It takes
years to get Transmuting (or any other skill) to Level 60+, the minimum necessary (as far as I know anyway) in order to transmute Level 55 items. So here is my suggestion: for every 5 Levels in Transmuting, add a hidden bonus of +1 Magic Luck to the skill itself. So when you transmute
any level gear, you will have a default of (+1 Magic Luck)*(Integer value of [Transmuting Level/5]).
What this means: let's say your Transmuting is Lvl 20. You'll have +4 ML default. That'll give you a bonus of +4 ML when you're transmuting Tier III items, IV items, and V items. This would encourage players to level up their Transmuting to higher levels, and those who are already at Transmuting Lvl 60+ will have an advantage over those who are at much lower levels for transmuting low level items (III, IV, etc.). I think this makes sense.
Right now, the rewards are very lackluster and unappealing. I keep hearing over and over from players who got their Transmuting to 50+ how they are rerolling
thousands of times and getting maybe 1 good item out of 10,000 rerolls (I'm just making up numbers at this point - I don't really know the exact ratio here - but I know it's very low). I think it should be more rewarding than that. I think Transmuting should have at least a slight advantage, if not a major advantage, over just farming monsters in Catacombs.
Perhaps +1 ML for every 5 Levels isn't enough. Perhaps +1 for every 2 or 3 Levels would be better. I don't know. Njag would know better than I do about exactly how ML works. But whatever it is, getting Transmuting to high levels should have higher rewards than what it currently is providing right now, and this is my suggestion. I hope you like.