I was rather curious about some changes in recent patches. Most particularly the changes to the satyr crystals and scales and the master construction forms.

Why were these items changed to be attuned?

I was lucky enough to have moved the master forms on my mule to plot storage just before this patch, so I didn't 'lose' anything.

But consider this : The forms can be purchased for imperial rank tokens. The tokens are freely tradable. The rank rokens are given as a reward for certain trophy quests at the imperial outpost. The trophies are also freely tradable.

Why should C (the forms) be attuned when niether A nor B are attuned (trophies and tokens)? I was under the impression that attunement was put into the game for two reasons : firstly to prevent players from passing around high end equipment (boar hide masks etc.), and secondly as an attempt to revive the economy by encouraging people to make more things. But how do master forms fit into either category? They're consumed on use and you can't use them without scribing them. If anything, attuning them stifles the economy, because you can't trade master forms for something of similar value anymore. So I'd really like to know, why did the devs do this and what are their intentions?

The other thing that doesn't make much sense to me is the way that the satyr island stuff attunes. Why should players be prevented from crafting something from common materials and then selling those items to another player? Shouldn't it rather attune on equipment or not at all?

With the way it is now, in order to face the palsies and the famines and so forth, you have to make your own own scale or crystal, and for that you have to have level 80 in a craft school. Is it really a good idea to force people to have 80 craft levels before going onto the satyr islands? Is it really a good idea to force people doing the ARoP to get 80 levels of either lairshaper or dragon crafter just to make 1 scale or crystal to kill the undead essence orbs for the loot? I was lucky in that I just happened to have a melody crystal from 2005 stuck in my dragon's vault. I can tell you that it wouldn't have been Ahkanis that I wanted to strangle if I suddenly discovered this new and extremely unpleasant obstacle to finishing the ARoP.

Shouldn't players still be able to help other players? With every passing patch, it feels more and more like Istaria is being turned into a single player game, with less and less emphasis being placed on the MM part of MMORPG. Players interacting and co-operating with each other is a good thing. In my opinion, any change which creates an obstacle to such interection had better have an extremely valid reason for being there, or it's not going to benefit the players or the game in general. And I really do think that the recent attunement changes fails this test.