Another newbie question

[Blacktalon]

I received such good feeback to my merc question, thought I ask another question that puzzles me in the game. Do gem shrines upgrade any gem past flawed? I believe I read some thing at Arreat Summit that shrines will up grade any gem to the next level, but I tried a flawed ruby and got back the same thing. (Caveat to that is that I was pretty tired and could have been mistaken). The shrines are hard to find and I would prefer not to waste another attempt if it is not possible. Do the shrines ever regenerate in one game?

Thanks to all that responded on the merc question. :)

[Obi2Kenobi]

It picks a random gem from your pack and upgrades it one level, up to perfect. If you have no gem, it makes a chipped one. You probably had a chipped ruby in your pack. They do not regenerate in one game.

[Zath]

Gem shrines will upgrade a random gem in your inventory by one level, even up to perfect. If a non-perfect gem cannot be found, a random chipped gem will drop instead.

[Blacktalon]

Information is a bit conflicted in the last two post. It may need clarification on my part. After getting the merc question answered, I went an upgrade to Diablo, Lord of Destruction as well as patch 1.09. Does that effect which response is correct?

Thanks

[adeyke]

Zath's statement is correct. I know I always carry around a flawless skull on my characters to upgrade to perfect with the gem shrine.

[Obi2Kenobi]

Oops. Meant to say up to perfect... editing post to avoid confusion. :P

[Blacktalon]

Great, that helps. One other thing that I noticed in these post. The terms flawed, chipped I have seen in the game. I have upgraded some of the gems to the point where they say just the name such as "Ruby". In the posts there have been mentioned Flawless and Prefect. Are they the same, are there three, four or five levels of gems?

[adeyke]

There are five levels:

Chipped (Gem)
Flawed (Gem)
(Gem) -- sometimes called Standard (Gem) to avoid confusion
Flawless (Gem)
Perfect (Gem)

All five levels apply to each of the seven gem types. So there are 35 total different kinds of gems. The gem shrine will boost any gem to a higher level (up to perfects). You can also use the horadric cube with three gems of one kind to get one of the next level (also up to perfects).

[Kartoffelsalat]

Do the shrines ever regenerate in one game?

No, the gem shrines never regenerate. Most of the others do, and all the times for regen are on the Arreat Summit. Man, I love that site. :D

Here's the AS info on Gem Shrines:

Gem Shrines - Upgrades a random gem. If you do not have a Gem, the Gem Shrine will give you a random chipped Gem. You can use a Gem Shrine to upgrade a Gem to the next level. Perfect Gems cannot be upgraded. If you have several Gems in your inventory, a random Gem will be upgraded. If you want a specific Gem upgraded, drop all the Gems in your inventory except the one you want to upgrade. Then click on the Gem Shrine. Gem Shrines will not upgrade Gems that are already placed in armor or weapons.


What do Gem Shrines look like?
They vary in appearance depending what area you are in and which act you are playing.

Will a Gem Shrine upgrade a Gem that is already socketed?
No.

Where can I find Gem Shrines?
Gem Shrines are rare and randomly located. Some areas have more Shrines than others. Perhaps you should scan these areas to search for Gem Shrines.

[Blacktalon]

Thanks to all for the info. I had looked in to that site and found it a great site. My questions where for clarification and all is clear now. I am going to venture off now, Thanks again.

[LavCat]

You may want to hold on to those chipped gems, as at least in 1.09 they are valuable. They can be used in the cube recipe: three chipped gems plus a sword yields a three socketed magic sword of the same base type (assuming the type of sword can take three sockets).

It may take quite a few tries to get a good result, and hence a lot of chips.