Transmutation vs Alteration orbs

Just wondering which is worth more? Alteration seems better to me, and im basically running random instances to pick up whites, melt them down, and get wisdom scrolls to ID all my stuff. Worth it, or should I just ID things that I think ill need?

Just the OCD gamer inscribed into me after 15+ years of IDing everything in ARPGs, seems very unnatural to not :-/

P.S. Should I even care? Are they just noob crap that becomes(more or less) useless?

You don't really need to ID everything in this game. You can get that ability if you acquire a crap load of ID scrolls which really isn't hard to do later in the game. Eventually there are so many items to ID that it takes too much time and effort for most players to want to do it.

Alteration orbs are more valuable. All orbs have their place. I use transmutation on maps pretty often but other than that I don't really use them for anything and always have plenty.

Alteration orbs are used very frequently so even though they aren't hard to acquire they are still pretty valuable and there are usually people in global chat who will trade for them.

Transmutations are currently the least valued currency item. Alterations are significantly more valued than transmutations. Transmutations are the greatest valued in early gameplay or in speedruns, but quickly lose their value. Their best is in purchasing certain vendor items like orbs of augmentation or orbs of alteration. Occasionally your might transmute a really good white item to regal it. But the abundance of transmutations in the late game makes them significantly less valuable than alterations.

Just check the situation of chaos vs alch, people only use alch once for a while but may burn tons of chaos within minutes. That difference in the demand determined their value ratio, and I think can apply to Trans vs Alts too.

* Yes, alts have much higher demand

(as you can only use 1 trans on an item but potentially many alts trying to get the mods you want)

* Yes, burn your unneeded wisdoms on ID'ing yellows/blues to get alts (can vendor portals for more wisdoms too)
>> only take rares and small items

* Can trade alts readily for alchs (ratio fluctuates)

* Can purchase jewelers at vendor which you can also use to purchase fusings (the magic vendor in act 2)

Ever since alteration orbs rose in value, I ID almost every magic/rare item I find to sell it for alteration shards. The only problem with it is that you have to have the patience to portal to town frequently to sell them.

When I run out of Wisdom Scrolls from doing this, I just trade some transmutation orbs to the vendor. 1 stack of transmutation orbs will get you 4 stacks of Wisdom Scrolls, and I almost always have extra stacks of transmutations gathering dust. Alternatively you can trade 1 stack of Armorer's Scraps for 2 stacks of Wisdom Scrolls.

I used to convert my extra transmutations to augmentations at the potion vendor, and then convert those to higher orbs, but you end up using tons of transmutations for very little reward.