Pure vs combined gems?

[nyd]

Is there a reason to go for pure gems at times or are combined ones always better?

[12345ieee]

Whenever you need a particular power at the maximum possible strength you use a pure gem, otherwise dual/triple.

This in practice means that gem in amplifiers are better pure, all the others are better mixed.

[gigastar]

Originally posted by 12345ieee:

Whenever you need a particular power at the maximum possible strength you use a pure gem, otherwise dual/triple.

This in practice means that gem in amplifiers are better pure, all the others are better mixed.

Until poolbound gems get involved at least. Once the poolbound multiplier makes up for the special penalty in dual/triple gems, theres no reason to use pure after that.

[12345ieee]

Originally posted by gigastar:

Originally posted by 12345ieee:

Whenever you need a particular power at the maximum possible strength you use a pure gem, otherwise dual/triple.

This in practice means that gem in amplifiers are better pure, all the others are better mixed.

Until poolbound gems get involved at least. Once the poolbound multiplier makes up for the special penalty in dual/triple gems, theres no reason to use pure after that.

Nope, amplifiers bonus only takes in consideration the base power of a gem, before the *bound boosts.

You can try it yourself, amplifying with pure yellow or mixed yellow/white and noticing the increase in power with the pures.

On all the other applications, definitely mixed.

[hexnessie]

Originally posted by 12345ieee:

Whenever you need a particular power at the maximum possible strength you use a pure gem, otherwise dual/triple.

This in practice means that gem in amplifiers are better pure, all the others are better mixed.

Yes, this game is all about crafting different combinations of gems. Because it's GemCRAFT, not GemSTICKAPUREGEMINATOWER.

Though, back in the days when I just started, I thought that pure poison gems were the awesomest thing in the Gemcraft universe :D I think I got to WL 160 before trying to combine gems at all...

[Gentle Dementia]

Originally posted by 12345ieee:

Whenever you need a particular power at the maximum possible strength you use a pure gem, otherwise dual/triple.

This in practice means that gem in amplifiers are better pure, all the others are better mixed.

Even in traps? I've been using dual gems in all my towers and pures in my traps, is this a bad idea?

[Darnsu]

In traps orange and red. Spam freeze. Win the game.

[Cinth]

Poolbound and bloodbound don't amplify. No real point in putting them in amps.

[12345ieee]

Ah, my perception is the one of a very high level player, when you have all the colors and a good understanding of the game mechanics.

For normal levels the most effective approach is to use pures only in amplifiers and mana/kill gems in traps/towers (see the guides for this).

At low levels it rarely makes sense to use the power of a certain gem, they are all very very weak compared to the raw damage a dual can do.

Nevertheless pure poison might be effective at low levels in certain situations (B3 is the best example), but I'd not bother with traps too much until you can put g7+ in them.

[Quinor]

You're nearly perfectly right, but poison. On early levels it can do wonders. Especially becouse it pierces right through the armor and scales up rapidly. Also, you can amplify the power of pure low-level gems with beam and use that eg. in order to tear down armor or get mana.

[12345ieee]

Eh, I guessed it, I went to poolbound so fast in betatesting I didn't even go through the "farm mana with a pure orange and beam" phase this time, let alone the poison phase.

But yes, I should have mentioned it, thanks for the correction.

[strigvir]

Originally posted by nyd:

Is there a reason to go for pure gems at times or are combined ones always better?

Depends on the combination. While all combos involving white/black/red are pretty good, cyan/blue/green are very situational. Like there is no point in putting blue with anything but red. Or putting yellow and orange together.

Originally posted by psorek139:

You're nearly perfectly right, but poison. On early levels it can do wonders. Especially becouse it pierces right through the armor and scales up rapidly.

"Scales up rapidly" is quite an overstatement. The only thing poison is good against are swarmlings.

[Warmonger]

In early game pure green traps are powerhouse, I also tried pure orange (mana) and purple (armor tearing). Of course for damage you want to get dual, triple or quad if Bloodbound / Poolbound is avaiable.

[SuuperW]

Originally posted by Warmonger:

In early game pure green traps are powerhouse, I also tried pure orange (mana) and purple (armor tearing). Of course for damage you want to get dual, triple or quad if Bloodbound / Poolbound is avaiable.

Using black+white for power has very limited use. Since the multipliers are added, rather than multiplied, it's almost never useful.

[Ragnaman]

Poolbound for short term gains: talisman farming, shadow core farming for 5 min.

Bloodbound long term gains: endurance exp milking, lag festival, sweating man mode for 3h.


^ basic guide on pool vs blood.