Deconning and Inspiration

heaven13 · January 2019

Even though I've been here for quite a long time and have plenty of characters at 50 in all professions, inspiration is still something that puzzles me.

The inspiration given for deconning anything below max tier is almost a joke, even on new characters. When I make a new character, they get to decon all white and green gear. So I'll have a level 5 character deconning pretty much everything to level their crafting professions to 50. But deconning a white voidstone item gives approximately 700 inspiration, while rubedite is over 10x that in the 8000 range. Given that my character is only level 5 with almost no experience, should it not give more than that for high tier items, even if they're not max tier? It'd make more sense to me that items that are in higher tiers give better inspiration and, as you learn, there are diminishing returns (inspiration gets lower for items that are close to or in your experience bracket). As it stands, there's pretty much no reason to decon any items that aren't max tier if you're trying to level a profession. Instead, I should have my experienced crafter with extraction passives deconning all those for the mats I'd get back since the leveling characters rarely gets mats.

Additionally, jewelry deconning seems broken in a number of ways:

Level 13 jewelry crafter:
- Deconned ornate platinum necklace - 4514 inspiration
- Deconned intricate platinum necklace - 4514 inspiration
Should intricate not be giving me more experience than ornate for the same item?
Max level cp character who is level 24 in jewelry crafting. So she can find copper and platinum. Even with 2/3 in Jewelry Extraction, she pretty much always gets the "no usable items found" on white electrum pieces. If they are green, she gets terne grains, and maybe some electrum. However, she's almost guaranteed to get something when deconning white platinum or copper pieces. While I get that those are the things she's leveled for, it seems that Jewelry Extraction passive should affect all pieces of deconned jewelry, not just current levels.
Characters with 3/3 Jewelry Extraction rarely get back zircon grains from purple jewelry. While breaking down purple gear in the other 3 equipments, I'll get the purple upgrade mat about 50% of the time (on the low end of the spectrum), I get zircon back maybe 10%.

Is anyone able to shed some light on these things?

kringled_1 · January 2019

As far as point 1 goes, there is a cap on inspiration per item that depends on your level in the skill. At level 13, that cap is low enough that there is no benefit for intricate platinum items. At higher levels you will notice the difference.
Point 2: there is a difference between items that drop from mob loot and ones you loot from containers or that sit on weapon racks. If I had to take a guess, the electrum (and voidstone) items you're working with are from open world containers, and do not have a value when sold to a normal merchant NPC. These items also have low inspiration values. You would get different results for electrum items that dropped from mobs on a CP 100-149 character.
In the end I think I get zircon grains about 50% also, so I am not seeing the same as you are there.

ghastley · February 2019

I tend to think the main value of deconstructing those white items is regaining the inventory space. The inspiration gain is minimal, but at least it's something, and there's no other use for zero-value items.