Well, i went from level 78 to level 3105 in one map (could have gone as high as i wanted), immediately after acquiring poolbound. (just use chain hit + mana leech + poolbound in a trap)
It's even easier to go infinite than Gemcraft Labryinth, which ruined that game too. The original ones were better thought out.
Not much point in playing more. Maybe add some challenge in a patch? It shouldn't be possible to do infinite endurance waves. It will take very significant changes to those gems to make it not possible.
Actually, GCL isn't much different from GC0 (lime gem aside). If GC0 had "upgrade" and "duplicate" buttons (and better performance), it would too had ridiculous orange gem towers.
I may be a noob, but to me endurance seems like a bad feature in it's current form. The fact that you can level up countless times in them and after doing a few you become so high leveled there's barely any difficulty left in the game makes them bad. I think they either shouldn't give xp so they are only there for fun, or better: give xp limited by your normal mode completion xp.
Just my 2 cents about p2w. Buyuing shadow core at first look seemed p2w... but it could help start faster even so you still have to win the level. As you level up you get more and more shadows core. So i think that was a good idea to port this supporting option.
Performance wise you can summon ton of monsters and it still go superfast.
Im missing my amplifiers... i also spoted some compass, but this one was clickable, could spin it.
So far the mosg annoying beacons are the one who unsocket your gems
*sees e+27 hp on a possessed reaver wave* the hp has no cap...THE HP HAS NO CAP NOW! gah, now THATS some extreme monster hp.
also, that chain hit + mana leech + poolbound combo is godly in a trap, just be careful of the game freezing for several seconds after each hit with higher grades (grade 40 and above)
I just beaten V3, 13 grade main gem (R/O/W) + 8 grade 9s in amplifiers. Last monters were giants so it was bolt-freeze-curse, rinse, repeat. 320K XP, but I believe it can be done better.
where is the barrage skill? (i'll probably find it not too long after typing this >.> Q6 says its in R1 but i already cleared that field and i don't think it gave barrage as the tooltip says chamber already opened.
X5 complete and yet there still a few mysteries...like those compasses and now i seem to be missing a hext with no obvious way of accessing it, hextile S.