So...
When Jay said there are 14 levels of Gems i said "YAY!", and then he said only
the first 5 levels drop in the game... so if my calculations are correct (Which they
might not be, because i suck at math), and it takes 3 gems of each level to create
one gem of the next level... that comes to 19,683 level 5 gems of the same type
to make just one level 14 Gem, assuming you get all gems of the same type...

so 1st, if anyone that's a bit more Math-headed would check my calculation i would
appreciate it much.

and 2nd, Bashiok, Considering this is true, this is a MONSEREUS figure, and i know
you're hell-bent on creating a good economy but nearly 20,000 gems borders in the
insane, now, I'm not saying that you should lower the number (Even though just adding
the 6th gem level as a drop would reduce it to 6561 gems needed, i think), but jay said
that you started with a redicules number, so i got a couple ideas to make it easier to
achieve(except obviosly, simple making level 6 drop), things like:

1 - Item with a Quality of lets say Rare and above (whatever would be equals to Unique,
Set, Rare, and Off course if they add it, Artifacts) could yield 1+ Gems of level 5 or Higher
while they are being salvaged, it only makes sense that " Way Jilsons Holy Shield Of Might"
had a couple of Gems smelted into it when it was created!

2 - aside from having the Jeweler being able to CREATE gems for you, with the parts you
bring, why not create a system that will allow him/her to convert types of gems to the other?
obviously, the higher the gem quality, the more expensive it is, if through items, or cash, examp:
1 L5 Red gem + 1 L1 Blue diamond + Money = L5 BLUE GEM
But converting a L10 Red gem to a L10 Blue gem would take X10 cash, a higher level
blue gem, and maybe another blue item, such as "The Blue ink of Blizzard posts" or
Something... - Additionally, level 14 items cannot be converted.

What do you think?

Yeah, that's about right. I mean keep in mind none of this has been proven through actual testing but the current design is that yeah, it's going to take a lot of lower level gems to reach the very highest high end.

The gem-to-gem upgrade intent is not to have these huge gaps where you feel like you're lame unless you have level 14 gems in every slot, but as a long term goal for the hardcore min/maxers and PvPers who are going to be playing for a long time and be able to work toward those goals. It's something you can put a little time into just by upgrading the gems you pick up during normal play, so you're constantly able to keep working toward the goal of crafting a level 14 gem.

Also the trading game and millions of people playing for months is going to make them a lot more attainable than they may seem when throwing out numbers like 19,000. :)

It's possible it may feel crappy or we need to add something to help jump gaps, or, who knows. It's all very unproven at the moment, but we think provides a nice long term goal anyone can work toward just by killing monsters and picking up gems.

Gems do stack. Right now it's 10 but that could go up as we see fit. They have a good chance of being used in other ways aside from simply being socketed, something that would siphon them out of the economy. Maybe crafting. We like them remaining as something you have to visit the Jeweler artisan to combine. We don't want it to be annoying or take a lot of time though. We also don't anticipate someone visiting one with 19,000 gems looking to upgrade all the way to level 14. ;)
They don't have a level requirement so we do intend to see them used as a way to twink new characters, or allow people to buy into gemming up a bit earlier on if they have the gold.
Our current anticipation is that it will take the hardcore players quite a while before they start maxing out their gems, long enough that they won't see level 14 gems in all slots for all of their gear before we throw something new at them.

You will not get anywhere near the amount of crafting reagents back from what it took to craft the item. If you craft something, then salvage it, you'll be losing a significant portion of what it will take to make another one of the same type.

It's important to keep in mind that you can pay an artisan to remove the gems from an item. The last design I had heard of was that it was based on gem value, so as you socket higher level gems it becomes more expensive, but you'll almost certainly want to unsocket gems to level them up, or swap to new gear. This may cause some unique problems for low level (non-twink) characters attempting to buy high level gems and then being unable to remove them from the socket when they get a better piece of armor (because they can't afford it), but that may turn out to be an acceptable roadblock.

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Q u o t e:


But what if the recipe calls for a gem in it's creation. In that instance, it's not really a socketed item as an ingredient. Can we still re-coup the gem in this case? Or will we never run into this circumstance?

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The idea of gems even being required for recipes is still just a notion, so in-depth design on how they're incorporated with crafting is unknown.