Shard of Potential mechanics

[Aeolwind]

Not a fan of the way it currently works. To get a weapon to +9, you also have to craft 6, 7, & 8 (Since all weapons start at 5).

Text from the +9 shard:

This mirror-like shard is imbued with great magical potential and can be used to increase the maximum enchantment level of a crafted item from +8 to +9, the crafted item will then be able to hold effects totaling +6 in value.

[simsiim]

I thought I read something like that in the text

I'm having mixed feelings about the way one needs to increase Max + item Enchantment.
I'll need to toy around with it some more to get a feel for it

[Tydeth]

I think the shards' incremental upgrading mechanic is to allow them to reduce the leveling grind on crafting, while still making superweapons like +4 Holy Burst Silver/ColdIron X of GEOB require more effort.

[simsiim]

also it's not a useless shard to craft to just gaining crafting levels. This may become a very valuable Shard to craft.
I think my feelings are siding to liking it, the dis like part is the idea it's an added step in the crafting process

[redspecter23]

If the cost on higher level shards has dropped, then the effect of this change could theoretically make most items cost a similar amount of essences as they do currently. The emphasis on essence use has just transferred from "wasting essences on leveling up" to "using more essences on actual items and less on leveling up". Now I haven't done any testing to prove that the ratio is anywhere close to where it was before, but I'm thinking that is the basic idea for the change. Less effort to level up, more effort to make uber items.

[Cardtrick]

The emphasis on essence use has just transferred from "wasting essences on leveling up" to "using more essences on actual items and less on leveling up".

Yes, that definitely seems to be the logic behind the change, and I think it makes a lot of sense. I actually like what they've done with the crafting system quite a bit.

[Wurmwood]

I don't like it. Why does it seem like it will be even more of a grind than it currently is? You will be wasting essences on just being able to "enable" your item to have a second enchantment. You will then need to farm more essences to craft the actual enchantment crystal itself. Who in all honestly comes up with these ghastly ideas? I tried it just now and crafted many of the upgrade crystals and before I knew it I burned through more than 800 essences. It is tedious, boring, and a waste of crafting materials.

Seriously, a better idea would be to have those special crafting materials that dropped in series quests be needed (1 to 3, maybe more) to enable an item for a 2nd or 3rd enchantment. And by enabling I do not mean that ridiculous "craft +6, +7, +8..." rubbish. To put it simply, 1-2 special components would yield you a shard of potential allowing a second enchantment. 3-5 special components would yield you a shard of great potential allowing a 3rd. Heck, 10-20 (along with 50 epic fragments) special components could possibly yield a shard of epic potential enabling a 4th enchantment that is Lvl 50 or below to be placed on the item, enabling players to craft a truly unique weapon without having to put up with elitist donut holes 20 times searching for epic shards/seals/scrolls to upgrade their equipment (unless they like it).

[Beldain]

I think the shards' incremental upgrading mechanic is to allow them to reduce the leveling grind on crafting, while still making superweapons like +4 Holy Burst Silver/ColdIron X of GEOB require more effort.

Bingo. Amount of essences to level up to 75/75/75 went from somewhere in the many hundreds of thousands to something much more reasonable. Crafting ultimate combos, however, still takes a lot of gathering, as they should - with the current reduction in essence requirements for levelling, you'd have weapons like that on every character in the game in no time if they didn't put in a mechanic like this to restrict high ML items... I was hesitant about it, until I did some grinding and crafting to make one... +3 is the best you can get though - +3 holy burst cold iron heavy pick of GCOB (no GEOB shards in game yet) has a ML of 20, made one last night, pic on the stickied feedback thread.

[Aeolwind]

I'm fine with the concept of the shard of potential. The process is what I'm not a fan of.

Instead of +6-+12 it should be +1 thru +7, that way you can stick whatever you can shoot straight for a +12 item rather than making and applying 5 other shards. 14 processes, vs 2 if you are looking at it from a resources angle.


The way it is now, you have to make a 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 to get an item to +12 available enhancement.
If they just added +1 thru +7, you'd make the one you need, and it would increase the enhancement value by whatever plus you chose. Add to the fact that each of those have to be applied individually and in succession in addition to the creation you have 14 steps vs 2 steps.

[fluffybunnywilson]

I was a little sad that the cost of making individual items went up.

I was very happy that the total cost of creating shards to farm XP went down significantly.

On the whole, I'm happy with the changes.

[Beldain]

I'm fine with the concept of the shard of potential. The process is what I'm not a fan of.

Instead of +6-+12 it should be +1 thru +7, that way you can stick whatever you can shoot straight for a +12 item rather than making and applying 5 other shards. 14 processes, vs 2 if you are looking at it from a resources angle.


The way it is now, you have to make a 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 to get an item to +12 available enhancement.
If they just added +1 thru +7, you'd make the one you need, and it would increase the enhancement value by whatever plus you chose. Add to the fact that each of those have to be applied individually and in succession in addition to the creation you have 14 steps vs 2 steps.

Also keep in mind... each of those potential shards also grants experience - the actual crafting of an item gives no experience, so this is a way to gain experience for making an item. As an experienced crafter from multiple games, and someone who has levelled up farther on Lammania than anyone that I've seen posting progress, I think that the current revision of the system is far superior to the old way, and I'm happy with it, minus the bugs in the system.

[fluffybunnywilson]

Also keep in mind... each of those potential shards also grants experience - the actual crafting of an item gives no experience,

The actual crafting of an item does give XP on Llama-land right now.

I tested this myself to make sure it wasn't just a display error in the crafting altar.

You get 1-5 XP per item deconstructed.
You get XP for creating shards.
You get XP for putting the shards on items.

[dkyle]

The actual crafting of an item does give XP on Llama-land right now.

Even when you get to high level?

On Live the XP quickly goes to zero as you pass level 10, making it rather perfunctory.

Is it now 10 XP no matter the level?


Oh, and Shards of Potential? Very similar to something I suggested in the feedback thread. I'm glad to see it implemented. Some of the details may be a little wonky (like needing to apply +6 through +12 in order, instead of just rolling cumulative costs into single +1 through +7 shards), but overall, I fully support scaling crafting cost by the ultimate potency of the item.

[fluffybunnywilson]

Even when you get to high level?

On Live the XP quickly goes to zero as you pass level 10, making it rather perfunctory.

Doh. I tried it on my "other" Lamania character, so I didn't get that far. I "knew" that final assembly didn't give XP before U9 patch 1 because I had done so many shards before I went to the assembly altar that there was no XP listed.

[GotSomeQuestions]

I was a little sad that the cost of making individual items went up.

I was very happy that the total cost of creating shards to farm XP went down significantly.

On the whole, I'm happy with the changes.

Not only that, now low level characters can quickly make a cheap Holy weapon, without Turbine making holy burst of greater bane any cheaper. It's a great change.

[Aelonwy]

I think the shards' incremental upgrading mechanic is to allow them to reduce the leveling grind on crafting, while still making superweapons like +4 Holy Burst Silver/ColdIron X of GEOB require more effort.

I believe this is the intended purpose of the new Shards of Potential. Brilliant idea actually.

[dunklezhan]

I'm still not really clear on how shards of potential work. I've not been able to get onto Lammania for this, and so have tried to do a bit of reading but not really 'got it'. I understand that shards of potential have to be added individually (+6 takes you from 5 to 6 'enchantment level' and you need to do that before you can add a +7 shard of potential which then takes you to 7 'enchantment level' etc), but I'm still a bit confused as to what this gives you in practice. Would therefore be grateful for some clarification on these two points:

1. What is the 'enchantment level' and how does it relate to the ML of the item? (e.g. does the 'enchantment level' increase the ML regardless of what effects are applied to the item? Does a shard which increases the ML of the item by x amount use up the same number of 'enchantment levels' of the item or is the ratio different? etc)

2. How do you work out what 'enchantment level' is required to place a certain ability onto a crafted item?


A follow on question, assuming the relationship between ML and enchantement level is not a linear 'like for 'like' arrangement:

Before you apply a crafting shard (e.g. Shard of Invulnerability) does the tooltip tell you how many 'enchantment levels' will be used in addition to now showing the ML increase?

Without this information, there's presumably going to need to be yet another set of spreadsheets being created and maintained over on the wiki instead of it just being obvious in the game engine, which would be annoying.

TIA

[Seikojin]

Currently the system works like so:
Items that are disjoined get craftable (+5). This means the item can gave 5 levels of item modifications (enchantments).
You can boost that limit by combining the item with a shard of potential +6. This raises the max item level by 1; taking it to craftable (+6). You can further up it by adding more potential shards. You currently can boost the craftable limit to +12.

This is completely different from the items minimum level.

Currently, if you view an items description, in the upper right it has a + value listed. That is the items level.

So with the potential limits, you can craft an item that has a +12 in the upper right corner. I think this makes Min lvl 14 items. That doesn't mean there won't be more potential increases or what not. Those are just what we can see now.

[Seikojin]

...snip...

TIA

IIRC you can still see the level of the ability you are trying to make a shard from, or have a shard of. That level is the min level boost. So a level 4 ability (not required level to craft, but ability level) would or should add 4 to the min level requirement of the final item. The items level + may be different. Like 1 more. So a level 4 ability may add 5 to the items level (against the limits of the potential) and 4 to the minimum level to use the item.

[Beldain]

Currently the system works like so:
Items that are disjoined get craftable (+5). This means the item can gave 5 levels of item modifications (enchantments).
You can boost that limit by combining the item with a shard of potential +6. This raises the max item level by 1; taking it to craftable (+6). You can further up it by adding more potential shards. You currently can boost the craftable limit to +12.

This is completely different from the items minimum level.

Currently, if you view an items description, in the upper right it has a + value listed. That is the items level.

So with the potential limits, you can craft an item that has a +12 in the upper right corner. I think this makes Min lvl 14 items. That doesn't mean there won't be more potential increases or what not. Those are just what we can see now.

Nice try..but incorrect... ML is not tied to the upper right + value... Check the main feedback thread, page 3, for the screenshot - made a ML 20, +3 holy burst greater bane weapon - +11 enchantment level.