Vaal Orbs will be used on gg items

Hi.

Old bittervet here. I don't play anymore but I do read the big patches that come out of curiosity.

It amuses me greatly that GGG is pushing the Vaal Orb as something that will only be used on "mid grade" items.

I'd like to point out that long ago, a similar argument was made for the Eternal Orb. I was probably the first person on the forums to point out that people would simply use them to craft GG items. Most people said they would be too rare to ever be worth it, and nobody would bother.

Boy, how wrong they were.

A similar situation will occur with these new Vaal Orbs, except they are biased hilariously towards uniques.

Thing is -- uniques just drop. No matter how rare they are, you can always get a comparable one. People can and will use Vaal Orbs on their uber uniques and then get more and try try again. There's no such thing as a unique that is not replaceable unless it is a legacy unique.

You could argue the same for rares, but it's a much lesser extent. It's much harder to replace a good rare than a top tier unique because of crafting costs.

However, I do believe that eventually a lot of top tier rare items will be corrupted as well. As long as you mirror them first in all the useful color combinations, you are set. This would be particularly easy with 1h rares.

After all, once you have a mirror'd copy of the relevant color combinations, there's no other reason you would need to leave the original copy except to keep mirroring it for people/profit. But now - there's one step beyond that.

Other thing to note with Vaal Orbs: they are only available in corrupted areas which populate roughly once an hour of play... and only then do you have a chance to get the orbs on roughly the same ratio you get Chaos orbs.

In other words: these fucking orbs will be pretty rare... therefore further strengthening your stance. If GGG actually wanted us to USE the things, the drop rates would be set on useful. As it stands they will just be used purely for currency and for, like you suggest, no lifer players in GG item creation.


GG, GGG.... GG

If they have stay "common", I can see people using them for various roles. If they are set to be quite rare, we'll see people trade them to the GG crafters as another currency.

what's your point?

The reason eternals aren't used on anything but the best items is because they drop about once ever 100000 hours.

And yes, good items being mirrored enough times until its safe to corrupt will happen but... that's why there's still a chance that the vaal orb will either ruin the item or do nothing. Plus if the item already has a good implicit it's very likely a vaal orb probably won't be a good idea.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

If they have stay "common", I can see people using them for various roles. If they are set to be quite rare, we'll see people trade them to the GG crafters as another currency.

They will be somewhat common because of GGG's intention for them to be used on mid grade items as an all-or-nothing "whatever" gamble.

My only point was that people will definitely still use them on high end items. Primarily uniques, to start with, as they are always replaceable.

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Wooser69 wrote:

The reason eternals aren't used on anything but the best items is because they drop about once ever 100000 hours.

This isn't even true, as stated by the way.

People use eternals on items that they intend to be the best. Many people have started using eternal's at the augmentation step.

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tikitaki wrote:

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Shagsbeard wrote:

If they have stay "common", I can see people using them for various roles. If they are set to be quite rare, we'll see people trade them to the GG crafters as another currency.

They will be somewhat common because of GGG's intention for them to be used on mid grade items as an all-or-nothing "whatever" gamble.

My only point was that people will definitely still use them on high end items. Primarily uniques, to start with, as they are always replaceable.

They will be roughly as rare as Exalted orbs... maybe even as rare as eternals.


Possibly once per hour you might see a corrupted area... and in that one zone you might get a vaal orb on the same drop rate as a chaos.

GGG found a way to add another 2 layers of RNG to their already RNGerific RNG fest.

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Isbox1 wrote:

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tikitaki wrote:

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Shagsbeard wrote:

If they have stay "common", I can see people using them for various roles. If they are set to be quite rare, we'll see people trade them to the GG crafters as another currency.

They will be somewhat common because of GGG's intention for them to be used on mid grade items as an all-or-nothing "whatever" gamble.

My only point was that people will definitely still use them on high end items. Primarily uniques, to start with, as they are always replaceable.

They will be roughly as rare as Exalted orbs.


Possibly once per hour you might see a corrupted area... and in that one zone you might get a vaal orb on the same drop rate as a chaos.

GGG found a way to add another 2 layers of RNG to their already RNGerific RNG fest.

Heh. I see it in an even more negative light.

It's just another way for uniques to take another edge away from rares.

I originally left because itemization was too bland in this game. Everything is spoon fed to players in the form of godly uniques.

If you *want* you can bust your bank trying to make a godly rare item. Then, you can watch in horror as GGG releases a new unique that is better than your rare item in every way (this actually happened to me!)

It will be much easier to corrupt uniques (they are replaceable) which will mean the average power difference between a top rare and a top unique will only widen.

Vaal orbs will NEVER EVER be used on GGGGGGGG items, because they will lose more value by not being mirror-able. Now, that said, vaal orbs will always be used on uniques :)

This was my thinking as well. In concept it's a brilliant form of item consumption which will serve to stabilize the in game economy, or at least prolong stability.

In practice I suspect you are right. It will be used exclusively on high end uniques and maps, and its most beneficial role, as a second tier rare sink, will hardly be realized. It's more than likely most players will be trading away their Vaal Orbs (as they do all their high tier orbs) to players who can properly utilize them to their best effect.

If Vaals are used on rares, however, it will prove valuable to all players collectively. That is because Vaal Orbs will potentially sink items. Even if an individual isn't using Vaals he will benefit from the diminished market saturation that results from rare item consumption, making the loot and items generated from subsequent farming and crafting more rewarding.