First and foremost, I abhor the concept of transmutation. That is to say I hate it, I think it devalues everything other players work hard for in a game. To search forever for some special item, or spend tons of hours searching for motifs and leveling crafting, only to have people making stuff that looks just like what you have with a simple transmute item or spell is painful. So please never ever implement it in a Guild Wars 2 like fashion (I loved GW2, but hated this feature).
but... I do like being able to have my gear look like I want, which is why I spend hundreds of hours leveling crafting. But now if I want to use a set like Warlocks, I have to deal with whatever style it drops in, which kinda sucks. So here is my proposal:
What if crafters were able to take an existing item and change it to a new style? I think the requirements should be:
- know the current motif of the item
- know the motif you want to convert the item to
- the process should consume 1-2 of the style material you are converting to (copper, daedric heart, etc)
- (optional) the process should consume upgrade mats according to your crafting level and the items current rarity.
Some examples for clarity:
- If I'm blacksmithing level 40 (temper expertise 3) and I try to convert a blue high elf sword to barbaric, it would cost 2 copper and 3 dwarven oil to have 100% chance to convert.
- - purple would cost 4 grain solvent for 100% chance to convert.
I think this provide goodness to the game in 3 ways:
- dungeon sets, which are some of the best in the game, maintain value, and continue to give non-crafters a way to get awesome gear.
- crafting becomes slightly more valuable, but only if you care about aesthetics.
- the cost is not trivial, if you want to transmute an epic or legendary piece of gear, it will cost you the same number of epic/legendary upgrade materials as it would have to create a new item.
- (and maybe most importantly) Game immersion is maintained! IRL - a skilled blacksmith in olden times would quite regularly change the size/shape/appearance of weapons and armor. So without too much of a stretch it makes sense for someone who knows both styles to be able to convert one to the other.
These are my thoughts, hopefully a dev or 2 will read this and ponder the idea