Transmute Crystal Sink Gone?

Galarthor

If you get a full refund of Transmute Crystals in the new set collection system, then what will be the games Transmute Crystal sink?

Currently supply and demand of these crystals is kept in balance by having to spent 50 of them to change the trait of a given item - i.e. the current Transmute Crystal sink.

Under the new system nobody is going to transmute existing items anymore (with the exception of golden jewelry - maybe), as it would be far cheaper to just add the item to your collection and then create a new version of the item with the desired trait. Cost will be 25 crystals instead of 50 and you can recover the 25 crystals anytime you want - unlike the sunk cost of 50 crystals for transmuting an item.

In addition to that, the amount of crystals that you can earn has been increased.

Under the new system supply will skyrocket. And demand will plummet as people will accumulate enough crystals to equip all of their alts.

remosito

Even if... why does it really matter if there is a sufficient sink or not. And if supply skyrockets? They are bound and can't be sold. It's not gonna unblance the economy....

Jaxaxo

U need to have fully unlocked set to be able to transmute for 25 crystals. Means u need to go and farm those pieces (bound sets) or buy them first. And there are situations when u will prefer to transmute exisiting golden item instead of spending money on upgrades to make new one gold.
So it's either tranmusting for more or spending time/resources to transmute for less, dont see any problem with it

Luke_Flamesword

It's even better - Cyrodill really don't need all these PvE leechers who don't engage in fight, beacuse they only want easy 50 crystals.

Firstmep

Jaxaxo wrote: »

U need to have fully unlocked set to be able to transmute for 25 crystals. Means u need to go and farm those pieces (bound sets) or buy them first. And there are situations when u will prefer to transmute exisiting golden item instead of spending money on upgrades to make new one gold.
So it's either tranmusting for more or spending time/resources to transmute for less, dont see any problem with it

Boe sets shouldn't be hard to acquire to be honest.
But I agree it's going to come down to short term getting the trait you want via transmuting or taking the time to finish the set and having it cheaper long term.

I definetly don't have any dungeon sets fully completed, and I'm sure most people don't.
One handers and staves in particular will be a pain to get 4-3 different types of weapons.
I think if you go out of your way to complete a set you should be rewarded with having access to all traits.
It is a bit of a gut punch to trait research though, as there aren't many sets left that are good and require a lot of traits.
Would be nice if next update they could update crafted sets so that the more traits it requires the better it gets.i don't even mind if some of them have identical effects.
We do have perfected versions of many sets now from more difficult content I think it would make sense to do the same for crafted ones too.

Galarthor

remosito wrote: »

Even if... why does it really matter if there is a sufficient sink or not. And if supply skyrockets? They are bound and can't be sold. It's not gonna unblance the economy....

Problem is, it will eventually render part of the game irrelevant, as people won't need more transmute crystals and won't have to run dungeons anymore. And it does affect the economy indirectly. People will buy fewer overland or pvp set items which are not BoP.

Luke_Flamesword wrote: »

It's even better - Cyrodill really don't need all these PvE leechers who don't engage in fight, beacuse they only want easy 50 crystals.

Don't get your hopes up. These people have been around for far longer than the Transmutation Geode at the end of a campaign.

remosito

Galarthor wrote: »

Luke_Flamesword wrote: »

It's even better - Cyrodill really don't need all these PvE leechers who don't engage in fight, beacuse they only want easy 50 crystals.

Don't get your hopes up. These people have been around for far longer than the Transmutation Geode at the end of a campaign.

Some maybe.

I personally haven't partaken in Cyro since my squirrel stash reached 40 packs of 50 crystals... and no plan to re-enter until my stash is low again....

I seriously doubt I am the only one who won't ever partake unless he needs crystals...

Galarthor

remosito wrote: »

Galarthor wrote: »

Luke_Flamesword wrote: »

It's even better - Cyrodill really don't need all these PvE leechers who don't engage in fight, beacuse they only want easy 50 crystals.

Don't get your hopes up. These people have been around for far longer than the Transmutation Geode at the end of a campaign.

Some maybe.

I personally haven't partaken in Cyro since my squirrel stash reached 40 packs of 50 crystals... and no plan to re-enter until my stash is low again....

I seriously doubt I am the only one who won't ever partake unless he needs crystals...

But that is exactly my point. People will reach a point where they don't need to farm gear or transmutation crystals anymore.

I am not against the new system. I like the idea of not having to run a dungeon another 100 times b/c I need a certain item a 2nd time.

However, the whole idea of transmutation is to lessen the burden of farming items by allowing you to occassionally adjust the trait of an item instead of running the dungeon another 50 times until you get the desired trait.

With the new system that is gone completely. With a refund rate of 100% you won't even have to farm cystals anymore once you have your character equipped. You need a new gear? Just demolish the old one and pick a new one. Not even deconstructing gear has a refund rate of 100% and the stuff you get out of it is basically worthless.

Refund rate should only be like 50%. That way you will still have to get new Transmutation Geodes every now then and you might consider running a dungeon rather than spending crystals. I'd even be fine with a refund rate of 0%. You get an item with the desired trait WITHOUT having to farm for it. Why the hell should that be basically for free?

Parrot1986

I didn’t catch the stream or been on pts yet but what constitutes full set? Is this any 5 items or every item including all weapons, head shoulders?

For me it seems strange to get a full refund especially if you only need 5 pieces saved but that’s more because zos generally push us to grind over and over which isn’t a good thing when you have so many now in the game.

you’ve already ran the dungeon or trial for the pieces in the first place and farmed the set so it makes sense there’s no penalty for transmute stones.

Penalising you for using this system takes away a good chunk of the benefit and I’m all for a system that makes inventory management easier and gives us much more flexibility to do the content we want to do rather than spending X hours doing something we don’t want just to make a change in trait or get a specific item we destroyed because it was trash only to be buffed so we can do what we really want to.

zaria

Parrot1986 wrote: »

I didn’t catch the stream or been on pts yet but what constitutes full set? Is this any 5 items or every item including all weapons, head shoulders?

For me it seems strange to get a full refund especially if you only need 5 pieces saved but that’s more because zos generally push us to grind over and over which isn’t a good thing when you have so many now in the game.

you’ve already ran the dungeon or trial for the pieces in the first place and farmed the set so it makes sense there’s no penalty for transmute stones.

Penalising you for using this system takes away a good chunk of the benefit and I’m all for a system that makes inventory management easier and gives us much more flexibility to do the content we want to do rather than spending X hours doing something we don’t want just to make a change in trait or get a specific item we destroyed because it was trash only to be buffed so we can do what we really want to.

Full set is all items including all the weapons who drops for set, so expect weird requests in dungeons.

Mariusghost84

Is this system live on PTS? I dont really understand it, need to see it in action.

AlnilamE

Mariusghost84 wrote: »

Is this system live on PTS? I dont really understand it, need to see it in action.

Yes, it is. You can see a new tab under collections, and as you log into each character, it will add any bound items you have to the collection.

If you are holding any BoE items, you need to equip them to get them added.

VaranisArano

Galarthor wrote: »

remosito wrote: »

Even if... why does it really matter if there is a sufficient sink or not. And if supply skyrockets? They are bound and can't be sold. It's not gonna unblance the economy....

Problem is, it will eventually render part of the game irrelevant, as people won't need more transmute crystals and won't have to run dungeons anymore. And it does affect the economy indirectly. People will buy fewer overland or pvp set items which are not BoP.

Luke_Flamesword wrote: »

It's even better - Cyrodill really don't need all these PvE leechers who don't engage in fight, beacuse they only want easy 50 crystals.

Don't get your hopes up. These people have been around for far longer than the Transmutation Geode at the end of a campaign.

ZOS seems to have decided that by the time players stop grinding to fill out their pokedex sticker book gear collections, they'll figure out a new thing for people to grind for.

Given their inventiveness with dragging out the various grinds in game (indriks, anyone?), I'm confident they'll come up with something to keep players busy.

redspecter23

Luke_Flamesword wrote: »

It's even better - Cyrodill really don't need all these PvE leechers who don't engage in fight, beacuse they only want easy 50 crystals.

I'm one of these pve leechers and even I agree with this statement.

There is some merit to filling up Cyrodiil, but if it's not people that actually want to be there and they aren't geared for pvp, the quality of the fights drops significantly. I'd rather Cyrodiil be filled up with pvp players who want to be there for the campaign, for the pvp community and are trying to play pvp.

Ozby

People will still need to do dungeons etc to get the transmutes, people are not going to be deconning everything they make after using a single time, I really do not see an issue with it and it is a fantastic change imo.

It will be amazing to not have to go to cyrodiil to get transmutes I have never been good at PVP nor do I want to, it's really not a game play style I enjoy.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

The sink has always been transmuting random weapons into 'nirn' and then deconstructing to try and get the trait stone.
It remains to be this.

Ratzkifal

It's still going to be a transmute crystal sink. If you have more than one character or want to have two different equipments at the same time, you are not going to reconstruct them all the time and burn through all your upgrade materials.

Dagoth_Rac

A 5-piece set will cost between 125 and 375 crystals. That's a lot. And getting cost reduced to 25 involves what? Finding every possible variation of dropped set pieces, included the garbage ones like Bows of magicka sets? For most 5-piece sets, that is like 36 items. Plus the cost of upgrade mats, with gold gear being a significant armor/weapon investment, and everything being a significant investment for jewelry. And I don't think people will have 1-set and constantly decon and reconstruct new set. They will still likely have multiple sets. DPS use different gear for solo versus dungeons versus Trials versus PvP, for trash pulls versus boss fights, sometimes different gear if you need to do a special mechanic where you break away from group (like portals in Cloudrest or back room runners in Maw of Lorkhaj). And healers and tanks generally need even more sets stockpiled to coordinate buffs with other tanks and healers.

Also alts. People who may have grinded for a Perfected Maelstrom Bow or Perfected Siroria Necklace, might have just put that on their best character and called it a day. Just no stomach to grind vMA and vCR+2/3 for more of them. Now, they may want to reconstruct those for alts, introducing a completely new use for transmute crystals.

kojou

Crystals are capped and untradable. No sink is required IMO.

This will actually have some interesting effects on the game economy... That Mother's Sorrow battle axe will now have value since if you bind it then you get to make cheaper Mother's Sorrow gear.

Shantu

I must be the outlier here. I see absolutely no use is this new system. I use only 1 gold set of the pieces I need and then share that with all my alts. There are addons that make this easy to manage. Seems like they are replacing one grind (for transmutes) with another (full sets). If you would rather have copies of the same equipment for each alt, I can understand. But personally, I'll pass.

Milchbart

remosito wrote: »

I seriously doubt I am the only one who won't ever partake unless he needs crystals...

You are right. In the past I only went to cyro during the double ap event for crystals. The only other reason was getting all skyshards for all my chars ... long time ago.

deviousthevile

If you need a transmute sink, use them to make gold. Take all those unopened 50 packs and transmute a bunch of weapons into Nirnhoned. Then decon the weapons. 50-75% of them should produce a potent nirncrux that you can turn around and sell. With Potent prices what they are, you could make a nice chunk of change. Surprises me how few people know this is an option. I suppose not everyone run PvP as much as I do over all my accounts. Sure I might need 1 or 2 at the end of a campaign, but the rest, I do exactly what I stated with them. Just a thought!