Excess Epic Shards and Seals

[NexEverto]

So a few days ago I got my third Large Ingredients Bag to stash away my assortment of mostly useless Seals and Shards from the various epics I run, and I started wondering, besides destroying them, what could they be useful for? Two ideas came to mind.

Idea One - Seal/Shard Token Exchange.
Come Update 9 Epic Crafting is getting a exchange interface, so I figured why not add the option to trade in unwanted Seals and Shards for either one complete Token, or 1d100 Token Fragments. Although Tokens and Fragments aren't particularly hard to come by, at least this way unwanted Seals or Shards could be put to a good use and I (As well as many others I know) wouldn't need to cautiously buy Large/Huge Bags to store whatever we won't be using in the foreseeable future.

Idea Two - Random Seal/Shard Generation List.
I'm sure this idea has been brought up before, but another way to put unwanted Seals and Shards to use could be by having a 'Dragontouched Rune' lotto system. For example, by turning in 3 Seals from the Red Fens, you have the chance of getting any Random Seal from that same area. Turning in 3 Sands Shard, you'd get your shot at a random Sand Shard. To me, this seem more complicated to implement, however for those who don't want more Tokens, this could be a good system.

I know with Update 9 a few days away it's not going to be put in the next update, however, I thought I'd put the idea forward to see how it's received. For anyone who thinks this systems is going to make the game 'too easy' I'd love to know how, but hopefully that won't be an issue.

Summary:
Idea One - Epic Seal/Shard Exchange for 1d100 Token Fragments or complete Token.
Idea Two - 3 Epic Seal/Shard trade in for randomly generated Epic Seal/Shard.

[Junts]

The main problem with this is that it would encourage people to take every shard they ever get instead of giving it to people who dont already have 3 copies of it.

[deadkitty]

Token Exchange:

Trade in current raid and dugenoun tokens for a randomly generated list of seals/shards/scrolls.

[sirgog]

The main problem with this is that it would encourage people to take every shard they ever get instead of giving it to people who dont already have 3 copies of it.

This.

I'm in a similar situation (~50 different Shards in my bags, ~60 unique seals), but every seal or shard that drops under my name, is a high priority for someone else in the group and I don't need goes to them.

Sharing is the standard on at least Khyber at the moment, and I'd rather keep that the case.

[NexEverto]

The main problem with this is that it would encourage people to take every shard they ever get instead of giving it to people who dont already have 3 copies of it.

Agreed.

Slight over sight on my behalf I guess, not everyone is going to be as generous with their Seals/Shards my ideas are put in place, I guess it'd only really be effective for those who Solo Farm Seals and Shards a lot, since, that's about the only time you're stuck with whatever you pull. Still, honestly I'd love to see players still be generous with their Seals/Shards if someone else does want it, though I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Junts]

Agreed.

Slight over sight on my behalf I guess, not everyone is going to be as generous with their Seals/Shards my ideas are put in place, I guess it'd only really be effective for those who Solo Farm Seals and Shards a lot, since, that's about the only time you're stuck with whatever you pull. Still, honestly I'd love to see players still be generous with their Seals/Shards if someone else does want it, though I wouldn't hold my breath.

It would really depend on zone.

In some zones, seals are annoying enough to acquire that no one en ds up with a stack of 10 of them, evne if they run the quests that drop them a lot, becuase they get distributed.

On the other hand, there's the desert where 75% of seals are never used because of how hard shards are to get for exp zone gear + eadq chest farming, and dozens of seals could be converted.

But anything that encourages people to loot that shard of thornlord instead of giving it away because they can try to roll for a bloodstone shard with it is bad, since they're all so crazy rare.

[lugoman]

This.

I'm in a similar situation (~50 different Shards in my bags, ~60 unique seals), but every seal or shard that drops under my name, is a high priority for someone else in the group and I don't need goes to them.

Sharing is the standard on at least Khyber at the moment, and I'd rather keep that the case.

I dont think this will be much of a problem. There are three levels of seals/shards:

1 Rare and Useful: These will always be looted (or traded in guild) and rarely put up for roll.

2 Semi Useful to Particular Builds (or I am making this just because I got the other 2 ingreds): These will be put up for a roll if (unlikely) someone wants it.

3 Totally Useless: No one will ever make these items unless they have an epic altar fetish.

1 and 3 make up 80% of all seals/shards. So only about 20% of the drops would succumb to the 'I'm looting this to turn in even though you need it' scenario.

[NexEverto]

It would really depend on zone.

In some zones, seals are annoying enough to acquire that no one en ds up with a stack of 10 of them, evne if they run the quests that drop them a lot, becuase they get distributed.

On the other hand, there's the desert where 75% of seals are never used because of how hard shards are to get for exp zone gear + eadq chest farming, and dozens of seals could be converted.

But anything that encourages people to loot that shard of thornlord instead of giving it away because they can try to roll for a bloodstone shard with it is bad, since they're all so crazy rare.

Of course, there's always going to be exceptions to people keeping whatever Seals or Shards drop for them. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who honestly won't care about using Seals or Shards to get Tokens or other Shards/Seals simply because they have so many of them, already have what they want, or are just generous enough to help others.

Using your example of the Sands, the Shards for items such as the Bloodstone and Thornlord (Both of which I'm after) I can already point out over a dozen instances where people have either gotten and kept a Shard that has no apparent use to them, or rolled one one for the sake of rolling on it. So, honestly, I don't see a dramatic change for that particular instance. I know off hand there are people who want Seals and Shards just for the sake of having them, though I can imagine it wouldn't help the situation at all.

Just like to add, I believe that if something drops for you in a chest you can either 1. Keep it. 2. Pass it. 3. Roll it. So I'm not having a go at anyone who's kept a Seal or Shard I want even if it has no use for them after its dropped for them, just using it as an example. Rolling on an item/seal/shard which has no use for you however, I do frown upon.

[sirgog]

I dont think this will be much of a problem. There are three levels of seals/shards:

1 Rare and Useful: These will always be looted (or traded in guild) and rarely put up for roll.

2 Semi Useful to Particular Builds (or I am making this just because I got the other 2 ingreds): These will be put up for a roll if (unlikely) someone wants it.

3 Totally Useless: No one will ever make these items unless they have an epic altar fetish.

1 and 3 make up 80% of all seals/shards. So only about 20% of the drops would succumb to the 'I'm looting this to turn in even though you need it' scenario.

There's a lot more in group 2 than you give credit to.

Take the Red Fens:

1 - Claw gloves, Claw bracers, Twisted Talisman
2 - Mire ring, Mire boots (only to someone that wears the ring as a fulltime item), Elder's Cap, Frozen Plate (less so post U9), Scrag greatclub (mainly for the lulz but it is popular), Venom set (both), Robe of Dissonance, Sacred Helm, Shatterbow, Souleater
3 - The rest

All of those items in 2 are either best in slot for a rare build (e.g. Robe of Dissonance on Archmages with Evocation offspec), best at a niche use (Souleater against epic elementals, Shatterbow against Shroud portals), or are good enough to wear while getting better items (Frozen Plate) or combine multiple useful effects on one item (Elder's Cap, Sacred Helm)

[HarveyMilk]

Epic tokens are so easy to come by. And if this were implemented, they would be even easier to come by. If someone loots one you need for one token (or god forbid 1d100 fragments) then at least you know who not to group with next time.

[sirgog]

Epic tokens are so easy to come by. And if this were implemented, they would be even easier to come by. If someone loots one you need for one token (or god forbid 1d100 fragments) then at least you know who not to group with next time.

I for one need over 200 tokens to finish socketing my either always-equipped or frequently used epic items, and before recent tech issues used to run Big Top (solely for tokens) and Devil Assault (half for tokens, half for Shroud mats) as much as I could. Only 30 of these are for Cove items.

Almost every epic weapon needs 30 tokens (for Good alignment) to be worthwhile in the harder Epics (Devil Assault and Chrono DR is mostly 20-30/good). Almost every epic armor pushes you towards adding Toughness to its blue slot (30 tokens) and ditching Minos for a Min 2 helm.


If this were implemented, I'd ransack DQ1 on every toon I had for seals to crunch into tokens.

[furbyoats]

I like the first suggestion for the 1d100 shards, or even 1d50...i have way too many junk shards to know what to do with.

I think the exchange for a random seal/shard would lead to greed but the token turn in would be more reasonable.

If nothing else it gives you an option to do something with all the extras nobody wanted.

Good idea sir, as long as the reward isn't too great that it would make people mindlessly greedy.

Also would like to see a conversion method for Epic Raid Tokens to Epic Dungeon Tokens...seems the raid tokens just arent as valuable as the dungeon tokens...idk, just my 2 cents

[NexEverto]

I like the first suggestion for the 1d100 shards, or even 1d50...i have way too many junk shards to know what to do with.

I think the exchange for a random seal/shard would lead to greed but the token turn in would be more reasonable.

If nothing else it gives you an option to do something with all the extras nobody wanted.

Good idea sir, as long as the reward isn't too great that it would make people mindlessly greedy.

Also would like to see a conversion method for Epic Raid Tokens to Epic Dungeon Tokens...seems the raid tokens just arent as valuable as the dungeon tokens...idk, just my 2 cents

As much as I hate the idea of getting so few but 1d50 Shards could be a low enough number to help prevent greed talked about throughout the thread. As for your idea of turning Epic Raid Tokens into Epic Dungeon Tokens, that can be done through putting a Raid Token in the Stone of change and hitting 'Active Stone'. This will convert one Raid Token into a Dungeon Token. In U9 however that can be done through the standard Epic Altar through the barter system.

[Junts]

There's a lot more in group 2 than you give credit to.

Take the Red Fens:

1 - Claw gloves, Claw bracers, Twisted Talisman
2 - Mire ring, Mire boots (only to someone that wears the ring as a fulltime item), Elder's Cap, Frozen Plate (less so post U9), Scrag greatclub (mainly for the lulz but it is popular), Venom set (both), Robe of Dissonance, Sacred Helm, Shatterbow, Souleater
3 - The rest

All of those items in 2 are either best in slot for a rare build (e.g. Robe of Dissonance on Archmages with Evocation offspec), best at a niche use (Souleater against epic elementals, Shatterbow against Shroud portals), or are good enough to wear while getting better items (Frozen Plate) or combine multiple useful effects on one item (Elder's Cap, Sacred Helm)

While there are other useful shards, in my experience by the time you have even 2 sets of bracer/claw shards, you have 4-5 of all the others, due to drop rate differences.

Every other shard becomes meaningless pretty quickly if you have any intention of making more than one claw set. (i have 3, trust me).

[sirgog]

While there are other useful shards, in my experience by the time you have even 2 sets of bracer/claw shards, you have 4-5 of all the others, due to drop rate differences.

Every other shard becomes meaningless pretty quickly if you have any intention of making more than one claw set. (i have 3, trust me).

I've never noticed any shortage of Claw shards dropping, and I've run a lot of eIntoTheDeeps, including one run with three Claw bracers shards.

It's just that if you a Claw or Twisted Talisman shard, you usually have to have it drop under your name. If you want something else, usually it's easy to get it passed to you.


I'd be very surprised if the drop rates are anything other than as close to equal as the system allows, which would be 15 shards at a 4% drop rate and 8 at a 5% drop rate, or something very similar.