Augmentation after Aug 28 patch

[Rowina]

Hi all,

I am not keen on writing on forums but there are a few issues i am concerned with in the game as it is at this point one of which is augmentation after the update.

Since Aug 28th i am trying to level my Aug above level 60 and it seems like this is an almost impossible task. As i am trying to level all the various sorts of augments at least to level 61 this is a never ending process. In order to reach from level 60 to level 61 we need to gain more than 51200 xp. That means that if we are using say level 50-70 items it takes 512 items destroyed in order to actually level 1 level with each augmentation skill. How many would it take to gain 10 levels? I understand that we are supposed to get more xp each first time but as someone who hunts in dungeons daily leading groups soloing killing stuff for guild quests etc.. i still think this is way too much. I am even considering just forgetting all about it... I would love to hear your opinion about the pace of augmentation Citan. I have a feeling this shouldn't be such a tedious grind since we already have a lot of grinding to do with many things. on a scale of 1-10 it shouldn't be a 10 grind imo.

I would also love to hear the thoughts of everyone else on it including the veteran players

Rowina

[Oxlazr]

Honestly, I haven't played around with augmentation after the update, but even before the update it was a pretty big nuisance.

I figure the general idea here is that, eventually, it's a service you'll often have to buy from other players as investing heavily into augmentation would be an expensive process.

Anyway, I think the general problem is with a lot of PG's skills is nothing is time-gated - it's weird that I'd even consider this, but I think in some capacity it'd be well-placed for some of the niche skills in Project Gorgon, where you can only earn so much experience for a skill within a certain timeframe (sort of like Holistic Wellness, I suppose) - both methods mean the process is lengthy, but stalling the leveling process with a time-gate seems more appropriate than simply requiring the player to do the same thing (just going on your info here) 512+ times per level.

Still, it's the sort of trade-off you get when everyone can do everything. Staggered content isn't always a bad thing.

[Khaylara]

"On the update topic-especially the augmentation and transmutation skills. Imo the changes are absolutely insane. First problem is filling our inventories with pure crap. Second problem is the crazy amount of items needed to hit one level of either augmentation or transmutation. Example lvl 64 to 65 weapon augmentation requires 51200 EXP, decomposing low level items gives 50 exp per item, decomposing a lvl 60 item gives 400. There is still an insane amount of items needed. That relates to what Erdrick said about DPS, that's the only way to farm so many items really, high dps so you can solo as many mobs you can in order to get drops and level. Using extraction recipes is almost out of question unless one is crazy enough to use heaps of gems and carry lots of beads to do that (it's just too costly).

Now I normally don't bitch and whine about grinding, as I told a guildie I did poetry and cheesemaking when that was considered crazy..and it was crazy He argued that Citan wants us to specialize BUT augmentation and transmutation are not specialized skillsets. I understand that as specializing in carpentry, toolcrafting, leatherworking...but not that much transmutation and augmentation. Especially transmutation was meant to be a user friendly skillset, it was absurdly hard anyway to reroll mods now it's nearly impossible to level without 24/7 solo grinding. One would argue that dungeons are better for that purpose but in practice they are not. Imagine a whole group standing around waiting for me to extract augments and fill my inventory with useless augments that i'm gonna have to drop anyway.

I would revisit those changes and touch up the exp. As always I'm not talking about me in particular, i'll finish all to 70-90 in a couple of weeks max but imagine how it is for a newer player who doesn't have my dps or my gear to have to grind 1 million items in a lower level dungeon to gain 10 levels of augmentation. Imho it's a bit much. Cause yup, by rough calculation, using crypt and goblin dungeon drops it takes 800-1k items per level above 60 (which, coming back to the inventory issue, results in heaps of different types of beads, prisms and phlogistons)."


I copy-pasted my own post in the latest Update discussion thread. There's more starting with page 2 but I agree with your post. I offered a suggestion to simplify the recipes at least. Remove the level brackets for both augmentation and transmutation and make the output according to level. I.e. From decomposing a pair of lvl 10 shoes you get one shoe contraption, from decomposing a level 60 you get 6 shoe contraptions. From distilling a level 10 yellow you have a chance to one prism, from distilling high level you can get up to 4 prisms, etc.
It's still an incentive to use higher level items to level the skill so you don't get high level players farming crypt and goblin dungeon for gear to trash.

It's not about being "easy" but shamanic infusion, transmutation and augmentation are NOT specialized skillsets (like lw or tailoring). Since transmuting mods and augmenting items attune said item to that character everyone has to level these skills at some point, above level 60 it's pretty much a must since you can't buy/sell attuned items to other players. So simplifying it is not making it easy, it's just a way to avoid inventory clutter and madly searching through one's recipe book. The exp required is really crazy still, if it's uber difficult for us imagine how it would be for newer players.

[Rowina]

I agree that an end game skill (at least for now) should not be easy to achieve but there is not easy and there is impossible. At this rate with daily decomposing of level 60 items it will take me 4 months maybe to reach the point where i can augment my armor which i am already wearing. That doesnt make any sense. If we are not supposed to be overpowered then we shouldn't get that option at all.

All i am saying is that it should be something in between. I agree to grind and it did take me months to get to where I was- fully aug'ed on 2 builds but its another to make it impossible to achieve... there is no use in that skill then... I think it can get a little bit more reasonable in the same rate and proportions as other skills in the game at least or maybe in smaller stops. not 60-90 - do something in between and allow me to make my armor fitting to a level 70~ who is there for a while now. i cant get xp as it is. it should be exciting for us veteran players too :)

[kazeandi]

I don't like the changes in general. One set of baubles/contraptions and one sort of prisms, and make the amount based on the level of the gear, sounds perfectly fine to me. Now we have even more of an overflow and the systems gained unneeded complexity, which didn't make them deeper, it made them worse, because now the general QoL went down considerably.

German has a word for "making something worse with the original intention of making it better": Verschlimmbessern.

[cr00cy]

TBH i didnt tried agumentation ro transumation in long time - gera i have, even tough not "perfect" is more than enough for me to comfortably farm just about anywhere.

That being said, i give quick glane to recipes and i must say that it realy dotn look too good. Too many mats needed, especilay fact taht from what i saw even high lv recipes need lower lv mats.

So yeh i agree that changing it so that higher lv items give more mats woudl be better solution.

[INXS]

I'm not at lv 60 augm. yet but i think eventually you'll reach your goal, i do understand we all might have a time frame when we'd like to accomplish things but that can't be applied to every single skill or abiity, what if in the grand scheme of things Citan wants lv60+ augm. to take months to achieve unlike some other skill.

[Citan]

Each use of "Extract X Augment (Level 61-90)" earns 3200 XP. You need 51,200 XP to level up. That means you need to decompose 16 items to go from 60 to 61. So it'll take a while, but it won't take THAT long to level up. Certainly not 500 items, unless you're melting lower-level gear.


specilay fact taht from what i saw even high lv recipes need lower lv mats.

The whole point of the change was to make that not true. Which high level recipe needs low-level ingredients?

[Crissa]

Well, the differing levels of transmutation will make it plausible to make good gear lower level. I think.

I'm not sure that massive number of items is a good thing - it means I'm sorting through my inventory to throw stuff overboard more often, not less. x-x I haven't been on in the last week tho.