So as just about everyone has noticed, the way in which alchemy is done (or just orbs, heat crystals/forge) is flawed. One problem is that orb drops are based on level depth and are highly RNG dependent, and another problem is that buying orbs is ridiculously expensive when compared to the past. Now I know many of you say that since we can still just buy the energy needed for orbs with crowns the orbs are better, but having game progression tied to RNG and an unstable economy (the price for CE is more than triple the price it was when I started playing) is just terrible. In addition, this problem is then accentuated by the removal of mist energy, as mist energy in the past could be used for crafting and so what was a common thing to do was to save mist energy to lower the price of crafting or to use it to craft a low level item for nearly nothing, now despite this system being abused quite a bit, this stimulated the economy by creating an active market and overall added to the game. Now, what my idea is is to essentially make a single universal item for all crafting and another for forging, and adding a system with the same benefits of mist energy without the abusability and elevator costs.

Universal Orbs of Alchemy & Heat Crystals:

Personally one of the things I find most annoying about heat crystals and orbs of alchemy is that each type can only be found at certain depths, and the problem with this is that if a player wants to get orbs of a lower tier then they have to grind levels of that tier or save up to buy orbs at extortionate prices, and do all this while having an unusable stockpile of higher level orbs in their inventory. An example of this is if a vanguard wants to get a 2 star set of armour, a shield and a weapon they'll have to either spend hours grinding stratum 2 levels (second half of tier 1) which is just not viable, or save up 20k to buy orbs in addition to needing to find and buy the recipes and the crafting cost. Before orbs of alchemy came about you could do this with just 8k crowns by buying them from the auction house. My suggestion is that instead of using a different type of orb for each level, having a single type which is used in all recipes at varying amounts. This item could be called the universal orb of alchemy, or just an orb of alchemy, one orb would be enough to craft a 1 star item making it equivalent to a flawed orb, and 3 are used to make a 2 star item, 12 would be needed for a 3 star, and 24 for a 4 star, 5 stars would need 48. Now with this system, all crafting would cost the same except for with 1 stars, which would cost about 6ce more per orb (but no one crafts them anyway so who cares?). Now the advantage of this is that a player doesn't have to grind in a specific depth to get gear of a desired level. The way in which this could be implemented is very simple and would require minimal work i.e. updating all recipes to the corresponding orb costs and then turning all existing orbs into consumables which just turn into universal orbs of alchemy when used, this way the loot system doesn't need to be touched to make the change (GH could still do it anyway). Also, since orbs will be made up of smaller units it can become feasible to have orbs come as rewards to things like PVP (maybe not as a guaranteed reward) daily missions (or maybe just danger missions) or danger rooms. This way it could greatly increase the amount of people doing these activities, make game progression slightly less dependent on RNG and an unstable economy. But the biggest advantage of all would be that people wouldn't have to continuously grind the same level for countless hours and can instead play a variety of levels and actually enjoy the game. This same idea could apply to heat crystals as well. Excess heat when finishing a level could be converted into a small amount of heat crystals potentially.

Static Energy

For people who haven't been playing the game for a few years you probably wouldn't know that before the orbs of alchemy came about there was a thing called mist energy, and mist energy could be used just like CE only it couldn't be traded. Mist energy was stored in a players "Mist tank" which could store 100 mist energy and it would take 24 hours to recharge itself completely. Back then 10 energy was required to go down an elevator and so the main use of mist energy was to play the game, however it was quite common for players to use their energy for crafting, and so if a player saved their whole mist tank they could decrease the cost of crafting by up to 100ce, meaning that if a player was planning on player 5 of less levels in that day they could craft a 2 star with just the Cr crafting cost and materials and get a chance of a UV and they could then sell for money, or if they were too busy to play a level that day, they could craft a 3 star for half the energy cost and sell it. Now my idea is that a similar system be introduced called static energy, where instead of having a tank which fills up over time, you have a tank which fills up by playing, doing different things will charge it up different amounts, the tank capacity would be based on the players rank. Things like finishing a level on elite, or without dying could give bonuses. Things bought with static energy like orbs and consumables will be bound, and so when buying there will be a check box for if you want to use static energy as well as a confirmation box saying that the item will be bound, but things made from those items (like items crafted) will not be bound unless they would've been anyway. This could provide a reasonable way to open danger rooms and other things, at all capacity levels a full static tank can be converted into sparks, heat crystals and orbs.

and on a side note, please bring back health revives.