This thread is getting long, so I modified the original post to consolidate the Q/A. I tried to organize the Q/A, so people can find the answers to their questions easier.
NOTE: All of these answers are based on the current design of imbuing. The final release of imbuing may vary from how it is described here.
The imbuing skill page has been added to the SA site
http://www.uoherald.com/stygianabyss...ls/imbuing.phpSoul Forge
Q: Is the soul forge used to unravel items as well as apply mods?
A: Yes.
Q: Will we be able to bulk-unravel items with the soul forge like you can with the recycling bag? It would be ideal if we could just toss a bag of 124 garbage items into the forge and get a bag of stacked shards of varying types.
A: Thank you for reminding me about this. I'll note it and see what it would take to do this.
Note: The current design makes imbuing ingredients a stackable resource.
Unraveling
Q: It was mentioned that now would be a good time to stock up on mundane weapons. Is it also good to stock up on mundane armor and jewlery too?
A: You can. If your intent is to unravel them into Imbuing ingredients.
Q: Does it matter what mods and the mod intensities are on an item when you unravel them, or can you just unravel any item to get the best resources?
A: The total intensity of the item determines the what Imbuing ingredient is received when unraveling a magic item.
Q: How does the system determine what resources to give you when you unravel an item?
A: I believe the current design is as follows:
<= 199 Total Intensity = Magical Residue
200 to 399 Total Intensity = Enchanted Essence
400+ = Relic Fragment
So to get a Relic Fragment, you would need 4 item properties at 100% intensity each or 5 item properties at 80% intensity each, etc.
DISCLAIMER: What I've stated here are the base guidelines. There are other factors that can affect the type of fragment received from magic unraveling such as being a gargoyle, special soul forge bonus, possible durability penalty, penalty if item is imbued since the magic is unstable.
Q: Can we unravel properties off an item that's using special materials - such as valorite - then imbue it onto an iron weapon?
A: No.
NOTE: You can not imbue or unravel any item that has been enhanced or crafted out of a special material. In other words, if the item is made from normal lumber, iron or normal leather it can be unraveled and imbued. Otherwise it can not. All item drops from treasure hunting, monsters, etc are considered crafted from the default material and therefore can be unraveled and imbued.
Q: Did I get you correct if I say that the most powerful unraveled items will make the best ingredient for imbuing?
A: Correct.
Q: When unraveling, does Self Repair count toward the total mod intensity of an item?
A: Yes. Self Repair does count toward the total mod intensity of an item when unraveling.
Q: Can Magic wands be unraveled?
A: Yes. They are considered mace weapons. You can imbue wands as well with item properties that weapons can normally possess, but you cannot imbue wands with spell charges.
Q: Can Talismans be unraveled?
A: No. Currently, only weapons, armor, ranged weapons, shields and jewelry can be imbued or unraveled.
Imbuing
Q: Does the imbuing difficulty increase as you add mods to an item.
A: Yes
Q: I understand we're limited to 5 mods per item. Does that mean you could craft a GM-quality weapon and then add 5 mods of your choice?
A: In the case of a GM crafted weapon, the damage increase is considered a property already on the item. So an artificer can imbue 4 other item properties to the item.
Q: What if you have something made by a ruinc hammer and it's made of iron. Can we add more mods to it?
A: Yes. But you cannot exceed 5 item properties.
Q: Self repair can't be imbued... does that mean you can't imbue to an item that already has self repair, or does imbuing to an SR item just remove SR form the item?
A: Imbuing will remove Self Repair if it is present already.
Note: it was later mentioned that SR would also not be added as a random mod when enhancing with the heartwood.
Q: Will players be able to imbue mods to spellbooks?
A: Currently, no.
Q: When adding mods to an item, does the player just specify a recipe to add a specific mod, or does the player have to get a specific shard to add a specific mod? For Example, If I wanted to add DCI to an item; would I go unravel a DCI item and then use it to add DCI to my other item? Or would I just unravel a bunch of items and need to go get a DCI recipe?
A: Imbuing does not require recipes. It's very similar to crafting. You will need 'X' number of Imbuing Ingredients (one of three types depending on the item property and the intensity to Imbue), 'X' number of regular gems, and 'X' number of rare resources such as perfect emeralds, peerless like ingredients, ingredients from epic encounters, etc.
Q: When you say "not if it's made with special materials", I'm assuming that's to prevent wooden weapons from having a crazy number of mods on them. Does that also mean that I couldn't craft a GM weapon with dull copper ingots to give it a head start on durability?
A: Yes
NOTE: Once an item has been enhanced with any material, it can no longer be imbued
Q: Is it possible to stack with material bonuses already present on item? For example, add 100 luck to spined/gold item to get up to 140 luck mod (total)?
Which materials can be used? Leather/metal/wood?
A: No. Items made out of special material cannot be imbued.
*Updated this question to ask how restrictions work based on item type*
Q: Are there restrictions as to what mods can be put on an item based on the type of item(i.e , armor, shield, jewlery, etc)
A: Yes. Whatever properties an item can normally have as random loot is what it can have imbued.
Exceptions:
You can imbue runic only properties such as velocity and balanced on bows and crossbows. It was easier to handle imbuing with bows and crossbows to do that, plus it felt more consistent.
You can not imbue the Self Repair property onto items and imbuing onto an item that has self repair will remove self repair from the item.
Here is an example.
You cannot imbue the slayer item property on a piece of armor since that item property nevers spawns on an item.
You can imbue the slayer item property on a weapon since a weapon can be found as loot with that property.
Q: is also possible increase resistances for armor and change damage type in the weapons?
A: You can increase resists, but you cannot change the damage type with Imbuing.
Q: If an item already has a mod on it (say 35% DI), can you overwrite that mod with a stronger mod (say 45% DI)? Please say yes
A: Since you said please...Yes (Note: You can also reduce it as well, if you desired.)
Q: How is the intensity of the mod you add determined? For Example, it could be determined by the "recipe" you select on the mod menu (ex. greater DI or lesser DI) or it could be determined by your overall skill level in imbuing and some random modifier.
A: You basically will have arrow indicators in the interface where you can increase or decrease the intensity. Similar to the crafting menu, you'll see the ingredients required to perform the Imbuing. So you'll be able to see exactly what is required including success chance.
As far as the max intensity for each item property, it essentially is the same as what you would find as monster loot for items.
NOTE: The word "recipe" as used here is refering to an item selected on a crafting menu. You will not have to acquire recipes to unlock the ability to imbue specific mods.
Q: Are the reagents connected to what mods I can imbue or only what intensities I can imbue?
A: Each mod was assigned one of three different ingredients depending on the item property: Magical Residue, Enchanted Essence, and Relic Fragments.
All imbuing attempts will require the following:
- 'X' number of ingredients listed above
- 'X' of gems.
If the intensity to be imbued is greater than 90% then the following will also be required...
- 'X' number of rare ingredients (boss drops, rare gemstones, etc.)
Q: Can I imbue 1st then enhance? (This question was also asked as "Can we enhance an imbued item?")
A: Yes. But you risk potentially destroying the item as normal. And once you successfully enhance the item, it can no longer be imbued since it will then be enhanced with special material.
Note: GM Imbuing and above, gargoyles get bonuses to enhance (1% for GM and every 10 skill above). This bonus stacks with the GM Blacksmithing and above bonus.
Q: Can you imbue Scale armour since it is, by its nature, made of special material?
A: If you're referring to dragon scale armor, I'll have to double check that. I believe you can.
Q: Are the gems that are mined up by miners used for imbuing or is it just the gems you can buy off vendors?
A: Both. Gems found by miners such as Blue Diamonds will be considered rare resources for Imbuing. Lumberjacking can also produce rare resources for Imbuing. Rare resources are only currently required for Imbuing item properties with intensities greater than 90.
Regular gems, such as the gems found in treasure chests, loot off monsters, vendors, etc. are always used in Imbuing.
Q: What about imbueing bard instruments? Seems bard get left out once again...
A: The reason bard instruments cannot be imbued is they currently cannot be equipped. I realize bard instruments can possess the slayer item property. But that seemed like a limited selection for imbuing for bards right now.
I'll discuss with the team about allowing bard instruments to only be imbued with slayer item properties. On the surface, that doesn't feel overpowering since they already have limited uses and would always require rare resources to make since the slayer item property is always considered to be 100% intensity.
Q: Will cloth hats be able to be imbued?
A: Yes.
Q: Can Tinker-crafted magic rings (ex. ecru citrine ring) be imbued?
A: Yes.
Q: Can other special recipe items (ex. silver etched diamond mace) be imbued?
A: Yes. But not artifacts like Silvani's Bow.
Q: What about certain event items? Will they be able to be imbuded?
Example
Tongue of the Beast (Shield with mods)
Void of Umbra (Sword with no mods)
A: I would guess not, but I don't know with 100% certainty. Most likely, we have flagged them internally as cannot be recycled and made out of special material (like all our artifacts and the like). If that's the case, then no, they cannot be imbued.
Q: Can Slayer Mods be imbued?
A: Yes.
Q: If we can add Slayer Mods how many can we stack out of the "5" mods possible.
A: One. If a slayer property already exists on the item and you attempt to imbue a slayer property again, the player will be informed that he will be replacing it.
Skill Gain
Q: Will players get skill gains from unraveling, or will players need to actually apply a mod to an item to get a skill gain?
A: Unraveling will allow an Artificer to gain up to 25.0 skill. To gain the rest of the way, she will have to imbue item properties to gain skill.
Q: Will artificers be able to gain the imbuing skill by casting mysticism spells that use imbuing to determine their power?
A: No.
Q: Will we be able to start a new character with 50 imbuing and mysticism?
A: Yes.
Other
Q: Will imbued items will be labeled differently to distinguish between items that have been imbued and items that have not?
A: Imbued Items with have an 'Imbued' Item property tag.
Q: Will it just say imbued or imbued by [character name]?
A: Currently, it will just say Imbued. The reason for that is an item can be imbued multiple times. You imbue one property at a time.
Q: Are there currently plans for Carpenters and Bowcrafters to go above 100.0 Skill Level?
A: No.
Q: Any chance Item ID will be converted to the new Imbuing skill?
A: The current plan is to have a completely new skill for Imbuing.
Q: Do Mods like Use Best Weapon and "Slayer" equate to 100% intensities?
A: Yes.
Thanks again Leurocian for your exceptional efforts at clarifying the system for us players and taking our feedback on how to make it a better system.