Socketing

Armor and weapons may come with sockets, which can be imbued with gems, an act the player base calls "sharding". Different gems are empowered with different attributes. They can raise physical attack, magical attack, physical defense, magic defense, accuracy, evasion, Health and more. Sharding also causes unique glow or sparkle effects to appear on the armor and weapons.

Gems can be bought dropped from monsters, rewarded from quests, bought from other players, obtained from Token Packs, game events and more. Gems can be combined into higher level gems at Jewelcraftsmen located in every town.

Socketing Costs
Armor can be equipped with 4 sockets and weapons can be equipped with up to 2 sockets maximum. Sockets can be added using socket stones, a cash shop item, at the PW Boutique Agent. Higher level and legendary weapons or armor require more socket stones. See the table below for the amount of socket stones needed:

Sharding Results
By adding shards (a.k.a. "soulgems") to sockets you can modify the appearance of armor, if you meet certain requirements. Here's a list of what shards are required and what the results are:
 * Two grade 5+ HP shards (Citrine) = purple glow
 * Two grade 5+ MP shards (Turquoise) = blue glow
 * Two grade 5+ physical defense shards (Garnet) = orange/reddish glow
 * Two grade 5+ magic defense shards (Sapphire) = white glow
 * Two grade 5+ evasion shards (Amber) = yellow glow
 * Two grade 5+ elemental shards (Alabaster, Aquamarine, Amethyst, Ruby, or Topaz) = green glow
 * Two grade 5+ shards of different types = sparkles
 * Four grade 8+ HP shards (Citrine) = lightning effect
 * Four grade 8+ MP shards (Turquoise) = blue crystal effect
 * Four grade 8+ physical defense shards (Garnet) = burning fire
 * Four grade 8+ magic defense shards (Sapphire) = strong white mist
 * Four grade 8+ evasion shards (Amber) = bigger/stronger yellow glow with sparkles.
 * Four grade 8+ elemental shards (Alabaster, Aquamarine, Amethyst, Ruby, or Topaz) = strong green glow with sparkles
 * Four grade 8+ shards of different types = sparkles

(Grade 5 shards are "Average" and grade 8 shards are "Immaculate".)

Note: You cannot put shards into sockets if the gem's grade is higher than the armor's or weapon's grade. This means that a grade 4 armor cannot be made to glow, because it cannot be sharded with grade 5 shards.

Weapons glow for a different reason:
 * Three-star (purple name) = Blue glow. Obtained from a few quests, boss drops, or rarely (10% chance) from weapon manufacturing.
 * Legendary (gold name) = Gold glow. Obtained by using materials and a mold (dropped from dungeon bosses) at a Legendary Weapons forge.
 * Twilight (green name) = Usually a green glow (there are a few blue glowing ones). Obtained by using Twilight Temple materials at a Twilight Weapons forge.
 * Frostcovered (green name) = Glow green like Twilight Temple weapons. Gotten from Frostcovered City drops.
 * Frostcovered (gold name) = Red lightning effect on some weapons. Made from "The Past of Frostcovered City" items or Frostcovered Sign·Force (Token Pack items).
 * Sage and some level 100 weapons (red name) = Red glow. Sage weapons are obtained from Messenger of the Sages, which requires Rank 6 (35,000+ rep) and all 7 badges. The level 100 weapons either require Rank 8 (200,000+ rep) or four level 99 souledges and other high level items.
 * Nirvana = vary in glow and color. Created in the Nirvana Forges from other weapons.

So, weapons glow based on their type, and you cannot make a non-glowing weapon glow.

However, if the weapon is grade 7 or better and has two sockets, you can add two concentric rings of sparkles that circle around the hand(s) holding the weapon(s) by sharding with two grade 7 or higher shards. The shards and their resulting sparkle colors are:
 * Grade 7+ HP shards (Citrine) = purple sparkles
 * Grade 7+ MP shards (Turquoise) = blue sparkles
 * Grade 7+ physical attack shards (Garnet) = red sparkles
 * Grade 7+ magic attack shards (Sapphire) = white sparkles
 * Grade 7+ evasion shards (Amber) = yellow sparkles
 * Grade 7+ elemental shards (Alabaster, Aquamarine, Amethyst, Ruby, or Topaz) = green sparkles

(Grade 7 shards are "Flawless".)

So, for example, if you have a grade 7+ weapon with two sockets and you add a grade 7+ Citrine and a grade 7+ Sapphire, you would get purple sparkles and white sparkles that rotate in concentric circles around your hand(s) when you equip that weapon.

For a complete list of the gems that can be put in sockets and the bonuses they give to armor and weapons, see: Shards

See also: Myths and Misinformation - Elemental Sharding for Magic Weapons for info on what not to shard in a weapon.