We've seen it before. ZOS take something that wasn't quite right at launch and ofter an improved version at a latter date. And now they've done it with crafting!
In case you didn't know, jewelry crafting works slightly differently to blacksmithing, clothing, or woodworking. Jewelry crafting is better.
See, when you refine ore in one of the old crafting schools, you get a chance to receive materials to temper your equipment. You may get a a piece tempering alloy, for example. And with fully upgraded skills, you need eight of these to improve a single item from purple quality to gold.
But in jewelry crafting, when you refine ore, you get a change to receive raw plating - and you need to then additionally refine ten of these to make a piece of actual plating, which is what you use to improve all those necklaces and rings. So you need precisely ten times as many materials to improve jewelry as you do to improve anything else.
You need eight tempering alloys to improve a sword from purple to gold. But you need eighty chromium grains (refined into eight chromium plates) to improve a ring from purple to gold.
And those drop rates! I have currently managed to refine 761 platinum ounces, which are used for creating the highest level gear. And in all that time, I've refined two, I repeat two, chromium grains. A fifth of the way to my first piece of plating!
Good people, do you see the sheer genius of this? It costs ten times as many resources to improve jewelry! That means gold jewelry in guild stores will presumably increase in price in accord with the scarcity of the materials. Those Rings of Necropotence you see going for 700K? They should be worth about ten times the price now. Going, going, gone to the gentleman with 7 million to spare.
Make gold great again, I say.
But the problem is consistency. Those old schools of crafting are an embarrassment now, and need to be brought into line. So I propose this: Add the 'grain' effect to them. Now when you refine ore, you get a chance at, say, 'tempering grains', and you'll need to refine ten of those into a single tempering alloy.
Make blacksmithing, clothing, and woodworking improvement ten times more expensive! Make gold level gear something truly exceptional to be sought after! Address power creep by ensuing that most players never manage to get beyond purple level gear drops! It solves so much!
Because if there's one thing I think we can all agree on, it is that it makes no sense whatsoever for jewelry crafting to require ten times as many materials as the other schools. ZOS, please hear our plea: Bring those old, underperforming schools of crafting in line with the indisputably improved jewelry crafting.
We are at your mercy, and beg for the gift of consistency.
Edited by mjharper on June 10, 2018 3:24PM