The main annoying thing about the first gem drop being something you don’t need is having that gem end up L4 for the life of the season. Whatever they give you will be the only option to level on the first GR.
I usually have an L4 BotP to salvage at the end of the season unless I’ve gotten my BotH first. I sometimes do use it, but having a 34 second boost vs a 30 second boost is pretty much useless and while the L25 bonus is nice, I’d rather have something else at L25 in preference to BotP. As a result I pretty much never level the BotP so having it be the very first gem is typically an annoying taunt solely because of the forced leveling of that first gem. If it was the 2nd or 3rd gem I’d happily use it unleveled until I end up with some better gems.
Perhaps give a choice of, say, 3 gems for the first GR completed and then have it be random after that.
That won’t really do very much. The gem is essentially an entire set encapsulated into a single item. Since gems are a guaranteed drop, there’s not many of them, and they can not drop duplicates, it’s already the most consistent and easy-to-find power spike the game has ever seen. The difference in making it the first/second gem drop as opposed to even the guaranteed last gem drop, at most, will account for one short gaming session in a season. Unlike Haedrig’s gift, which can only be claimed for one hero per season, a single LoD gem can super-boost every character you make.
The much more important factor is the max rank of the gem. The whole point of the gem is that is an alternative to using a set. So it’s important for a player to be able to measure the power of a LoD setup versus a class set setup so that they can decide which one they prefer. Having to not only farm a level 99 gem, but simply to reach GR ~100 (the territory of a top 1000 character out of the entire population) is frankly demanding way too much for that comparison. You already have to find ancient legendaries with decent rolls to do so (as missing even a few critical hit mods will make your DPS plummet).
One of the most critical and fundamental flaws of this game is that you essentially have to find 13-pieces of specific items with decent rolls before you can even try out the playstyle of a build. Otherwise, for all you know, you are wasting your time investing into a character destined to be hard-stuck T10 when you could have been speed farming GR 100 with some OP wizard.
Lower the max rank → increase viability → improve the game!
The progression is already so good it actually feels like cheating. Straight into Torment 1 I farmed for a couple keys simply because getting a quick gem was a quick way of getting a guaranteed power spike. It was the second or third gem I found; when I did so, I started counting. Fresh level 70 character, I had maybe 6 legendary items equipped, the rest being rare items, meaning my damage would be increased by 22.% - already more than the bane of the powerful that I had been using.
Then I upgraded it four times in the very run I found it on, and that bonus became 90% increased damage across the board, instantly. Four more levels in another 5 minute GR run - now 180%, then 270%, then 360%, and so on. I jumped 5 torment levels within an hour. Of course you are going to hit a brick wall at some point - that’s the nature of greater rifts. You cruise through easily and 5 levels higher your hero sucks.
This portion really encapsulates what I was thinking when looking for improvements. As currently constructed, you need to use sets to break through the power level walls once you hit gem level 50 or so. Based on this wall, that tells me that scaling should be reduced and the max level of the gem should indeed be around 50 or maybe even 75, which would mitigate those walls related to damage done, pushing the player past and able to max the gem without ever using a set to begin with.
That is bull… Gaining the frist 20 GR keys to get all legendary gems on a fresh level 70 character is a long process, as you are limited to T2 for a lot of classes. Thus going for the Headrig set is a better option for quicker power gain, and what most players do.
You can’t progress faster in GR tiers than you can unlock them, and since you get 3 ranks per completed tier more or less, you get ranked at a fair pace. And again after rank 50 it is pretty much at max anyway. Which leads to:
At rank 35 you are going past one-third, thus there are longer between power spikes. If the max tier is lowered to 49, that spike will only occur faster (at rank 17) and at rank 25 you will gain to little for it to matter for your progression. This is the trade-off point where legendary powers will increase your power much more, as a factor 3 effect from a +200% damage will yield the same power as reaching rank 105 on the gem. This also means that losing a good +100% boost (for instance Squirts) is the same as going with a rank 49 gem. And will loose 5 GR tiers.
So no it is not neccessary to reach that level 99, only around 50. And that’s a decent time to experiment, test and find complementing legendaries. And that is still the main part, and most consuming. If you can’t grasp that part of building, play that way is really not for you.
This is the main issue if LoD drops as first gem, as it has to be leveled and this one has a cap. Naturally the first gem is either going to be in your build or is going to be the first augment gem, and then the rank 99 cap is a problem when most can reach higher before augmenting is neccessary for progress. Thus it shouldn’t drop as first GR gem.
I see a lot of your logic, but in saying that, in a season reaching level 70, this is only applicable if the very first GR you attempted, you were wearing an all-green set.
There is already a damage boost at level 0 with non-ancient gear with LoD, doubling as everyone knows with ancients at 25.
If it drops first you get a damage boost. If the second one that drops is BoP, then again another 20% damage after killing elites.
So realistically, either dropping first is fine. If they are the first two, it is a boost. Sure, it is useless in a green set, everyone knows this, but not everyone has a full green set when they try their first GR, only sometimes.
I hear you but a lot of people also have at least one piece of the green set that they replaced with the greens.
Your logic is sound, but if even for only one more GR before getting all four pieces, I’d take the extra damage bonus unless the two pieces of green gave me that (not all do).
Sure many times we can do a level 20 straight away, but for those times when it is touch and go, I see it as an advantage so we can on the next.
Most likely when you first run a greater rift, you’re wearing more legendary pieces than you are of set pieces, so having Legacy of Dreams drop earlier is beneficial, especially so you can start leveling it.
If you read the rest of my post, I didn’t say any particular gem should drop as first, but that they should offer a choice - perhaps from a small pool such that just about any build will have at least one gem there to choose.
I tend to augment earlier than that and use a gem that has been useful to me, not that I was forced to level because it was my only gem. Typically it is BotH which I get early on and level to 50 for use in the various speed challenges and then augment with it when I’m rich enough to never look back.
But, either way, it would be nice to have a choice. “Oh well, I guess this will be my eventual augment gem” is pretty much a downer for your first GR of the season…
Well no. BoP is a power boost regardless of what you play, it works for ANY build, and is not capped in anyway. This means it is always useful no matter what, as you can equip it and gain a benefit whilst ranking it up, until you get something that works better, and if it is not an end game gem for you, it can be augmented at any rank. This is exactly why it is the guaranteed first drop.
Going in to GRs at fresh level 70 is for the most part not applicable, as you need a key, and you are not guaranteed one from a rift of your leveling difficulty. At that point getting gear is also more important than gems, hence why the Season Journey has the order it has - it is kind of a walkthrough to more power.
Stating the obvious and when this game started you had to do trials to see how long you’d last and how many killed in order to determine the maximum GR level. Unnecessary too.
If at 70 the person is generally master, more likely T1 or even T2, so yes you are guaranteed a gem drop in a GR unless they have changed it suddenly in the middle of this season.
You obviously do not want LoD to drop first and that’s fine.
BoP is just a far more useful gem, no matter what. And given it is the only gem with increased droprate, it is fair and easy to put LoD in at second, if that is the way players want to go.