Guys, am I doing something wrong or is it basically impossible for me to transmute any item higher than tier I?

check this chart, will show what you can break down with what prof lvl

if you buy essences, you can mute any level atm (if you have the high lvl essence, your prof doesn't matter for rerolling items)

https://m.imgur.com/nrih21R

Ah, that makes sense thank you. I still must be doing something wrong because my stabilize bar always beats my transmute bar very fast so I don't think realistically I am able to mute(break into essence) any tier II currently.