two gem. I have tried to add some margin to be safe, but feel free to add some yourself.
• Sorry for the mediocre formatting and rambly nature.

Changelog

Dec 31, 2020

@Nicholasky recommended an increase to the Wrath JC shopping list and was absolutely correct. Closer inspection revealed that I had failed to consider what specific colors of gems were necessary to level, and that you would need gems left over for dailies. TBH that sounds pretty stupid of me, but oh well. The following were altered to correct this mistake:

1. Paragraphs 2 & 3 of wrath JC
2. Wrath JC shopping list
3. 1-25 tier 1 use order added
4. Outland JC paragraphs
5. Outland Shopping list

Jan 1, 2021

Clarified wrath JC thanks to @Jonjonho

 

Outland JC:

Steady talasite are cut from talasite and recipe requires 50 TBC JC skill to learn. To level JC you can follow this guide. I estimate 1-25 will require 250 fel iron ore, you can follow these routes to gather it, keep any motes of earth you get, you’ll need them later.

After JC 25 you’ll switch entirely to mining adamantite, it has the best chance to prospect talasites, and you’ll use it directly for leveling JC. I farmed at Warmaul hill in the top left of Nagrand, rough coordinates are 27,22. Warmaul hill has two ogre caves right next to each other and ore respawns fast enough that you can just run between them and get as much ore as you need. For just level 25-50, I estimate 400 ore. 2000 total ore should be enough to put Steady talasite in all your slots with a few to spare. Note that you will need 10 adamantite bars for 40-50.​

Just to get to lvl 50 TBC JC I estimate 250 fel iron and 400 adamantite.


The ogre’s drop Oshu’gun crystal powder samples which, when your faction controls Halaa, you will turn in to Kartos or Amereldine for Halaa research tokens to spend with Davian or Jaffrey. The Steady talasite recipe costs four tokens, so 40 powder samples. Also, the ogres drop obsidian warbeads which you can turn in for consortium rep for a couple of meta gem designs but they’re not very useful if you’re also going into wrath JC.

If your faction does not control Halaa, your best option is to just wait for someone else to take it for you. You’ll spend a long time farming adamantite, so you’ll know when it gets taken. But if you need to solo it for whatever reason, you can.

At the end of every bridge to Halaa is a wind rider post you can right-click. When you do, it will fly you around Halaa and put 10 bombs into your inventory. I recommend key-binding the bombs because it’s important you throw all 10 every flight because it won’t give you more if you have any remaining when you fly again. Just keep doing bombing runs, if you hit as many guards as possible per bomb, you should be done in about 30-45 minutes. After all the guards are dead, just walk in and stand on the flag until it’s under your control.​

Wrath JC:

All the important gem recipes are bought from Timothy Jones or Tiffany Cartier with Jewelcrafting Tokens and require lvl 75 JC to make. You earn tokens by completing Timothy’s daily quests. Tiffany has +3 gem recipes that only require lvl 1 JC, but also need dragon's eyes which cost 1 token, or, can be found in Icy Prisms which you can craft at lvl 75 JC. Either way, to get all your gems as fast as possible, you will need to level JC to 75.

Real quick, If you’re going for a Nightmare Tear, pickup enchanting and disenchant Northrend greens until you have 5 infinite dust.

Timothy’s daily quests

All of them consist of killing a generic mob and using a dropped quest item with two tier 1 gems. Make sure you only kill mobs in level 20 zones for quest items to avoid this bug.

• Shipment: Blood Jade Amulet
• Shipment: Bright Armor Relic
• Shipment: Glowing Ivory Figurine
  
• Shipment: Intricate Bone Figurine
  
• Shipment: Shifting Sun Curio
  
• Shipment: Wicked Sun Brooch

For leveling, you can follow this guide. I recommend you mine saronite because it has a higher chance to prospect tier 2 gems. For levels 1-25, follow the "tier one use order" to preserve the correct color of gems for later recipes. The rings you craft for JC lvls 25-45 can get you to 50 which I recommend doing to preserve your tier 1 gems for more icy prisms. You can farm crystallized earth here and crystallized shadow here if you didn’t get enough from mining. I would not recommend trading frozen orbs for these because you will want to use them for icy prisms.

Gem tiers

• Tier 1: Bloodstone, Chalcedony, Dark Jade, Huge Citrine, Shadow Crystal, Sun Crystal
• Tier 2: Scarlet Ruby, Sky Sapphire, Forest Emerald, Monarch Topaz, Twilight Opal, Autumn's Glow
• Tier 3: Cardinal Ruby, Majestic Zircon, Eye of Zul, Ametrine, Dreadstone, King's Amber

Tier one use order

For levels 1-25 craft recipes in order by what gems they require. Note that shadow crystals can only be used from levels 1-20 so plan accordingly.

1. Sun crystal use these first, but leave 8 for dailies.
2. Bloodstone, Huge Citrine, Shadow Crystal use in equal amounts
3. Dark Jade, Chalcedony use in equal amounts

JC levels 50-75 will require leveling alchemy. Drop mining for herbalism and gather double the herbs detailed in this alchemy guide, it has links on where to find each herb. Don’t forget to get extra materials for an alchemist stone if you don’t have one. Once you’re done with herbalism, just follow the alchemy guide all the way to 75. However, make sure to transmute earthsiege and skyflare diamonds in equal parts and only as much as you need because they both use tier 1s necessary for icy prisms.


Just to get to lvl 75 WotLK JC I estimate 1400 saronite and a northrend alchemy kit.

northrend alchemy kit

• 40 Talandra's Rose
• 40 Tiger Lily
• 120 Goldclover
• 48 Adder's Tongue
• 115 Icethorn
• 200 Lichbloom
• 30 Frost Lotus

+20 Goldclover or +15 Tiger Lily and +15 Adder's Tongue for an alchemist's stone.

All of Timothy’s recipes require tier 3 gems which can only be acquired from Icy prisms or by transmuting tier 2 gems. So with all the tier 2 gems from the saronite you’ve been mining, plus any you get from your icy prisms you should hopefully have enough to get all your gems. If you don’t, drop alchemy for mining and mine saronite until you have the tier 2’s you need, then with the extra herbs you gathered, level alchemy again. Note, the recipe to transmute Cardinal Rubies is a quest reward, so plan to make sure you won’t have to drop alchemy after getting it. Also, Eyes of Zul require three green tier 2 gems to transmute instead of 1 like the other colors.

Now here’s the rub, only a single tier 3 gem can be transmuted per day, across all colors. This means you’ll have at least a couple days where your professions are sort of locked into Alchemy and Jewelcrafting, but after that you should have all the gems you need. Good Luck!​

 

Sorry to hear that man, if you have alchemy and Jewelcrafting I really would recommend dropping alchemy, it's much easier to level since it only requires herbs. But I think you're right about needing more than 650 anyway. Cobalt ore has a higher chance to prospect tier 1 gems which would be better for JC tokens.

I have edited the guide to avoid this issue, see notes and changelog.

 

I meant the gem recipes he sells not the quest recipes, but I thought that sentence could be interpreted that way. I'll see if I can clarify it.

 

Oh, that may be true, I just saw them in the vendor, didn't actually buy them. I have however actually bought some MoH gems.