So I’ve been taking my time to level characters. About to have my main at 1080 with my alts not far behind. Been having a lot of fun in this tier especially now that I have my engravings and have discovered how powerful gems can be. I bought level 7-8 T2 gems on all my alts with all the gold I’ve earned so far with some to spare. I recently found out they become kind of irrelevant in T3 (50% reduction). I’ve been defending the game so far and even though how it is P2W, PVP is scaled and the community is very acceptive for lower level players and willing to help out. However I see my time of defending the game quickly coming to an end… T3 7-8 gems are on average 10,000 gold. That’s about $75 in real life… For 1 out of 11 gems that aren’t even top tier. As I’m in the end of T2 I’ve noticed all the friendliness and acceptance is pretty much gone as content now is actually difficult. I’ve been seeing A LOT of group requirements now as far as having all your engravings and gems and I can only imagine this gets worse in T3. So i guess my question is, Is there a reliable way to get high level gems in T3 without shelling out $200+ for 1 character?
Boss rush seems to drop a lot of Gems you can cube up. Also, doing Chaos Gates in T3 area and doing map share yields a good number of Gems as well.
I also recommend that you make some friend / guilds mates you can party up with to bypass the idiotic ‘requirements’ to join PUG groups. Will make your gaming experience a whole lot better.
Edit: I have full Level 5 gems for now, which I got without spending real life money. Boss rush was a big help. Currently working on Lv 7 gems.
To save silver, do NOT roll gems for 1 specific skill. If you get a random gem cubed up, roll it until it gets a decent skill (Any decent skill for your class), sell it on Market and use that gold to buy the specific skill gem you need.
Yeah you will slowly get there.
Boss rush gives a lot of them and chaos dungeon gives a tiny bit but at least you can drop bosh rush tickets there.
They are removing guardian gem chest so you slept on that but you have still the ones from the merch boat outside punika i believe it gives 20 lvl 1s.
Also if you get a good one that you already have then you sell it and buy the other good one you don’t have to avoid the silver reroll cost.
Focusing so much on the T2 gems was a waste of time and you probably will feel defeated once you save them in your chest for the next T2 alt but you will slowly get back to your 7s with tons of grinding
I have 2 sevens and rest fives all f2p
Also, as you replace them with T3, sell those T2 you bought. I just hit T3 a few days ago and have been making gold selling the old ones as I find a new one to replace it. 
so first of all, for most “normal” classes all gems on lvl5 is considered to be the optimal for valtan release which is still FAR beyond where you are at on item level (for transformation class like shadowhunter you want to have 1 level 7 demon skill damage gem and 1 level 7 demon skill cooldown gem and thats it, just 2 level 7 gems, for surge deathblade you would want to have a lvl 7 surge skill damage gem, those are specifics), there is absolutely 0 reason for you to stress about gems of higher level at this point
secondly chaos dungeons drop gems, boss rush gives u 2 level 4 and 1 level 3 gem total in tier 3
thirdly your gems are not bound, you can simply put them in your roster storage and take them all on one character, then fuse them together on that character or reroll them on that character to turn into that classes spells, this way you can feed every gem from your alts to your main until it is built with the important level 5 gems, then do the same thing with the next alt etc, thats why boss rush tickets on alt are actually still really good to get and all the chaos dungeon gems add up alot if you put them all into 1 char
Just as alts are important for materials/gold they are also important for Gems. I have 5 level 7 gems, completely f2p. This is because I funneled all the gems from my alts to my main and fused them together. My alts are still using some of the higher t2 gems because a level 6 t2 gem is the same as a level 3 t3 gem. This allotted me time to focus on giving gems to my main. Now that he has most of what he needs at lvl 6 or 7 I can start funneling to my next highest alt.
Do not buy t2 gems bro. I would sell them asap if u were you.
it seems most complaints about game come in the form of i paid to get here but im not top yet why not. the game has ability to pay to be in front of line but not so much win you still gotta learn to play and some of that is understanding you dont always get to be first no matter how much you throw at it . learn to enjoy the game and you will get the stuff you want eventually when you buy into it it has less value since it came easy when you earn it with time sweat and tears it has more value enjoy the grind and game if you dont the game isnt meant to be my freind maybe learn to run a real market account or fish to learn patience
Well, imo you are not supposed to be really buying gems off the AH. I mean you could if you want, but there are very decent ways of farming them over time (not such a long time) and spend your gold on better things. My top tips besides doing your boss rush and chaos dungeons is. Scout Mari’s and buy every t3 gem chest that shows up if possible. Buy the 20 gem chests from the punika ship each week. And as a bonus i recommend getting the premium arc pass. (not super premium) This will help a little bit with gems, but I think it’s overall good value. Here’s how my gems look like using the methods I’ve mentioned.
PS: Also you can totally keep your lvl 7 and above t2 gems in T3 in the beginning. They will give you a decent boost even at 50% efficiency.