Agree on the gold, but probably the wrong direction to go on the XP for decons.

Instead of 1/2/3/4/5, shift it to 0/2/4/6/8 and you fix it and still give a little perk for deconning items on one particular character. Meh.

I thought I'd take this time to answer some of the questions about where crafting is headed.

I will be updating this post periodically to expand on some of these answers and include answers to additional questions.


Q. Why is crafting in 'beta'?
A. Crafting is a large, complex system that we knew was going to evolve and for which we wanted a variety of feedback. While we knew we would get some amount of feedback from our restricted Mournlands server, we wanted to ensure that we were hearing from a wider audience with different play styles (casual versus veterans etc).

Q. Who is crafting intended for?
A. Players of all levels and playstyles who are attracted to this type of activity. It exists as an alternate avenue to acquire gear, where players can have a higher degree of control over the gear they acquire, even if it does take some time.

Q. Why does deconstructing items give platinum?
A. There is an obvious cost to deconstructing items that effects low level players much more than high level players. To help offset this, players will automatically sell recyclable materials left over from deconstruction. Higher level items produce less raw materials than lower level ones.

Q. Will I be able to make better items than raid loot?
A. Not at this time. Raid loot is currently has the highest level of items in the game. It is possible that in the future we consider including a crafting avenue to enhance existing raid loot, but we have no firm plans at the moment.

Q. Why do some higher level recipes require rare ingredients?
A. As designers, we have an obligation to balance the game. Some of the higher level recipes can result in very powerful items. Since players really only need one crafter for all their characters, we want to ensure that it's not just all about reaching the required crafting level, but having the appropriate ingredients so that making a number of these items isn't trivial.

Q. Why Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments?
A. This is way for us to introduce flexibilty for players. It's a way allowing a recipe to accept a number of different substitutes for an ingredient. Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments will appear in treasure chests, but can also be bartered for using a variety of different items.

Q. Why allow Astral Diamonds to be bartered for Purified Eberron Dragonshard Fragments?
A. Astral Diamonds were conceived as a different type of currency in game. Yes, they are available in the store for convenience purposes, but they also drop in game. We have increased the drop rate of these in Update 10 Patch 2.

Q. What is the highest level of bound recipes? Will it go higher?
A. At the moment, 100. This may be increased in the future as we add more recipes.

Q. Will the crafting limit change in Update 11?
A. Bound recipes will remain capped at level 100, unbound will increase to 150. Udpate 11 will see some additional recipes at various levels beween 1 & 100.

Q. Any other crafting changes in Update 11?
A. We expect to make further balance changes based on feedback from Update 10Patches 1 & 2. The reason for Update 10 Patch 2 was to fix some mechanical errors with crafting, not balance changes. That said, we have managed to include a few balance changes in order get further feedback, but additional changes will most likely go into Update 11.

Q. What can I do to improve crafting?
A. Give us your feedback as constructively as you can. It's in everyone's best interest for us to make crafting as fun and fair as we can. We need your feedback. If you don't feel comfortable posting on the forums, please PM myself (MadFloyd).


Thanks in advance for your participation and feedback.

How about grinding without an auto clicker à la every other grind in the game (DT, Epic Items etc)?

But it seems no one likes that idea.

I do Draz! I have been saving all my collectibles forever!

I agree with you.  The main thing I am hearing and voicing is that instead of making new crafting ingredients they should make more use out of current gems and collectibles.  We use a couple of collectibles now but we literally have 100's to be able to use.

Ex.  You want an undead bane sure use some finger bones or funeral tokens, you want a greater undead bane use necromantic gems and so forth and so on.  But it seems no one likes that idea. 

Draz

Hell no on gems.  If I have to start weeding "good" gems from junk ones instead of just clicking "sell gems" I'll be very irritated.

Even collectibles I can't say I'm fond of.  They drop proportionately to how many nodes you click.  Not how many quests your complete, or how challenging those quests are.  At least currently, essences are acquired roughly in proportion to the level of quests you run.  And even then, I don't think there's enough reward for pursuing challenge.

If collectibles become important, the optimal way to craft is to farm things like Tangleroot over and over.

I agree with you.  The main thing I am hearing and voicing is that instead of making new crafting ingredients they should make more use out of current gems and collectibles.  We use a couple of collectibles now but we literally have 100's to be able to use.

Ex.  You want an undead bane sure use some finger bones or funeral tokens, you want a greater undead bane use necromantic gems and so forth and so on.  But it seems no one likes that idea. 

Draz

Where did that come from?  I can't see it in the dev tracker.  Or I'm just blind again.