Wow. Are these the biggest nerf to the otherwise cool gear upgrading system ever? After playing for a few hours I didnt even realize they existed because, even while dismantiling 100% of the useless loot I found, I found 0. Went to upgrade an item and BAM! A cockblock in the form of some obnoxious new thing to farm.
Sigh.
I had been enjoying my return to the game until now, too.
"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
I didn't realise they existed, either, and I didn't pay much attention to gear until I made level 10 and then the same thing happened to me. Yeah, not crazy about another element to inhibit me. Now that I'm playing on the test server, I find them pretty often. Still, it pissed me off when that happened, probably more because I didn't expect it, too.
My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.