So, I never really did the fusion thing so I'm mostly unaffected by this, but a recent critter find has me interested.

What kind of prices would you be willing to pay for new-style fusion orbs? Especially high-end ones, considering that they're both a bigger change from best to worst condition and have a higher low-end. Best case would be if orb refurbishment is offered in the same way as enchant unlocking (something that most GALD merchants will do if asked). If it's less frequent, what people are willing to pay for a high-end orb will obviously suffer. But then, a high-end newstyle orb, fully degraded, will still be equivalent to a middle-end orb (a +14 skill orb will degrade to +7 over the course of a year).

Not having been in the fusion market, I can't contribute much. But let's take a +10 weapon skill orb as a test case. AT WORST it is exactly as good as a +5 old style orb, and I imagine that people would generally be willing to pay at least as much for a +10 new style as a +5 old style. However, the +10 new style is objectively worse than a +10 old style, so we definitely won't pay more for a new style than we'd pay for an equivalent old style. Degradation is relatively slow, which is a plus. However, it's another thing to keep track of, which is a huge minus. We don't know how easy it'll be to refurbish - if it's restricted AT ALL (IE, only done at certain times of year/events or has a limitation on number of times it's done - really anything short of all GALD merchants being able to at will) that's a huge minus and, to me, would make a +10 newstyle orb only slightly preferable to a +10 oldstyle. If GALDs can do it, I rarely go a month without getting a GALD so it'd be something I'd pay for, but still well under the equivalent old style.

Another question is whether there will be any way to upgrade newstyle (T2) to oldstyle (T3) orbs. It'll definitely be a rare thing, but it might impact what people are willing to pay for newstyle orbs.


I can't say I'm happy with the new system, but I'd rather have it than useless items with really good enhancives going to waste. It all comes down to the availability of refurbishment IMO.

PS is this the right place for this discussion?