Best Gem(s)?

[Furry Eskimo]

Thoughts? Feelings? Advice?

I've sort of settled on the passive regen gem, and have ~230 hp a second. I have healing potions for blood. I'm just getting started on boosting my regen, but I wanted to know, are the other gems worth investing in?

I'm not sure the armor stripping gem is worth it, since I so often kill enemies in 1-2 swings already.
The damage reflected ability looks cool, but I'm not sure how much it will actually, do? Can I reflect 100% of the damage back? That'd be useful!

I also found a gem that sometimes casts full heal. If I perform multiple playthroughs, can I get more and stack them?

I also found a gem that causes skulls to spawn? People say it's kinda 'eh, but what if they're stacked?

What gems become amazing when stacked? What challenges my super regen powers?

[-Nomade-]

I'd say "best" gems completely depend of the class you're playing, the build, the gear...

Usually I'm using very regularly elemental gems for armor (and eventually for damage, if needed), and gems that give damage boost, flat or %.

Others really depend, and may change as stuff changes.

[Furry Eskimo]

I've tended to avoid the elemental gems. idk how much they really help, but I have a difficult time telling how helpful they actually are.

Like the armor stripping gem. It sounds great, but I don't know if it's actually helping.

[HiFive]

I'd say the hp regeneration gem is the most important. If I'm using a lot of mana, I start adding mana regeneration gems. The elemental protection gems are important as you get into the higher levels.

On your weapon, it's good to have more than one type of damage, as some monsters will have great resistance or be immune to one type of damage or another. So, use a gem to add another type of damage.

Skulls and eyes are often the best socketables. Damage reduction ones are favored: Eye of Grell and Skull of Limoany.

Effects from gems are usually stackable, i.e.: For the "fully heal self" gem, stacking them would increase the chance of getting the full heal. For elemental protection, you would increase the amount of protection for that element, if you stacked 2 of the same gems.

I absolutely save some gems for my future characters. Either I have a gem-saver storage character, or, if I'm running a mod that gives me tons of stash-box storage, I will store them on a few pages in there.

Here is a very good guide to Torchlight II gems:

https://torchlight.fandom.com/wiki/Gems_(T2)

[Valadka]

Stack eye of Grell in every slot for that sweet 64% damage reduction. Literally the only way to beat hardcore elite.

[steffire3]

Originally posted by Furry Eskimo:

I've sort of settled on the passive regen gem, and have ~230 hp a second. I have healing potions for blood. I'm just getting started on boosting my regen, but I wanted to know, are the other gems worth investing in?

I'm not sure the armor stripping gem is worth it, since I so often kill enemies in 1-2 swings already.
The damage reflected ability looks cool, but I'm not sure how much it will actually, do? Can I reflect 100% of the damage back? That'd be useful!

I also found a gem that sometimes casts full heal. If I perform multiple playthroughs, can I get more and stack them?

I also found a gem that causes skulls to spawn? People say it's kinda 'eh, but what if they're stacked?

What gems become amazing when stacked? What challenges my super regen powers?

I recommend this TL2 Item List website to plan for future Items:
https://tidbi.ru/eng/tindex.html

Riechliu Skulls add 1540 to Max Health. If Weapons and Skills carry Health Steal / Regen / Crit Heals then it's possible to tank many small armies of foes.

Armor Rips are usually outperformed by Sockets that Add Damage.
Increasing Dps with a decent Crit Chance will overwhelm Armor.
In fact the easiest way to Down Enemy Armor is by using Poison Types in a Weapon.

Reflecting Damage back is not too important. Reflecting Missiles at 30% Chance from a random Blue Shield that can appear at the Blacksmith is an OP vanilla Item that helps tank Archers.

Casting Full Heal is good however it's often more efficient to gain that through Sets or Enchants.
Multiple Playthroughs are useful for farming. It's a good tactic to gather rare items.

Multiple Fire Minion Skulls can be stacked although their damage is only decent if paired with Minion Damage Socket Skulls.

Combine the awesome Regen with this:
Health Steal on Weapon.
Increase Max Health with Riechliu Skulls.
Drink a Health Potion which acts like an extra Heal.
If possible try and get other forms of Health Bonuses from other Skills, Items and Enchants.

Originally posted by Valadka:

Stack eye of Grell in every slot for that sweet 64% damage reduction. Literally the only way to beat hardcore elite.

Agreed. Limony Skulls are a good replacement when available.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=226334276

[HiFive]

Originally posted by Valadka:

Stack eye of Grell in every slot for that sweet 64% damage reduction. Literally the only way to beat hardcore elite.

I've never done this and have literally beat Hardcore Elite many times. However, I'm certain it's much easier to beat it with that many Grell's Eyes (3% reduction on every type of damage) or Skulls of Limoany (5% reduction on every type of damage). In the vanilla game it's much easier to farm Grell's Eyes so maybe that's why people refer to that one the most.

[Furry Eskimo]

Cool, that helps. Thanks.
I had a sneaking suspicion that removing armor wasn't the best way to go.

I've invested nothing in reflecting missiles.. Is that important?
Also, since when does poison damage armor? I don't understand the element system in this game at all, so I just use basic damage types. Seems to work. I found a hammer that deals 200 extra damage, and wow! It is OP for my level, even at 50 (I got it ~30)

[HiFive]

Originally posted by Furry Eskimo:

Cool, that helps. Thanks.
I had a sneaking suspicion that removing armor wasn't the best way to go.

I've invested nothing in reflecting missiles.. Is that important?
Also, since when does poison damage armor? I don't understand the element system in this game at all, so I just use basic damage types. Seems to work. I found a hammer that deals 200 extra damage, and wow! It is OP for my level, even at 50 (I got it ~30)

There are five different types of "armor". Your character and your enemies can all be damaged from elementals. If you don't have enough "posion armor", then you can suffer major damage from the initial poison hit, with an added chance of damage over time. The same is true for each of the different elements.

Monsters also have these same different armors: physical, poison, fire, electric, ice, and can be affected in the same way. Some monsters are more resistant to ice, others are more resistant to physical damage. It all varies depending on the monster. If you use an elemental skill on a monster, you have a chance to inflict damage over time as well as the initial dps. If your weapon deals elemental damage, it can also sometimes give a monster some damage over time.

To see the level of your different elemental armors, hit the character button ("c" on your keyboard) and then go to the tab on the right of that window for "Arcane Statistics". Near the bottom are the levels for your elemental armors. Increasing vitality increases all of your different armors, both physical and elemental. Mousing over the statistic for each elemental armor will give you a description of what that statistic does for you. It's a good idea to scroll up and down and fully explore the Arcane Statistics page. There are some other statistics that you might find useful as well.

I think I reserve reflecting missiles for my Berserkers, to save me some time chasing after archers. From the previous comments on this and other threads it seems people have a lot of different opinions as to which characters to use that on. It's not a high priority stat for me.

[steffire3]

Originally posted by Furry Eskimo:

I've invested nothing in reflecting missiles.. Is that important?
Also, since when does poison damage armor? I don't understand the element system in this game at all, so I just use basic damage types. Seems to work. I found a hammer that deals 200 extra damage, and wow! It is OP for my level, even at 50 (I got it ~30)

I agree with HiFive that Reflecting Missiles is not a priority rather it's an option.

The only times it felt mandatory were rare cases where Elite Bosses had multiple high powered missiles or cornered in Grom's Arena however that tends to be NG+4 or Tarroch's Tomb.
End Game stuff.

As HiFive mentioned that any Damage Element has a chance to activate their "specialty".
This can occur from native features in a Weapon or added with Gems and Enchants.

If a Poisoned Status occurs then it downs all enemy Armor and Damage by 30% on that target.
Frozen Status slows all Enemy Speed (Attack, Cast and Move) by 30%.
Burn Status causes Damage over Time.
Bleed is similar to Burn however it's more rare to attain from Items.
Shocked causes 3 Electric Bolts to scurry away from the target damaging other targets.

Indeed finding Weapons that deal more damage than average is the best way to go.
Socket some Poison Embers into that Weapon and more damage will be available.
Although the only Enchanter who sells Sockets is Jurick who is randomly found in dungeons.

[Furry Eskimo]

Actually there's a spot where an enchanter with sockets always spawns... He's off the the desert, in a tunnel with bugs, I think?

And thanks for the explanation. I have ~130 resistance in everything. Probably low, but whatever. My pet is rocking 700 in each.

I tend to kill things in 1-2 hits, to debuffs won't do me much good.. I'd really just need them for fighting bosses, and I usually like to just kill them faster, rather than having them kill me, slower.

Also I have a gun with every type of damage, but ~30 in each type. It's probably not much, and I should have stacked 1-2 kinds of damage instead of all four, buuuuuut, at least I know what they can do now.