[quote] If your armor is already upgraded to a higher energy level, the cost will be the total upgrade materials necessary to reach that energy value plus 1 Upgrade Module. [/quote]
I really hope that I'm reading this wrong, but it sounds like the cost of changing the elemental affinity on a MW armor piece is the total cost of masterworking the gear in the first place (cores, prisms, and a shard). Well, I hope you haven't masterworked any armor yet, because if you did... You're about to be punished for it.
I spent all season grinding so I could fully masterwork three pieces of armor, leaving me completely broke as far as "enhancement" materials go. If Bungie had said a single thing about changing affinities, I might have held off, but they didn't. Now I'm locked in to the elemental affinity on the armor, with no materials to change the element.
What the hell? I masterworked gear, despite the elemental type, because Bungie said elemental types on armor was here to stay. Now they're not and I'm getting charged for it? I played Bungie's way, based on the information they provided at the time. What a massive swing and a miss.
* I chose to upgrade the armor, even though the elemental type wasn't what I wanted. That's on me. However, if they had said ANYTHING about this proposed change, I wouldn't have. Fast forward two weeks and now I'm screwed.
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I have no idea why you would even masterwork gear with the wrong affinities, but this is why Bungie did it like this: OLD SYSTEM: "Boy, this armor is super awesome! 68 total stats and lots of Recovery! Oh, but I don't like using Auto Rifles or Fusion Rifles, and since it's Solar, that's what I have to use. I'll masterwork it for the stats, but it's not good enough to use the mods I want. Back to grinding, I suppose" Cost: All the materials to masterwork the Solar armor, plus all the materials to masterwork a Void/Arc version (IF YOU CAN EVEN GRIND IT OUT) NEW SYSTEM: "Wow! I can finally change this Solar armor I don't like to Void! Oh, it costs a lot of materials? Well, it is the exact same amount I would use to fully level a new piece, since I was a goof and masterworked armor I didn't like, and this way I don't need to trash this otherwise well-stat-rolled armor OR grind for new armor!" Cost:All the materials to masterwork the Solar armor, plus all the materials you would've spent masterworking a Void/Arc version Bottom line is this: If you get fresh gear with bad affinities, good news! That's fixable for literally zero important currency. If you have 10 Energy gear with bad affinities, this is the same cost as leveling a new piece up (that you'd normally have to do), but with no grinding involved. Literally just an overall +