Color crafting -- am I missing something?

Before 1.2, when master crafting wasn't an option, I used to waste dozens of chromes trying to obtain those maddening specific color combinations on 5- or 6-L gear -- rarely with any decent results. So when I heard that the next expansion would introduce deterministic socket crafting, I was just about ready to celebrate.

But now? It turns out I'm still wasting dozens of chromes trying to get those sockets colored (and still mostly in vain). The only difference? It feels like I'm wasting them 15 times as fast.

Why? Because Vorici now allows you to spend them in bulk, in return for forcing a color on two or three sockets. Yet from what I've seen, those "at least three" recipes don't really help when what you're really looking for is "exactly six". And at those prices, there's no way you'd want to leave the rest to chance. In my case? The result was a 200 chrome load that vanished in just a few clicks. And while I can't pretend to be bathing in currency at the moment, paying upward of 100 chromes just to force three colors simply feels excessive.

So, is there something I'm missing? Is there some shrewd technique I've overlooked? Because right now I fail to see what added value Vorici's color crafting recipes are supposed to bring.

Vorici is for trying to get off colours.

Your Imperial Bow has a 212 Dex requirement.

Say the chance that each socket has independently to be red is 2%

The chance to get all 6 red sockets is 0.02^6 or 0.0000000064%. In other words, it would take you 156,250,000 chromatic orbs on average to get the 6 red sockets.

Now if you pay Vorici 25, you get 3 reds. Now you only leave 3 sockets to chance. This means that your chance, per attempt is 0.02^3 or 0.008% chance. Although it costs you 25 times as many chromatics per attempt, your chance of getting the colours you want is 125,000 times greater per attempt. So it will cost you, on average, 5,000 TIMES less chromatics to get the colour you want (31,250 compared to 156,250,000).

Now this is using made up numbers for the colour chances, but even if they are off by 3 orders of magnitude (which they aren't because it isn't a 10% chance to get off-colour sockets on high req gear), then it will still save you 10 times more chromatics than using them one at a time.

Now if you spend 25 chromatics to try and get green sockets on the same bow, you're an idiot and you're wasting them.

Similarly if you use him on low requirement gear, you won't see the same returns. But overall, colouring is the most efficient Master ability. Better than Zana's free quantity, in my opinion.

yes you are

socket bench crafting has to have slightly higher cost than average traditional rng crafting, otherwise there would be no point in using the orbs in "natural" way any more

the point was not to allow everyone cheap socket crafting, but to give another option to players who dont like rng too much

crafting 5-6 colors you like traditional way can take many thousands of chroms in average (based on how many off colors you need). they decided to go this semi-rng way.. which can be worth it or not based on your item base type...

also can you immagine having all possible 6S color combinations in menu (and a 4-5 digit number of chromatics next to it?)?