Questions for the devs regarding craftable gear

[Serancha]

Preface

So, we are coming to see the full picture of the planar content. I have a couple of questions relating to those we had asked when arena gear came out. The threads on the topic are viewable here and here.

Samhayne was kind enough to give the following replies, letting us know that it would make sense with the planar tomb content.

The Planar Arena is what it is right now. It's kinda missing it's other half: the Planar Tombs end game elite content. Unfortunately, as Candylicks posted above, we needed to move that end game content out 'till after Halloween. We don't have any short term plans to adjust the Planar Arena.

Hopefully people will feel it is worth playing after the Planar Tombs content is out and dovetails with it.

We're human too. We're not going to always hit the mark. You guys bring up some good concerns. I am letting you know that we don't have plans to devote time to changing it right now. We want an awesome winter event more. Also, we don't want to break the current itemization plan by simply buffing the Arena gear and then break the balance for Halloween and Winter gear. So, as I mentioned previously, it is what it is right now.

Thanks in advance for your understanding.

Analysis

When I saw that there were recipes for new gear, and people said you would need the original base item first, in order to craft it into the good stuff, I thought great! That is why the stats suck on the arena gear, and why they made it so rare! It actually WILL be useful because it is to be crafted using items gathered in the tombs (fragments / essences) and made into something good.

Logical, right? Not so much. It turns out that the gear from arena is just trash and makes no more sense now than it did before the tomb release.

You can not use the gear looted in arena to make better gear. The recipes only allow you to use legendaries looted in tomb chests, which are almost non-existant with appalling drop rates for these craftable items.


So my questions to STS are these:

1) How do the stats of the arena legendaries make sense now that the tombs are released?

2) If we can't use the arena planar legendaries to make the new decent gear, why are they even there?

3) Why are they not craftable into the useable legendaries, as would make sense to properly tie the entire planar project together?

Considering the extremely low drop rates for both types of planar pinks (arena and tomb), and the amount of work needed to get the gear crafting recipes / ingredients, it makes no sense to not have the arena items craftable also. The crafting of them still need fragments, so people would still have to run the tombs a ton to get those, so why not make the gear from both areas useful?


Conclusion and my thanks for recent efforts

In short, I love the concept behind the new gear crafting.

I think it it totally amazing that people are required to actually get out of town and farm worthwhile content in order to actually EARN their new gear. I give the devs a standing ovation for implementing this concept.

However, if the base gear is to be required for crafting your equipment, that gear needs to be realistically obtainable.

I love that you guys are making a serious effort to prevent the market from being flooded with new items, in order to help restore the economy. I also know that it is better to err on the side of caution and make things too rare first, and then increase accordingly. Again, you're doing superbly here.

I think if the arena "planar" type legendaries were also craftable, this would make things a bit more realistic on the acquisition front. After all, the stats were adjusted, so this gear is not much better than the 36 mythics, if at all (depending on class). Those stats will likely be matched or outdone by the next event gear, so making it too hard to get now is not overly beneficial to the game.

Thank you for your attention.