No room for experiment

I'm in interlude act 2 and have absolutely zero uncut support gems to experiment and try different stuff. I've accidentally got one in act 2 interlude and that's it. Either I do everything right and choose the best support I can or I'm screwed. Is that how it supposed to be? Or experiments are for endgame only? Guess the ability to buy supports would be really nice.

are you playing ssf?

yep pretty much my experience so far too...

-no room to experiment because no gems
-no gold to play with skill tree because I'm praying the vendor will roll upgrades at next level and I have to save to purchase anything
-much more likely you pick the 'wrong' combo of gem / support than the useable ones
-support gems suggested BY THE FKIN GAME are objectively dogshit compared to other options apparently, only way I figured this out was by watching a guide

-oh and btw, you can't even look at the skill or support without any uncut gem of the appropriate level


godspeed friend, I don't have any answers other than 'yep im pretty much screwed too'

Intended - I think not (last "league" I do not remember being gem starved in the beginning).
Happening - yeah. Me too. There is little room for experiment in the bigger picture as well, not just in gems, but I digress

IMO there should just be a gem merchant like in PoE1 and it can gate power behind how far in the acts you are also like in PoE1.

This also means your alts will be able to hit the ground a lot stronger which makes alt leveling far less painful. It's fine if gems are expensive, i feel like we need an end game gold sink anyways.

Just my thoughts anyways. I'm sure the worry is it makes things too easy but as it is until I'm like midway into maps I don't feel like trying anything weird with my build cause support gems are rare, so I'll go with the more obvious ways to scale damage.