Quest reward: Skill gem

Hi,
Not sure if this has been brought up before, but what is the logic behind the list of skill gems offered as quest rewards, among the pool of those that must be bought from the vendor?

Doesn't this create some unfairness and also limit players to only certain skills in the early part of the league/acts? For skill gems that cost like transmute/alteration this might still be manageable, but not so when they cost like a chance orb or alchemy.

Also, shouldn't purity of elements be a white gem to be fair to all classes, since
purity of fire=strength
purity of ice=green
purity of lightning=blue

Just minor points but thought I bring it up from perspective of a relatively new player.

you mean wiki?

"

what is the logic behind the list of skill gems offered as quest rewards, among the pool of those that must be bought from the vendor?

This is part of progression of your character and leveling experience. If you get skill gems as quest rewards you have to make a decision between these skills. And some of these skills you can not directly buy from the vendor, as these will only be offered at the vendor at a later point again. So you are forced to make some progress. Also it depends on which class you have chosen which skills you can chose from as a quest reward.

"

Also, shouldn't purity of elements be a white gem to be fair to all classes, since
purity of fire=strength
purity of ice=green
purity of lightning=blue

Yes makes indeed somehow sense, but maybe GGG wants this in regards to balance. Part of balancing is to make some things harder to use for some classes as they are already powerful and it would just be an advantage for a class over other classes if it could use things easily without any investment.

"

This is part of progression of your character and leveling experience. If you get skill gems as quest rewards you have to make a decision between these skills. And some of these skills you can not directly buy from the vendor, as these will only be offered at the vendor at a later point again. So you are forced to make some progress. Also it depends on which class you have chosen which skills you can chose from as a quest reward.

Thanks for your reply.
Think I wasn't clear in my description, so perhaps an example will help.

Say I play witch and before the Merveil, I am offered "ice nova, blazing salvo, arc, ..." as rewards. So players playing these skills get the gem they want for free.
But for another player playing say "ice spear, incinerate, power siphon,..." he has to buy it from the vendor.
So to me this somehow create some unfairness and limit game play unnecessarily.

Ok, I guess I got it now. Well, I would consider that as part of your class choice. Some classes will have easier access to some skills than others. Witches will mainly have easy access to Spell skills, while Marauders will mainly get easy access to Attack and melee skills or gems that support such. If you want to have easier or earlier access to special gems, chose a class that gets these the easy way. But the good thing is, that at the end you are not limited by the class you have chosen, POE still offers you the ability to play every skill/gem, but maybe you have to invest a little bit more into it, may it be currency to buy the gem or having enough strength/dexterity/intelligency to run the gem.

As you wrote by yourself you are a fairly new player, maybe at your stage of experience and game progression this seems to be a little bit of a struggle to invest one or two alchemy orbs to buy a skill, early during the leveling stage, instead of just selecting it from a reward window. But as soon as you get a little bit more of experience and know how to manage and get your currency to build your character the way you like you will see that this is not a big deal and currency is just thrown right into your face and you can buy every gem you want.

"

Witches will mainly have easy access to Spell skills, while Marauders will mainly get easy access to Attack and melee skills or gems that support such. If you want to have easier or earlier access to special gems, chose a class that gets these the easy way.

Thanks for reply.

I should also clarify that I was just referring to a starter build.
As you mentioned, for a second character, everyone already has a reasonable pool of currency that it no longer becomes an issue.

I also think certain limitations are there perhaps for capping speed run, historical reason, or even simply left there forgotten.

Just that since POE is a game that offers players unlimited class-skill combination and playstyle, I find it weird to limit the reward lists.
Its like GGG saying for every class, you should be playing this "set of skill" for starter, else you would have to fork out that precious only alchemy that you have if you choose otherwise.
Which is why I still feel it puts certain players playing certain skills at a disadvantage.

Just my one cent opinion.

I do think the limited gem pool per character from quest rewards is kinda dated considering how diverse GGG want builds to be.

I'm fine with the quest reward itself being a small selection of psuedo-recommended gems but at least just let anyone buy any of the gems from the vendor after the quest. Like Siosa and Lily Roth are nice for a one stop all gems shop but there's no reason you couldn't let someone buy any of the possible gems from say reaching mervails cavern from nessa.

People might say "but it'll be confusing for newer players to see all the gems" but let's be honest the game is so anti-new player friendly as it is so I don't think seeing a bunch of gems early on would change their experience.

I agree. Never liked the gem vendors during leveling. It's an inconsistent annoying mess. I want skill X what act can I buy it again .. lets check wiki .. oh not for my class ... nice .. GG, GGG.

It does not make sense and is much more frustrating to me than it should be.

I mean .. ok .. keep this useless gem restriction per class, but at the very least put all gems that I can buy so far on the god damn gem vendor in my current act so that I don't have to tab out, wiki, travel back and fourth ...

I also agree with the purity of elements = white detail.

Just brainstorming, but instead of offering a limited selection of gems, which restrict player to what they can play and also introduce unfairness, one way is to have the reward to match the cost of the gem, be it alteration, chance orb, or alchemy.
The player can then go buy whatever they want.
* When unlucky, it can take some time for a chance/alchemy orb to drop.

Since gems have attribute specifications, it already serve as a way to "restrict" certain play style.
Indeed checking what gems are awarded to what class is also annoying, and wiki/poedb may not always be updated.

"

Like Siosa and Lily Roth are nice for a one stop all gems shop but there's no reason you couldn't let someone buy any of the possible gems from say reaching mervails cavern from nessa.

Regarding Siosa, another added annoyance is you need to have the currency in your inventory to buy the gem.

I also hope in future Lily can be invited to hideout, but I doubt this will be implemented because they want players to go town to check out each other MTX right.