My experience with my Noir so far Transmuting has been +1 and then using the lowest lvl ancient Dagger with some leeching and it succeeded with no prob but if the rates are as you say (Banana) maybe its bugged and i find a lot of people blowing money on it ._.
The Ohn Blessing as i have said other times maybe you (ImLovingIt) didn't patched well because i made a complete Shining Hyacinth armor set with only 1 fail and it was plussing to +9 (+6 failed). Other than that ive seen players dlvl end game armor to lvl1 with no problems.