ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

So, I always have this sneaking suspicion that I am missing something, and that I could be walking around as any class with all sorts of gems blinging up my armor or hats or boots or something.

If I am not an alchemist, how/when can I imbue gems into what/where?

I'll start off. There is a place in the east which can imbue a plain amulet (white, non-special) with two gems. So keep your plain white amulets. That same place imbues plain white rings with one gem, as does a shop in Angolwen. Keep your plain white rings.

There is a prodigy which lets you imbue two extra items (hat and belt, I think?) with a gem. I assume this is just useful for alchemists...?

One can learn imbue item from an alchemist. (Is that the talent name?) But I tried this once, and I think having it at level 1 severely limits what gems you can actually use, and it should be skipped (unless you're an alchemist, and just pumping up your score). Is this correct?

I noticed that a certain crystal, intended to be put on a staff, can actually be put on a ring, as well, in the east.

Where/what else can I do? I really just feel I am missing something. Assuming I am not an alchemist, can I imbue weapons? Armor? My privates? Other things? Am I doing something wrong?

You missed the western town that can imbue a gem onto a white ring. (Tier 1 ring = tier 1 gems can be imbued. Tier 2 ring, tier 2 or below gems. And so on.)

(EDIT: nevermind, you didn't miss rings in Angolwen, I misread that. Apologies.)

As for amulets, My impression was that the place in the east could ONLY imbue white voratun amulets, not any other kind. Is this incorrect? (And I thought it was only 1 per character as well, though this may also be incorrect.)

You can learn the imbue talent from an alchemist, but not directly. You must learn the stone alchemy TREE. Then spend a category point to unlock the tree, and invest at least 1 point in extract gem (more is a waste) and then as many as you can spare on imbue item (the second talent.) The rank of the imbue item talent determines what tier item you can imbue, and what tier gem you can imbue into it. Like with rings, a tier 3 item can hold a tier 3 or below gem. And doing so, requires 3 points in the imbue item talent.

Also worth noting, is that the talent does not scale with any stat, so if you can get the magic to learn it through equipment, it does not matter what your magic is later. Additionally, the talent runs off RAW talent level, and does not take the lower 0.8 mastery into account.

The prodigy you mentioned allows you to use the imbue item talent (mentioned above) on more item types. By default, imbue can only be used on body armor. (Robes, light armor, heavy armor, massive armor.) The prodigy lets it also be used on a few additional types.

Imbuing the staff crystal isn't exactly a particularly good idea. If you aren't making a staff out of it, it's best to just carry it for the passive +1 light radius.


And a nifty secret if you want to learn imbue item: If you save a second alchemist and already have the tree from your first one, learn the TALENT stone touch, and it can SAVE you one generic point. Imbue item requires you learn 1 other talent from the tree. Stone touch is the 4th talent in the same tree. Therefor, you can skip learning extract gem. (And for non-alchemists, extract gem is not particularly useful unless you pump it high, and even then, only gives you bonus cash, since you won't be using alchemist gems.)

I think that covered everything, if I left something out, someone chime in.

You can get the Stone Alchemy tree, locked, from alchemist escorts, as long as you aren't betraying them to zigur. Stone Alchemy alone only lets you imbue for chest armor, but it can also produce the gems to imbue rings and amulets. The amulets are a quest from a drop and you might not always get it. You don't need Stone Alchemy at all to imbue amulets and rings, but it helps to get the gems you want. Jewelry also only works with white quality items, while Stone Alchemy lets you upgrade artifacts and items with egos.

All together with prodigy, and jewelry you can get 7 gems imbued. The amulet can't take two gems of the same kind, but you can for example do a tier 5 and a tier 4 that are both resist all.

You also get more money to buy randarts in Last Hope if you convert all your drops into gems.

And yes there are several artifact gems such as the Goedaleth rock that gives 50% healing mod and telepathy demon and some other stuff. Some living bark that gives 25 con and some other stats, great for classes with the Conditioning tree. And the Telos' Staff Crystal you mentioned.

Dang, one thing I learned already from this, which makes me feel pretty stupid--I should have been selling almost all my gems in town. I used to do that, but ever since the transmog chest, I never sell anything in towns, and I forgot about gems. I can't transmog gems, but I can go to a shop and sell all of them (or at least the couple I intend to use). I just accumulated 100 gems in my inventory of the reaver I just won with Could have probably gotten another merchant artifact chance. Gah.

Regarding Goedalath, does that act as a normal gem, so if I had a voratun white ring, I could imbue it with Goedalath?

In summary, here are the methods for imbuing as I understand them, then, from the above (where in each case equipment tier >= gem tier):

RING Go to jeweler in Angolwen or Sunwall
AMULET Talk to Limmir, win valley of moon, talk Limmir again, have white voratun amulet (TWO gems)
CHEST Take Stone Alchemy as alchie reward, pump up imbue item, apply to chest armor
OTHER Take super-imbue prodigy

That's it, right?

You can indeed transmog gems. Just go to the gem tab, click the gem, and click transmog. Do be aware, that unless something changed, it mogs the whole stack. This shouldn't be an issue for you, but it is annoying for alchemists to deal with.

And don't forget that you have to already HAVE the imbue item ability in order to make use of the prodigy.

And yes, special gems can go into rings of the appropriate tier. (Goedelath rock will need a tier 5 ring for instance.)

Yep, that is it unless you are an alchemist.
How much more did you want anyway?

The guy will enchant more than one amulet - which is useful, for example, if you use it to max cover against a nasty status, then later find a different item which does that for you. Finding enough top-tier plain amulets, there's the rub ...

Well, you could always kill a certain boss, who always drops 2 voratun amulets. Of course, if you can manage that, you probably don't need the amulets anymore.

Ok, some misinformation there.

Any class can get the stone alchemy tree from escorting an alchemist. They are spells though so you cannot use it if you align zigur. 11 generic talents is a high price to pay though.

IF you get stone alchemy you will want 5/5/1/0 at the least. The additional levels let you transform higher level, and imbue higher level gems. A 5 skill is required to transform voratun or imbue rank 5 gems like diamonds.

You can get any number of necklaces imbued in the east after you do the quest as long as you have blanks. You can do lower tier necks but it is useless to do so.

The best rings come from the dwarf encounter since you can imbue them with an extra gem. Several artifact necks are just as useful as the ones you can make. (the fire damage neck and the telepathy distance neck along with a telepathy all item are both extraordinary)

Bigger misconception, that you need 5/5/1/0

Granted, if you can swing it, gem portal is sort of useful, but by the time non-alchemist classes get to the late game, you should just find enough gems to use what you find (and the best ones to imbue are artifacts anyway), and extract at 5 is rather a waste at that point. Outside of bombs/golem, you don't need many alchemist gems (tier 1 ones work just fine for portal).

What's more, if you get 2 escorts, you can go 0/5/1/1, or even 0/5/0/1 to save on generic points. To learn imbue, you need 1 other talent in the tree, but the game doesn't care which other talent that is. If you get stone beam from another escort, that counts as '1 talent'. Therefore, you can learn imbue and put points into it, without wasting a generic point beforehand.

skein wrote: The best rings come from the dwarf encounter since you can imbue them with an extra gem.

Dwarf encounter???

But is imbuing really worth it?

The stats on gems or kinda mediocre, and even artifact ones aren't quite overwhelming. It is kinda justifiable on rings as imbuing a ring only costs a bit of gold, and they're light enough to carry a bunch for situational use. By the time you get the ability to imbue amulets, you'll probably already have enough amulets to cover most of your needs. But still, it's cheap enough, so no biggie. However, a category point and up to six generic points seems (to me at least) way too high a price for the benefit of adding the effects of one measly gem. Similarly, I cannot think of many scenarios that justify spending a prodigy to get the benefit of two extra gems, not with so many excellent prodigies to choose from.

I feel imbuing in general needs a bit of buff up. maybe make it so that the skill allows you to imbue more types of items at higher levels (e.g. lvl1 torso, lvl2 belt, lvl3 head) and the prodigy adds two more item types (gloves and shoes maybe? and then we can rename it to "Diamonds on the soles of her shoes (Awa! Awa!)") and ALSO allows re-socketing gems for more situational utility.

Do you think these changes would overpower the skill and the prodigy? Do you think they're fine as they are right now, and use them regularly on some builds?

The benefit of the category point + 10 generic points is not limited to gaining one gem power on your body armor.

The MAIN benefit comes at 1 cat point +5 generic points, and that benefit is HUGE piles of gold. Huge piles of gold = faster store items, more Merchant items, and faster access to Staff and/or Mindstar training (though you have to be careful of various timing issues if you want to use Arcane spells to gain Mindstar training).

The other benefit which applies to Alchemists is that they can buff TWO relevant bits of body armor: their own, and their golem's. So for the main audience (Alchemists) the tree is more than twice as useful as it is to outsiders.

IMHO that's fine, non-Alchemists don't need to get as much benefit from Stone Alchemy as Alchemists do.

Imbuing outside of alchemist doesn't require 10 generic points. It requires 6. Or 5 if you're clever and lucky. You find enough stuff to imbue normally, just from ordinary loot, without needing extract. Non alchemists can invest 1 point in extract, just to get to imbue for 5 points there.

Now, as for the next part, if you're REALLY lucky, you can save 2 alchemist escorts. If you first learn the tree (and unlock it, of course) you need 1 talent known in order to sink points into imbue. A second alchemist escort, can teach you stone beam. This counts as 1 talent known, allowing you to sink 5 points into imbue, without wasting one on extract. And that's all a non-alchemist needs.

Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:Imbuing outside of alchemist doesn't require 10 generic points.

Are you ignoring the HUGE piles of gold you get from gemming all the cheap items?

That's a valid expert strategy, but it sacrifices an easier early game for a more powerful late game.