Gem power being so strong and set charm GA's being locked behind cube rerolls makes the game feel like gambling, not gaming.
TLDR: This post is specifically talking about end game pushing. Yes, I know you don't need this stuff for the vast majority of content. I don't mind good gear being "hard to get," I do mind "hard" being standing in town for an hour holding down Y (transmute) 3 seconds at a time and not *doing things*. This being an *option* would also be fine if it were not the *only* option.
Getting gear was fun. The loot pinatas and hoping for the piece I needed (Selig) to complete my build was a fun chase (I ended up getting lucky on a craft, but I digress).
I am now stuck (solo) on Pit ~135. I can complete it with a couple minutes to spare. To get any further I need Gem Power on one or more weapons and/or GA rolls on my charms. Both of these are trapped behind cube gambling.
Like I don't even care about weapon drops anymore because Gem Power > GA's on weapons. I don't care about charm drops because they *can't* drop with GA's.
So I go out and farm for a while hoping something good drops. Get a collection together and then spend the next hour crunching (salvage/3 to 1 cube) everything because it didn't roll gem power.
I feel like I spend more time clicking "transmute" over and over in town than I do playing the game.
I'd argue the same problem exists with the new random stat uniques (my Gohr's and Ramalamadingdong are both still garbage), but thankfully only one of them *could* roll gem power and thankfully there are 3 other slots to choose from.