Before jewelcrafting coming back, here is another news, extended maintenance. It is Tuesday, did you find that you still cant log into your game? Don't be so worried, that is just the maintenance.
Maintenance will run "extended" tomorrow for all U.S. realms until 11:00 a.m. PST / 2:00 p.m. EST. The last few weeks we've seen the down time grow as Blizzard's worked out issues, so I wouldn't count on the servers being up at 11:00 a.m. PST. However I'll happily eat my words. However unlike Alex, I will not eat my hat. We also have heard a couple sources whispering in our ear that patch 3.0.8 will be dropping either tomorrow or next week. We'll have to wait and see on that one. Don't take what we're saying here as any more than a creditable rumor.
However these rumors do have some added credence in that they coincide with comments from Ghostcrawler today such as "These [changes] will be in the next patch (3.0.8) even thought they were not on the PTR," and "We'll be able to share patch notes soon." No matter if 3.0.8 drops tomorrow or not, there will be downtime.
As you may know already jewelcrafting has just become available in world of warcraft. Jewlcrafting allows you to create necklaces, rings and crowns which were previously available only as loot drops and quest rewards. You can also cut gems and socket them into your armor to increase its stats like strength.You must go to a journeyman trainer to become an apprentice jewelcrafter, like any other skill. There are journeyman trainers in blood elf and draenei starting areas. You will need to buy a jewelcrafting kit for 8 silver from a jewelcrafting supplies vendor.
At level 20 your trainer can teach you how to prospect ore which allows to get gems from mined ore. So, it's smart to take up mining as a second profession because you can extract gems from mined ore. Which gives you an advantage over other miners. A good strategy is to find an item that requires the least amount of items and use it up. When you reach skill level 300 you will be able to learn how to cut gems that can only be found in the out land. Another way jewelcrafters can use gems is by cutting them, preparing them to be used in socketed items. Gems come in many different colors and shapes. Different types of gems have different basic properties, and a gem's cut also determines the effect this gem will have. Socketing gems will lock them into place, and there is no way to remove a gem once it has been socketed. You can put a new gem into a socket that already holds a gem, but by doing so you break the old one out of its socket, shattering the gem and making it unusable.
This allows you to add gems to your new socketed items right away without having to wait until you find the "perfect" collection of gems, since you always have the option of upgrading your item later. Try putting some gems from your inventory into the socketed item and check out how they affect its stats; this should give you an idea of how socketing will work in the expansion. If you have better ideas on Jewelcrafting, don't forget to let us know.
