Why are Orbs consumable..

..if consuming most of them is not designed to be fun or generally appealing?

..if it is clearly better to save most of them and not consume them?

..if patch 1.2.0 is adding multiple new ways to spend them instead of consume them?

PoE's currency implementation combined with the patch 1.2.0 news is confusing me.

Why not just remove currency functionalities all together if we are going to have crafting-vendors to purchase crafting outcomes from?

Currency as currency? Or currency that can be used to craft? Or currency that is currency that can also be used to craft but the mechanics are so flawed that we had to add ways to spend the currency as currency in-game for guaranteed outcomes related to their underlying consumable functionality?

Are we supposed to consume currency or spend it?

Are we supposed to see a crafting opportunity or a coin for our piggy-bank when we find a currency item?

I am torn between the desire to consume currency and the reality that doing so is generally a bad experience. I do not understand PoE's currency system.

What is the point of such an intriguing currency system if the majority of can boil down to simply being Gold?

NOTE: I generalized about Orbs in this post for simplicity. Some are more painful to consume than others.

~A confused Exile.

People cry for options all the time. Here you have some.

Craft with orbs.
Use orbs to craft specific mods/sockets/links/etc. at a Master.
Use them in some Vendor recipes.
Use Orbs as currency to buy items from vendors.
Use orbs as currency to buy items from player.


If it were just gold, you would either buy something or gtfo.
Here, if you don't have something to buy or don't want to buy something you can use it for something else. Nothing wrong with that.

Sounds like a lot of complaints with no solutions.

Welp crafting offers you a chance to save currency. Ofc it's a gamble, but that's the whole point. You either take the risk and have a chance to "win" big, or take the safe route and farm more to make sure you get exactly what you want (which is not often possible due to new leagues etc, so you just got to make those items yourself).

remember that this is 'currency' but at the same time it's not.

it's just the items that were picked up as currency because they are static.

this is a bartering system. Not a payment system. it just so happens that it's been called currency and given effective values like salt and spices used to be.

instead of looking at it as currency, look at is what does each person want.

I will give you my rare axe if you give me 3 of those things that change my magic into a rare

I will give you my unique for 15 of those things that add a new mod to my rare.

you can even say

I will give you 15 of my rare mod recalculation balls, if you give me that piece of armor you have there.

then things are easier to understand.

with this in mind and staying away from actual currency, you will get things like this

person A: I have 10 exalts, and 3 chaos for your armor

person B: really wants exlats, and although he can sell it for 15, he wants those exalts now for his piece, and the chaos will help get better mods first.

sold, because it's a barter not a sale

Consumable orbs of different varieties is one of the games most decent features. What are you on?

If POE currency wasn't consumable for crafting the best items, it would have the same fate as gold currencies in many (most?) other online games. Players would not sell expensive items for gold, but only in exchange for other player chosen "item currencies", because the gold was subject to unlimited inflation.

When I last played DDO, the most common player trade currency was ingredients, not gold/platinum.
When I last played Ryzom, the player trade currency was crafting materials and the in game gold was near worthless.

GGG's solution is both simple and beautiful imo. Because you can use the orbs to craft the best items, it puts a cap on inflation (if someone is trying to sell an item for more than it would cost you to craft it, craft it yourself) and makes sure that orbs always retain a value.

That said, I think a lot more currency should drop and that mirrors+eternals should have never existed, then more people would actually get a chance to participate in crafting, instead of saving up all orbs to buy stuff.

Because GGG says so and because people whine all the time and GGG gets affected by them.

The reason orbs have value is that they're consumable. You can't separate the two effects. With enough orbs, you can craft the best items in the game. You need a lot of orbs to even contemplate that. So people trade for them, and they get concentrated to the the point where people can use them for crafting.

You also have people who use them for gambling. That's fine too.

What's not fine is feeling that it's wrong simply because you're not at the top of the crafting progression. Be a happy worker-bee and trade the orbs you find for items. Or be the rogue bee hoping to create a masterpiece with a single alch orb. Or strive to become a crafter. You'll need to understand commerce and trade... and pretty much turn this game into a job.

I use almost all orbs, some for trading, some for maps and gear.

Transmutes, alts, augs, regals, alchs, scours, chaos all go in to rolling maps.
Jewelers and fuses for my gear.
I also alch, chance some white gear that drops from maps and divine some low rolled uniques.
Exalts I only use for trading.

Orbs have trading value sure, but they also get used a lot outside of trading.