There are a multitude of Legendary Gems that are useful even for endgame players, although some of them could still use some adjustment.
One such gem is the Bane of the Powerful. It gives:
+20% DMG for 30 (+1/level) seconds after killing an elite pack.
Level 25 Bonus: +15% Damage versus Elites & 15% less damage from elites
This amounts to a very minimal bonus. The extra time from levels quickly becomes unecessary; it’s 60s at L30, 100s at L70, 180s at L150, and even with it active 100% of the time it’s not helping as much as other legendary gems even in its best-case scenario situation.
Increasing the damage bonus and reducing the duration will bring this gem back in the game. Increase damage by +50% for 20s (+0.5s per level).
Level 25 Bonus: +15% Damage versus Elites & 15% less damage from elites
In the best-case scenario for this gem where it’s L150 and the 95s duration granted by that is enough to keep it up 100% of the time, the player will be looking at +72.5% damage against elites, -15% damage from elites, and +50% damage against everything else. Compare this to other gems that add 60-100% damage and it’s basically trading off some of the damage against normal mobs for a bit of damage reduction against elites. At L1 players doing Rifts in 2-3 minutes will experience 100% uptime. At L25, 4-6 minutes. At L75, 10-12 minutes. By L100 it lasts 60 seconds and should be up around 100% of the time even in slow rifts unless the player gets stuck going longer than usual without killing an elite pack. By L150 at 95 seconds it should be able to even last through a long Juggernaught fight or a gap without Elites. This is compared to other gems that give more damage than that against everything which includes elites, on all of the damage that they’re dealing. So it won’t become an automatic all-powerful gem, but at least it will serve a useful purpose for some builds that don’t benefit as well from options like Bane of the Trapped, Taeguk, or Simplicity’s Strength. It will be particularly useful for players that haven’t gotten the gem to a high level but are doing fast bounties or rifts. It’s called Bane of the Powerful. It should be good against more than trash.
Invigorating Gemstone - Each hit done increases healing received by 1% (+0.02% per level) for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 10 times.
Level 25 Bonus: You are Immune to Control-Impairing effects.
This healing amounts to a max of +40% healing received with a level 150 Gem. 40% Healing Received is less valuable than 30% damage reduction which amplifies healing and toughness by even more. That extra healing amounts to very little, compared to what other Legendary gems have to offer. This gem doesn’t increase damage. It doesn’t help teammates. It doesn’t reduce damage taken which is a more valuable defensive trait. It heals, which doesn’t stop you from getting 1-hit but does help keep you healed after. Even if that healing were a more significant amount than a damage bonus or toughness bonus, it would still be a less valuable benefit. That’s why I have to suggest such a dramatic increase:
Invigorating Gemstone - Each hit done increases healing received by 3% (+0.06% per level) for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 10 times.
Level 25 Bonus: You are Immune to Control-Impairing effects.
The new max for this gem at Level 150 would be +120% Healing Received with a Level 150 Gem. That’s a lot of healing, yes, but without giving you any toughness to make that healed health last longer. It would still not be the first pick for a surviving gem.
Mutilation Guard - Gain 10% melee damage reduction. (+0.5% per Rank).
Level 25 Bonus: While below 50% Life, you may move through enemies unhindered.
This caps out as a 60% reduction to melee damage. It could be compared to another gem that gives +60% non-physical damage reduction. With both gems, the player is still taking full damage from physical ranged attacks. The other gem also increases resistances by a drastic amount when below 50% Life, which is a very helpful L25 bonus. This gem is only reducing damage from melee attacks, which are easy to see coming and aren’t usually what players who need a defensive gem are worried about getting killed by. As such, it should reduce that damage taken by an amount significant enough to help even though it’s not contributing againt so many other sources of damage. The L25 bonus of moving through enemies when health is below 50% is an interesting idea to limit it to being used for surviving and not getting trapped, but that limitation severely impacts the usefulness of the gem. If the player isn’t dying, they can’t even move through enemies, and it isn’t helping. They might even be in combat and be getting attacked by many enemies, but if they’re taking the hits fine and not dropping under half, they can’t even move unhindered. Here is my suggestion:
Mutilation Guard - Gain 20% melee damage reduction. (+0.5% per Rank).
Level 25 Bonus: While below 90% Life, you may move through enemies unhindered.
This brings it up to 70% melee damage reduction at max level, which is now helping more significantly against melee attacks to make up for not protecting the player from anything else. The L25 bonus will still not be active 100% of the time so as to not replace other unhindered movement items, but now the player can pretty reliably move through enemies while in combat.
Enforcer Gem Increases the damage of your pets by 15% (+0.3% per Rank.
Level 25 Bonus: Your pets take 90% less damage
This amounts to +45% Pet damage at L100 and +60% at L150 along with keeping your pets alive, which can help but at best this just means your pets are alive as they should be and dealing +45% damage, while other gems easily provide the player with more damage that can easily be applied to all of the damage they’re dealing. Pet damage builds are not very common. Pet builds are already less effective; they don’t need further nerf at the legendary gem for them by not gaining as much damage from it as other builds can from the gems made for them. The player has to make a lot of sacrifices to design a build where all of their damage output is coming from pet damage; and even then they still don’t get much damage. I suggest a modest improvement:
**Enforcer Gem - Increases the damage of your pets by 20% (+0.4% per Rank).
Level 25 Bonus: Your pets take 90% less damage
This brings the new L150 cap up to +80% pet damage.
Moratorium - 35% of all damage taken is instead staggered and dealt to you over 3.00 seconds. (0.1s per level)
Level 25 Bonus: 20% on kill to clear staggered damage.
At level 150, best-case-scenario as long as the player is slaughtering enemies at a rate where they’re probably clearing rifts in 2-5 minutes, the gem amounts to almost 35% damage reduction, with the player still taking small amounts of the staggered damage before it is cleared. That’s not very good considering that it’s taking up a spot a different Legendary Gem could have gone in. It’s only helping you survive when you’re killing fast, and if you’re killing fast, then you aren’t doing the highest difficulty that your damage can handle; so it’s only helping you survive when you’re too weak to survive enemies that you’re already slaughtering, and even then it stops helping you as soon as you’re done slaughtering the trash mobs and trying to finish the Elites; which is exactly when you no longer have so many enemies to heal from hitting. With such selective usefulness, it should at least be the best survivability gem for that very specific scenario. Which is why I suggest:
Moratorium - 60% of all damage taken is instead staggered and dealt to you over 3.00 seconds. (0.1s per level)
Level 25 Bonus: 20% on kill to clear staggered damage.
This amounts to nearly 60% damage reduction. Bear in mind that if the player is killing 5 enemies in 5 seconds which is typical for a 6-10 minute rift, then even with a level 150 Gem they’ll be taking on average about 30% of the staggered damage before it gets cleared. If the player is slaughtering 5 enemies every second, then they’re still taking over 5% of the staggered damage which means they’re reducing their total damage taken by 55% in that situation. Clearing staggered damage before it’s carried out over its full duration doesn’t mean not taking any of the staggered damage at all. The damage is suffered over time, which means that players still take some of that stagger damage before they clear it.
Iceblink is a fantastic support Gem. I already use it to support teammates. +10% Crit Chance is like +15% damage for team members. It’s also causing all of my cold skills to slow enemies to a crawl. There’s a big difference between 60% slow and 85% slow. As far as support gems go, I think support builds are already effective enough, and it doesn’t need a buff for support.
Iceblink - Your Cold skills deal +5% (+0.3%/level) increased damage and now apply Chill effects and your Chill effects now slow enemy movement speed by an additional 10%.
Enemies you chill have a 10% increased chance to be critically hit. This bonus is doubled on enemies that are frozen. (Requires Rank 25)
The maximum level of the gem would be raised to 150. This would be +50% damage to cold skills for the player, and enemies slowed by the gem would still be moving at 30% speed rather than 15% speed, but the player would be dealing more damage, and if they’re freezing and not just chilling enemies, then they’ll be providing even more damage for themselves or support for the team through crit chance than they were just with the chilling. The gem will now be better suited to soloing players or players who want to be a damage dealer on a team while still supporting the other members of the team.
