Usefulness of Gems

[Ari]

Bashiok explains how gems are used to help augment the gear you get by adding some of the more sought after affixes on top of the affixes on your gear. As items can't roll two of the same stat (although hybrid affixes can overlap) a socket allows you to stack more of a specific stat. So even if you reach the upper limit of a specific stat on an item, with a socket you can overcome that limitation. Want to really stack VIT? Even if you're hitting an upper limit of just straight affixes rolling on an item, you can add more VIT if the item has sockets.

How does it treat all three sockets as one affix if there are two different gems in it?

You are! So items will have an affix limit. Like "a rare of this level can only roll up 4 affixes max". Gem sockets, regardless of how many, only account for one of those 4 affixes. (in this hypothetical situation in which this particular rare is limited to 4) So this item rolls up +MF, and they're boots so +movement speed, and +Int and then also rolls two gem sockets. So that's the 4 affix limit.

I've found rings and amulets with no stats, the only "stat" that rolled on it was socketed

Yup. Not every item will be great. Some will be downright awful. The better to craft with. Better kill more demons.

If gets werent in the game, it wouldnt even matter, all they do is add +stats which is directly related to gear, and gear can have like +200 of that stat

I guess I'll just repeat myself. Gems allow you stack that stat potentially 58-178 higher than would otherwise be possible.

They'll be able to just recycle and swap them with the gear they have. Are there any plans to make "gem sinks" or is the cost to remove Radiant gems greater than I realize?

The cost is great, but ... it's still possible it'll happen a long enough time from now. We're not too concerned with coming up with a solution just yet. We want the system out there, see how quickly people are acquiring gems, and then see what (if anything) we need to do to provide some fun solutions.

If it comes to that I guess Blizzard can just add "gem dust" (salvaged from Gems, obviously) to crafting recipes, thus providing a Gem sink.

We actually had that at one point, but higher end gems are so difficult to create it felt pretty punishing to make that decision. "You worked for months making that gem, now destroy it!" But maybe it'll make more sense later when gems are a bit more common.

How are sockets useful ... if you can roll in a single stat affix, more stat than all 3 gems combined ?

I'm not sure if it is, I'd have to find out the max stats, but again, that's discounting the point of customizing your stats as well as stacking.

Say you got the +180 Int, if you have sockets you can raise that to 300+ which is not otherwise possible with just affixes.

Source:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5235704764?page=2#21

[Ari]

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