Crafting bench

Bring back the crafting bench.
So couple of issues the meta for gear is + to gems if you don't have it the item sucks, it's either have + to gems or + to spirt. Add the crafting bench back in it will off set the current rng for items significantly

It never should have been missing to begin with.

Its worse in this game because the +skills get so big. It's also why uniques suck in this game.

In PoE1 at most you got like 1-2 +skills, so you could justify dropping the equipment that has it for something unique. But in PoE2 your wand has +5, and your best 2h weapons have +7... who is EVER going to drop +7 skills for some shitty unique that is +0 but makes your damage ignite... WHAT DAMAGE? You just lost 7 skill levels.

Honestly thought this post would get more traction the + level to skill gems is broken it is a meta that until removed cannot be corrected, no rare weapon is worth anything unless it have + to gems level in addition it makes all the unique weapons trash tier. This needs removed and the crafting bench back in this will create a healthier trade economy.

I agree. There's the "necessary" affixes/suffixes, and there's the others, more numerous, crappy or subpar ones.

Most of the time, items are so badly rolled that they're virtually useless to anyone.

While most uniques seems tied to leveling, some uniques have some potentially interesting mechanics with subpar stats, but here again, if you're using a skill with a flat damage amount (i.e. tied to gem level), you're "usually" better off with an item with +gem level than with that item.

The current slot machine crafting is just usually bad, so you're kind of forced to trade to acquire new gear. I don't remember how the crafting bench worked in PoE, but anything that is a bit more deterministic than this would be better.

Crafting should be something like : You get a good white base. Great! You can select two affixes/suffixes from the list. Your item will get those affixes. The other could be selected at random through exalted orbs, but you get the choose between two or three choices every time... or maybe you could simply replace that particular affix using a chaos orb instead of replacing one affix at random (and most of the time, you end up losing the only good affix you had). That would make crafting WAY less RNG based. It would still be RNG based, and having a great item would require a lot of mats and multiple tries, but it wouldn't be as "RNG on top of RNG, x6".

I would love to be able to craft most of my items, but more often than not, unless you're SSF, you're asking yourself "Why waste 2-3 EX on that item to get random affixes when I can buy a better one for 1 EX?". It shouldn't be like that, especially while leveling or in early endgame.

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pyrocyborg#0256 wrote:

I agree. There's the "necessary" affixes/suffixes, and there's the others, more numerous, crappy or subpar ones.

Most of the time, items are so badly rolled that they're virtually useless to anyone.

While most uniques seems tied to leveling, some uniques have some potentially interesting mechanics with subpar stats, but here again, if you're using a skill with a flat damage amount (i.e. tied to gem level), you're "usually" better off with an item with +gem level than with that item.

The current slot machine crafting is just usually bad, so you're kind of forced to trade to acquire new gear. I don't remember how the crafting bench worked in PoE, but anything that is a bit more deterministic than this would be better.

Crafting should be something like : You get a good white base. Great! You can select two affixes/suffixes from the list. Your item will get those affixes. The other could be selected at random through exalted orbs, but you get the choose between two or three choices every time... or maybe you could simply replace that particular affix using an orb. That would make crafting WAY less RNG based. It would still be RNG based, and having a great item would require a lot of mats and multiple tries, but it wouldn't be as "RNG on top of RNG, x6".

I would love to be able to craft most of my items, but more often than not, unless you're SSF, you're asking yourself "Why waste 2-3 EX on that item to get random affixes when I can buy a better one for 1 EX?". It shouldn't be like that, especially while leveling or in early endgame.

Crafting bench in poe 1 allowed you to add 1 suffix or prefix to your item.

Ya I miss alteration orbs and scouring orbs they helped alot with crafting.

I see. At least it was a better way to start your crafting process. Right now, it's just not great. You can end up with good results, but most of the time, you're just slamming orb and praying each time.

With the current meta aimed towards +gems/spirit on items (and maybe physical +% on most martial weapons), any item that doesn't have these is probably going to end up being disenchanted anyway.

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pyrocyborg#0256 wrote:

I see. At least it was a better way to start your crafting process. Right now, it's just not great. You can end up with good results, but most of the time, you're just slamming orb and praying each time.

With the crafting bench you could add a mod you didn't want roll slam for the mod you want then recraft to overwrite the mod you didn't want. You could also look for items that where missing one mod you wanted buy it for cheaper and craft the mod you want making it perfect for you

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Drayid#1735 wrote:

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pyrocyborg#0256 wrote:

I see. At least it was a better way to start your crafting process. Right now, it's just not great. You can end up with good results, but most of the time, you're just slamming orb and praying each time.

With the crafting bench you could add a mod you didn't want roll slam for the mod you want then recraft to overwrite the mod you didn't want. You could also look for items that where missing one mod you wanted buy it for cheaper and craft the mod you want making it perfect for you

I see. I don't know why some people are saying that the current PoE2 crafting is way better than PoE ever was.

Sure, as "crafted" gear is crappier on average, managing to pull a good item through "crafting" (or slam and praying) do trigger more of a dopamine high, but seeing that trading is in the game and that it simply invalidates crafting in its current state, I don't think that the current system is good enough.

As you say, adding the crafting bench back would open up so many possibilities and maybe would make crafting more enjoyable to most players.

Many, MANY items should act as shards, and many more should have shards.

You should be able to turn 10 uncut gems of X level into an uncut gem X+1 level.
You should be able to turn 20 Transmut orb into a Regal Orb
You should be able to turn 30 Augment orb into an Exalted orb.
You should be able to turn 15 Essences into a Greater Essence.

Gemcutter's Prism, Jeweller's orbs, Glassblower's orb should had shards that drop, and you should be able to turn 10 lower level into a higher level.

You should be able to craft Chaos, Divine, Alchemy, Annulment and Vall orbs with specific recipes that mix other orbs and currencies.

Ever heard of that small game called Minecraft? Have something like that, you have 4x4 inventory and have to create a specific patern with the items or something, you'll figure a solution crafting is the easiest system to design, ever.


Oh and while we are at it, you should be able to level up runes a couple of time by merging 10 of a lower level. I don't know about you, but the way you could slowly grow your gem in D2 always felt incredibly rewarding to me.
Just give us the ability to either destroy a slotted gem to make space for a new one, or destroy the item to get your gem back.