Problems with Hextech Crafting

JackOLaughter·Jul 13, 2016·1 votes·671 views

I bought a bunch of Hextech Chest bundles and overall was happy with that. In getting those crates I managed to finish off my roster of Champions. Now there is a new skin in the Hextech Crafting that I want so I'm buying them again and seem to be getting a lot more Champion shards than I did when I was going for Hextech Annie. I can't use them so I thought I could stockpile them for when a new Champion comes out and use them to roll for a random champion that way. Out of curiosity I re-rolled some to see what would happen when I already had all the Champions available and I got an unlock shard for one I already had. I misunderstood when it offered to let me re-roll that Champion shard as meaning I would be able to re-roll with just that Champion shard but it actually makes you put three in there too. This didn't make sense to me because it's not like it gives you the Blue Essence you lost in combining the lesser Champion shards and with it going from silver to gold it seems like there should have been some sort of change at least. It occurred to me that it would probably be a good idea to add in some conversion from Blue Essence to Orange Essence for players who have a full roster to put those Champion shards to some use otherwise it's like opening a chest and getting nothing of any real value for it. There is only so many Champion shards you can stockpile before it starts getting ridiculous. So now I have a bunch of gold Champion shards that I can't even give away or do anything with until a new Champion comes out and while I would prefer it if I could use those for Orange Essence now I will wait and see what happens.

The bigger issue for me now though is that I don't think there is any kind of Streak Breaker for the Gems. It wasn't a huge problem last time around but this time went horribly for me. A few days ago I bought two sets of 11. I opened one set and didn't get any gems so I put the other set aside until the next day. When I opened the set from the previous day and got one gem and as I was now two away from getting Soulstealer Vayne I pushed ahead and bought another set and then another. Neither set gave me any gems. Each of the next two days I bought and opened two more sets each and didn't get a single gem. That's 1 gem in 88 chests. My odds were 1 per 11 up to that point. I don't know if this is a bug but I can't believe such a drastic change in drop rates is just bad luck. A Streak Breaker would be great if it gave out a gem if you didn't get any in the last 10 chests but it should at least give you 1 if you got nothing in the last 20.

4 Comments

coeurloyalJul 13, 20162 votes

Those extra shards are meant to be used for high level Champion Mastery. Re-rolling champ shards is supposed to be a valuable option because re-rolling three shards unlocks a new champion permanent--not just the shard. You must have been getting shards back from your re-rolls because you can't just get a free permanent unlock anymore.

I'd really like to see them allow champion shards to be applicable as a gift. I don't really care about Mastery 6/7, so I'd rather be rolling those shards into a random champion gift for some of my friends-- or maybe be able to spend my blue essence to unlock a specified champion for them.

I like the ability to convert blue essence into orange, but I can't imagine that it's ever going to happen because that would reduce the value of RP. If I can convert blue into orange, I can then buy champion shards for IP in the store and then effectively convert that to RP by making it orange essence.

JackOLaughterJul 14, 20161 votes

No, no, you actually do get a golden champion unlock shard when you re-roll a champion and you already have them all. The dumb thing is that instead of it counting as a full re-roll for when a champion becomes available you would then have to combine it and two other champion shards to get a champion out of it. You occasionally get some blue essence when you re-roll them but otherwise you don't get any unless you disenchant the shard. The amount you'd get from a golden shard is based on the value of the champion and doesn't seem to account for the cost of the silver shards you put into it. Ultimately I believe I lost probably a third to half the blue essence I would have had had I just disenchanted the silver shards. That doesn't matter too much to me since I have nothing to spend it on right now. I don't really care for the high level Champion Masteries either since I'm nowhere near that level, and probably won't be for a while.

I do like the idea of being able to use them to gift champions to other players. It wouldn't entirely make me feel whole for the money I put into it but at least it'd be something. I have gifted champions and skins to friends periodically or for Christmas and the like so that would make me feel better.

GaleWinUnleashedJul 14, 20162 votes

Rerolling 3 champ shards into a champion permanent means that you lose half of the blue essenece efficiency. A Champion Permanent is worth half the value of the champion's normal RP price, and shards are worth one third. So basically Champion Permanents are 100% useless unless you just happen to get the exact one you need for your next Mastery rank.

Basically just save shards for each new champion and get them for free with no effort. Just be sure to wait half a day or so for the champion to be added to the system first.

https://i.imgur.com/1HvNiEO.png?noredirect

JackOLaughterJul 19, 20161 votes

Yeah, I was planning on waiting a day because a Dev had recommended waiting a day for new stuff to be added to mystery chests to be on the safe side, but otherwise that is my plan from now on.