Diablo 3, Blizzard’s third edition to their hit Diablo game series, includes new friendly NPCs called Artisans. They are used to enhance items, add sockets to equipment, remove gems from sockets, combine gems, forge new weapons and armor and repair your broken equipment.
There are three specific Artisans unique to each gaming experience, the Blacksmith, the Mystic and the Jeweler. They are very similar to Blacksmiths, Enchanters and Jewelcrafters from World of Warcraft. The biggest difference is that instead of making your character do these tasks and leveling your character’s abilities’, you interact with the in-game NPCs to level their skills and use them from any of your Diablo 3 characters.
In order to craft legendary equipment, perform epic enhancements and the combine high quality gems, you will need to first level your Artisans. Leveling your artisans is a somewhat grueling task when put into perspective to the resources required. Each artisans can be leveled through 10 different tiers as follows: Apprentice -> Journeyman -> Adept -> Master -> Grandmaster -> Illustrious -> Magnificent -> Resplendent -> Glorious-> Exalted.
Each tier requires you to train your artisan 5 times, each costing valuable trade goods and gold. To level from Apprentice to Journeyman it will cost you 5 Tomes of Training, 30 Common Scraps and 650 gold. The next level, Journeymen to Adept, costs a similar trade goods, except the total gold cost is 5,500, over 10 times as much as the first tier. This pattern continues as your progress through the tiers. Reaching Exalted is a truly epic feat. Once you reach Exalted though, you will have access to some of the most sought after artisan abilities in the game.
The Blacksmith
Your blacksmith will allow you to repair gear, craft weapons and craft armor. Even an Apprentice Blacksmith can craft powerful weapons usable in the first Act of the game. You will gain access to your Blacksmith Artisan after doing a few short quests in the first Act of the game. Once you level your Blacksmith you will have access to the new abilities on all your Diablo 3 characters.
The Mystic
Your mystic has knowledge of powerful enhancements. They are capable of enhancing / enchanting shoulder pieces, gloves, legs, feet, rings, one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons and most ranged weapons (bows and wands). You can use your high level Jeweler to enhance these pieces of equipment and then turn around and sell them on the auction house for great profits.
The Jeweler
Your jeweler is your go to guy for combining gems that you find throughout your progression through Diablo 3. Gems are found in the first 5 of their 14 qualities (Chipped -> Flawed -> Normal -> Flawless -> Perfect -> Radiant -> Square -> Flawless Square -> Perfect Square -> Radiant Square -> Star ->Flawless Star -> Perfect Star -> Radiant Star). You can combine 3 of any quality of gems to create 1 of the next tier. This means that 1.5 million “chipped” will eventually turn into 1 radiant star quality gem. Your jeweler will also help you insert and remove gems into your gear. You will be able to socket head, chest, wrist, waist, amulets and off-hands with these powerful gems. Gems will give you various stats based on their color (Amethsyst, Emerald, Ruby, Topaz, Diamond and Sapphire).