Too expensive to upgrade weapons when we have no means to mass produce and salvage them. It makes raid drop weapons practically useless, because once you've upgraded one, you just can't face the grind of upgrading another. It also makes upgrading weapons on alts practically impossible, because to do so is just taking away from your main. The cynical side of me thinks it's because there's a huge incentive to transfer back and forward to Isle of Refuge ($$) to buy essences, but I'm trying to believe it's purely a poorly thought-out bit of xpac inflation. Could we be reassured that this will be a less unpleasant experience next xpac please?
3000 essences for upgrading all 3 (primary/secondary/ranged) weapon is really too much Over all you need much more if you change an allready leveled weapon on your way. One way to solve this a little bit would be the possibility to extract (eg 50%) of the essences from the old weapon. Or really lower the amount / maka a way to produce the essences like last expansion
I can't remember the number for last xpac, but it didn't feel as bad because you could craft all you needed. This xpac Overseers have made accumulating a huge stash of mats a reality for everyone, even those who never harvest, so perhaps they think being able to craft and break down weapons for essences in BoL would make upgrading weapons trivial. I personally disagree with this, because making 1000 mastercrafted weapons would still take a considerable effort. There is now also very little reason to run solo zones. And you only really need to run heroics once per week now. So you really do have to go out of your way to accumulate weapons to salvage.
we should be able to craft these essences outright instead of having to destroy things im fine with salvaging/transmuting loot but im not fine with having to do that to crafted items to create essences/uncommon lunar material
uncommon lunar material is a red line for me. I just won't do it any more. I did it once or twice for certain pieces, but it's just not worth the effort now.
I took one look at the rather stupid crafting and decided to just sit this xpak out. No raiding, no grouping, just solos with my husband, and not so many of them either. I detest the overseer system too. What a stupid way to get your crafting books! So all I am doing is catching up all my many alts on things I missed out on last xpack.
This is an excellent idea, to be able to extract a portion of what you already put into upgrading the weapon. I would like to see that for mounts (50%) and familiars (25%) too! We come across new mounts and familiars all the time.
And Blood of Ssra dropped the two 205 resolve monk weapons last night. See you all in 2000 weapon essences time :/ It's as if it knew, and wanted to punish me, but ironically punish me with best in slot loot.
I have to agree that imho, it's a useless additive to the game that's become way too grindy. It's like having your mother read "Dick and Jane" books to you in bed when you're 55 y/o. Please, stop. Either that or accept this challenge: spend one xpac creating and playing a toon with the same restrictions all players face and no added "DBG benefits" for being an employee and going through the same grind mechanics you think are good for the players to endure. Let's see how long that lasts, haha.
It's not useless. It's a method of slowing down player progression to make it take longer to max out everything, thus prolonging the player's progression struggle until the new xpac. Note that I'm not saying that I like it, just that it has a use, however much I hate the mechanism.
On this I will have to cut the dev team some slack. They have pared down the dev team so much that they just couldn't do more than what they did. If they are going to keep trying to run things on a shoestring, then they need to do an expac every TWO years... except I'm pretty sure that they HAVE to have that end of year cash infusion from people buying the expansions. They REALLY should start advertising more widely and add to the dev team. Instead of trying to squeeze the last bent copper out of the existing player base, GROW theplayer base, and not just former players coming back, either.
No argument from me on this. I think the two of us could have an interesting side conversation on this very issue. One of the things I think DPG better brace themselves for in the upcoming xpac is the likelihood of their not seeing a lot of "premium xpacs" being sold in advance after the fiasco that was BoL launch. I've spoken with a number of people who feel burnt and betrayed and will be buying the basic pack until after launch and see what they're actually getting for their money this time around.
Honestly, I didn't have much of an issue with the way they were implemented in Chaos Descending. Being able to get the essences from crafted items gave incentives for harvesting and crafting, both of which are an absolute chore otherwise. However, this expansion crafted is worse than it's ever been and harvesting is just... useless? Not so much useless, but definitely neutered. There's no incentive for the common player anymore, only for tradeskillers.
In CD I had no trouble getting new weapons levelled up, this xpac the only way is to break down looted weapons. So you have to run a full set of solo's (I think roughly 10-20 weapons) and/or a full set of heroics (maybe 3 or 4 if you're lucky as you share the loot with the group). Seeing as you need 1000 essences for a level 10 weapon, and most classes will use 3 weapons, so 3000 essences to max out, that's an absolute minimum of 150 full sets of solo zones to max your weapons, but probably more like 250-300, that's up to 3600 zones to run. And then the next week a new "better" weapon drops for your class.
When the only thing you're using MC gear for is to break it down to make uncommon lunar mats so you can make some mount gear IF you're lucky enough to have the recipe and pattern, something is seriously amiss. We should probably kick this dead horse to the side of the road.
Let use use the worthless planar energy/essence of chaos to get these essence. I have way too many mana so far.
I remember last year we could *cannibalize* these purpur ethereal items and got back the invested crystals. The same should also be possible with the weapon essences, at least 50%, as Beee said. It's nonsense to level a weapon to max level and a day after we get a better one.
