I’m am a late-stage Diablo 3 player. I have all my items augmented up to level 116 on every build. I’m not interested in competing on the leaderboards because there’s no way I’m going to beat the pros. So, my only joy is the occasional useful Primal and augmenting items with gems to slightly raise my power. Season 29 with the Altar gave me an opportunity to do this because it essentially raised the base level of the game. Instead of leveling gems to 103 my best build could level them to 120. The proposed nerf to the Altar will pretty much nix that ever happening again.
Actually, I’ve always wondered why if you clear a GR 120 you’re only guaranteed a level 111 gem or why if you can hit level 135 in the Legacy of Nightmares, the best you can get is a 125 gem. Hardly seems fair.
Anyway, this is my way of saying don’t nerf the Altar. You’re just causing players to be stuck at their current level forever. Also, don’t nerf the best build in the game because that’s the one where you raise gems for all the lesser builds. My go to build for Echoing Nightmares is the Multishot Marauder and that’s on your hit list. You need at least three killer builds to keep hope and enjoyment.
I think the Altar needed some toning down with respect to other themes coming to be combined with it.
But they slashed most of it to 1/4 or less of what it was. Like what is even the point now other than the quality of life points?