A Note on Augments

The Inert Prisms for epic level Augments are now very easy to obtain. The only expensive part of it will come from the 20 hour cooldown mat used. I would really encourage people when requesting their gear that they not skip the augment - proportionately it is a very cheap part of the cost of the gear and an epic augment on an item pushes it to the next tier of gear (almost) statwise. It would be great to see a few more requested.

Also the patch made available Pure Valorstone, a blue augment that as far as I know adds 44 valor to an item. This could be especially useful for making PVP weapons or some starter PVP gear.

For Apothecaries, in case you don't know how to get Inert Prisms, the patch changed it so that you can get them from dailies or Apothecary crafting rifts. Also instead of only salvaging from epic planar essences, they now have a chance to spawn from any level 48 essence. This is why you've seen green planar essences jump in price. The easiest part of the attainability, though is that the Planar Vendor in Fortune's Shore sells random level 48 essences for 800 planarite (I believe the others are only level 40). These are salvageable, and on average you would expect to salvage an inert crystal for 2-3 essences (pluss some eternal planar dust), meaning if you have run out of things to buy that these are an excellent purchase (unfortunately soulbound).

Just wanna clarify - they are blue essences at fortunes shore that salvage for the Inert Crystal (makes the blue flawless augments) - not the inert prism -- for the purple augments. I believe that is correct right?

There is a random chance to produce the prism, but yes most of the time it produces Inert Crystals. Also this page is fantastic for planning your augments. https://sites.google.com/site/riftaugmentlist/ It will show what augment will add what stats to what piece of gear. This leads to some interesting choices. For my rogue tank, a Flawless Thiefstone (epic) will add 8 dex (8 dodge 4 ap 8 crit) to a chestpiece. A Brilliant Harpy Feather (blue quality) will add 5 dex and 3 dodge (8 dodge 2.5 ap 5 crit). Flawless Thiefstone = 8 dodge 4 ap 8 crit Brilliant Harpy Feather = 8 dodge 2.5 ap 5 crit Flawless Thiefstone = 12 platinum Brilliant Harpy Feather = 12 gold So for an additional 12 plat (rounding) you gain 1.5 ap and 3 crit. Now this is going to be different for each class, so make sure you know what you're paying for! (Of course, if you can find the epic Luminous Harpy Feather, its 6 dex and 4 dodge, that is the best for a rogue tank ;) but they're almost impossible to find)

No, they are the random essence containers bought ftom the normal planar foods vendor in Fortune Shore. The container yeilds a random (has always been green for me) essence. Not the blue essences bought directly from the rare planar goods vendor (as far as I know, all directly bought essences are unsalvageable)