Guild Wars 2

So I always assumed Runes were way better then Jewels to put in your armor. Turns out that was an incorrect assumption. Not only can you get similar/better stats from jewels, they are also waaaay cheaper than any of the good DPS runes. Here are some comparisons:

6x Ruby Orb (~14s each or ~84s for full set): 120 power, 12% crit damage, 84 precision

6x Superior Rune of the Scholar (~1.5g each or ~9g for full set): 165 power, 8% crit damage, 10% damage if near full hp.

6x Superior Rune of the Eagle (~1.5g each or ~9g for full set): 165 Precision, 8% crit damage, 5% damage vs low hp targets.

As you can see in both those cases you can spend less then 1g as opposed to almost 10g and get stats that are just as good and maybe better. This is just with a normal yellow orb. If you take an orb+ecto+orichalcum you can make it even better and get:

Exquisite Ruby Jewel (craft it or ~50s TP or ~3g for full set): 150 power, 18% crit damage, 90 Precision.

That is just straight up BETTER than any dps rune and still way, way cheaper than a full rune set. Not sure if you can socket these ones though as I dont have any.

This same thing applies to condition damage runes/gems too but the condi damge runes are alot cheaper anyways.

TL;DR: You can socket cheap jewels such as ruby orbs or exquisite ruby jewels in your armor instead of runes to save money and get better stats than the runes give.

Can’t socket jewels in armor. Only in the trinket slots (neck,rings,ear)

What do you mean Prodigy? My current gear has a set of gear with Emerald Orbs attached it it, aren’t Jewels the upgrade to the Orbs?

Or am I mistaken?

I know in sPvP you can only use the runes they give, but I think the gear may react differently in the PvE world.

Orbs (and their lower level versions: crystal, shard, lump, nugget, pebble) can go in any upgrade slot, but jewels can only occupy trinket upgrade slots.

I think an Orb is a different Item enhancement. It’s not a gem, rune, glyph which requires a certain item to socket it with, but possibly more like a Mark? Which can be placed onto any item, is that what you mean?

Oh thank you Aseyhe for the clarity

Thanks for the info! i found the runes to be underwhelming for its cost at the moment. i’ll go for this.

click on the link for the exquisite jewel and it says in the tooltip that it can’t be applied to armor, only rings, amulets and trinkets.

To start jewels were nice and cheap if you mine. As my characters progress I find I am using sigils both minor and major, much more often. They are more expensive though.