Infusion System Overview

Equipment Infusion is a new system to enhance your gear.  Any piece of equipment with the ‘INFUSABLE’ attribute is eligible for this system.  Unlike other item-modification systems, such as adorning and reforging, infusions are permanent.  They are neither portable nor reversible.  No exchanges, no refunds.

The infusion system focuses on four stats: Stamina, Crit Bonus, Potency, and Ability Modifier.  Each of these stats can only be increased through infusion if it originally existed on the item.

• There will be special infusers that can grant new stats to items.  However, these are currently undiscovered and are outside the scope of this overview.

When you loot an infusable item, it will typically have some small amount of pre-infusion.  The amount of pre-infusion is random, so you may occasionally find a slightly better version of an item you have already looted.  Here is an example:

The numbers in gray are the base values of statistics that have changed.  The effective numbers will include the benefits of not only infusion, but also refining, experimentation, and reforging, when applicable.  (Adornment stats remain shown separately, in their own color.)

Infusers and the Infusion Process

The infusion process takes place in a new UI window:

You can access this window in several ways:

• /toggleinfusion
• Right-click an unequipped infusable item, and select Infuse
• Under the EQ2 menu, click Equipment Infusion
• Inexplicably, you can also find it from the Deity window, which services a completely unrelated system.
• It is also possible to bypass the window, and directly apply an infuser to an unequipped item, by right-clicking the infuser and selecting Use.

Equipment is placed in the left square of the window, and will appear there automatically if the window was opened via the equipment itself.

Equipment can be infused either by paying a plat fee, or by applying an infuser.  Here is a sample infuser:

There are a wide variety of infusers, which are detailed later, but all they share certain traits:

• Each infuser increases one or more stats randomly, within some range.  

• There is a small chance of critical success that would exceed this range, which is not communicated by the UI in any fashion.  A critical success can earn up to twice the benefit of a regular success.

• Each infuser has a percentage chance of success, from 10% to 100%.  

• If an infusion fails, the next successful infusion (of the same type) will be slightly more powerful.

• Each infuser works on a specific modifier, or layer (detailed later).  These are named Deity, Physical, and Bonus. 

• These layers operate independently of each other, but are unfortunately indistinguishable in the UI.

• Each infuser has its own maximum benefit for the layer it works on.  These behave as thresholds, rather than caps.  

• If an infuser has a maximum of 10.0 CB, and your item has already been infused by 9.9 CB by other infusers of that type, you can still benefit from that infuser, and perhaps exceed the 10.0 CB maximum by quite a bit.  
• Once you’ve met or exceeded the maximum, that particular infuser would not apply to the item any longer.

• In addition to the maximums shown on each infuser, items have hidden caps equal to ⅓ of the base stat, per layer.  

• For example, if your jewelry has 20.2 base Crit Bonus, the system will enforce a maximum of 6.7 on each layer, even if your infuser claims a maximum of 10.0 CB.

To use an infuser, place it in the right square of the window.  In the middle is a large circular button that indicates the chance of success, and the fee for the attempt (when no infuser is being used).  Clicking the circular button attempts the infusion, and the results are shown only in your chat window.  

• If the success chance shown is 0%, you have exceeded the maximum for the selected infuser.

Layers

Each infuser applies to one of three layers:  Deity, Physical, or Bonus.  Layers are now referred to as ‘modifiers’ in the descriptions of infusers, which can cause confusion when discussing Ability Modifier.

• The Deity layer is home to pre-infusion, cash infusion, and loyalty-based infusers.
• The Physical layer is used by looted and crafted infusers.
• The Bonus layer is reserved for less common infusers, such as those associated with achievements, or with the Premium Edition of the expansion.  These infusers are generally very potent, never fail, and affect all four stats.

Layers can be visualized as a set of buckets, each divided between four stats.  Each bucket is only filled by certain sources, and those sources each determine how much they can fill the stat(s) in that bucket.

Cash Infusions and the Deity Layer

Cash infusions, one of the more controversial aspects of this system, operate on the Deity layer.  Each attempt simulates the act of applying the following infuser, which you can see in the UI:

The values shown here are the same for cash infusions of any item.  

• Keep in mind that the pre-infusions on a looted item will count against the maximums on this layer.  
• Also keep in mind that the hidden cap of ⅓ of each base stat is in effect, and is very likely to be encountered when infusing items under 30.0 base CB or Potency.

To begin cash infusions, open the Infusion window, select an item, but do not select an infuser.  You will see a 25% chance and a plat fee shown in the center button.  

• Each item will have a starting fee based on its repair cost, only much higher.  
• The fee increases linearly with each attempt, pass or fail, and is rounded down to the nearest plat.

Click the button to attempt an infusion, and look for the result in your chat window.  Quite frequently, the result will fail, but the next success is promised to be more powerful.  

With a 75% chance of failure, streaks of 10 or more failures will be quite common, and prolific infusers will eventually encounter failure streaks of 20 or more.  In these cases, it is important to remember that the ‘failure bonus’ is actually quite significant.  In fact, for CB and Pot, it’s the same as the average success:

The fees for cash infusion escalate quickly.  It is typical to require between 80 and 110 cash infusion attempts before caps are reached.  If your equipment has Ability Mod, it will naturally take more attempts to maximize all four stats than it would for a piece with only three.

Here are some sample figures, indicating potential costs of infusing various equipment, as tested in Beta:

Loyalty-based Infusions and the Deity Layer

Little is known about the infusers that were added to the Loyalty Merchant in mid-beta, because those merchants are disabled on the Beta server, for the same reason /claim is disabled there.  

What is known is that they will operate on the Deity layer, offering a potential alternative to cash infusion.  Using these infusers will increase the cash infusion fee, so plan accordingly.

The Physical Layer

The Physical layer (originally known as the Drop Layer) is affected by both looted and crafted infusers.  Looted infusers come in three varieties:  Standard, Heroic, and Epic, and these are segregated by type of content they drop from.  This is an example from an Advanced Solo chest:

Unlike cash infusers, each of these will affect a specific stat.  The values on the better infusers are not yet confirmed, but here is a table of the Standard versions:

Crafted Infusers

Recipes for crafted infusers are split between Provisioners and Artisans.  Like the looted infusers, each of the crafted infusers applies to a specific stat.

Provisioner recipes use harvested materials, while general Artisan recipes require a new material, salvaged from level 100 ToT equipment:

These fragments come in three varieties:  Standard, Heroic, and Epic, corresponding to the equipment salvaged.  

The following chart details the requirements and output of the infuser recipes:

The Handcrafted infusers carry a 10% chance of success, offer the least benefit, and have the lowest maximum thresholds.  The rest of the crafted infusers are 100% successful, and impart gains that scale with the quality of their materials:

When applying any Physical Layer infusers to your equipment, it is generally best to start with the least powerful at your disposal, until the item has exceeded the maximum for that version of infuser.  Only then should you apply Heroic or Epic versions.

• It is also reasonable to build up a long streak of failure with Handcrafted infusers, and then ‘cash in’ on the failure bonus with a stronger infuser with a 100% success chance.

Because the UI offers no way to distinguish between Deity and Physical infusion gains once applied to an item, it will be necessary to track those numbers yourself if you wish to know how close you have come to each cap.

The Bonus Layer

Very few Bonus layer infusers are available.  The Premium Edition perks operate on this layer, as do rewards from significant ToT achievements, or Beta rewards:

Obviously, it is best to save these for items you expect to use throughout the expansion.

Infusion Interactions

The infusion system is intended to operate independently of other systems that modify equipment.

• Refining

• In ToT, equipment crafted with refined materials gains a 5% bonus to stamina and Ability Mod, but no bonus to CB or Pot.  The increased stats are not counted against the maximum of any layer.

• Experimenting

• It is possible to experiment on an infused item.  No gains are lost, unless of course the experimentation fails, and the item is lost.
• In limited testing, experimenting for stamina or Ability Mod appears to quietly increase the caps for Physical infusers, as long as the experimentation precedes the infusion.  By adding 15% to stamina, for example, it is possible to use a 10.0-maximum infuser even when an item has already gained 10 or 11 on the Physical layer.  Curiously, this behaves differently if the item is infused before experimentation.
• Preliminary results suggest a similar effect on caps on the Deity layer, including for the other stats.

• Reforging

• Any portion of a stat which was gained through infusion is not eligible for reforging.
• Reforging into Ability Mod on an item does not allow you to infuse Ability Mod on that item.

• Adorning

• There is no interaction between infusions and adornments.