Why do ascended crafting materials have disparate material costs? Let me clarify….why do recipes require 2 ore and 2-3 wood versus 3 cloth and 4 leather when the cloth and leather are harder to acquire than the ore and wood? Wood and ore are harvested materials, easy enough to acquire if you spend the time in maps harvesting, while cloth and leather are salvaged materials gained from Random Number Generator (RNG). Why would you make the recipe material cost higher for the material that is harder to get? Especially when that effects 6 out of 9 of your professions with regard to ascended armor crafting. It looks like you are promoting your 3 heavy armor professions over your 3 light and 3 medium armor professions since the material cost is so much lower to create a set of heavy armor. Why not standardize those costs, make them the same across the board or even switch those material costs? Wouldn’t that make more sense?
EXAMPLES – these are the base requirements for ascended gear materials. The second step for each piece seems to be nearly the same across the board in their costs. The costs become even more out of whack once you try to actually create the armor pieces though. It requires even more cloth and leather to actually make a light or medium armor piece.
Spool of Silk Weaving Thread
100 Bolts of Silk = 300 scraps of silk = RNG
1 Glob of Ectoplasm
25 Spools of Gossamer Thread
Spool of Thick Elonian Cord
50 Cured Thick Leather Squares = 200 Thick Leather Sections = RNG
1 Glob of Ectoplasm
10 Thermocatalytic Reagents
Cloth and Leather are salvaged by destroying loot drops from RNG
Lump of Mithrillium
50 Mithril Ingots = 100 Mithril Ore = Harvested
1 Glob of Ectoplasm
10 Thermocatalytic Reagents
Glob of Elder Spirit Residue
50 Elder Wood Planks = 150 Elder Wood Logs = Harvested
1 Glob of Ectoplasm
10 Thermocatalytic Reagents
Wood and Ore are harvested from nodes on open world maps
The advantage when gearing out a character clearly sits in the heavy armor wearers lap. Before I get some naysayer who just wants to argue, yes I’ve made full suits of ascended gear for each armor type and have kept track of the costs to do so. I just thought it worth a comment here due to the clear inequality between professions vs cost to equip.
EXAMPLE – using helm slot material requirements. All insignia for ascended armor require a standard 3 Bolts of Damask and 3 Elonian Leather Squares.
Heavy Helm
2 Bolts of Damask = Salvaged RNG
*1 Deldrimor Steel Ingot = Harvested
Medium Helm
2 Bolts of Damask = Salvaged RNG
1 Elonian Leather Square = Salvaged RNG
Light Helm
2 Bolts of Damask = Salvaged RNG
1 Elonian Leather Square = Salvaged RNG
(*)That one harvested material adds up when you think about it being similar for all 6 wear locations making Deldrimor Steel Ingots FAR easier to acquire through harvesting than cloth or leather through RNG. This makes heavy armor wearers have a clear advantage.
