Okay so today I wanted to tackle gems on my Necromancer in Diablo 4. Seriously felt like I was leaving power on the table just ignoring them, you know? My skellies were doing okay, but things started taking too long to die, and I was feeling kinda squishy. Time to fix that.
Getting Started with the Mess
First step? Opening that disaster zone I call my stash. Gems were thrown in everywhere after dungeon runs. Sapphires, Rubies, Topaz, Emeralds, Skulls, Diamonds… just piles of them, mostly the crappy chipped and flawed ones. No organization at all. Had to sit down and sort them out. Took ages. Started combining the little ones up to the next level – Flawed, then Regular – at the Jeweler. Cost some gold, but better than having hundreds of useless chips.
Next was the gear check. Looked at everything I was wearing. My sword, the focus, my helmet, chest, pants, boots, gloves, rings, amulet. Each piece had sockets staring at me, mostly empty. Felt dumb for neglecting them. So I grabbed a bunch of the regular gems I’d just upgraded.
Figuring Out What Sticks
Now, Diablo 4 doesn’t exactly hand you a guide saying “put this here, dummy!” for Necros. Gotta experiment. Saw the bonuses:
- Skulls (in Weapons): Life on Kill. Okay, survivability. Might be good?
- Rubies (in Armor): Max Life. Simple, more health pool. Who doesn’t want that?
- Topaz (in Armor): Damage Reduction while Control Impaired. Useful situationally.
- Sapphires (in Armor): Damage Reduction while Fortified. My Blood Mist build sometimes Fortifies…
- Emeralds (in Weapons): Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable enemies. My build often makes enemies Vulnerable… maybe?
Tried mixing and matching at first. Felt weak. Stuck some Rubies in armor for health. Tried Skulls in weapons for the life steal. Killed stuff, but slowly.
Then I slapped an Emerald into my sword. Oh yeah. Started noticing bigger yellow numbers popping up on enemies I had made Vulnerable (which was most of them). Things died faster. This felt better. Kept that. Swapped out one Skull for another Emerald in the focus too. Faster killing = less time for enemies to hit me.
For armor, tried Sapphires because I occasionally get Fortified. Honestly? Didn’t really notice a huge difference in survivability. The bonus seemed too low or conditional. Switched to Rubies for straight Max Life in all armor sockets. Boom. Instantly felt tankier. Could take an extra hit or two, especially from bosses. Big difference for survival. Kept Topaz in my pants just for the Control Impaired DR (those freeze effects suck!), but everything else got Rubies.
Rings and Amulet were tougher. They can take Skulls or Diamonds. Diamonds give resistances? Sounds good, but resists felt… vague? Ended up going with Skulls for % Armor. Figured more general physical protection was a safer bet. Maybe not min-maxed to hell, but definitely helped me stop getting one-shot by big hits.
The Simple Win
So after messing around getting stabbed and killed a few times testing this out, here’s the dead simple setup that gave me the biggest immediate boosts:
- Weapons (Sword + Focus): Pop Emeralds in both. Makes those vulnerable crits hit WAY harder. Kill stuff faster = best defense.
- Armor (Helmet, Chest, Gloves, Boots, Pants): Stuff Rubies in every socket. Bigger health pool = can make more mistakes or survive nasty boss abilities.
- Jewelry (Rings + Amulet): Went with Skulls for the % Armor boost. Made a noticeable difference against heavy hitters.
Is it the absolute theoretical maximum perfect god-tier optimization? Probably not. Are there way fancier gem interactions with specific uniques or paragon boards? Sure. But honestly? Just doing this basic gem setup made a HUGE difference. I jumped up a few Nightmare Dungeon tiers without sweating nearly as much. My necro felt powerful again. The minions benefit indirectly because I’m killing faster (so less enemies chewing on them) and surviving longer to resummon them when they inevitably get splattered.
Huge boost for minimal effort. Seriously, go socket those gems you’ve been hoarding! Just don’t overcomplicate it like I almost did at first.