Suggestion first, explanation later:
Allow a Level 10 5-star weapon/armor a single UV roll in exchange for turning it back to Level 1. No double or triple UVs, obviously.
Explanation/Thought process:
Problems in a nutshell
- How can we add new means of adding UVs to weapons without making it utterly broken and abusable?
- What else can I do with 2500 Radiant Fire Crystals sitting in my inventory if I'm uninterested in making more weapons and can't sell them?
One disappointing thing as a result of the new forge system was there was no additional way to obtain UVs through this method. Granted, this is far too ideal compared to how broken it would be, although I would have preferred a UV at the same rate that Forge Prize boxes are awarded--which doesn't happen often anyway. I believe I've netted about 3 Forge boxes altogether from fully heating ~8 weapons since the update.
In general there are only two ways of obtaining UVs on a given equipment:
1. Roll it via Punch for 20,000 crown.
2. Craft it via Alchemy machine.
The strategy given #2 is to mass craft (ie. ragecraft) 2-star weapons in hopes of getting a UV. You end up with a bulk of gear that have no UV at all just cluttering your inventory that you can either sell for a loss in the Auction House or a greater loss via NPC. And hope this was the better alternative to the crown sink NPC, Punch.
The other problem as a result of the new forge system: excess Radiant Fire Crystals for end game players. Especially apparent for players who have all the gear they want and grind Vanaduke for cash. While recipes to convert high star crystals to lower star ones were nice, it actually costs a lot to convert them all (I believe it'll cost 50k in the crafting fee to convert enough radiants to get enough shining crystals to fully heat a 4 star weapon, roughly.)
Thus, by "resetting" a 5 star gear from Level 10 to 1 for a free roll, you create a new purpose for Radiants: exchange 453 for a 1-UV roll. You get to turn your fully heated, UV-less weapons into something possibly better instead of having it sit in your inventory as a niche item or something to vendor to the NPC later for 30k.
You can't abuse this method because you would have to fully heat your 5-star weapon all over again for the free roll, which takes an entire day or two, and even then you'd still have to work for heat. Not to mention you'd have to grind for the Radiants too, since not everyone in excess of Radiants has enough for more than a handful of rolls. The amount of runs you'd do to fully heat the equipment would more than net you the 20k needed for a single roll, too.
Obviously this would not work for lower ranked weapons since they are too easy to heat up and require fewer crystals. And performing 2 or 3-UV rolls should remain with UV tickets. It also cannot be a direct Fire Crystal > UV exchange since it's too easy to speed run for boxes and crystals only. The requirement of needing to heat weapons up again for the UV roll is necessary in preventing abusability.
Discuss.
On the one hand, I like the concept, on the other hand, those fire crystals are supposed to push your towards crafting new items.
Personally, I'd much rather see eternal orbs able to be traded in for UV tickets at some ratio. Since eternals aren't the biggest bottleneck for crafting, fire crystals are, those excess orbs could be let off through UV ticket trade-ins.