Hey, So after grinding all my gems and playing around with the gem system i find the end result quite odd.
-Flawless gems:
First of all i think the Flawless gems should straight up be removed, because crafting them not only cripples your late-game value, but the cost is so high that even short term when put into a legendary with 100% bonus it does not make sense to do so. They would need to atleast be worth 720 gem points.
-Gem cap:
The gem cap is incredibly clunky, and ill explain why.
You end up using 9 splendid gems, but due to the cap you are now left in a situation where you equip 2x Large gem. With proper essence bonus slots this does result in certain gem path builds being unlocked.
So the end result when having EVERY single item with a essence bonus makes a little bit of sense, but it is aesthetically gruesome to digest, like watching the last season of game of thrones happen to your gem setup.
My suggestion: Limit the maximum of socketed ITEMS to 9. Increase the gem cap to allow for 1 flawless gem in the legendary slot and the rest slots filled with splendid topaz. Tweak the legendary essence value to adjust for changes in total value as needed.
This achieves two things:
Firstly, it makes the end results of crafted gems make more sense. Instead of having this weird frankenstein creation where you slot in two weaker gems to finish the job, the pieces slot in more naturally.
Secondly and more importantly, it lessens the required Essence bonus items needed for true endgame gear by two. This is massive because when you close in on the last 2-3 pieces needed the odds are dramatically lower to actually find the piece you need, so the need to sit on 10-20 arcane mithril for the VERY last slot is not so much needed anymore to reach the best gem builds.
Instead, players can now mess around with different set pieces. Which set you use depends on where you don't have essence slots at first, so we will have more build variations.