If you have the magicians pouch: traits haste, swarms and orblets.
if you don't want stress set the haste only to medium, swarm and orblets full. use only red gems because then the swarms will be a peace of cake. and the orblets give you a significant mana stream. the only thing you have to care for is that the monsters don't steal the orblets.
and if, you still can get them back on their way towards the exit.
i made a jump today from level 85 to 96 on a few fields.
Once you reach around level 140 or 150, you can start manafarming. It's actually a very effective way of getting even MOAR mana from the monsters. Essentially, find a favorable field with only one entrance, put a gem with the specs listed in a trap and surround it with 6 pure black amplifiers. Bloodbound and chain hit gem skills preferred, mana leeching gem skill required, all three are recommended to be maxed out. - G1 Red - G1 Orange - G2 Black (White if you don't have Bloodbound available to you)
my question was why not create a higher grade gem from start ?
ok, i will make it clear: you create a gem with three components, two grade 1, one grade 2. of course you can upgrade it. you also could create a gem with two grade 4, one grade 8. or do i miss something ?
that was my point. i am not amused being called stupid.
From what I understand, the reason you start your manafarm gem using two grade 1 gems and a grade 2 gem, rather than something higher, is because upgrading it 'roperly' gives better specs than just starting with a grade 8 gem. There's a thread around somewhere that goes into the details, but basically if you use pure gems to upgrade with rather than jut hitting 'U', you end up with better specials overall. (This thread, actually. 4th post: http://armorgames.com/community/thread/12307857/gemcraft-2-cs-mana-farm-help)
