I've suggested this in a different thread, but there should be convertibility between different tiers of Alchemy Orbs and Fire Crystals. It should always be more advantageous to run the specific stratum, but at least give us the option of converting higher or lower level rarities. They way I envision it working is a pair of vendors, one that sells you 3 Orbs/Crystals of any given level for 3 Orbs/Crystals of the next higher level (downgrade), and another vendor that sells you 1 Orb/Crystal for 3 Orbs/Crystals of the next lower level (upgrade). Buying of 2* Crystals would be disabled, as 0-1* Fire Crystals are available from Vatel. The ratios could be tweaked, but I think this is relatively fair.

I would also suggest that players start with Elite difficulty locked for each tier until a player unlocks the Survivor achievement (Bronze, Silver or Gold) for that tier in Normal or Advanced. I don't think this is unreasonable to ask for- if you can't manage a no-deaths run of a tier on Normal, you're probably not ready to tackle Elite difficulty for that tier.