In my previous post I showed enhancing an armour with Snakeskin Armor costs less gold than enhancing with uncommon armour once the (3 star or 4 star) armour you enhance reached level 16. If your armour contains either element water or element earth. About half the possible element combinations in armours do contain those elements, but the other half does not. In that case enhancing with matching element armour is only possible with other armours than Snakeskin Armor.
There is the possibility of using another one of the Storyline Armors containing different elements. You can use Atlantean Avenger Armor (water/air, 6,000 gold to craft), Crius Armor (earth/air, 9,000 gold), Chimera Corps Uniform (earth/spirit, 12,000), Living Flame Armor (fire/spirit, 15,000) or Hydra Hunter's Mail (water/fire, 18,000).
All the storyline rare armours add 24 EP with matching elements but only 20 EP with unmatching element enhancement. Those armours cost the same time to craft, but they are more expensive in gold. It's not always easy to get the crafting materials. They are only available in the more advanced levels on the World Map and cost more time and effort to obtain than Snakeskin Armor. But if you can get them, should you use them? They add more EP than unmatching armour but they cost more to craft. So there must be a moment when enhancing with unmatching Snakeskin Armor (water/earth, 3,000 gold) is actually cheaper than using matching other armour. Hydra Hunter's Mail contains only elements that are covered by Snakeskin Armor (water) and Living Flame Armor (fire). So we will never need the expensive Hydra Hunter's Mail to enhance. In the same way we won't need Crius Armor.
Air Element Armour[]
The first case I will look into is enhancing an air element armour that does not contain water or earth. I will compare the costs of using Atlantean Avenger Armor and Snakeskin Armor.
I use the basic formula:
EP added(armour x) = Crafting(armour x) + ES(target armour)
so for Atlantean Avenger Armor:
24 EP = 6,000 gold + 1ES
and for Snakeskin Armor:
20EP = 3,000 gold + 1 ES
Snakeskin Armor costs less than Atlantean Avenger Armor if:
(3,000 gold + 1ES)/20 < (6,000 gold +1 ES)/24 =>
72,000 gold + 24 ES < 120,000 gold + 20 ES =>
4 ES < 48,000 gold =>
If an Enhancement Slot costs less than 12,000 gold using unmatching Snakeskin Armor costs less than matching Atlantean Avenger Armor. According to the table in my post blog:LuxRegem/Enhancing Armour (1) - Some basic data Enhancing Armour (1) - Some basic data that will be at level 48. So up to level 48 it is better to use unmatching Snakeskin Armor than matching Atlantean Avenger Armor.
Spirit Element Armour[]
The cheapest rare storyline armour containing spirit is Chimera Corps Uniform at 12,000 gold to craft.
Our inequality:
(3,000 gold + 1ES)/20 < (12,000 gold +1 ES)/24 =>
72,000 gold + 24 ES < 240,000 gold + 20 ES =>
4 ES < 168,000 gold.
So only if an enhancement slot would cost more than 42,000 gold using Chimera Corps Uniform would cots less than using Snakeskin Armor. Enhancement slots never get to be that expensive. So using Snakeskin Armor is always cheaper than using Chimera Corps Uniform. Unless you get the armour for free of course.
Fire Element Armour[]
Living Flame Armor costs more than Chimera Corps Uniform. So there is no need to calculate further. Living Flame Armor is always more expensive to use than Snakeskin Armor. Except when you get it for free.
Using Uncommon Armour.[]
Uncommon Armors add 10 EP if the element matches and 8 EP if it doesn't. They all cost the same to craft. So there is no use comparing them against eachother.
The cost of using them:
10 EP = 500 gold + 1 ES (matching)
8 EP = 500 gold + 1 ES (unmatching)
Matching Uncommon Armors cost less than unmatching Snakeskin Armor if:
(500 gold + 1 ES)/10 < (3,000 gold + 1 ES)/20 =>
10,000 gold + 20 ES < 30,000 gold + 10 ES =>
10 ES < 20,000 gold =>
ES < 2,000 gold
That is level 23.
Unmatching Uncommon Armors:
(500 gold + 1 ES)/8 < (3,000 gold + 1 ES)/20 =>
10,000 gold + 20 ES < 24,000 gold + 8 ES =>
12 ES < 14,000 gold =>
ES < 1,166.67 gold
That is between levels 14 and 15.
Conclusion[]
Cheapest options in gold (for now):
Unmatching Uncommon Armor / Unmatching Snakeskin Armor: Level 1 - 14: Uncommon Armor. Level 15 and up: Snakeskin Armor.
Matching Uncommon Armor / Unmatching Snakeskin Armor: Level 1 - 23: Uncommon Armor. Level 23 and up: Snakeskin Armor.
Unmatching Snakeskin Armor / Matching Atlantean Avenger Armor: Level 1 - 23: Snakeskin Armor. Level 23 and up: Atlantean Avenger Armor.
Unmatching Snakeskin Armor / Matching Other Rare Storyline Armors: Always Snakeskin Armor.