Proposal: Stat-changing / Reforging for Exotics

[fluffdragon.1523]

Couldn't find this in a rather topical search, so I wouldn't be surprised if this one has come up around the time the feature was first introduced, but I'm bringing it back since I had some shower-thoughts on it last night.

 

Full Disclosure: I'd actually completely forgotten that [stat changing](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stat_changing) was a thing, since I'd never had cause to use it (having no Legendaries at the time, and presently only a handful of Ascended trinkets), but last night I was struck with the thought of how cool it would be to take an exotic drop and be able to "reforge" it into another set of stats. Researching whether this already existed found the page linked earlier in this paragraph, which uses a mechanism nearly identical to what I had thought up.

 

So with that out of the way, let's get to it.

 

### Current Mechanism

 

To change the stats or "reforge" an Ascended item, one must give Zomorros the following:

* The Ascended weapon or armor to be changed

* An Orichalcum Imbued Inscription or Gossamer insignia, respectively, of the stats to acquire

* [5 Globs of Ectoplasm](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glob_of_Ectoplasm)

* And an [Anthology of Heroes](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Anthology_of_Heroes), worth 10 spirit stones

 

This seems pretty fair to me, in all honesty, since Spirit Stones are pretty easy to come by thanks to Tomes of Experience and the ectoplasm has a variety of ways of being acquired. And hey, no weird stuff; everything can be obtain just by playing the game.

 

### Proposed Mechanism

 

Since Exotic drops and items purchased off the market are the bulk of "end-game" gear that players will be using, unless they've chosen to roll their own via crafting and acquired the necessary recipes, it'd be awesome to take something like the ubiquitous [Marshal](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attribute_combinations#Four_or_more_attributes) gear available in the Path of Fire expansion and convert it to something else. I've sold off or gotten rid of a ton of loot simply because I've not had anyone that the stat combination was worthwhile for.

 

To combat this, and help shift some of the crafting components off the market, why not retain the above recipe and simply change it to **3 Globs of Ectoplasm**? ~~Alternatively, following the flavor of a rank down for the insignia / inscription (Ascended -> Exotic), we could retain **5 Globs of Ectoplasm** and swap the stat component to **A Mithril Imbued Inscription / Silk Insignia** (Rare).~~ *Nevermind, not everything has a Rare equivalent.*

 

#### The new recipe

 

* The *Exotic* weapon or armor to be changed

* An Orichalcum Imbued Inscription or Gossamer insignia, respectively, of the stats to acquire

* [3 Globs of Ectoplasm](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glob_of_Ectoplasm) *(instead of 5)*

* And an [Anthology of Heroes](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Anthology_of_Heroes), worth 10 spirit stones

 

### Possible Market Complications

 

While this might appear to have the potential of disrupting the market by allowing players to buy up undervalued equipment and converting it to whatever happens to be meta at the moment, this is easily combated by retaining the Account Bound status of Ascended items. In other words, once reforged, a piece of equipment becomes Account Bound -- just as if you had unlocked the skin. In fact, it could do so as well, since the item is now yours alone. Everyone gets what they want and the market retains stability*.

 

There's also the possibility that this will result in people buying up more of whatever happens to be meta -- such as Apothecary, Berserker, Cleric, and Sentinel stats -- but this hardly seems to be too great a negative and could help the exchange of crafting components in the long run.

 

That, and considering how almost every stat combination from the expansions is Account Bound or can only be obtained from drops, we would see little to no impact on these beyond the usual buy-up of the base equipment to unlock skins.

 

.

 

\* *NOTICE: Market fluctuations and stability are neither controlled by nor guaranteed by Evon Gnashblade or the Black Lion Trading Company, Ltd., and cannot be held in liability for any trades or claims against the BLTC for any purpose. Fluctuations due to inflation and the assessed value of gems is subject to change without notice.*

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

Transforming ascended gear makes sense because the cost of acquisition is high. Even at today's depressed prices, it's upwards of 40 gold per item. In contrast, most exotics can be obtained for a few gold. There's little value to the player and there's a significant cost to ANet (since besides adding a new mechanic, they also have to worry about economic factors). We're already in good shape by simply salvaging for mats (especially to recover valuable upgrades).

 

PS technically we don't change stats on gear. Zommy destroys the old gear and replaces it with something new.

[Lunarlife.5128]

This would remove the point of crafting and the relevant recipes.

[Cuddy.6247]

Transforming ascended is not only because the cost of acquisition is high, but also because they put in various forms of ascended boxes that don't let you pick the stats you want. Nobody wants to get a Tequatl's Hoard only for the item to be so rare but yet so useless because they don't use rabid stats.

 

The cost for exotic isn't the same though, it's a small loss if the exotic that drops aren't the stats you want.

[Linken.6345]

You can just craft the item you want and use a tansmutation charge and skin it in the look of your old weapon bam done.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

It has been a while since this content was realeased, but do you remember the Carnival Weapons?

 

Back in Ember Bay, they were sold from the Shiprecked Circus Treasurer for a ridiculous price. Exotic weapons with the option to select the stats, even HoT stats. In order to purchase them, you needed a lot of gold and 10 time-gated Circus Vouchers, which equaled 105k karma.

 

The big problem with this vendor is, Ember Bay is long gone and the selectable stats only included core tyria + HoT. Also this system only worked with weapons.

 

I'd suggest we **combine** the old _circus-system_ with _zomorros_:

 

1.) We need two NPC vendors in Lion's Arch, one for armor and one for weapons. Exotic rarity selectable stats. Each of them has tabs for core-tyria, Heart of Thorns, LS3, Path of Fire, LS4 and whatever the future will bring us. Each tab requires a certain voucher-type.

 

2.) We need recipes at Zomorros for the vouchers:

- 1 exotic weapon with stats from the needed era (core-tyria, Heart of Thorns, LS3, Path of Fire, LS4, ... etc.)

- 10 globs of ectoplasm

- 3 Mystic Forge Stones (we really need a few recipes where we can use this junk)

- 5 philosopher's stones

 

In return you obtain [Voucher of Tyria], [Voucher of Thorns], [Voucher of the Bloodstone], [Voucher of Fire], [Voucher of the Branded], ... etc.

 

Prices at the vendors can go like this:

- 10 Vouchers + 40-120g for a weapon

- 5 vouchers + 21g/39g for an armor-piece

 

And the incentives for ANet:

- new collection and achievements

- finally a reason to purchase Mystic Forge Stones on Gemstore

- crafting/playing the original content would still be faster and cheaper

- you can not obtain stats of a story you do not own

 

In addition:

- the purchased gear cannot be salvaged or used in the mystic forge

- the purchased gear is account-bound on aquisition

- the purchased gear uses unique skins, completing the collection unlocks a fancy title

- adding a voucher at the end of the pvp/wvw-reward tracks for the corresponding story-chapters

 

This method would be also difficult to implement, but would offer less options to exploit.

 

 

[Wanze.8410]

> @"fluffdragon.1523" said:

> That, and considering how almost every stat combination from the expansions is Account Bound or can only be obtained from drops, we would see little to no impact on these beyond the usual buy-up of the base equipment to unlock skins.

 

This may be the case for HoT stats but PoF stats can be acquired by players that dont own PoF, because the inscriptions/insignias arent account bound and random loot drops with Harrier and marshal stats that arent account bound are also available on the tp.