I hate the new skill gem system

New system is much better, it makes changing builds early on far easier, allows for a better time experimenting with builds without being blocked by gem levels when you want to make changes later on in your character progression.

The new system is generally much better with the big step back being availability and leveling.

Making new gems and leveling gems being just a loot drop sucks and gets rid of the progression safety net which is extremely important for RNG heavy progressions games like PoE

Poe 2: "Hold my beer."

I feel like it has potential, but it's too limited at first, and even come endgame, you need Jeweler's orb (rare as hell) to unlock a fourth socket support. Usually by early endgame in PoE, people were easily rocking 5-6 links (to those who didn't play PoE, a 6 link item meant that you could support your main skill with 5 support gems, for example).

Right now, most people are stuck with what is the equivalent of a 4 link as they cannot find anything better than a Lesser Jeweler's orb, which unless I'm mistaken, we cannot upgrade to a normal one. As support usually have a multiplicative effect on your damage, these orbs are necessary to progress.

Add to that that support gems are highly limited in choice (and it's even worse due to their Tier system behind which some support/skills are locked behind a very high level), and sometimes, there's just a bunch of "odd" choices that do not benefit your build at all.

I'm at endgame, and some of my side-skills do not really benefit from the actual support gems choice due to how limited they are. A lot of them don't work with my skills, and not being able to use the same support twice unless you're Gemling means you don't get to really benefit from using that skill. I wish I could use some of the same or similar supports for my "solo targed" skill as I do for my AoE skill, but I can't. As a poison user, there are no other really decent poison supports that aren't already on my AoE skill. I'm sure it's the same for many skills.

Then there's the BIG issue that every single weapon skill is weapon locked. This is bad design and limit builds by a lot compared to the original PoE. What if I wanted to play a molten quarterstaff eartquake making slaming monk? I can't. I must use quarterstaff locked skills that are tied to lightning/cold stuff.

I really wish they'll add more support gems type with each class as it feels underwhelming and limit build choices right now.

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In POE1 you could fill your stash with bought gems of all sorts that do all sorts of skills and give them to your other characters. But since you cannot remove skills and supports any more, you cannot stash them for your other characters. As far as I've seen.

You can easily bank either uncut or cut skill gems for your other characters.

You can easily unsocket gems or support gems by right clicking them.

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KuroSF#6521 wrote:

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In POE1 you could fill your stash with bought gems of all sorts that do all sorts of skills and give them to your other characters. But since you cannot remove skills and supports any more, you cannot stash them for your other characters. As far as I've seen.

You can easily bank either uncut or cut skill gems for your other characters.

You can easily unsocket gems or support gems by right clicking them.

Well I figured that out now, but still theres only a limited variety. I cant have bow skills on my crossbow? WTH? Its a bow! And why doesn't a crossbow need a quiver?

I had to watch a guide to find out I an turn off "show recommend skills", because thats not in the skills menu, or options menu, thats only in the supports menu, and at the time I only had one support gem and hadnt noticed when I picked the support.

And I still dont have enough support gems for all my ksills. AND even then I cant use the same support on multiple skills (This REALY needs to change)

And about using uncut gems to level up old gems. Did you know that you can just take the old skill gem out and get a new one at the new gems level, therefore having TWO gems (the old one for another character or sell).

Its practically the same, except now you can just choose what skill you want rather than having to farm for the correct gem.

Why the hell would I need to farm a gem in POE1? If you've played the game in the last 5 years you'd know you can just buy any gem you want from the vendor. (Ghost in the library, or Lilly) And use it on any weapon. It made for some interesting and OP builds. e.g. A sword that fires ice bolts that bounce off the walls leaving a cloud of poisonous gas in thier wake.

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Soop#0082 wrote:

Its practically the same, except now you can just choose what skill you want rather than having to farm for the correct gem.

Don't be daft, it's nowhere near the same system as PoE1.
* 1 support gem of any type equipped
* No way to upgrade number of sockets in early game (4 links dropped way more frequently than those socket orb thingies)
* Skills linked to weapons (e.g. wands) that can't be made into gems
* Skill gems can't be used with weapons they should work with
* I mean, you can't even dual wield wands
* Spirit system (compounds the already sucky situation for running minions on any class other than a Witch)

That's just off the top of my head. I like the skill multipliers and adding different attribute requirements to the core skill based on the support socketed. there are parts of the current system that work, but there are way more parts that don't.

I think people are going to start seeing the limitations once more classes and skills are added, paradoxically. The current system puts your build on rails, as far as I can tell. Not fun if you want to wander off script.

I STRONGLY caution against just reverting the skill gem system. Tying it to gear is a bad idea, it ruined poe1 for me. The current system of it being based on weapon types will get better with time as the trees get fleshed out, and synergies are developed.

As is, I'd recommend making more skills that are weapon-agnostic that can co-exist with the large variety of weapon-specific spells. Like how in the bow tree, there is voltaic mark. it isn't actually a bow skill, just a high-dex requirement curse. A good compromise would be to mix in more skills like that, giving a high variety of playstyle-tuned options for a more straight forward experience, with cross-tree hybridization for the more advanced players. People who STRICTLY want the old system of poe1 back should simply go play poe1.