Stone of Change - Eldritch Rituals Cookbook

[Inkblack]

...

If this is true then we do have a problem figuring out how to control the final Supreme Power Shard combination, or we have to find the dominant combinations and prepare the items properly through the first two altars.

Nice post, you've given me some hope. I think you can eliminate the second possibility (preparing properly through the first 2 altars) based on Eladrin's last post:

An item that possesses "Balance of Land and Sky" does possess an upgrade path, it is not bugged.

Ink

[oronisi]

I've written and deleted a rant four times now. I don't think anyone will be terribly disappointed by my use of the backspace key.

I do have one question: Is crafting in other MMO's this complicated? This is my first and only MMO, I honestly don't know.

Ink

Crafting in SWG was MORE complicated, but easier to comprehend the basics. If you set out to make a potato gun (and had the schematic / recipe) you would be clearly walked through step by step until you had a potato gun. It would just be a crappy potato gun.

It's hard to compare to this system since this isn't really crafting. DDO implemented raid loot via recipes. The most similar thing I can compare this to is the horoderick cube from Diablo 2. With that thing you had the same, drop in random rare items and hope to get something cool out of it.

[Drith]

I've written and deleted a rant four times now. I don't think anyone will be terribly disappointed by my use of the backspace key.

I do have one question: Is crafting in other MMO's this complicated? This is my first and only MMO, I honestly don't know.

Ink

I too will say Yes and No.

Sometimes in MMO's you have recipies given to you in the game. Other times you have our current situation in that you have a bunch of ingredients and are trying to figure out the recipies by trial and error.

Usually when you have the recipies there is a great deal of work involved in building your skill up in say smithing or tailoring or what have you and this takes weeks and sometimes months to do and consumes a TONNE of money and resources in the process. As well with the unknown UBER recipies, there have been other MMO's who have done this where the actual recipe took thousands of people 4 plus months to figure out and even then it was only figured out because of strong pressure from the MMO community to get the developers to drop hints for them.

So yeah.... this system so far is pretty simple. The other thing that's nice with THIS system is there's no penalty for failing other then loosing your power shard. In other MMO's if you fail you lose ALL your ingredients. Which SUCKS hardcore@!

[Boulderun]

I have to say, while this period of discovery is fun, collectively, to participate in, it must absolutely suck to be the guy who expends 24 large ingredients to find out that BaLoS/BaLoS doesn't work.

And that, I think, probably means there something wrong with this system/information release methodology.

No kidding. If I had 10 more large ingredients (instead of the 10 large horns), I'd have been that guy.

[Vienemen]

Would be nice if that essence of cleansing after your 20th run would either allow you to remove the taint on an item or allow you to disassemble an upgraded green steel item into its base components and ingredients.

[binnsr]

Would be nice if that essence of cleansing after your 20th run would either allow you to remove the taint on an item or allow you to disassemble an upgraded green steel item into its base components and ingredients.

Is it confirmed that you WILL get one after 20 runs?

[Aesop]

That's my guess as well. Balance of Land and Sky is upgraded with Fire and Water.

Balance of Elemental Harmony

sounds... balanced

Aesop

[Borror0]

Balance of Elemental Harmony

Why not simply "Elemental Harmony"?

[Yaga_Nub]

Is it confirmed that you WILL get one after 20 runs?

No, it hasn't been confirmed.

[Aesop]

Why not simply "Elemental Harmony"?

yeah I thought of that after I hit post...


Aesop

[Missing_Minds]

Would be nice if that essence of cleansing after your 20th run would either allow you to remove the taint on an item or allow you to disassemble an upgraded green steel item into its base components and ingredients.

heck, is there even raid loot at the end of this raid given the fact we are making our own item?

[Vienemen]

I have not read that yet from turbine no. Only hearsay on my part.

[maddmatt70]

Would be nice if that essence of cleansing after your 20th run would either allow you to remove the taint on an item or allow you to disassemble an upgraded green steel item into its base components and ingredients.

To be honest I hope that these are just a couple of the options. Other options that would be nice would be crafting a weapon (axes, rapiers, etc.) of your choice, +3 tomes, a "special ingredient" which can be used in combination with the other ingredients to make the most powerful items/weapons..

[Aesop]

To be honest I hope that these are just a couple of the options. Other options that would be nice would be crafting a weapon (axes, rapiers, etc.) of your choice, +3 tomes, a "special ingredient" which can be used in combination with the other ingredients to make the most powerful items/weapons..

I could see as a 20th completion reward a choice of Greensteel Blanks that are not craftable.

Aesop

[Riggs]

I have to say, while this period of discovery is fun, collectively, to participate in, it must absolutely suck to be the guy who expends 24 large ingredients to find out that BaLoS/BaLoS doesn't work.

And that, I think, probably means there something wrong with this system/information release methodology.

Indeed.

Not only was there a simple path to tier 3, but a second more complicated path, now a third yet more complicated one for 'special' upgrades. "Sorry you spent weeks, and borrow ingredients from other people to test out this system - no tier 3 for you. See you tomorrow when you start trying to collect another 24 large ingredients"

[Borror0]

I could see as a 20th completion reward a choice of Greensteel Blanks that are not craftable.

That would nice but also sad. I mean, are battle axes/dwarven axes/rapiers that overpowered?

A dwarven axe or Greataxe doesn't even compare to the power of a second Green Steel accessory...

[Borror0]

Not only was there a simple path to tier 3, but a second more complicated path, now a third yet more complicated one for 'special' upgrades. "Sorry you spent weeks, and borrow ingredients from other people to test out this system - no tier 3 for you. See you tomorrow when you start trying to collect another 24 large ingredients"

It'd be nice to get the chance to be able to retrieve a certain percentage of the ingrediants used to made a Green Steel item by dismanteling it. Not all of them as it'd allow endless "testing", but lowering the costs of discovery would certainly be nice.

[Ilandrya]

Eh, it can be looked at in two ways, and each have equal merit IMHO.

1) Those that worked so hard and put all the time and effort in testing various combinations should be rewarded for their efforts, not penalized for them with an item they feel is "gimped"... an item that they would not have created had they known the outcome for certain in advance. In other words, those who put in the work should receive at least an equal, if not greater, reward for their efforts than those who are just using existing recipes others have worked hard to come up with.

2) Those that choose to experiment are those who obviously take the most risk. So one could say that the knowledge that their item may not turn out as uber as those to come later when the process was more understood was a known risk they were taking, a risk that they should not have taken if they weren't willing to risk a loss.

As a side note, I'm glad they changed the clw clicky to Panacea... it was really sub par for the level. I'm also similarly really under enthused about the improved/greater/superior VI to one spell line from the green steel weapons. Why put in all the hard work for that when you can simply pick up a superior potency VI item in the auction house that does the same thing but for all spells not just one line? Heck, there is even greater potency VII now that is relatively easy to come by without all the effort of crafting. A lot of work for something with less effect than is currently readily available = pointless. To put these on par with the uber damage typing that non casters are getting and make them worthwhile to have on green steel weapons, they'd have to be improved/greater/superior VIII to one line of spells, or maybe improved/greater/superior potency VII with some kind of spell penetration bonus or something tied into the same line.

I understand this may have been an effort on the part of the developers to equalize the damage that casters do vs. non casters in higher end content to be more in keeping with other mmo's. (Although if I remember correctly... haven't played pen and paper since 1986... this is just how it is in D&D... at high levels, casters do more damage than tank types but tanks are just as necessary... they are the "meat shields", if you will, that allow the casters to live long enough to do the damage they do.) However, if that was their aim, they would have been better off creating something else of use than producing a line of upgrades inferior to what already exists in game.

[maddmatt70]

As a side note, I'm glad they changed the clw clicky to Panacea... it was really sub par for the level. I'm also similarly really under enthused about the improved/greater/superior VI to one spell line from the green steel weapons. Why put in all the hard work for that when you can simply pick up a superior potency VI item in the auction house that does the same thing but for all spells not just one line? Heck, there is even greater potency VII now that is relatively easy to come by without all the effort of crafting. A lot of work for something with less effect than is currently readily available = pointless. To put these on par with the uber damage typing that non casters are getting and make them worthwhile to have on green steel weapons, they'd have to be improved/greater/superior potency VIII or maybe VII with some kind of spell penetration bonus or something tied into the same line.

From what I can tell (cambo doesn't have one listed as upgrded to the third tier) nobody has every upgraded one of those lines (Ethereal + Dominion + X) to the third tier. My guess is that the third tier will have something better then superior devotion VI, superior combustion VI, etc. Everybody has been complaining about how there should be a superior devotion VII and greater devotion VIII items out there in the loot tables. The real question is why hasn't Turbine put them out in the loot tables. One possible answer is they want it only to happen when you upgrade a steel green weapon to the third tier right now...

[Borror0]

One possible answer is they want it only to happen when you upgrade a steel green weapon to the third tier right now...

I've been thinking the same, but who would be willing to waste 12 large ingrediants to try that?