Item deconstruction
Players gain craftable items and recipes from deconstructing (salvaging, dismantling, disenchanting) completed items.[1]
- There's salvaging where you can deconstruct an item to get components only capable of retrieving from salvaging an item that can be used in crafting other types of items.[2] – Steven Sharif
- Specific and necessary crafting materials for higher tier items can only be obtained through the deconstruction of lower-tier items. This is designed to keep lower tier crafted gear relevant through progression and across expansions.[3][4][2]
- Specific crafting components yielded by gear deconstruction, and some of these components can be only be obtained from gear of certain enchantment levels and type of equipment. These components are needed for certain recipes for gear and other ancillary crafting professions. But the itemization team is still ironing out some of these flows.[3] – Steven Sharif
Item sinks
It's important for a healthy economy to have item sinks, so that anything that can be crafted can also be destroyed:[2]
- Over-enchanting carries the risk of destroying that item[1], rendering it useless for use temporarily.[5]
- Players gain craftable items and recipes from deconstructing (salvaging) completed items.[1]
- A portion of resources and materials are lost when caravans or nodes are destroyed.[6]
- Corrupted players who die can lose gear.[7]
- Item durability (item decay) does not destroy items, but it acts as a materials sink.[7][8][9] Zero percent durability will unequip an item, increasing its repair costs.[10]
An important aspect of a healthy economy is having some item sinks available... There are three kinds of item sinks: You can gain craftable items from deconstructing completed items; You can have decay... and if you want to over-enchant that item there will be a potential to destroy it as well. It's important for an economy to experience those types of emphasis on what can be crafted as well as seeing those items that are crafted be destroyed as well..[9]
The concept there is this is part of the engine that is supply and demand. So the server is constantly generating these materials on tick as they kind of propagate throughout the world and get repopulated, players are going out there and collecting these things. We want to make sure that there is a driving force and factor behind what crafters and gatherers are out there doing: There's constantly going to be a demand for them to supply these things. Whether that death is from PvP or from PvE these are going to be necessities for players to constantly provide.[8] – Steven Sharif
Item durability

The decay system is not going to be some worthless "Oh I'm just going to throw some gold into this and it's a simple gold sink". It's actually going to require some base materials in order to repair decayed items; and decay occurs from death and also the destruction and disable system. For the weapons over the over-enchanting will require those materials as well. So creating that dependency I think is healthy for the crafting economy.[11] – Steven Sharif
There is item durability (item decay) in Ashes of Creation.[9]
- Item decay does not destroy items, but it acts as an materials sink.[7][8][9]
- If you allow it to get to certain stages, or to get to a destructed stage then it requires a lot of material components in order to return back to its former glory.[14] – Steven Sharif
- Over enchanting an item comes with the risk of durability loss if a safety margin is exceeded.[11][17][18]
- There is durability in the game... It's not going to be a trivial durability. There is a potential to destroy gear (weapons and armor), but there is also an ability to reforge that destroyed gear using a portion of the materials necessary as well as finding an item creator who can reforge it.[9] – Steven Sharif
Enchanting
That is a pretty nice sword you have there. It would be a shame if it broke due to over-enchanting![19] – Cody Peterson
Mechanisms for achieving the safer enchantment routes would mainly be through very rare material acquisition and boss kills.[20] – Steven Sharif
There are two types of enchantments for items: Vertical and horizontal.[21]
- Vertical enchantments are a power progression for a crafted item. More damage or mitigations, added effects or bonuses. Vertical enchantments include risks. [21]
- There isn't RNG in crafting but there may be a small amount of RNG in enchanting.[22]
- Personally, I am fine with RNG in enchantment, so long as there are special ways to mitigate the RNG with investment, to a degree. For example, difficult to obtain enchantment scrolls that insure enchantment efforts, and including a buffer of safe enchantment in earlier +'s.[3] – Steven Sharif
- Over-enchanting items comes with a potential risk that the item decays or is destroyed if a safety margin is exceeded. This system is subject to testing.[17][18]
- There will be mechanisms for achieving safer enchantments, such as difficult to obtain enchantment scrolls, or very rare material acquisitions.[3][20][17]
- When it comes to over-enchanting things, what we're going to do likely is have a safety- and this is something obviously it needs to be tested- but we're going to have a safety period of enchantment you know like in Lineage 2 I think you could enchant plus four or something. And so we're gonna have a similar system where you can enchant safely and then when you start to take risks, that percentage of potentially damaging your item either through the decay system or completely disabling it through the destruction system will be a risk that's present.[17] – Steven Sharif
- Horizontal enchantments are more situational. For example: I'd like my sword to do force damage instead of holy damage because the monsters I tend to fight are incorporeal.[21]
Enchanting is not an artisan profession. Several different professions can create enchantment scrolls. Once the scroll is created then it's in the hands of the open market.[23]
- Enchanting services are sold at player stalls.[24]
- A few different professions participate in the creation of enchantment scrolls. Those enchantment scrolls are primarily going to be interfaced on the profession side with scribe, but once that scroll is created then it's in the hands of the open economy and players may utilize them to enchant weapons and stuff.[23] – Steven Sharif
Enchanting does not increase an item's level requirement.[25]
- You don't really push a particular item's level requirement or the identity of that item. You can enhance it, you can add enchantments to it, but it's still the item it is.[25] – Steven Sharif
Enchanting weapons applies visual effects, such as glows and colors.[26]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Livestream, 8 May 2017 (20:41).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Livestream, 5 May 2017 (10:47).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3
- ↑ Livestream, 30 July 2021 (1:16:05).
- ↑ Interview, 30 Jul 30 2020 (16:17).
- ↑ Interview, 18 July 2020 (55:01).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Livestream, 28 May 2021 (1:53:04).
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Interview, 7 February 2021 (13:14).
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Podcast, 13 May 2017 (25:55).
- ↑ 10.0 10.1
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Interview, 29 July 2020 (16:46).
- ↑ Podcast, 5 May 2017 (43:05).
- ↑ Livestream, 28 August 2020 (2:05:07).
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Podcast, 29 September 2021 (32:35).
- ↑
- ↑ Interview, 19 July 2020 (51:11).
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Interview, 29 July 2020 (15:04).
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Livestream, 5 May 2017 (20:41).
- ↑
- ↑ 20.0 20.1
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4
- ↑
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Livestream, 27 May 2022 (1:20:00).
- ↑ Livestream, 17 May 2017 (58:55).
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Livestream, 26 March 2021 (1:15:57).
- ↑ Livestream, 28 January 2022 (56:12).