New gem values are better but still far from balanced. E.G. red gems in secondary still completely ■■■■ on yellow gems: +25 attack is +37.5 attack on a crit so it’s just literally always better than the +35 crit attack even at 100% critrate. IMC consistently appears to be really bad at math. The only class that could possibly benefit from yellow gems in this instance would be Highlander, except their +50% crit attack only applies when using a 2H anyway.
Primary weapon gem balance is better, just because it’s not a single obvious no-brainer for all builds. I think you’ll usually take either green or yellow on physical attackers, but red might have a niche - for example on Fencer or anyone else who can increase their crit damage multiplier, or any class that ends up having a tier 0 modifier (pre-crit attack) skill as its main damage source like Scout3 Split Arrow (largely irrelevant in R8). Blue gems are still terrible though, so you actually want red gems on magic users now. That’s hilarious. Magic users also still have no gem to boost their offensive stats on offhands.
New yellow gems are a pretty substantial indirect buff to dipping a circle or three into Highlander as a 2H Swordy, that’s a free +700 crit attack just from 3 level 7 yellow gems in your 2H sword. Previously it was too difficult to obtain high levels of crit attack on a non-STR build (which wouldn’t be critting that often anyway) for it to be noticeable. Pretty nice. Also interesting that previously secondary weapons were better in all categories, and now they’re only better for crit rate.