Chromatic orbs are bullshit.

It's way too hard to get off colors.

It's discouraging as hell and makes me not even want to play. I've had several characters. This time around I'm going for something unusual. It requires off-colors on an ES chest.

The barrier to me spec'ing into CI is a good chest with the right colors. I'll be using a bow, so I need every last ounce of ES I can get (no shield...). Going for a hybrid chest to make the coloring process easier would severely gimp my character and would likely get me sent to scrubcore.

Without the chest there's no point even bothering. It's a "build enabler" basically.

I don't think 2B2G2R on an ES chest should be this difficult. It would work, and allow for my most mandatory gems to be placed in there.

(I would actually prefer 1B3G2R be we all know that will never fucking happen - so shooting for it would classify me as greedy. I would happily settle for 2B2G2R)

Out of 400 chromatics I got:
6B 120
5B1G 95
5B1R 85
4B2G 20
4B2R 19
4B1R1G 47
3B2G1R 5
3B1G2R 4
3B3G 3
3B3R 2

Now what stood out to me was that I didn't get a single 4 off-color result. If I had gotten even a handful, it would be a lot less discouraging. But there are FIVE different ways an item can have four off colors...

And considering I didn't even get ONE, and I am looking for a specific one....I mean shit, I only got 3 off colors 14 times out of 400.

Do the odds really need to be THIS stacked? Is the game going to suddenly break and implode on itself if people have an easier time with this?

Thanks for recording the results you got from a trial of 400 Chromatic Orbs on a 6-socket ES chest. The complete absence of any configuration with less than 3 Blue sockets is conclusive evidence that GGG's randomized socket-color bias is extremely unbalanced and serves only to arbitrarily restrict build diversity. This contrived roadblock, along with the terrible odds against linking 5 and 6-socket items, is what makes crafting such a dismal experience in PoE.

While the concept of socket-color alignment of armor and weapons is sound, the fundamental relationships it is based on are mismatched with how gems are actually used in practice. The built-in assumptions work like this:

Armor = Strength = Red gems
Evasion = Dexterity = Green gems
Energy Shield = Intelligence = Blue gems

These one-dimensional equivalences ignore the color alignments that impact gem selection the most:

Red gems: melee attacks
Green gems: ranged attacks
Blue gems: offensive spells

Two of the worst examples of this fundamental mismatch are daggers and evasive shields. Daggers are primarily melee weapons, yet their three potential sockets are strongly biased against red melee gems. Evasive shields are never used to support ranged attacks, yet their three potential sockets are biased in favor of green ranged gems. The color bias in these cases helps no one and defies common sense.

The usual advice on socket color alignment is to select gear that is properly aligned with the type of gems you intend to use. In practice, however, there are numerous cases where a player is forced to work with arbitrary color alignments that cannot freely be chosen:

* Unique items: With most build-enabling Uniques, the socket color bias has nothing to do with the type of build it supports; it's determined by the typically arbitrary base type of the item.

* Weapon-swap combos: If you want to make use of the weapon-swap feature, you must insert weapon-specific skill gems into that particular weapon (or in its off-hand shield). If you instead socket weapon-specific skills into non-swappable gear, you cannot swap out the skill along with its intended weapon. This glitch makes it impractical to bind a wide range of gem combos and weapons to the mouse button and action keys you want to use them with.

At this point in the Beta, it should be clear that Armor is not used solely with Red melee attacks, Evasion is largely irrelevant to Green ranged attacks, and Energy Shield users are not necessarily focused on Blue magic spells. The socket color biases of melee, ranged, and caster-specific items are often grossly mismatched to their practical uses, and should be dialed back to have only a subtle influence, i.e. something like 60%:20%:20% for single-attribute items and 40%:40%:20% for hybrid items.

Uniques used to have a different, less extreme socket color bias formula. It was much easier to roll multiple off colors on wanderlust than it was a generic wool shoes, for example. Not sure if this is still the case.

Anyway, crafting and orb drop rates in general could use a full overhaul.

I completely agree. Have used over 2k chromatics on my Carcass trying to get 4RGB. It just doesn't want to happen. Which is ridiculous because Carcass is not really viable for CI play, and the best melee supports happen to be red.

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KoTao wrote:

Uniques used to have a different, less extreme socket color bias formula. It was much easier to roll multiple off colors on wanderlust than it was a generic wool shoes, for example. Not sure if this is still the case.

AFAIK socket colors have always been based on the attribute requirements of the item. An item like Wool Shoes (including Wanderlust) has no attribute requirements, and thus has no socket color bias.

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Ezhiel wrote:

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KoTao wrote:

Uniques used to have a different, less extreme socket color bias formula. It was much easier to roll multiple off colors on wanderlust than it was a generic wool shoes, for example. Not sure if this is still the case.

AFAIK socket colors have always been based on the attribute requirements of the item. An item like Wool Shoes (including Wanderlust) has no attribute requirements, and thus has no socket color bias.

Should have used a different example. I wasnt referring to those req-less low level items having completely random socket allocations, but to uniques of all levels having less bias than their non unique counterparts.

Iirc there was a dev comment on this sometime during mid cb; someone with more patience for the forums broken search function should be able to find it with a bit of work.

I have always said the bias is slightly stronger than it should be.

There is according to your 400 attemps about a 1/3 chance of it rolling all bias, which i feel while 'semi good' is just too strong. When you are chroming you get all bias far too often.

I feel they should reduce the bias a fair bit, so rolling off colours is not AS painful as it currently is.

YES there should be a bias

BUT the current bias is too strong

I have an idea. Keep Chromatic orbs as they are, and add another orb that disregards standard color orientations. This orb will had a 33.33^% chance to roll a red green or blue socket. Probably make it the same drop rate and cost as an alch / fuse.

Maybe Prism orb?

it is intended (for now) for you to plan your build ahead and know what chest you want to use and plan skills accordingly OR now what skill and supports you want to use and then plan chest accordingly. I am not saying I like this, I am just saying how it is. However, you CAN get 2 of each colors on 6S chest of any kind but it's hard. I even think Invalesco showed me 2 ES chest (one being shavs) with LS dagger setup colors If I am not mistaken:
LS > faster attacks > mana leech > weapon melee dmg > melee dmg on full life > crit multi/crit chance. That's RRRGGB folks, on ES chests...he said it takes around 150-200 chroms but I spent over 400 didnt get it but I did get RRGGBB several times. However, on my 6L plate I spent aroun 450 chroms and didnt get RRGGBB, It was always RRR combos but one time I got only one R but it was of no use in that state.
just my 5 cents.

Bump because I think there are some legitimate concerns here. This game is supposed to promote build diversity, making it that hard to get the right off colors feels limiting.