An Idiots (Crisis) Guide to Armor Refinements

[Crisis]

Refinements are placed on non-medable armor. You can use deflecting which decreases max individual resist while increasing max defense chance increase by one or reinforced which increases max individual resist while lowering max defense chance increase by one.

The looted refinements come in 6 different flavors and they affect different types of non-medable armor:
� varnish - Woodland and Gargish Stone Armor.
� Gloss - Woodland and Gargish Stone Armor.
� Wash - Hide, Studded, Studded Samurai, and Bone Armor.
� Cure - Hide, Studded, Studded Samurai, and Bone Armor.
� Polish - Chainmail, Ringmail, Platemail, Samurai Platemail, Gargish Platemail, and Dragon Armor.
� Scour - Chainmail, Ringmail, Platemail, Samurai Platemail, Gargish Platemail, and Dragon Armor.

They can be looted from Treasure Maps, MiB Chests, Merchant Vessels, Pirate Vessels, Town Shop Container Stealables, and Champion Spawn Bosses. They come in 5 different levels:
� Defense - Applies one modification.
� Protection - Applies one modification with a chance to apply two modifications.
� Hardening - Applies two modifications with a chance to apply three modifications.
� Fortification - Applies three modifications with a chance to apply four modifications.
� Invulnerability - Applies four modifications with a chance to apply five modifications.

You can combine lesser ones to get greater ones using a Refinement Amalgamator which can be purchased for 10,000 clean-up points from the Cleanup Officer in in New Magincia, Britain, New Haven, Ter Mur, or Buccaneer's Den.

Combining 2 "refinement" of defense turns into 1 "refinement" of protection, combining 3 "refinement" of protection turns into 1 "refinement" of hardening, combining 4 "refinement" of hardening turns into 1 "refinement" of fortification, and finally combining 5 "refinement" of hardening turns into 1 "refinement" of fortification.

To make these refinements able to be put on armor, you need to purchase raw materials from NPC vendors.

You go to a blacksmith to purchase Malleable Alloy which is then combined with Polish (DCI) or Scour (Resists) I.E. combine 1 Polish of Invulnerability + 20 Malleable Alloy = 1 Polished Plating of Invulnerability.

You go to a carpenter to purchase Solvent Flasks which is then combined with Gloss (DCI) or Varnish (Resists) I.E. combine 1 Varnish of Invulnerability + 20 Solvent Flasks = 1 Varnished Resin of Invulnerability.

You go to a tailor to purchase Leather Braids which is the combined with Wash (DCI) or Cure (Resists) I.E. 1 Cure of Invulnerability + 20 Leather Braids = 1 Cured Thread of Invulnerability.

The whole system is fairly easy to use, the only real suggestion that I have is to buy multiple Refinement Amalgamators. It is very easy to think you have 3 Cures of Protection for Hide only to find out after putting 2 of them into the Refinement Amalgamator, that the third one is actually a Cure of Protection for Studded or something like that. You cannot remove them from it so they are stuck until you find that last one. I am the proud owner of 4 Refinement Amalgamators because of that. 

[Goliath]

Nice write up:)

I am returning to the game after a long break and find myself relearning a LOT of old mechanics; as well as, all the new additions to the game.  This system of "refinements" sounds interesting.  Can you by chance give a screenshot or show us a few things that you have been able to make with these refinements to maybe provide a better understanding as to just how powerful these can be?

[unisharp]

I'd like to add that after you raise your caps, you still have to get extra resistances or DCI to reach that cap.

For example, if I refined my suit for a cap of 70 DCI, then to make use of that I'd actually have to have 70 DCI on my suit (which ain't all that easy depending on your template.)

[Gemviper]

I just found a chest with 100+ mixed refinements and a few amalgamators at an idoc and am trying to figure out what to do with them. Great guide. DCI works vs melee and ranged attacks only but has zero impact on incoming spells if I remember correctly. Therefore on a mage who avoids close combat in pvm and rarely is attacked by an npc archer DCI is next to useless. That means I want to stack on the resists even if DCI falls a bit. Since these are for non-medable armor only I'm assuming it works with plate w/ mage armor attribute?

What I don't get is the levels, defense to invul. If I use an invul on one piece that's like using defense on 5 pieces in terms of effect, right? So if I want a specific resist higher, but not all of them, I have to go with the lowest level scour for example? 75% is resist cap for a human so it would take invul x 5 pieces to reach 75/75/75/75/75 max right?

Trying to figure out which is worth more. Should I amalgamate them all into higher levels to make them worth more if I just want to sell them? I'm thinking yes just because they will be more rare but is it worth the reduction at each step.

edit: looking at vendor search it seems only the regular platemail armor type with reinforced bonus are worth much. I guess that answers my question, plate wearing melee like to increase their resist caps.

[Crisis]

Yes, you want to algamate them higher. Invulnerable is the way to go. There isn't a huge call for them but the invulnerables can go for a couple mil each.

[Gemviper]

A script that looks in a bag and automatically amalgamates if there are enough for an upgrade would be cool.

It's a bit tough to sort out a bag because when you drop one on another it randomly jumps to a different spot in the bag, lol. Also it's easy to mix them up because of the 5 different levels or 6 different kinds each with different armor and bonus types.

Also, 76 would be cap, not 75? 6 pieces of plate with +1 to each resist... so much to re-learn, it's been ages since I even imbued anything.

[unisharp]

A script that looks in a bag and automatically amalgamates if there are enough for an upgrade would be cool.

It's a bit tough to sort out a bag because when you drop one on another it randomly jumps to a different spot in the bag, lol. Also it's easy to mix them up because of the 5 different levels or 6 different kinds each with different armor and bonus types.

Also, 76 would be cap, not 75? 6 pieces of plate with +1 to each resist... so much to re-learn, it's been ages since I even imbued anything.

You can refine 6 pieces, but only 5 pieces count.

Resist cap: 75
DCI cap: 70

[Gemviper]

[Gemviper]

Made a pretty extreme mage suit with these even while using mage armor on one imbue slot but I and am now the proud owner of 6 amalgamators because I don't have enough to finish them or put the wrong one in... these need a script to combine efficiently!  On the to-do list, lol.