Most players who regularly participate in the PTS or otherwise follow the PTS closely already know what will be in store for them when the Summerset update introduces jewelry crafting, but I suspect that most of the player base are not yet aware of some of the details of the system.
Specifically,
the amount of materials needed to upgrade jewelry quality is 10x more than what is needed for the other crafts.
Similar to the other crafts, it takes 2 green plates, 3 blue plates, 4 purple plates, and 8 golden plates to upgrade jewelry if you have maxed the improvement passives. The problem is that whereas you acquire full pieces of upgrade materials for the other crafts, the upgrade materials for jewelry come in the form of grains, which represent 1/10th of a plate. And, most crucially, based on testing that people have done on the PTS,
these grains drop at the same rate as the full upgrade materials of the other crafts.
For example, when you deconstruct a purple-quality staff with maxed deconstruction passives, you have a 50% chance of getting a single Mastic from the deconstruction. When you deconstruct a purple-quality ring with the necessary deconstruction passives, you have the same 50% chance of getting a
single grain of a purple jewelry upgrade material. Each time you refine raw wood, you have a 7.5% chance to acquire a single Mastic--a full purple upgrade mat. Each time you refine raw jewelry mats, you have the same 7.5% chance to acquire a single
grain of a purple jewelry upgrade material.
Effectively, the amount of materials needed to upgrade is 10x more than that of the other crafts, since the upgrade materials are acquired as 1/10th grains from
all sources (refinement, deconstruction, and writ rewards; there are no hirelings), at rates that are apparently identical to that of full upgrade mats of other crafts.
What does this mean? It means that to craft a single purple-quality Julianos ring, you will need 20 green grains, 30 blue grains, and 40 purple grains. Purple mats--grains for jewelry and full upgrade mats for the other crafts--drop at a 7.5% rate per refinement. To acquire 40 grains, you will need to refine 533 times;
you will need to acquire and refine approximately 5300 raw jewelry mats just to craft a single purple ring.
Let's say purple is too rich for your blood. You just want to craft a simple blue-quality Julianos ring. That's 30 blue grains, which, at a drop rate of 12.5% per refinement, is 240 refinements.
You need to acquire and refine 2400 raw jewelry mats to craft a single blue Julianos ring.
What if you're leveling a character, and instead of wearing random dropped jewelry as you do now, you want to craft a matching set of jewelry? Since it's just a character that's being leveled, you're not too picky and will be happy with simple green quality. 20 grains at a 15% drop rate means 133 refinements. You need to acquire and refine
6-7 stacks of raw jewelry mats just to upgrade a single ring to green quality.
Still excited about jewelry crafting?
I have friends who were excited about all the golden jewelry from vet trials that they can decon for mats next patch. Similar to other crafts, with maxed passives, you have only a 50% chance of getting an upgrade mat from decon. Except here, it's just a grain.
To acquire the 80 grains needed to upgrade a single purple ring to gold, you'll need an average of 160 gold rings to decon. Think about that for a moment. You need to decon 160 golden jewelry pieces... to upgrade a single jewelry piece. That's 80 runs of vAA HM to get the mats for golding one jewelry piece via decon. I don't know about you, but I'll probably go crazy before the 20th run.
Or, if you're crazy enough to seek golden quality through refinement, you're looking at 1600 refinements: 16K, or 80 full stacks, of raw jewelry mats. For a single jewelry piece.
Oh, and did I mention that there are no hirelings? I did, but let's reiterate that.
How's that excitement for jewelry crafting now?
There is an easy solution, though: increase the drop rate of grains. They currently drop at the same rate as full upgrade mats of other crafts. (50% per decon, 15% green per refinement, 12.5% blue per refinement, 7.5% purple per refinement, and 5% gold per refinement.) If, for example, deconstruction always guaranteed at least 1 grain, with the chance of sometimes getting multiple grains, the drop rate would still be substantially lower than that of the other crafts, but not quite as insane as it currently is on the PTS. As it stands, jewelry crafting isn't fun. It isn't accessible. And I don't see myself seriously using it any time this year.
@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert
