New Augment Crystal Suggestions

[sephiroth1084]

I wouldn't mind a set of upgrading crystals: say I have a +6 int crystal on my epic spyglass, I could then buy an upgrading crystal for say 10 tokens, and have a +7 crystal; spend another 10 tokens, and you can go to +8.
That's a total of 40 tokens so it's certainly not cheap, but it's doable: grinding crumbs in Phiarlang may take some time, but at least it's guaranteed, while finding that +8 Focus trinket is not.
Same could be done for things like striding, false life and similar effects.

I'd prefer to stay away from a system that further exacerbates the already presently excessive epic token grind.

[RedOrm]

I'd prefer to stay away from a system that further exacerbates the already presently excessive epic token grind.

Just out of curiosity, what do you considder excessive?
One round of the Phiarlang Carnival at epic hard (which I solo in under 2 hours, I'm sure more experienced players can do it faster) nets me about 3 tokens, so if I do 1 run a day, I'll have the +6 crystal in a week, and would have the +8 in 2 weeks. Even with just 1 hour a day (so 2 of the 4 quests) it's less than a month. Heck if it's just the tokens you want and no side dish of Phiarlang seals and shards, you could just run Snitch for an hour every day and rake in te crumbs.
It's a grind, sure, but no worse, imo, than many other far less certain grinds; I never did get my Bauble orToD pale master ring, and I cringe at the thought of going hunting for the shard for my Ring of Spell Storing (I lucked out and got the seal on my first ever epic wiz king run).
But hey, if Turbine in their infinite wisdom should decide to offer +8 crystals for 20 tokens flat, you won't hear me complain :P

[voodoogroves]

I'd prefer to stay away from a system that further exacerbates the already presently excessive epic token grind.

Totally down with reducing the cost for the more generic / simple utility. I may fill some of the many blank yellows I seem to have. 30 to slot feather fall or +6 poison resist.

Totally down with bringing the epic capabilities (GFL, resist, protect) in line with things.

Totally down with new capabilities, even at decently high cost ... tactics, +7/higher stat, +2/higher insight stat, potency, +2 spell school DCs, etc. Durnak's list is good.

And even more down with having epics drop some augment crystals straight up in the epic chest - including some that could only be found while questing.

[sephiroth1084]

Just out of curiosity, what do you considder excessive?
One round of the Phiarlang Carnival at epic hard (which I solo in under 2 hours, I'm sure more experienced players can do it faster) nets me about 3 tokens, so if I do 1 run a day, I'll have the +6 crystal in a week, and would have the +8 in 2 weeks. Even with just 1 hour a day (so 2 of the 4 quests) it's less than a month. Heck if it's just the tokens you want and no side dish of Phiarlang seals and shards, you could just run Snitch for an hour every day and rake in te crumbs.
It's a grind, sure, but no worse, imo, than many other far less certain grinds; I never did get my Bauble orToD pale master ring, and I cringe at the thought of going hunting for the shard for my Ring of Spell Storing (I lucked out and got the seal on my first ever epic wiz king run).
But hey, if Turbine in their infinite wisdom should decide to offer +8 crystals for 20 tokens flat, you won't hear me complain :P

You're looking at filling ONE slot.

Now look at it from the perspective of having 3 or 4 or 5 or 10 or 20.

The token grind isn't too bad at all if you are new to epics, where all of the slottable items are there for you to assess, select the best, and work toward acquiring that, and when you are probably getting most of an augment crystal in the process of getting the parts for the item itself.

It breaks down if you've been at the epic grind for a while, and have to replace things that you had already slotted, and when you've started to plateau on the time it takes to make the actual items. For example, let's say you want one particular item out of a pack, so you run the pack for that item. It may take you 10 runs to get the Scroll, Seal and Shard for that particular epic item, but in the process, you've probably acquired at least one of the pieces for another 2 or 3, and are likely to have gotten 2 pieces. Now, the next item you decide to make from that pack may only take you 5 runs, or less. This trend continues, where making each successive item takes less and less time, but you're acquiring tokens at the same rate as you were when you first started, so eventually you get to the point where you have maybe 2 or 3 items, but only enough tokens for 1 slot, and that trend continues.

You have some players with 5, 10, 15, 20 empty slots across their epic-level toons, but with enough tokens for only a few slots. Finally, add the cost for True Hearts of Wood, and the cost to update items the devs have improved since you acquired and slotted them (3 tokens + the loss of however much the augments you had in the item cost) and characters get prioritized, and many end up without ever filling those slots.

In my case, for example, I've been running epics since they came out, and have at least 5 or 6 epic items that have been slotted and that are now just sitting in my banks collecting dust. I have 2 or 3 epic items on each of my 6 epic level characters that aren't slotted. On my rogue, for instance, I have 3 or 4 epic weapons that I hardly use, because without slotting them, they just aren't really worth wielding. While grinding the Desert for other stuff, I got all the pieces for a Flint, and figured that could stand in for a Lit II, saving me ingredients, but it isn't of much use if it doesn't bypass DR/Good, which a lot of end game trash is running, and many bosses. There are items I got, and stuck in the bank, or haven't made epic even though I have all the parts, because they just don't fit into my overall gear until they get slotted with a necessity like Heavy Fort, or a Good augment, or +6 stat that doesn't fit anywhere else. And I've lost around 100 tokens from the non-retro-active updates to items the devs have made, by losing the augments I had in things like the Epic Antique Greataxe.

The last time I counted, I needed something like 350 tokens just to get the items I have already slotted with just the essentials (ie., nothing that would only be a nice to have, like +4 saves, or +1 exceptional to a secondary or tertiary stat). And that was when most epic quests were dropping a full token, instead of the 1/3-1/2 that most are dropping these days. So when you look at spending two hours a night, every night, to make one augment crystal a week (say 25 tokens, though many are 30), that would be 14 weeks, or a little over 3 months, if that's what you've dedicated yourself to. If you want to run Forgotten Realms epics, you're not getting any tokens, and if you need stuff out of low-yield quests, it will take longer.

Grinding something like that for a week or so isn't too bad (though even that would make me want to gauge my eyes out I think), but for 3 months to half a year? If you raid, that eats up a lot more time for a smaller token reward, so you have to choose between grinding for tokens, or running raids, FR content, and the quests that drop the seals and shards you need for items. And that assumes that you aren't going after more items, and aren't replacing anything.

Heck, with the time it takes, you're very likely to have at least one (and more likely 3 or 4) of the items you've slotted over that 3 month span get replaced by an item in the new update that hits about the time you finally finished out those items.

Ultimately, there's no reason for anything but red augment slots to cost more than about 5 tokens. There are some epic items whose power comes almost exclusively from their blue or green augment slot, but most are attractive otherwise, and adding, say, +6 stat isn't increasing your power level in any way except in allowing you to put on a more powerful piece of gear without losing a staple, which is an improvement, yes, but isn't necessarily a big one, and certainly shouldn't be so much more expensive (in terms of time invested) than actually making the epic item you are putting on. Red slots are debatable--for some weapons, like the ESoS, it increases its power significantly, while for something like the EAG it's a fairly minor upgrade, and for something like Flint it's basically a prerequisite to using the thing at all.

[Shmuel]

FOS- if you are reading, please take some of Durnak's suggestions and incorporate them.