Talismans and You: How to get talismans you want

[Nonentity]

EDIT - 22 Sep: I have updated the Talisman Making FAQ with the latest info from working on it. I have also decided to only put green-quality gems or higher in the guild bank. The white ones nobody was taking, and it just wasn't worth it.

Hi!

I'm currently working on Talisman Making as a tradeskill, to help out the guild with their talisman needs. Needless to say, it's expensive and time consuming, but you can get some pretty cool talismans made out of it.

I just wanted to cover what you can do to get the kind of talismans you want, and how to help out.

---------- TALISMAN MECHANICS ----------

First off, there are four qualities of talismans, which offer different durations and stat bonuses:

White - 8 hour duration, +2 to stat or +20 to resist (at tier 1)
Green - 2 day duration, +5 to stat or +50 to resist (at tier 1)
Blue - 5 day duration, +8 to stat or +80 to resist (at tier 1)
Purple - unlimited duration, +12 to stat or +120 to resist (at tier 1)

The duration on a talisman does not start to tick down until it is inserted into an item. To insert a talisman into an item, unequip the item, and shift + right-click on the item to bring up the talisman interface.

The main ingredient of a talisman is a Fragment. Fragments are obtained by using Magical Salvaging on an item that is of green quality or higher. The quality of the item determines what kind of fragment you will receive. Most commonly, it will salvage into one quality level lower than what the item is. There is a percentage chance, however, for the item to be salved into the same quality level item. The conversion is as follows:

Green item: White fragment (common), Green fragment (rare)
Blue item: Green fragment (common), Blue fragment (rare)
Purple Item: Blue fragment (common), Purple fragment (rare)

EDIT: Any green quality or higher item can be salvaged. However, it appears to be 100% random whether the item can actually be disenchanted or not. I have found two items of the exact same type, level requirement, stats, dps, and so on, but with a different name. One would disenchant just fine, and one would not. So, just send what you feel comfortable sending.

Now, the type of Fragment determines what type of stat or resist buff you'll be getting. If you find a green sword with +strength, +wounds, and +corporeal resist, the item can be fragmented into either a +strength fragment, a +wounds fragment or a +corporeal resist fragment.

---------- HOW TO GET TALISMANS ----------

If you want talismans, simply send me (Non, your favorite dwarf girl) a green quality or higher item that is capable of being salvaged, and that has a +stat or +resist that you would like as a talisman on it, along with a few silver (4 or 5 at tier 1) to cover the cost of the other materials.

---------- HOW TO HELP OUT ----------

I am accepting green or higher items of all kinds, as long as they fit the salvaging criteria above.

In addition, scavengers will find these items called Curios - they are one of the five components used in crafting talismans (the other four being the fragment, the container (store bought, and renown vendor bought for higher tiers), the gold essence (Alchemists make these using gold dust), and the Magic Essence (these come from Salvaging usable items, as well as the 'Broken Equipment' type items, the kind that say they can only be salvaged). All of these kinds of items I can use.

The higher quality level on each of these, the higher the duration and quality is. It takes quite a few high powered items to bump it up in quality, as the main factor of the quality of the talisman is the fragment, so mainly it's a nicety at lower levels, but will become more important as we get into higher tiers.

[Hawkbit]

Are the purples verified as being permanent/unlimited time?  If so, that clears up my major bitch about that profession.

[Nonentity]

Are the purples verified as being permanent/unlimited time?  If so, that clears up my major bitch about that profession.

To the best of my knowledge, that is correct.

[Ingmar]

Allegedly the bonuses from them are noticeably smaller than from the time-limited ones, but I haven't seen any proof of that yet.

[Tarami]

This sounds fun. I think I'll get it on my main.

I'm not even sarcastic.

[Hawkbit]

Allegedly the bonuses from them are noticeably smaller than from the time-limited ones, but I haven't seen any proof of that yet.

Ok, but then that's retarded now. 

[Tarami]

Allegedly the bonuses from them are noticeably smaller than from the time-limited ones, but I haven't seen any proof of that yet.

Ok, but then that's retarded now. 

Having permanent enhancements that are better than the temporary ones would mean the temporary ones are useless for all intents and purposes. All thanks to mudflation.

[Hawkbit]

Allegedly the bonuses from them are noticeably smaller than from the time-limited ones, but I haven't seen any proof of that yet.

Ok, but then that's retarded now. 

Having permanent enhancements that are better than the temporary ones would mean the temporary ones are useless for all intents and purposes. All thanks to mudflation.

Unless you make the permanent ones much more difficult to get.   

[Tarami]

Allegedly the bonuses from them are noticeably smaller than from the time-limited ones, but I haven't seen any proof of that yet.

Ok, but then that's retarded now. 

Having permanent enhancements that are better than the temporary ones would mean the temporary ones are useless for all intents and purposes. All thanks to mudflation.

Unless you make the permanent ones much more difficult to get.   

You mean time consuming? It's an MMO, namely a diku. There's no "difficulty" to speak of. "Much more difficult" either means that you're cockblocked by scale (raids) or time (tedium), where the latter is also a major factor of the former. Neither has proved to be very satisfying as an exclusitivity gate.

When you offset a subset of a class of items as significantly better than the other items of that class, you will NEED that subset or you'll be at an disadvantage, especially in a PvP game. All the hardcores will have the best stuff because all the hardcores will have the network and time to get them, regardless of gateing/thresholds involved. By balancing power against duration, you instead get to choose which one you prefer rather than which one is explicitly best. This way, as a less hardcore player, you can even profit from making and selling blue talismans to the hardcore crowd (which should be willing to pay the price).

Yes, I'm aware that gear is earned according to the old school of grindy gameplay, but at least those items you can earn by just playing the game and gaining renown. Hopefully you'll have fun doing that.

Plus, it keeps the crafting economy going as the lesser qualities will always be in demand. Crafted be-all, end-all items makes that particular economy stagnate quickly. Look at how the crafted epic healer cloth (Primal Mooncloth) turned out in WoW:tBC.

--

Sorry for derailing the thread, Nonentity.

[kildorn]

Weaker but unlimited duration are the "I don't care to micromanage for massive stat boosts" button. I like the choice personally.

I'll try and ship you thinks to smash, I'm horrible about never using enchantments until I'm level capped though. At which point I want a full set of +toughness purples, damnit!

[Nebu]

Question:  5 day duration.  Is this in /played or in real time?

[Ingmar]

Question:  5 day duration.  Is this in /played or in real time?

/played

[Hawkbit]

I see the points made above, you're likely right.  I tend to be the Ronco 'set it and forget it' type, so not having uber buffs permanent chaps my ass.  But whatever, it likely is better for the economy.

[Tarami]

Question:  5 day duration.  Is this in /played or in real time?

/played

That is awesome! ...I think. 5 days of /played is a long damn time. It'd take me a month to accumulate that so it likely means the blue talismans are quite painful to get...

[Nonentity]

Blue talismans are relatively rare - the most common are the 8 hour duration ones. The green ones that are 2 day playtime are not all that rare, but I've only made 2 or 3 blue talismans so far. The problem with that, primarily, is I haven't been given many blues to disenchant (clearly - and I wouldn't want to just yet).

[Nonentity]

After spending an obscene amount of money on Talisman Making, I'm at about 52 Talisman Making now.

This is after disenchanting between 100-150 items. Yikes.

I did really want to thank and validate everyone that has been donating items, though. I really appreciate it, because this tradeskill is super super grindy!

That being said, the talismans are starting to get pretty good. I left a plethora of them in the guild bank, not just initiative ones, either - i have some 2 day duration +6 wounds ones, some ballistic skill ones, and so on.

[Nonentity]

http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=image&file=epic_tali.JPG

Confirmed that purple talismans are permanent.

[schild]

fucking AWESOME

[Kirth]

Please forward Gold Dust to me. It is a component to make something for talisman making.

[rk47]

I'd send a lot, if it wasn't for the retarded 20 sec mail. I'll try to do that more often.

[Nonentity]

http://war.curse.com/downloads/details/13735/

Mass mail mod - it will automatically send messages every 20 seconds.

Also, I updated the main post with the latest info. As it seems, ANY item green or up can be disenchanted, it just appears to be random which items can and cannot be disenchanted.