The previously announced fusion changes have now been released. These include:

Fusion orbs have been separated into three tiers (T1, T2, and T3). All currently existing orbs are T3.

T3 ("old-style" fusion orbs)

T3 orbs do not decay their enhancive bonus. T3 orbs, when damaged due to PRYing, will gain the functionality of T2 orbs. The net result is that the old shattering chance (complete destruction of orbs) and degradation of bonus has been removed. Instead pried-out orbs can be damaged. Damage chance of 5% when pried. Special merchant services will exist to allow for risk-free pries in exchange for a fee.

T2 ("new-style" fusion)

T2 orbs will degrade their enhancive bonus at a rate of 4% a month (real time) to a maximum degradation of 50%. For example, +10 would lose 0.4 bonus points per month (becoming effective only when a full -1 value is reached, so only after 3 months in the case of the +10 item would any degradation of the bonus actually occur). It would take 13 months to reach max degradation in most cases. Values of 1 would round down to 0.

T2 fusion orbs can be refurbished to full base bonus as a future merchant option.

Prying T2 orbs will have a chance to damage the orb, similar to T3. When damaged, a T2 orb will gain the functionality of a T1 orb (which uncaps the maximum degradation of the enhancive bonus all the way to zero). Further damage would increase degradation rate by 1% per month per damage cycle.

Fusion Enchanting and Ensorcelling

The enhancive item enchanting/ensorcelling penalty is now based upon the number of orb slots that the fusion item carries (rather than its currently orbed enhancive properties), so it will no longer be necessary to pry out the orbs while the item is being upgraded.

Coase

This message was originally posted in Game Design Discussions, Fusion. To discuss the above, follow the link below.

http://forums.play.net/forums/19/213/3284/view/395