Refinement and Enchantments are undergoing some big changes. We read the
feedback on enchantments not being meaningful enough in terms of item
level and stats, and how the unslot cost was a tedious aspect of
changing gear. We also had a wide variety of enchantments, but many were
hardly used. We took that feedback and data, looked at the refinement
system, and made changes we are excited to share with you.
No More Unslot Cost
In the new refinement system there is no more unslot cost for enchantments. In fact, there are no more enchantment slots on gear. Instead, players now have an enhancement page on their character sheet. Add and remove enchants from this page with no cost.
The enchantment page has the following enchantment slots:
4x Offense Enchantments
4x Defense Enchantments
1x Utility Enchantment
1x Bonus Enchantment
1x Combat Enchantment
2x Overload Enchantments
And on the Companion sheet you will find a slot for a Companion Enchantment
With these new slots come all new enchantments with higher item levels and some new options. There are 5 ranks to the new enchantments. Existing enchantments can be exchanged for the new enchantments at the antiquities dealer.
There is only one type of companion enchant with this change. It will increase companion damage or if it is an augment companion, it will increase the value of the bonus stats from that companion.
Exchange Rates
Enchant/Runestone Rank / Exchange Currency
15 20
14 12
13 8
12 4
11 2
10 1
Weapon + Armor Enchants
14 120
13 80
12 50
11 30
10 20
Exchange Cost
New Enchantment Choice Pack Cost
All Enchantments - Rank 1 30
All Enchantments - Rank 2 60
Combat/Companion – Rank 3 90
Combat/Companion – Rank 4 120
The current item level of a rank 15 enchant on live is 200. A rank 2 enchantment in the new system is 600 Item Level which is why it takes 3 rank 15s to convert into a rank 2.
Don’t have a lot of high level enchantments lying around to exchange? Not a problem! You can also buy the exchange currency directly with AD to get a head start on the new enchantments.
Coalescent Wards have a new icon and are now called Coalescent Motes, but are also the same items they were before and work in the same way.
There are new Motes as well which when used will add their percentage bonus to the chance of success. These motes increase the chance by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%. The lowest tier can be bought in the refinement sage shop in PE. The other tiers can drop in dungeon end chests.
New Upgrade UI
With these changes we also reworked the upgrade UI. In the past we had several different upgrade UIs depending on the item being upgraded and what items it turned into. We have combined all of this into a single UI that is universal to all items.
Each upgrade will have up to 3 components, each of which can be protected by a preservation ward. If the upgrade fails, 1 of the components is chosen at random to be destroyed, unless it is protected by a preservation ward which will get destroyed instead.
There is a percentage chance of success and a mote can be slotted to increase that chance, with a coalescent mote still raising the chance to 100%.
With this system there is no longer partial refinement point filling of an item. All of the refinement points are needed upfront and it goes directly into a chance to upgrade. Existing items with partial refinement points in them will have the refinement points refunded to the owner on login with these changes. If you are at max refinement points of 50,000,000 then you will need to spend some of that ahead of the update to receive the refunds.
Artifacts/Artifact Equipment
If every item is now using the same refinement window, what does that mean for artifacts and artifact equipment?
These items are no longer upgraded by ranks and instead are upgraded in full quality tiers each time. Some items received an item level increase during this change over.
Weapon/Armor Enchant Effects
With these changes we have separated weapon and armor enchant effects from the enchantments. Instead we have added new slots to the appearance tab where you can slot both a weapon and an armor visual effect.
Exchanging existing armor and weapon enchantments will also give you one of these matching effect items so you both have the visuals you had access to before and have new flexibility in how your character looks.
Will I have to figure this all out before I can play again?
We realize changes of this size can be disruptive and may even feel overwhelming at first. To help with this and to let people play as they normally would when the update goes live, characters will get temporary enchantments equipped automatically. These enchantment have the item level of rank 4 in the new system and give a range of balanced stats. They last 7 days before disappearing, at which point you’d want to have exchanged your old enchants for new ones to take their place.
With this release to preview work is still ongoing and some things may not function as intended or may still have adjustments to values before going live.
We welcome all feedback and bug reports.
No More Unslot Cost
In the new refinement system there is no more unslot cost for enchantments. In fact, there are no more enchantment slots on gear. Instead, players now have an enhancement page on their character sheet. Add and remove enchants from this page with no cost.
The enchantment page has the following enchantment slots:
4x Offense Enchantments
4x Defense Enchantments
1x Utility Enchantment
1x Bonus Enchantment
1x Combat Enchantment
2x Overload Enchantments
And on the Companion sheet you will find a slot for a Companion Enchantment
With these new slots come all new enchantments with higher item levels and some new options. There are 5 ranks to the new enchantments. Existing enchantments can be exchanged for the new enchantments at the antiquities dealer.
There is only one type of companion enchant with this change. It will increase companion damage or if it is an augment companion, it will increase the value of the bonus stats from that companion.
Exchange Rates
Enchant/Runestone Rank / Exchange Currency
15 20
14 12
13 8
12 4
11 2
10 1
Weapon + Armor Enchants
14 120
13 80
12 50
11 30
10 20
Exchange Cost
New Enchantment Choice Pack Cost
All Enchantments - Rank 1 30
All Enchantments - Rank 2 60
Combat/Companion – Rank 3 90
Combat/Companion – Rank 4 120
The current item level of a rank 15 enchant on live is 200. A rank 2 enchantment in the new system is 600 Item Level which is why it takes 3 rank 15s to convert into a rank 2.
Don’t have a lot of high level enchantments lying around to exchange? Not a problem! You can also buy the exchange currency directly with AD to get a head start on the new enchantments.
Preservation and Coal Wards
Preservation wards in the new system are the same items they’ve always been, but they are used slightly differently than before which we will discuss in the next section.Coalescent Wards have a new icon and are now called Coalescent Motes, but are also the same items they were before and work in the same way.
There are new Motes as well which when used will add their percentage bonus to the chance of success. These motes increase the chance by 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%. The lowest tier can be bought in the refinement sage shop in PE. The other tiers can drop in dungeon end chests.
New Upgrade UI
With these changes we also reworked the upgrade UI. In the past we had several different upgrade UIs depending on the item being upgraded and what items it turned into. We have combined all of this into a single UI that is universal to all items.
Each upgrade will have up to 3 components, each of which can be protected by a preservation ward. If the upgrade fails, 1 of the components is chosen at random to be destroyed, unless it is protected by a preservation ward which will get destroyed instead.
There is a percentage chance of success and a mote can be slotted to increase that chance, with a coalescent mote still raising the chance to 100%.
With this system there is no longer partial refinement point filling of an item. All of the refinement points are needed upfront and it goes directly into a chance to upgrade. Existing items with partial refinement points in them will have the refinement points refunded to the owner on login with these changes. If you are at max refinement points of 50,000,000 then you will need to spend some of that ahead of the update to receive the refunds.
Artifacts/Artifact Equipment
If every item is now using the same refinement window, what does that mean for artifacts and artifact equipment?
These items are no longer upgraded by ranks and instead are upgraded in full quality tiers each time. Some items received an item level increase during this change over.
Weapon/Armor Enchant Effects
With these changes we have separated weapon and armor enchant effects from the enchantments. Instead we have added new slots to the appearance tab where you can slot both a weapon and an armor visual effect.
Exchanging existing armor and weapon enchantments will also give you one of these matching effect items so you both have the visuals you had access to before and have new flexibility in how your character looks.
Will I have to figure this all out before I can play again?
We realize changes of this size can be disruptive and may even feel overwhelming at first. To help with this and to let people play as they normally would when the update goes live, characters will get temporary enchantments equipped automatically. These enchantment have the item level of rank 4 in the new system and give a range of balanced stats. They last 7 days before disappearing, at which point you’d want to have exchanged your old enchants for new ones to take their place.
With this release to preview work is still ongoing and some things may not function as intended or may still have adjustments to values before going live.
We welcome all feedback and bug reports.
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