The Gem Disparity

[Zeus]

Hello STG & Community,

As I think many of the AL population already knows, the gem disparity in AL is becoming quite a problematic issue.


Here are the current gems that we have:
- Fire/Glacial/Blood
- Tarlok Wind/Wisdom/Rage
- Enchanted Eyes*
- Elondrian Life Shards
- Cursed Necropolis Skull
- Paracelsus*
- Reinforced Fire/Glacial/Blood**

Now, as you can see, there is actually quite a wide variety of gems available to the general population. However, what has happened is that there are three rarity of gems: epic, legendary, mythic. While these may seem like plain old rarities, the gems itself have overlapping purposes.

Let us take a look at enchanted eye gems. These gems are quite powerful, giving us a balanced amount of stats from each type of stat as well as a nice amount of critical. Fair enough, seems like a nice compromise when comparing to primary gems, Tarlok gems, etc.

However, if a player stacks enough of these, then that player no longer has any need for gems like elondrian life shards or cursed necropolis skull. Fine, that's bearable.

Now, take a look at Paracelsus gems. These gems offer a lot of damage but do not offer anything else. Naturally, stacking all of these into gear seems like a bad idea. The stat loss would be huge! However, when enchanted eye gems were brought into existence, this problem no longer existed. Everything that the Paracelsus gem lacks, enchanted eye gems make up for. This leads to crazy ratios of 3 para gems: 1 enchanted eye. Overall, this will give a player much higher damage than relying on the gems commonly found while also providing similar HP and critical percent.

Does anyone see the issue? Aside from reinforced blood gems for tanks, there is no real use for other gems with the current paracelsus & enchanted eye gem set up.

So, what does this lead to? Very OP players like myself with damage, critical, and HP that nobody else can hope to achieve.

The way Paracelsus gems are designed, only those with a stockpile of them can benefit. The same thing goes for enchanted eye gems. This current model is very detrimental towards attracting any new players and retaining player base of anyone other than the top 1% of players. After all, a player can max his/her toon but still be required to spend an additional 20-40M on gems to get the ideal set up. How is this fair to anyone, really?

So, does anyone have any suggestions to fix the current impasse? This is a serious issue that will only prove to be more serious as time goes on. On top of all the other disparities that already exist, gems should not be yet another one.


Thoughts, suggestions? Please comment!

* = discontinued and very powerful.
** = obtainable, but of very small quantity.

[Hadec]

quantity and quality plays its biggest role here...this is tricky tho
really tough decisions shall be made soon or the gap will get bigger on the forthcoming expansion

[Zeus]

quantity and quality plays its biggest role here...this is tricky tho
really tough decisions shall be made soon or the gap will get bigger on the forthcoming expansion

I truly think the time to fix any of this is now whilst gear is being replaced anyways due to new incoming gear from expansion.

[Maunyabastian]

Add new, cheap, and easy-to-craft gems.

[Zeus]

Add new, cheap, and easy-to-craft gems.

The problem with this is those attributes are usually directly in relation with the gems offering rather abysmal stats compared to enchanted and para combo.

Would these new and cheap gems be better than para and enchanted? If so, what would happen to the rest of the fire, glacial, and blood gem market?

[BlueSkied]

I suppose the only true fix to this issue would be to recirculate the population with para/eye gems. But then, what does that mean for those who already paid mass amounts of gold to ferment their items with them? No matter what, as usual, some will love it and others will hate it. introducing a new gem is possible but maybe STS is a bit overloaded with CoC and xpac content.

You do raise valid points though.

[Zeus]

I suppose the only true fix to this issue would be to recirculate the population with para/eye gems. But then, what does that mean for those who already paid mass amounts of gold to ferment their items with them? No matter what, as usual, some will love it and others will hate it. introducing a new gem is possible but maybe STS is a bit overloaded with CoC and xpac content.

You do raise valid points though.

That's what I was thinking but that's why I suggested the best time to do this is now while the items are being replaced anyways. Twink items have already been para-gemmed and do not change so there should not be much of a price difference there.

I think if they were to recirculate enchanted eyes and paracelsus gems, now is the moment where it would have minimal impact.

[Fiasaria]

maybe if u can craft 3 fire in one , 3x fire gem to chance to get super 3x fire gem :v
or something like that :v

[leoakre]

Oh my head !!!

[mmaachilles211]

The problem with this is those attributes are usually directly in relation with the gems offering rather abysmal stats compared to enchanted and para combo.

Would these new and cheap gems be better than para and enchanted? If so, what would happen to the rest of the fire, glacial, and blood gem market?

Tbh any gem introduced that will be in line with para/eye that would be in regular circulation would crash all of the other gems. Like OP all of the gems that I currently use are para or eye and I have spent millions making it such. But then again maybe that was STS' intentions when they first implemented crafting...to keep making gems more and more powerful. Either way any new gem that is in the top tier of gems should be continuously farm able this the 1% doesn't end up being the 1% simply because of wealth and supply.

+1 to idea that something about this needs to be changed.

[rstilzchen]

During winter event, when eyes gems had inflow, they werent so expensive and were available for any middle class player. So, if we are looking for a golden middle, we just need something farmable in some elite zone, that will make it playable right away, what decrease gap between old gems and para-eyes setup. With stats maybe 2int, 2dex, 2str, 1crit, 0.5dmg or kinda that.
P.s. If gem is craftable, it should have grand version (to prevent prices falling), if gem is luck-based lootable it should be like an eye.

[rustygun]

Dude I need a recipe to remove my para and eye from some nab gears I work hard farming and buying some because I got really tired/burnt out farming... I do like to keep what I work hard for thank u...

[Bellaelda]

I've been saying this for awhile!

Not sure just how to fix this problem, but as things are right now unless paras and eyes are occasionally reintroduced new players have no chance!

[Zeus]

Dude I need a recipe to remove my para and eye from some nab gears I work hard farming and buying some because I got really tired/burnt out farming... I do like to keep what I work hard for thank u...

Generating a recipe that allows removal of paras and enchanted eyes from existing slots would be a cool solution to this! STG could make the recipe somewhat rare and lootable so there's something to farm for as well.

[Candylicks]

The gems will come back during events. Why do we need them now our gear is already filled with paras and eyes, I think it makes sense to have the expansion come and we have time to get our mythic then the better gems after. I mean, paras are dried up and eyes on their way. Mythic first then paras and eyes. Noone needs better gems now, you would be silly to waste them on current gear if you are hoarding.

[Schnitzel]

Zeus, Tarlok gems are also discontinued i think..

[Ravager]

Or make it so para and eye gems cant be put into 42 and up gear or it doesnt scale to higher levels. Itll probably help the direction of class balance later down the line and close gaps of rich and poor.

[Zeus]

The gems will come back during events. Why do we need them now our gear is already filled with paras and eyes, I think it makes sense to have the expansion come and we have time to get our mythic then the better gems after. I mean, paras are dried up and eyes on their way. Mythic first then paras and eyes. Noone needs better gems now, you would be silly to waste them on current gear if you are hoarding.

If we do mythic first and then re introduce para and eyes, the players that did invest in buying remaining paras/eyes in anticipation for using in mythic gear will also throw many complaints.

Thus, it's better to do it now when gear is just about ready to be replaced so when the gear is replaced, there is a supply of both type of gems. That is, if the solution to this problem is bringing back para and eye gems.

Zeus, Tarlok gems are also discontinued i think..

Yes, but they are not really powerful anymore.

Or make it so para and eye gems cant be put into 42 and up gear or it doesnt scale to higher levels. Itll probably help the direction of class balance later down the line and close gaps of rich and poor.

This is a very good suggestion and something I would not mind at all!

[BaronB]

Unfortunately im still at work to go too indepth...

However problem lies with the lack of availability.

Say for example you could farm eye gems from elite bosses tindirn+ or paras from arena chests... even have em maybe even coming out of locked chests ? Say paras in locked and eyes in arena...

Another alternative would be to keep stacking gems ontop of each other to increase its stats.

So say I have grand glacial gem. Well say 10more gems ontop of hat grand gem would say give me a boost of x amount of intel ect ect

[Thexkid]

Heres an idea, Make a way to extract gems from items(via plat/gold or a recipe). Also this would provide a way to trade paras. Ive seen many items where the para/eye within the item is worth more than the item itself(mainly paras)