We do not know all the details of the crafting system, given that some features are not yet enabled, but from what people keep saying is that refining an item is about swapping perks, not changing rating. One thing I already see will be a problem unless one of the locked features addresses it, is the item rating, which influences the magnitude of its various stats (e.g. damage).
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What we see is that the regular shop spawns items with a high variance in rating, to the point where at level 30, all but the top 2-3 items have a rating that basically makes them a waste of vendor slots. 400 rating seems to be where it starts to get serious, anything a bit below that is okay if the alternative is an old weapon you used while levelling.
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When increasing an item’s rarity, it is clear that the resulting rating will be random within a certain span, and that this spawn is directly influenced by the item’s current rating. For example, I have one sword at 308, and one at 305 rating (too low for level 30, but useful for this example). If I were to consecrate either, the former is given a spawn of 318-333, the latter 315-330, exactly those 3 points lower. This also means that if you increase an item’s rating multiple times, e.g. starting with a green one, this variance will add up, and it takes an extreme amount of luck to get something worthwhile out of all the steps.
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Items purchasable from the Requisitorium also appear with a certain ranged of ratings. Given the very limited amount of currency you can earn each week, an item that might otherwise be really good perk-wise, can still constitute a waste of this precious currency if its rating is rather low, making it a direct disincentive to buy items unless they appear right off the bat with the right perks and a very high rating.
The best solution to this conundrum would thus be a way to increase an item’s rating either through the crafting system or otherwise, all the way to the maximum possible for its current tier, preferrably not RNG-based.