rework Engineer's Orbs / Orb of Binding

I won't get into all the other useless currencies...

BUT

Engineer's Orbs could be made so much better! How many people (I'm actually curious about this) even use Engineer Orbs? For the most part, if we were strongbox hunting, we roll the sextant mods where all strongboxes are rare corrupted = no engineer orbs usable. Also, very rarely will the average player waste time ID'ing strongboxes = no engineer orbs usable. It takes time to add 20% quality to a strongbox too, which basically stops game play.

Infused engineer orbs was a start to making them SLIGHTLY more relevant, but its incredibly difficult to get even one Infused Engineer orb, let alone enough to roll a single strongbox map.

Heres my suggestion: make engineer orbs rarer, have them be used directly in the map device to add special effects to strongboxes in the map. For example, running a map with an engineer orb in the device might guarantee a unique strongbox, or maybe add 20% quantity to all strongboxes in that map, or add the infused engineer orb text "guarded by 3 packs of magic monsters" to all strongboxes in the area. Of course, there should also be an added difficulty or something like the "enraged" mod on the sextant roll. With this suggestion, you could meaningfully hunt strongboxes with Scarab + Ambush + prophecy + engineer orb + sextant + atlas skills. This would be a really cool way to bring strongboxes back to an exciting level.

Something similar could be done with the currently useless Orb of Binding. Every single other currency has a unique use, except the Orb of Binding. This is already a dumb design, and has been since its introduction.

Suggestion: using it in a map device raises the chance of all items to drop fully linked (similar to and additive to watchstone mod).

You would need to rework the rarity of each of these items, but right now even the most basic lootfilters erases them from existence because they have no real practical use. They would possibly be useful during the acts, but they are rare to drop during that time which makes no sense.

Engineer received a "rework" the moment they introduced the Infused version. The point is, it's rare that a player will actually stop to throw 20 of them on a well-rolled Strongbox, or even a Unique one, because - well, no one rolls strongbox and uniques have their value weighted in their fixed drop (which is not changed by the box's quality).
I can think on some flagrant exceptions like Weylam and Plaguemaw, and even then players still won't bother.

Orb of Binding was officially meant to be a low-mid tier currency, intended to help players still in the first acts to get a 4L quickly. This was actually achieved very easily in Harbinger League - where the currency has been released. The currency itself is rare as an Alchemy, but thanks to harbingers spawning since lv2 Coasts and Binding Shards being a common drop for them, Bindings reached their expected goal.

After Harbinger ended, Harbingers went to endgame, where 4Ling items is way easier to achieve and thus they become more of a bother. Their rarity in par with Alchemy is for a reason - Bindings can still be used on items that has no sockets, like Rings and Maps. This is extremely useful since it allows you to save Alchemies for other non-crafting purpose - like metacrafting. Therefore, to make them spawn easier in non-endgame would mean to increase the chance for an alchemy spawning - which can be very good in the very first acts to get a gear strong enough to rush them even faster.

Both Engineers and Binding have their intended use flawed at this point of the game. Your suggestion may bring life into them, but everytime I read about currency being used in a map device, my mind switches to a default "only map and map fragments should go in a map device. Why not make a map fragment that does the currency's job?".
Usually, it's a League's job to break those mindsets

well I see your point, but then theres the existence of scarabs and a bunch of other things that have been able to be added to the map device for years now that can't exactly be considered "map fragments". Why not add a broader pool of map modifying currency? It would also help ease the dullness of running hundreds of the same maps, albeit slightly.

As you said, Orb of Binding worked in Harbinger league precisely because they weren't rare as you went through the storyline at lower levels. but nowadays, Orbs of Binding are WAY rarer than alchs in the early game. I literally pick up and keep every currency (I don't filter anything except scrolls) and I can tell you that I have 5-10x more alchs than orbs of binding, and thats with using alchs all the time on gear and maps and stuff, while never using a single Orb of Binding. It is functionally useless in the game, since it duplicates currency effects that already exist (fuses, jewellers, alchs). There is not a single other currency that "duplicates" another currency effect.

Orb of Binding is a bad idea implemented in a bad way:

it goes across the foundation of POEs currency system - currencies are generic and have a generic use

Orb of Binding is an add-on, tumour if you will, orb that does the job of another orb(s) but better. it is 100% better than orb of alchemy in its intended use case: leveling gear acquisition.

it replaces orbs of fusing during leveling..

up to a point when you no longer need them and start ignoring them.



so it is a leveling orb. orb that.. does not drop while leveling. i do not know if league mechanics drop them in adequate quantities to make them a thing.

Orb of Binding solves a 'non issue' in a convoluted and bizarrely inelegant manner. instead of creating this tumour - make quest rewards worthwhile AND 4-linked (they kinda are, but the rolls are TOTAL GARBAGE). done. you may now safely remove the Orb of Binding from the game.


Engineering orbs might have been great if we still cared about loot drops. since we dont - there is no point rolling strongboxes - there is no point in these orbs. remove them as well. not to mention they are comically rare.

we all know GGG loves bloat...so deleting the useless currencies isn't ever going to happen.

But one would hope that a rework to bring it back into relevance is at least possible