How to Add Sockets to Endgame Gear in WoW

When it comes to endgame gearing, item level is only half the battle. Enchantments and gems are absolute necessities for anyone looking to attempt Mythic+ dungeons or raids – they’re invaluable sources of your secondary stats like Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, and Versatility. But some players may not know you can add sockets to your gear, which can be used to slot in gems. Let’s look at the ways we can add those sweet stat boosts to our existing gear.

Necklaces, Tiered Medallion Settings, and You

Dragonflight’s profession revamp saw a load of new ways to enchant, upgrade, and otherwise improve gear. One of these is the Tiered Medallion Setting. These come in three qualities (this is very important) and can be used to add a gem slot to necklaces. In order to stop yourself from wasting money, the EXACT order in which these should be applied is:

• Quality 1/2 (bronze/silver)* Tiered Medallion Setting – FIRST socket
• Quality 1/2 (bronze/silver)* Tiered Medallion Setting – SECOND socket
• Quality 3 (gold) Tiered Medallion Setting – THIRD socket

*Important: On some servers the silver, or quality 2 setting, is paradoxically cheaper than quality 1! For your first two sockets on any given necklace, use whatever costs less!

Because a Tiered Medallion Setting’s use is based on the number of sockets a necklace already has, it is incredibly easy to waste large amounts of gold by using a higher quality than necessary when adding sockets. By sticking with the above formula, you’ll be spending the lowest amount of gold possible!

The Great Vault and Volcanic Sculptors

The only other way to add sockets to endgame gear in Dragonflight’s second season is to use Volcanic Sculptors. These one time use items can add a socket to the following:

• Helmet
• Necklace – DO NOT DO THIS
• Bracers
• Belt
• Rings

“But wait,” I hear you saying, “we just got done adding sockets to our necklace!” Yes, which is why it’s not advisable to use these precious items on our necklaces! We can get those sockets with cold hard cash. The rest of these items, however, benefit greatly from this system.

Volcanic Sculptors are purchasable from the vendor directly next to the Great Vault for a price of 6 Aspects’ Token of Merit. The only way to get these tokens is to pass up on a Great Vault item reward, so consider this a purely endgame system that exists if you’re unlucky enough not to snag an upgrade for the week. You can get quantities of 2, 4, or 6 tokens each week depending on the “slot” of the Great Vault you fill out. See below for what I mean.

Because you’re passing up on actual items in order to add these extra gem slots, I wouldn’t advise using Volcanic Sculptors on any gear that cannot be upgraded to at least 441 item level. Doing otherwise is just signing yourself up for more weeks of grinding to re-socket a piece of gear you’ll inevitably replace it with.

If you aren’t quite at endgame yet, check out our guide to gearing freshly-capped alts!