A lot of people are trying to get good elements on their gears these days to increase their attack. I will show you how to go about doing it. The goal is to get one dominant element as only the highest element counts. Plus 20 of one element is equal to 1 extra super citrine.

I always start with a low level "white" gear bought from the NPCs in Elven City or Gobi. Don't use the ones from Cronus as some of them won't allow you to level them. Buy several at a time; I usually work with 8-10 of the same gear at any one time.

Quality

Quality upgrades using red stones from white to refined at NPC Beirut at the forge. I always use single reds although I know some people that use supers. Personally I don't find I have as much success with getting a single element that way, plus I find I use a lot less reds overall that way. It is possible to get any of the following bonuses with a successful upgrade: +1-+5 of any one element, f-soul, or a 1st or 2nd socket although the last 2 are rare to get. You can get + element at the same time as a socket or f-soul too.

Continue from refined to unique with ones +3 element or more, discard ones with no or low element. Continue up to super quality with these and if they have high enough elements at super you may decide to use god tears on them. Other ones you can sell, any gear +8 elements or more will sell for a very good price.

As soon as you have decided that you want to use a gear I advise you to put the first socket in it with a moonbox so that if you should get a socket from an upgrade it will be a much more valuable 2nd socket.

I usually complete the gear up to superdivine quality before I start to level it up and bonus it as quality upgrades are a lot easier on a low level gear than a high level one and this is by far the most expensive upgrade. All upgrades are easier with a simple piece: the lowest level, the least bonus, the fewer sockets the better. If you can try to do as little as possible to it at least until its superdivine. It's up to you whether you bonus or level next.

Leveling

Level using violet stones at NPC Angelina. There is a chance here again that you may get a socket, this is possible with single violets or super violets. I prefer using singles as it's cheaper and fairly easy to get an upgrade when the gear is low level. Up to you though, if you are not confident use a super. If the upgrade fails it will not lower the level.

Bonusing

Bonus using yellow stones at NPC Renee, if this upgrades fails you will lose +1 bonus. It's easiest to try to get fairly high using single Yellows then use Super Yellows or Lunar Jewels which will not fail to complete the bonus to +9. If you are really unconfident you can use Starlit Jewels from +1-+4 then Lunar Jewels from +5-+8 and/or Super Yellows.

Once the gear is +9 you need to use the high bonus forger NPC Perez. The gear needs to be at least level 85 for this process. You cannot use Super Yellows at this NPC only single Yellows which can fail or Divine Jewels that guarantee success. In the high bonus process you will lose +1 bonus if you fail, however, the gear won't drop below +9. I usually try to get the gear to +11 then use one Divine Jewel if I can get one to get the final +12 bonus.

Starlit, Lunar and Divine Jewels are not available from the mall and can only be got from events so you can either try to win them yourself or buy from other players. The jewels that can be bought from the old newbie pack "Magic Pack" are bound and can only be used on the bound gears that are also available from that pack, so don't buy those to make your gears. On a new server they won't be available at first so you will need to use Yellows and Super Yellows only.

Sockets

First sockets for all gears except weapons can be made with Moon Box, second sockets, again for gears except weapon use Super Moon Box and third with either Divine Box for an instant socket or Smelt Symbols if you want to buy it a little at a time. All gears need either Divine Box or smelts for the 3rd socket. Both Divine Box and Smelt Symbols will cost the same for the socket if you buy from the mall but you may be able to buy Smelts cheaper from players sometimes as they are prizes in the class PK and have been used as prizes in events too. First and second sockets for weapons can be made at gemsocket NPC Douglas 3 reds for the first socket and 10 for the second socket. Equip the weapon you need socketed.

Divine bonus

Add divine bonus at NPC Renee too. There is no luck involved in this forging only EPs, it is always successful.
You will need Oracle Stones which come in 4 varieties: single, +5, +10 and +25. Taking care when purchasing though, +5 Oracles can only be used on gears +3 bonus or higher; +10 Oracles on gears +5 bonus or higher and +25 Oracles on gears +8 bonus.

Here are the amounts you will need for each bonus and the cost in EPs:
+1 needs 10 costs 290 EPs
+2 needs 20 costs 580 EPs
+3 needs 50 costs 1450 EPs
+4 needs 80 costs 2320 EPs
+5 needs 120 costs 3480 EPs
+6 needs 182 costs 5278 EPs
+7 needs 250 costs 7250 EPs
+8 needs 357 costs 10353 EPs
+9 needs 500 costs 14500 EPs
total cost 45501 EPs for each gear.

The picture is of a very nice gear one of my legion members made today.