What exactly is the point of shaper's orbs?

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Vipermagi wrote:

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Vipermagi wrote:

"There are fifteen [Shaper's Orbs] available[..]
one at each of map tiers 6-12, two at tier 13, and three each at tiers 14 and 15[..]"

:P

Tbh I'm not too thrilled by the exact distribution, unless t14/15 is a bit easier to come by... With current rates, I would not want to reduce my tier 9 pool by two Maps (three t9 to t14, but also one t4 to t9), but I'd love to uptier half of everything below tier 10.

well, u cna use them the other way around. Never play maps where t15s drop? Get ur completion bonus from all the t10s and then exile the shit ones to t15s where u never see them.

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Arrowneous wrote:

After re-reading the Shaper's Orb info again I see:

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Generally you earn a tier X Shaper's Orb from completing a tier X+5 map. For example, if you complete a tier 15 map that has a Shaper's Orb as the reward, then you'll receive a tier 10 Shaper's Orb, allowing you to upgrade a tier 10 map of your choice to tier 15.

Shaper's Orbs are essentially quest items, in that they are non-tradeable. You can respec the decision to upgrade a map by trading 20 Cartographer's Chisels and 5 Orbs of Regret to a vendor. This is intentionally an expensive operation.

When a map on the Atlas has been Shaped, it doesn't change any of the existing maps you own. However, Shaped versions of that map will now start dropping. Unshaped versions will not drop for you any more. These Shaped maps are five tiers higher than their regular Unshaped counterparts. They can be traded to other players. Like the rest of the Atlas, map Shaping is shared between all your characters in the league.

All items (including the new base types) dropped in these Shaped maps are five item levels higher than they would otherwise be.

So it looks like once I use a Shaper's Orb on a specific map that map will stay upgraded by 5 levels permanently so every time I run that map it will forever be a +5 tier higher map and all drops in it will be of the higher tier value. Yay, no more level 1 maps on my level 80+ builds.

Ok, so now this sounds like I'll need to farm T6 maps until I have acquired enough SOs to shape all T1 maps, before using a T11 SO on the T6 map. I'll need to repeat this for T7 maps for shaping T2 maps, etc. so that if enough SOs can be gotten eventually all maps on the Atlas will be T6+. Am I understanding this correctly? Is there going to be a maximum limit of SO orb drops for a specific map tier or will I be able to keep farming T6 maps until I have all the T1 maps shaped (upgraded)?

not quite, as shags said theyre limited. You will get one shaper orb from a t6 that can be used to turn one t1 map permanently into a t6. Thats it, u cant turn all t1s up to 6.

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There are fifteen Shaper's Orbs available, and they are distributed among specific maps in the Atlas (one at each of map tiers 6-12, two at tier 13, and three each at tiers 14 and 15).

the point is this, most mappers dont get out of the low to mid maps because they just dont play enough to climb that high, they never reach lvl90 and hence are never even playing a character who has any business setting foot in a red tier map. So historically the map pool has been a pyramid shape, with a big amount of maps at the bottom and only a couple at the top.

Thing is players like me who play a lot more than those guys, we zoom through the bulk of maps and then get stuck playing a very limited map pool of t10+. This way the map pool suits casual noobs as it always have, but big grinders get to slant the pool towards the higher tiers based on the maps we prefer.

Otherwise you just get this bullshit where the people who play the most amount of time have the most limited variety in the areas they can play, which is completely backwards, but so is devoting the biggest portion of the game to the 1%. You have to cater to the 1%, because they are putting in 50% of the hours played in this game and are the ones paying the bills around here.

Will have shaped map increased experience as well?

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Kastmar wrote:

Will have shaped map increased experience as well?

Yep.

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Kastmar wrote:

Will have shaped map increased experience as well?

you shape the maps node on the atlas, from that point on the map will drop 5 tiers higher and everything about it will be the same as a map 5 tiers higher.

If you shape a t5 white map into a t10 yellow map it will now only drop where t10 maps drop, it will have a yellow graphic, everything about it will be the same as any other t10 map essentially forever unless you unshape it.

Any existing versions of that map in ur stash will remain t5, if ur buddy gives u a normal t5 version of that map and you run it, it will still run as a t5. It will never drop as a t5 for you tho.

I'm confused by the whole question in the title. What's the point? To be able to run your favorite maps for longer before you get too far above them. To give you more choices of maps in whatever tier you're running. You like running T10 maps? Shape as many T5 maps as you can. So now your pool of available T10 layouts expanded by the number of T5 maps you're making T10. Doesn't seem insidious. Seems like giving more options.

^ yes, this is exactly what many people have been asking, since first encountering Zana missions: a way to play a tileset/layout independent of tier. Shaper orb doesn't give you total freedom over this, but still.

One thing I don't get...why there aren't more shape orbs for low tier maps? It would allow to have more mid tier maps, maximizing variety.

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NeroNoah wrote:

One thing I don't get...why there aren't more shape orbs for low tier maps? It would allow to have more mid tier maps, maximizing variety.

There aren't that many low tier maps anymore. Everything got re-assigned.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

There aren't that many low tier maps anymore. Everything got re-assigned.

Sure, but there is no need to have more than one map per tier if we talk about white maps on the long run (that would be if you obliterate all your map pool at some point). More shaper's orbs at low level if possible would be nice.

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NeroNoah wrote:

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Shagsbeard wrote:

There aren't that many low tier maps anymore. Everything got re-assigned.

Sure, but there is no need to have more than one map per tier if we talk about white maps on the long run (that would be if you obliterate all your map pool at some point). More shaper's orbs at low level if possible would be nice.

Wouldn't work so well for people who like playing up characters. You'd cut too much out of the next generation's choices.