item crafting

My aim was to craft level 83 "170-179% increased physical damage" mod on 85 item level bow. After spending somewhere in between 4000-5000 alterations on it (really, not exaggerating it) didn't get it, not a single time. I am really starting to doubt if it is working as intended, because it has happened before a few times that some game mechanics weren't working as intended until it was officially announced and fixed.

Got a question for people who are into crafting, how many attempts it really takes to get this mod? Has anyone got it?

From my own experience: expect to waste a lot more Alts. I just spent 1k Alts on a bow and didn't even hit the Cruel mod (lvl 60). Has been the same result on pretty much any attempt.

It's working as intended.

In general, don't craft.

i wanted to craft a dagger this league and in 5k+ alterations i only got a T1 spell damage roll ONCE. its crazy. craftig is not worth it unless you wanna waste some currency for fun

Step one: be prepared to lose thousands of alts and get nothing

Step two: don't aim for one specific roll of a specific mod, aim for a range of several good mods with t3 to t1 rolls.

As a rule of thumb, buying is cheaper than crafting. You can always get lucky, of course, but in the long run buying is better - unless there's nothing for sale similar to what you want.

I fooled around with alteration/augment/regal, alch/scour and chaos spam on two ES bases in this league, had much more relaxed standards than you and got nothing out of about 6 exalts worth of currency (as expected). I realize it's not that much, just illustrating my point. Could have easily bought one decent piece at that price.

When crafting high-end items, I always try to have at least two copies of the item available. Three or more is even better. Whenever I get a good set of mods on one item, I continue rolling with the one that has the worst mods. That way I don't risk losing the good mods and whenever I feel I've spent enough currency on the project I can grab the best mods I got and go with it.

Note that I play self-found so buying items is not an option.

Got a Merciless Harbinger Bow of Piercing with just 200 alterations. So lucky and so happy! Afraid to regal it. Lol.