What's the best way to use non native gems ?

[DeathDaemon]

I play both MP and SP. Obviously there are quite a number of path boosters and for the most part they are all a better value then empowerment. It just seems that it takes at least 2, sometimes 4 or 5 sages boosted and empowered to lvls 2-6+ (for EACH gem type) to keep my gem income in check. That's quite a lot of gems spent just to be able to use the gems, and time/money to do this - wasting time for the rainbow pretender to search, initial creation of some boosting items, and summoning commanders.

Ok if they aren't used it's a bigger waste, but I was just curious to see how you guys spend your gems. Of course if you have national, cheap mages with randoms I'd empower/boost them before a sage, but for most nations I end up with a lot of gems invested into making more powerful sages.