� For retaining some sort of sanity while trying to master this Secondary Tradeskill ...

By Kaisha Triol of the Permafrost Server

(Those simply searching for a list of adornments might find the adornments guide at h0b0.net to be useful or the adornments list at the britlore site to be handy references.)

What is Transmuting?

Short Answer: Transmuting is Norrath's version of recycling.
Long Answer: Transmuting is the art of breaking down �valuable� items into basic components to be used to create Adornments. There is a wide range of adornments available and every Tradeskill Class, including the Transmuter and Tinker, has their own set they can create. Adornments are used by Adventurers to further advance their character�s abilities and stats.

Though, any Crafter can use the components to create an Adornment, the components, themselves, can only be created by a Transmuter.

What items are considered "Valuable"?

�Treasured� items:
You can Transmute All Treasured GEAR (meaning Armor/Jewelry/Weapons) with the exception of a few random Quest Rewards and the 2007 Frostfell Crafted items. You can Transmute ALL Adept I spells. Apprentice IV spells can NOT be transmuted.

�Legendary� items:
You can Transmute ALL Legendary GEAR (meaning Armor/Jewelry/Weapons) with the exception of a few random Quests, Heritage Quests and Signature Quest Reward items (ie: prismatic & claymore quests).

�MasterCrafted� items:
You can Transmute ALL MasterCrafted Armor/Jewelry/Weapons and Adept III spells.
You can NOT Transmute Furniture, Containers, Potions and/or Poisons �
NO �handcrafted� items can be Transmuted.

�Fabled� items:
You can Transmute ALL Fabled GEAR (again, meaning Armor/Jewelry/Weapons). You can Transmute Master I spells.

Rule of thumb for Transmuting:
If it stacks it can NOT be Transmuted. (ie: ammo, adornments, food/drink , L&L items and etc..).
If it can be purchased from an NPC it can NOT be Transmuted. (ie: Heritage Quest Rewards and Armor Quest Rewards, Mounts, etc.. )
If it is a container it can NOT be transmuted. (ie: backpacks, Vendor boxes, Quest reward containers, etc.)
If it is a [house item] it can NOT be transmuted.
If it has the �NO VALUE� tag on it, it can NOT be Transmuted.
If it isn�t at full 100% condition, It can NOT be able to be Transmuted. (Go Repair and then attempt to Transmute)

How do I become a Transmuter?

First off: You must have the Echoes of Faydwer (EoF) or the all-inclusiveRise of Kunark (RoK) expansion! If you have only the basic game and/or expansions Desert of Flames (DoF) or Kingdom of Sky (KoS), you will need to upgrade to become a Transmuter. You can still use the created Adornments and you can still use the Transmuter created components to create Adornments up to your current Crafting level, you just can not become a Transmuter

You must also be either/or a level 2 Artisan (+) (hail a crafting trainer) or a level 10 (+) Adventurer.
� �

If you started in Greater Faydark, there is a Master Transmuter in Kelethin (Sade Maki (FAE) / loc: 415, 88, 232)
If you started in the Rest of the World, there is a Master Transmuter Trainer on the Docks of Butcherblock Mountains. (Tyla Maki (FAE) / loc: 751, 26, 593).

You can use either Trainer, regardless, you are only limited by the ease of travel to either depending on your character�s starting location and alignment.

Hail your chosen Master and they will give you a quick spiel of what is involved in Transmuting. Pay very close attention to when they mention .. ".. the path of Transmuting is not an easy one. Many Transmuters have found themselves living as paupers �" � If you are still sure this Skill is for you Click Ok to accept.

After you have chosen to become a Transmuter, visit the Transmuter Trainer (Merchant), located conveniently right next to your Transmuter Master. Purchase your recipe books up to whatever level you can afford and/or have room for.

The Trainer will have all your common books Titled: Enigma of the Transmuter Volume __X__
These will allow you to create �common� versions of the Transmuter adornments.
Your �rare� adornments are in the dropped versions of books Titled: Enigma of the Transmuter Advanced Volume __X__

But, Wait! Don�t leave, yet�

You will also need to BUY your Transmuter Crafting Abilities (aka Crafting Counters). There are (6) Transmuting Abilities. Priced at 19s, 20c /each. Buy all (6). You will need these, later.

Note: You actually need 5 skill points to scribe these abilities but that shouldn�t take too long so holding on to them for a few hours at max shouldn�t be too big of a deal. Otherwise, remember that you will have to go back to the Trainer for the skills as well as any future �common� recipe books, you hadn�t already picked-up.

Points to Ponder:

• Transmuting is a SKILL based Class.
• This means instead of Levels their knowledge is measured in skill points.
• Transmuting (& Tinkering) skill max are based on EITHER your Tradeskill or Adventurer level.
• Whichever is highest.
• You start out with 1 / _XXX_ skill points.
• 1 being the �free� skill point the Transmuter (Tinker) Trainer awards you for your skill choice.
• XXX being the potential Skill allowance you can work up to, at your current Tradeskill or Adventure level.

For example (s):
If your highest is a level 10 adventurer you will see on your Skill/Tradeskill Tab - Transmuting: 1 / 50
If your highest is a level 70 crafter you will see on your Skill/Tradeskill Tab - Transmuting: 1 / 350.
If your highest is a level 80 crafter/adventurer you see on your Skill/Tradeskill Tab � Transmuting: 1/400

Attention Required!: You will not be able to gain any higher in skill than what you have available as your MAX skill. *** If you are under the Current Level Cap for the Game but have maxed your current allotment of skill points, you will need to level up your characters Adventurer or Crafting level to receive more max skill points.

This can be slightly modified if you happen to have the Transmuter Trait available to the Arasai Race as a Racial Trait. But, the Racial Trait only affects your chances of success vs failing. It will not allow you to scribe a higher skill level book.

(I think the logic on giving the Arasai the Transmuting Trait was that you have to be Broken to be able to Break things �)

Please Note: You are not forever locked into this skill. You can change to the opposite skill (Tinkering) by Hailing the Tinkering Master and having your skill changed over. It will remove all your Transmuting knowledge (recipes, counters and your accumulated skill gain) and you will be reset to Tinkering Skill 1 / _XXX_.

So, I am a Transmuter ... Now what?

Now, you will need to acquire some skill and lots of supplies �

Skill gain from 1 to 100:

You will find your Transmute Skill in your Knowledge book (K) in the Abilities Section.

How to Transmute Items:

Click your Transmute Skill button and your mouse will change into a Arrow, move it to the item that you want to Transmute and hover over it ..

• If the item is able to be Transmuted it will turn Blue.
• If the Arrow Turned Blue � Click it and then click Ok.
• Congrats! You have just Transmuted your first item!
• If the item is NOT able to be Transmuted it will turn Red.
• If the item can not be Transmuted due to �lack of skill� you will see the following message:
• You need at least XXX Transmuting skill to transmute the [item name]. You have XXX Transmuting skill.
• If you are sure you have enough skill but the Arrow is still Red.
• Double check the item's �valuable� status
• Also, make sure the item is in pristine condition (100%) and not damaged.
• If Damaged; Repair and try again.
• If the Arrow is still Red
• Remember, there are many items that can not be Transmuted.
• /bug the item in hopes of SOE fixing the issue and then move on.
• Trust me, there will be other things that will make you see Red while trying to Master Transmuting.

More Points to Ponder:

Remember, Transmuting is a SKILL based Class.

• You start out with a Skill of 1. But, this doesn�t mean you are required to find only level 1 items.
• You get a �free� allowance of the first 5.
• You are allowed to Break items within a 5-point skill spread of your skill point(s).
• With a Skill of 1 / XXX
• You can break items that are Level 1 through 5.
• With a Skill of 10 / XXX
• You can break items that are Level 1 through 7.
• This is figured out by taking the skill of 10 dividing it by 5 which equals 2 and then adding the 5 you received as an allowance. (10 / 5) + 5 = 7.
• (See! Your Algebra teacher was right. You can use it in real life!)
• With a Skill of 100 / XXX
• You can break items that are Level 1 through 25.
• (100 / 5) + 5 = 25!

Fragments, Infusions and Mana� OH! MY!! �

So you have been Transmuting a few items and now you have a few Fragments, Powders ... potentially some Infusions and maybe even some Mana � and � you are wondering �

How do I know what I will get?

When Transmuting items, you have a chance at either a Common component (c) or a Rare component (r). You also have an even rarer chance at getting 1 of each item that the level of the item can produce. (i.e.: Transmuting a Treasured item has a very rare chance of receiving a Fragment AND a Powder)

• Otherwise the Components are as follows:
  
• Treasured Items
• Fragment (c)
• Powder. (r)
• MasterCrafted (**)
• Fragment (c)
• Powder(r)
• Infusion. (r) +
• Legendary
• Powder (c)
• Infusion (r)
• Fabled
• Infusion (c)
• Mana (r)

** You may note that MasterCrafted is listed as having (3) different items it can create. This is due to the fact that MasterCrafted Spells (Adept III�s) are treated as Legendary items. Therefore, there is a chance to acquire an Infusion when Transmuting Adept III�s. Remember that. It will be important later.

Here is another exception for you, now while I have marked off the Common vs the Rare items, they do tend to flip from Tier to Tier as far as Rarity goes. Meaning, that in any particular tier you may find yourself with WAY more powders than fragments and then in the next tier it might be back to having WAY more fragments than powders. It�s just one of those pieces of random bits of data on SOE�s side that gives you a better chance at pulling off a Rare item when you really need a bunch of Commons �

	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4	Tier 5	Tier 6	Tier 7	Tier 8
Fragment
Powder
Infusion
Mana

Skill gain from 101 to Max:

This is ONLY achieved via actually Crafting Transmuter Adornments. Over and over and over and � well, you get the point. ...

You must make sure that you are actually crafting the Transmuter-Only Adornments to get skill increases. Transmuter Adornmentss are created at the Work Bench (jeweler table). I suggest going into your Recipe Book (N) and creating a Transmuter Filter.

This is especially useful to the Jeweler, who also takes up Transmuting, as the Jeweler will also get Adornment recipes and they will NOT work for Transmuter Skill gains.

To gain skill past 100, you must be using the Transmuter recipes!

Just the Crafting Facts!:

Before I run through the various �methods� of skill acquisitions, I am going to do a quick run down on the actual Crafting Process for a Transmuter. This is a good time to go pick up those Abilities from the Transmuter Trainer and scribe them, if you haven�t already �

There are (6) Transmuting Abilities - 3 for Durability and 3 for Progress.

They break down as:

	Subastral Weave + Durability / - Power	Subastral Binding + Progress / - Power
	Corporeal Binding - Progress / + Durability	Corporeal Weave � Durability / + Progress
	Infusive Weave � Success / + Durability	Infusive Binding � Success / + Progress

Like all other Crafts you have 4 qualities of crafting you must go through to reach the final stage of Crafting.

Unlike Regular Crafts, you will receive your item on the 1st step of crafting should you choose to stop.

Going further only helps determine how many of your sub-components will be returned to you.

Example: Smoldering Molten Binding (T8) recipe requires: (1) Powder + (9) Fragments + (7) Fuels
Produces: (1) Adorn / (1) Adorn / (1) Adorn + (4) Fragments / (1) Adorn + (5) Fragments.
(Based on Crude / Shaped / Normal / Pristine Qualities.)

When you consider how much work is required to gather up all those components, getting some back is VERY important! This actually goes with ALL Adornment Crafting, not just Transmuters.

Another way, in which Transmuting differs from other Crafts, is that, at current, we have NO crafting events to counter, while actually crafting. The Transmuter abilities only affect Durability and/or Progress. Things happen in the background, like all other crafting, it�s just we aren�t given notice of them and they happen for good or bad without us to help the outcome. Unfortunately, this also means we have no crafting bonuses to counter and give us goodies, either.

Crafting is a SKILL!?:

Since Transmuting is a Skill based Craft, Skill Gain is probably the utmost important thing on your mind.

Skill gain, of course, uses the Random Number Generated (RNG) system. boo! Hiss!!

According to the Developers, you have a higher percentage chance of �rolling� for a skill increase if the recipe is even or better to your skill. (White, yellow or red conned recipes)

The nice thing is that Transmuting has a bottom chance of 25% of �rolling� for a skill increase when your skill is 2x the difficulty of the recipe �

Huh? What?! �

This means no matter how Grey the recipe is you will always have a 25% chance of a Skill Increase.

Repeat: You CAN gain skill from Grey Transmuter Adornment Recipes!

This is a very important feature! At least, it is if you intend to have any money left after reaching max skill �
Unless, you have been living under a bridge or at the very least have had all your chat channels turned off .. You should have heard at least 1 Transmuter complain about how much Transmuting costs to work up skill.

Now, there are several ways to gain skill and all of them do have a cost attached to them.
Whether it is Time or Money ... or even a combination of the 2 ... it will cost you to work on Transmuting �
Only, you can decide if it is worth it.

On to the �Methods�!! �

The �I can just buy my skills� Method:

The �I can just buy my skills� method is pretty straightforward and obviously the easiest to explain.

It involves a lot of standing at a Broker and doing either (a) Level searches in Treasured, MasterCrafted, Legendary and Fabled items till you get enough items and supplies. (b) Searching for the Appropriate Transmuter Supplies (which will make another Transmuter (or two) very, very happy). or (c) A combination of both.

Then, once you have several large stacks of the various transmuting supplies, probably spanning several tiers, take them to your nearest Work Bench, pausing to pick up an assortment of fuels and being by pulling up that previously created Transmuter Filter. I recommend in this situation to always start working from the lowest skill to the highest skill till you use up your current inventory of supplies. This way you will get the MAX benefit from doing multiple tiers of transmuting.

I do recommend avoid using the Infusions and Mana from the higher tiers in your skill grinding sessions as they are usually worth way more changed into some other Craft�s Adornment than you will ever get from a Fabled Weapon Adornment. Server Economy will vary, though, so double check yours before possibly "blowing" that 1-10 plat component on a potential 10 gold adornment. :)

Then its back to the Broker and you will keep doing this over and over and over again till you are either Max Skill or Broke.

Should it be the former, it might a good idea to move on to a more cost efficient method �

The Harvesting Method:

The Harvesting Method involves either (a) level locking a character on the �newbie� isle (either the Queens� Colony or the Outpost of the Overlord) or (b) taking your much higher Adventurer and harvesting the stuffing out of any and all T1 harvesting spots.

The �newbie� isles are the preferred location, if you happen to have a free character slot, since the pop rate on nodes is fast, there is a dedicated area where the rock/ore nodes are pop and the rares are actually pretty common. If you don�t have a character slot available, make sure to take your highest Adventurer to the T1 zones for harvesting. They will have the �better� chance at pulling rares.

You are looking for Lapis Lazuli, Copper Clusters and/or Solidified Loam. Bronze Clusters will come in handy, as well. You will need all the above in GREAT quantities, by the way.

Once you have several stacks of the rare harvests go to the nearest Tradeskill area and start turning those rares into Adept III spells. You don�t have to be a great crafter, you just have to be able to successfully craft a level 1 Adept III spell. Over and over and �

Turn the Bronze Clusters into your choice of T1 MasterCrafted Armor or Weapon.

Occasionally, take the time to use your Transmuting Skill to Transmute the Spells you have created and keep going till you are out of rares.

Rinse and Repeat till you have a large supply of Fragments, Powders and with luck a nice big pile of Infusions.

If you haven�t already, go over to the Broker and do a search for �Enigma of Transmuting Advanced Volume 1�, buy it and scribe it.

Server Markets will vary but don�t be too surprised if you can pick up several stacks of T1 Fragments for under a gold. This handy, if you got really lucky on your Transmuting and received more powders & infusions than you have fragments for.

Now, you are ready to work on Skill Gains!

Pick up a stack of Coal (6cp) and then head over to the Work Bench. Pull-up that Transmuter Filter.
You will be confronted by all these �tempers�, �bindings�, �handles� and all kinds of other Adornments.

Tempers and Bindings are your Common Adorns. Handle, Shod, Pommel, Shaft as well as a bunch of other weird names are your �Rare� Adorns. Now, normally, you would only want to do your �Rare� Adorns for profit but in this method using the Tier 1 Transmuter items actually makes good fiscal sense.

The Tier 1 Rare Transmuter Adorns require (1) Infusion, (1) Fragment, (1) Powder and (1) piece of Coal. And, if you take it to Pristine Level (4th) it will give you back your Powder. Which, you can then use on a Common Temper or Binding.

In other words for every T1 Infusion you have you are basically giving yourself 2 chances at a skill up.

So, run through all your Infusions using one of the recipes for a Handle or a Shod in your Enigma of Transmuting Advance Volume 1. Then move on to using either the Temper or Binding recipes till you are all out of powders.

You can try selling the created Adornments on the broker. I have sold a few. But, generally, you are going to wind up selling them back to the Fuel Merchant to recoup your fuel costs. And, that�s all you will get. In case you hadn�t noticed all the Transmuter Created Components are all NO VALUE. Just like any other harvestable used in crafting. This means that the created adornments are only �worth� fuel costs to an NPC Vendor. To a player the value can be subjective. But, realistically, how much need is there for a T1 Adornment?

When you are done with that set, then you get to start over again. Harvesting up Rares, Turning them into Adept III�s, Transmuting the Adept III�s and then finally working on skill increases.

Do this over and over � lol ... What did I tell you? Over and over and over again. Till you reach your max.

The �Play as you Go� method:

This method is a bit more time-consuming, of course it can also be a lot more rewarding.

This one involves creating a character from scratch with the end goal of being at least an Adventurer and Transmuter, and possibly even a Crafter.

After, creating said character, immediately turn off combat exp. As you work that character up through the levels you take the time to work on your Transmuting as well as your Crafting. The best crafter class for this situation would probably be a Scholar as it doesn�t take as much time to ding a level as a Scholar as it does for some of the other classes. As a Added �plus� any Adept III spells that don�t sell, you can then Transmute for a chance at an Infusion.

Since, you will be playing and working on your transmuting as you level up and never leveling your Adventurer level past your Transmuting skills. You�ll have the best opportunity to always acquire your �current� tier�s Transmuting raws and always get that slight edge of a bonus when it comes to potentially getting a skill up.

Working on Transmuting 5 skill points at a time is a heck of a lot less frustrating than having that huge �catch-up� spread of anywhere from 50 to 300 skill points!

Closing:

Well, that�s Transmuting in a very, long winded nutshell! If you have read through this guide and see any errors, please don�t hesitate to point them out. When and IF Transmuting ever gets updated, I will then update this guide. If you have another method to earning skill ... again ... let me know.

Transmuting can be a frustrating skill. But, it doesn�t have to be. And, since you have taken the time to read this guide, you will be one step ahead of the frustration level and hopefully, you will come out at Max Skill with not only your sanity still in-tact but also still in good humor!

There is no real reason why you have to be maxed on the same day you started your skill. When the skill grind gets to be �too� much, take a break and do something else. At least with Transmuting, no matter which �method� you choose, there is always something else to be doing other than staring at the crafting table!

Always remember ... it's good to go green! :)