Refining

Refining

Refining is a method of enhancing your gear by adding bonus stats to it. After each successful refine the refinement level of the equipment will increase up to a maximum of +12. Refining equipment adds HP, attack, or defense depending on the piece refined. In every major city, The Elder has the ability to "Refine Equipment" for you. The only required items to refine a piece of equipment are Mirage Celestones but there are also refinement aids that will increase your chances of successful refinements. You will need 2 stones for weapons and 1 stone for armor. As your equipment levels up, it will gain a specific effect depending on the type of equipment. For example, if you have a Robe with level 1 refinement and gained a +13 to health then a level 2 refinement would yield 13 × 2 = +26 HP. For more information, refer to the Refining Bonuses chart below.

The higher the upgrade, the more difficult it becomes. Starting from level 1, your success is not guaranteed. If you fail an upgrade, your item returns to level 0 unless you use refinement aids which prevent loss (Explained later).


Refining Bonus

Refining specific equipment has various effects depending on the type of equipement:

Type Bonus
Normal Weapon Physical Attack Upgrade
Magic Weapon Magic Attack Upgrade
Physical Attack Ring Physical Defense Upgrade
Magic Attack Ring Magic Defense Upgrade
Physical Defense Ornament Physical Defense Upgrade
Magic Defense Ornament Magic Defense Upgrade
Evasion Ornament Evasion Upgrade
Robes Maximum HP Increase
Armor Maximum HP Increase


The actual amount of a refinement's added benefit comes from additional two factors. The base refinement bonus of the item and how high you refine it. The base refinement bonus is equal to the added stats received from refining an item to +1. In general the bonus is higher for higher grade gear but this is not always the case. This refinement bonus can be found in the in-game encyclopedia under Gear > Upgrade:.

The level of refinement determines the multiple of this base refinement bonus you will receive. For example, at +6 you receive 7.55 times as much benefit as you get at +1. The full chart is found below.

Refining Lv. Bonus Multiplier (slightly rounded)
+1 1x
+2 2x
+3 3.05x
+4 4.3x
+5 5.75x
+6 7.55x
+7 9.95x
+8 13x
+9 17.05x
+10 22.03x
+11 29x
+12 37.5x


Refining With Dragon Orbs

Dragon orbs are an item that can be bought through the cash shop or from other players. Using these alongside the mirage stones will ensure that your refining never fails.

* Note: You must use the dragon orb for the current refine or higher or it will not work.
o Ex. Using a 1* dragon orb when trying to refine to +2 will not have a 100% success rate, you will need to use a 2* dragon orb or above.
o Ex. If you want to refine a piece of gear to +6 you would need a 1*, 2*, 3*, 4*, 5*, and a 6* orb to get there with a 100% success rate.

Currently the most cost efficient way to make higher grade orbs is to buy the orbs from other players or in the 1* 10 packs from the cash shop. To convert the 1* orbs into higher grade orbs, you need to take them to any Jewelcraftsman NPC, select the 'combine' option, and go to the last tab 'Orb'.


1* Orbs Needed for Higher Refines:

Orb Wanted 1* Orbs Needed Total Needed
1* 1 1
2* 4 5
3* 10 15
4* 25 40
5* 60 100
6* 130 230
7* 215 445
8* 405 850
9* 750 1,600
10* 1,370 2,970
11* 2,525 5,495
12* 4,645 10,140


o For +10, +11, and +12 orbs it is much cheaper to utilize the +10 ocean orb which is often on sale in the boutique. Please refer to the section below for details.

After combining the orbs to get to the refine you desire, bring the orbs and the amount of mirages needed to an Elder in any major city.

*
o WARNING: Do NOT place your gear into the gear box and click refine like you normally would. This will NOT use your dragon orb and give you 100% success rate.

To use the dragon orbs you must start with the first refine (usually the 1* orb) and place it into the 'Special Materials' box along with placing your gear into the 'Gear' box. Then it is safe to press refine and your gear will be increased to +1. Repeat what you just did with each orb increasing your refine until you are the refine you wanted to obtain.

*
o Make sure you do not double click the refine button and accidentally refine it once without a dragon orb and lose all your previous refines!


[edit] Producing dragon orbs

If you are going to manufacture your own dragon orbs, here is a guide to how many you need. For orbs of +10 or higher it is cheaper to utilize a mixture of +1 orbs and +10 ocean orbs which are often on sale in the boutique. The orbs that should be purchased are highlighted in orange.

Dragon orbs produced
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1 1
2 4 1
3 10 2 1
4 25 5 2 1
5 60 12 5 2 1
6 130 26 11 4 2 1
7 215 43 18 7 3 1 1
8 405 81 34 13 6 2 1 1
9 750 150 63 24 11 4 2 1 1
10 1
11 1155 231 97 37 17 6 3 2 1 1 1
12 1905 381 160 61 28 10 5 3 2 2 1 1


Each row describes how to make a dragon orb. (Except that 10* dragon orbs, when they are on sale, are much cheaper to buy than to make.)

So, for example, to make a 3* orb, you can start with 10 one* orbs, and then make 2 two* orbs which will give you the supplies you need to make a three* orb.

If for some reason you want +10,+11 or +12 refines without buying the +10 orbs, you will need to do this instead:


+10/11/12 Dragon orbs from +1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
10 1370 274 115 44 20 7 4 2 1 1
11 2525 505 212 81 37 13 7 4 2 1 1
12 4645 929 390 149 68 24 13 7 4 2 1 1


Refining Without Dragon Orbs

The basic chances of refining success are as follows:
Refine Level Mirage Only nTienkang Stone bTisha Stone Chienkun Stone
+1 50% 65% 53.5% 100%
+2 30% 45% 33.5% 25%
+3 30% 45% 33.5% 10%
+4 30% 45% 33.5% 4%
+5 30% 45% 33.5% 1.67%
+6 30% 45% 33.5% 0.77%
+7 30% 45% 33.5% 0.47%
+8 30% 45% 33.5% 0.25%
+9 25% 40% 28.5% 0.13%
+10 20% 35% 23.5% 0.07%
+11 12% 27% 15.5% 0.04%
+12 5% 20% 8.5% 0.02%

If refining fails, the item loses all previous refining and reverts back to +0.

Tisha Stones prevent the item from dropping more than 1 refining level if refining fails. Chienkun Stones prevent the item from dropping any level at all with failure.

[edit] Rumors

Duke Blacke sometimes gives players advice on refining. For example, one of his rumors states that refining when nobody else is around improves refining rates, while another suggests that logging out and restarting your computer also improves the refining rate.

Many of his rumors give advice on specific NPCs to use when attempting to refine to a particular level. Note, however, that the Officer NPCs that Duke Blacke refers to can only be used by players who belong to the faction that controls the territory.

While many players claim that Duke Blacke's rumors are true, initial testing suggests that they are simply rumors. For example, tests using large quantities of Mirage Celestones that compared refining in Archosaur versus refining in abandoned towns found no significant difference in the refining rates. Similarly, another test of The Harshlands Officer NPC involving 250 Mirage Celestones found no improvement on +1 refining rates.

Refine Rumored Officer NPC
+1 The Harshlands
+2 The Frozen Path
+3 Avalanche Canyon, Thousand Wood Ridge, Windswept Grasslands, Courage Path, Land of Buried Bones
+4 Haunted Path, Tradewind Village, The Great Lake, South Barrier Mountains
+5 City of Misfortune, Shining Tide Woods, Stairway to Heaven, The White Ridge
+6 Ancient Wall, Dragon Wilderness, Valley of the Hidden Orchid, Black Mountain
+7 Broken Plain, Silk Ridge, Peach Blossom Grove, Ridge of the Dreaming Cloud
+8 Ancient Peak, Wellspring Village, Deserted Sea
+9 Vibrant Cliffs, Fragrant Hills, Walled Stronghold
+10 Mount Lantern, Sundown Town, King's Feast
+11 Immolation Camp, Dribbling Spring, Swamp of the Wraiths
+12 Forest of Haze, Dragon's End, Plain of Farewells


Recommendations
When to refine

Although you could refine all of your gear all the time, it can be a waste of coin if you refine gear which you are not going to hold on to for very long, or which does not have a good resale value.

Unless you are very rich, you should never refine white named equipment. In your first 60 levels, you should only refine legendary (yellow named) equipment, and even then, only to +1 or +2. Usually you don't need dragon orbs to get +1. When you get your first Twilight Temple weapon at level 60, you can refine it to +1. Later on you can get your equipment to +2 or even higher, but only at level 70+

Refining Twilight Temple items can also be expensive - since you will either want to decompose those items to make later ones, or you need to acquire a second set.

Source: http://pwi-wiki.perfectworld.com/index.php/Refining