Suggestion: Dynamic Bound Normal Gem Drop Bonus Based on Player Gem Rating
Hi Immortals 
I’d like to bring up an issue that affects a large portion of the player base — especially returning players, new players, and casuals who can’t grind every day.
The Problem
Normal Gems (especially bound ones) are one of the most important progression mechanics in Diablo Immortal. However:
- Returning players struggle to catch up with active players.
- New players start off massively behind.
- The gap keeps growing, since bound gem drop limits are flat for everyone.
There is no catch-up system for gem progression — which makes long breaks or joining late very punishing.
Proposed Solution: Gem Rating-Based Bonus System
Let’s introduce a Normal Gem Rating system that dynamically increases a player’s bound gem drop limit based on how far behind they are from the server average.
This would help players catch up without affecting the economy, since it only boosts bound gem drops.
Gem Rating Formula
Each Normal Gem gives you “rating points” based on its level:
| Gem Level |
Rating Value |
| 1 |
1 |
| 2 |
3 |
| 3 |
9 |
| 4 |
27 |
| 5 |
81 |
| 6 |
243 |
| 7 |
729 |
| 8 |
2,187 |
| 9 |
6,561 |
| 10 |
19,683 |
Your Gem Rating is the total value of:
- Gems equipped in gear
- Gems in inventory or stash
- Gems you have listed on the Market
Bound Gem Drop Bonus (BNGDB)
If your rating is lower than the server average, you get a drop bonus for bound Normal Gems.
The more you’re behind, the bigger the bonus.
Bonus Tiers:
| Rating Gap |
Bonus to Bound Gem Drops |
| 1 – 2,000 |
+100% |
| 2,001 – 4,000 |
+200% |
| 4,001 – 8,000 |
+300% |
| 8,001 – 12,000 |
+400% |
| 12,001 and above |
+500% (max) |
| Equal or higher rating |
No bonus (0%) |
The bonus only affects bound gems (from Abyss, Hidden Lairs, etc.)
It does not affect unbound gem drops, preserving Market balance.
Example
- Server average: 16 × Level 7 gems =
16 × 729 = 11,664
- Player has: 16 × Level 6 gems =
16 × 243 = 3,888
- Gap = 11,664 - 3,888 =
7,776
→ This gives +300% bonus (i.e. 4× drop limit)
Why This Is Good for the Game
- Helps returning players feel progress is possible
- Encourages casuals to come back and invest more time
- Smoothes out server population gaps over time
- Keeps market & economy untouched
- Scales naturally as gem levels increase over time
Let’s Discuss
I believe this system would make Diablo Immortal much more fair and rewarding for everyone who joins or returns after a break.
Would love to hear your thoughts and improvements. And I hope the devs consider introducing this or something like it into the game.
Thanks for reading,
po0lsen
You’re missing something, I think. There is a catch-up system. Blizzard want the folks that are behind on non-legendary gems to buy them from the Marketplace or in Shop bundles to catch up and they want those players to spend real life money, either to obtain the platinum for the Marketplace, or directly on the Shop bundles.
Blizzard’s model here is simple. They’re not giving free catch-up methods on things where they currently charge money for players to catch up. More fundamentally, they want this gap between new / returning players and long-term players precisely because it encourages spending money to close the gap.
3 Likes
Unfortunatelly, yes. You’re right.
And players in this community is here for an attempt to change it.
Addressing few things which are not covered in the initial post:
- Topic: When Whales or other players are using unbound gems they became bound, which affect calculation
Answer: Yes, that’s ok for calculation as it’s part of the gap that happened over the time.
- Topic: High stat players (lvl 10 whales)
Answer: 1-50 players with lvl 10 gems CAN affect server value, but not so much to make a drastic change. In case of the concerns we can use MEDIAN instead of AVERAGE to make it closer to mass.
- Topic: Increase of the limit of bound gems will allow new players to sell unbound one.
Answer: Yes, and that’s expected. Same as normal users can sell it, others also have a possibility to sell unbound gems (while slowing their progress). Secondly, it’s hard to sell normal gems (at least on my server). Thirdly, it’s good that players can have a plat. as it’s so hard to get rn for Free to Play players.
- Concern from High-spenders and hardworking players:
Same already happened with Activity Points and Scrap, as it’s boosted to 300% when you’re lower than server average.
In order to prevent this i would propose to lower the bonus, but still to keep it.
In this case hardworking returners will be able to catch up through the hard work.
BTW: One important note - we’re talking only about raising the limit of the drops, not the drop %. That means you’ll have to work super hard to get to the limit and farm almost all the time to reach it. Which is quite a price to pay.
It’s a time cost which blizz/ease doesn’t care about. It’s the $ one.
So you’re talking about the 63 bound gems per week at 500% so 5x that’s 315 more gems at the lowest price of 50 that’s 15k platinum loss per week to the company per player starting.
Well, it’s really valid! Appreciate your reply.
Let me try to write down how it’ll happen for most of the players.
F2P and Low spenders rarely buy normal gems on market.
They’ll be playing and getting their normal gems on daily/weekly basis. After some time they’ll be exhausted of feeling not being able to catch or close the gap even to average server player. And leave. It’ll happen in most of the cases.
No one spending 15k plat on normal gems from f2p and low spenders.
Let me try to explain once more:
- This doesn’t affect drop rates, only a limit. In order to catch up any players have to work really hard for a long time period, but if it can help to close the gap, it would worth it.
- It would not affect market anyhow as unbound gems are bot affected.
- Tryhards that playing since day 1 won’t be affected as average is lower than any one of them.
I get and understand what you are saying but you still miss the monetary aspect of it. If there is money to be made they will take that path. Giving free gems to newer players that can be bought does not make sense.