Thread: Most Efficient Relic Refining for Shards

Grinding for shards I made this and figured others may be interested.




It shows how many shards it takes to forge to a higher level relic on the left and on the right it shows how many shards are relieved if you were to refine the relics you had instead of forging them to a higher tier.

The end conclusion is, refine relics at the tier you get them, EXCEPT for T2, forge them to T3 and then refine them.

This does not take into account forging crits, however, if you were to forge 2,160 T1s to get a T7 relic you would need to crit 1,696 shards over the forging process, maybe others have better information on crit amounts and percentages?

Very useful, thank you!

Thanks for this, great help.

I started refining the other day and it is tedious work.
I did manage to make 3 remarkables relics.

Problem I now have is this: I have HUGE amounts of T1 relics, but what to do with those.

The most efficient way is to refine them for 1 shard each, but that takes ages.
During that time I could probably do Stoneheight and get more shards from the T4 relics there.

But using them to make T2 or T3 doesn't seem profitable as well.
It would take 20 Tier1 relics to make 1 T3, so losing 11 shards in the process which wouldnt be bad it it cuts down the time.
Problem is, I still need to combine 5 times which also takes time, and money!

Are tier 1 relics just destined to sit in our relic pool never being used?

thx for the info, really helpfull

Wonder if you sell the T1s and then buy the T3s/T4s and end up with more shards and spend less time. I haven't traded int that currency so I have no idea.

Really Turbine needs to give us a process stack button for these things. Its not supposed to be a time suck like leveling up a crafter is it? I don't see why they can't let us decon stacks of them and refine stacks(or all of 1 type) of them.

I haven't looked at my toons, I shutter to think how many T1s I have now. I don't decon T4s and up as I hoard them. Never know what toon will need them in the future. Guess I'll pay for that with hours of deconning too.

Originally Posted by xadoor

Wonder if you sell the T1s and then buy the T3s/T4s and end up with more shards and spend less time. I haven't traded int that currency so I have no idea.

Really Turbine needs to give us a process stack button for these things. Its not supposed to be a time suck like leveling up a crafter is it? I don't see why they can't let us decon stacks of them and refine stacks(or all of 1 type) of them.

I haven't looked at my toons, I shutter to think how many T1s I have now. I don't decon T4s and up as I hoard them. Never know what toon will need them in the future. Guess I'll pay for that with hours of deconning too.

Problem is you can't sell T1 relics ( or any other) unless they are in their sealed form ( like how they drop in instances)

I decided to try and meld T1 into T3 and see how much shards that got me.
I did this by using 20 T1 to make 4 T2 and then use the 4T2 to make 1 T3.

I critted twice, once for 4 and once for 5 shards. I also had 1 left over T2.
So in total I got 4 (crit)+ 5(crit) +2 ( from extra t2) + 9 ( from T3) = 20.
It did cost some money but shard wise it wasn't a bad deal.

Maybe I was lucky, but in the long run it saves you a lot of time, so I would suggest making T3 relics from all your T1 and T2's

So with update 6 it seems that relic forging now gives 2 of the next higher level instead of 1. Forging 4 tier 1 relics now gives 2 tier 2 relics.

Is forging a better option now? (please say yes cos hitting that auto combine button is much easier)

Post update 6, the efficiency table has changed with respect to the relic forging and refining. The poster above me can rest easy I started out with 262 T1 relics, 90 T2 relics, and 205 T3 relics which, by the old system would have yielded 2287 shards not counting crits.

With the new system in place, almost every T1-->T2 forge yielded at least 2 T2 relics with crits giving 3-4 relics plus shards. Same situation was apparant for the T2-->T3 forges: usually 2 T3 relics with crits doing better. From T3-->T4 and T4-->T5, every other forge or so yielded 2 of the higher tiered relic with crits doing better again.

The double relic yield seems to stop at the T5-->T6 forging level. I combined enough T5 relics to make 20 T6's with one crit and no double yields.

Only counting the shards received from refining the original 550 or so T1-T3 relics forged to T5, I received 4935 shards, 12 10k IXP runes, and 2 15k IXP runes. So under the new system, and if you don't mind spending a little bit of silver along the way, it is much more efficient to combine all your relics to T5 and then refine.

Thanks for the update. Auto combining is now much quicker and easier and gives more shards and relics overall.

Originally Posted by Samhandwich

So with update 6 it seems that relic forging now gives 2 of the next higher level instead of 1. Forging 4 tier 1 relics now gives 2 tier 2 relics.

Is forging a better option now? (please say yes cos hitting that auto combine button is much easier)

This is only for a few tiers. The tiers that require 4 relics to upgrade will give 2 of next tier. Once you only use 3 to upgrade, you only get 1 of next tier.

Keep in mind that the higher the tier the more expensive it is to combine relics.

Combine Tier 1 = 2 silver per combination
Combine Tier 2 = 6 silver per combination
Combine Tier 3 = 18 silver per combination
Combine Tier 4 = 54 silver per combination
Combine Tier 5 = 135 silver per combination
Combine Tier 6 = 405 silver per combination
Combine Tier 7 = 1 gold 12 silver per combination

If you are combining a lot of relics (i.e. starting w/5 stacks of 20 Tier 1 relics)
you can easily spend 15 to 20 gold without even realizing it.

After doing a bunch of combines the average combine returns and cost/return (eg for t1-t2 cost=5 and return =2.5).
It looks like the returns are nearly normalized to the cost (how many relics of the lower tier it takes to make the next highest tier). Regardless its now much more effecient to refine at higher tiers. That being said the previous posters have a point. Combining a bunch of t7s will decon your wallet and fast

Tier	Combines	Avg Return	Combine cost/Return
1	52	2.00	2.5
2	45	1.84	2.17
3	74	1.72	2.33
4	80	1.24	2.42
5	46	1.20	2.51

just to update this thread in regards to shard grinding, id like to add that the most efficient method for obtaining shards is to craft relics and refine them.

For the top tier crafted you get ~760 shards
for the purple you get ~160

now add in the T6 and lower crafting level crafted relics and you can easily obtain ~2k shards a week or more, with 4 alts I have no problem getting all the shards i need in no time! ive learned that many folks have not realized this little tidbit of info and wouldnt know it myself had a kinmate not shared the info. Just passing it on!