YouTuber posits that it takes over $100,000 to max out gear in Diablo Immortal

destructoid.com:

So we knew that Diablo Immortal would have microtransactions. The team has been kind of mum on them overall outside of general platitudes that they wouldn’t impact the game that much: but several posts and YouTube channels are actually breaking this down the new monetization model scientifically, and things aren’t looking good for Diablo Immortal max stat requirements.

That material includes a Reddit post by daymeeuhn that showcases how far the stat and gem rabbit hole goes, a full explanation of pay-to-win from Gregg2G, and a rundown from the Bellular News channel. Let’s break this down. A lot of the onus on the cracks in this system falls on legendary gems.

Legendary gems can drastically increase your stats, to the point where they can outweigh multiple slots of “traditional gear.” You can get these, quasi-indirectly, through microtransactions: via buying “legendary or rare crests [boosters]” to go on better Elder Rift runs (randomized dungeon runs from Diablo 3). Legendary gems are so rare that at the current moment, you essentially need to purchase crests to see them drop reliably. While crests are technically given out as free rewards (at a limit of only a few a day for rare, and only a few a month for legendary), the chance of earning a legendary gem is very low (evidently 10%) compared to the drastically increased drop rate from premium legendary crests. It’s also important to note that legendary gems have rarity levels, and free players cannot earn legendary gems higher than a “2-star rating.” This isn’t even taking into account the “Awakening” and “Resonance” mechanics, which further upgrade gear via premium dawning echo items.

Gregg2G posits that one player, the “Whale,” who is at the top of the PVP charts,