Quick Transmuting question.Follow

I was wondering if there was an efficient way to level up transmuting after 100. Do you ever get the dust back if you make a pristine? (i've never made a pristine, only tried a couple of times). I ask because i'm pretty much out of cash and don't have a level 70 to farm for hours and hours right now.

Anyhow, dusts (even tier 1) cost 10g or more on our server, and the adornments pretty much all sell for like 3-4 silver. if you get a skill point 1 in 4 times, thats pretty much a 40g per skill point flush, every time. The adornments are so garbage price wise I'd vendor them. IMO anything worth less then 1g or so is a waste of a vendor slot on the broker, so all the adornments i've seen so far fall into that catagory.

Maybe i'm missing something obvious, or I should be melting down different items or some such? Right now it looks like a flat out 40g per point flush, and knowing what I do about crafting from other games, you'd NEVER recover that kind of investment, even at the top end. Is this another "pay to raise, so that you can then pay people to take your finished products in the end" type of craft?

Hrm. I fail to see where the "quick or cheap" part comes in. If you pay 200 plat to skill up, or you take 1 month to farm 200 plat worth of items to melt down by yourself, you've still used 200 plat worth of items to get your skill up. There is no cheap about it. From a true economic standpoint you've still spent 200 plat, regardless of weather you have the 200 plat in your pocket now and spend it, or if you take the time to scrounge up 200 plat worth of raw goods on your own. So essentially, you can skill up transmuting "quickly, or slowly, but in the end it will cost you a truckload" would be the actual true statement.

Just a pet peeve of mine that people think if you "farm your own mats" that it doesn't cost you anything. Thats flawed economic logic, and it's rampant in every MMO.