GoD smithing floods server

[Luminare]

This will not be a popular sentiment here, though those who wish to continue to make a good profit with their smithing might be inclined to agree if they think about it.

The drops for the velium gemmed weapons are common as hell, and now they are flooding my server with high quality weapons. I'm looking in the bazaar right now. Half a dozen different people are selling each of the main weapons. There are currently 7 velium gemmed morningstars, 9 velium gemmed longswords, 5 velium gemmed greatswords, and 9 velium gemmed daggers for sale. Prices on all pieces are under 20k and falling fast, as one would expect for something so common. They are at least as out of balance as the pre nerf drop rate windblade in a tradeskill fashion for a new expansion.

This is why in the past Sony has been reluctant to make trade skilled items as good as the sellable mob drop items. They clearly don't have a clue how to balance component drop rates. The main thing with velium inlaid is access to the zones. Once there, the components are quite common. Hence the flooding of the markets.

I use to think my warrior's weapons that I spent so long acquiring were pretty high end for pre-elems (17/20 and 14/18). Not anymore. Thanks to velium inlaid items, having a pair of 16/20s or a 34/28 2 hander will be the standard at L65. Rogues will have a 16/20 piercer, standard. hey hey, mudflation. Don't tell me the current price of 19k for a velium inlaid long sword is hard to get at L65. It's not. Of course the price will likely continue to fall too.

Drastically reduce component drop rates on these items before even more damage is done to the server economy.

[Lilosh]

I'm of a dual mind on this.

The tradeskiller in me says "OMG MARKET CRASH BAD BAD"

The player in me realizes that good weapons for everyone makes EVERYONE more powerful. It means that guilds might not have to raid so much to get a higher level of power.

Rangers are crying and weeping over the common-ness (Commonality?) of the Stonewood bow. They feel that if one of the best pre-time/GoD bows in the game is droppable, it cheapens it for everyone.

I , personally, like excellent droppable gear. And I like it even more when I can make it , or buy it. I don't have to camp Mob001, in zone002. I can go to the bazaar, or my favorite vendor mining spots, and gather components. I can talk to my friends to see who is a fletcher, smith, tailor, or what have you.


But yeah, the Bazaar vendor in me weeps for any killed market.


-Noish

[Sulkano]

Although I am making these items at a limited rate, I agree with you...this is exactly the same thing that happend with Tae EW armor/shields back when they were all the rage. This time is gonna be even worse though, since many of the folks that are KT flagged have done all or part of Aid Grimel, thus having the skills to make this stuff already. And you are right in that these weapons will become the new standard...hell, why not? Put the right augs on them and they become better than most pre-elemental weapons. The game just keeps getting easier and easier.

[Kronepsis]

I'm laughing my head off about this, because people were complaining that there wasn't enough drops, IIRC. /sigh...

[KyrosKrane]

One thing I noted on the Sony boards.

The absolute best tradable armor at each level of the game was tradeskill made. (LDoN armors for low levels, BD cultural armors at mid levels, and PoP elemental armors at high levels.) No-drop armors at each level are still better than tradeskilled armors, though harder to obtain. Tradable mob drops are generally weaker than the top tradeskilled armors unless you need one particular stat (such as the WIS on an Emerald Dragonscale Tunic).

Up until GoD, tradeskilled weapons were largely pointless, with a very few exceptions like Black Acrylia. When GoD was released up until a couple of weeks ago, tradeskilled weapons became a match for the top mob-dropped tradable weapons. With the recent changes to GoD weapons (adding HP, mana, and endurance, among other changes), I now believe that the best tradable weapons are tradeskill-made.

I'm personally happy with this situation. The best tradable gear is made with tradeskills. "Almost as good" stuff can be bought in the bazaar (as mob drops). Better no-drop stuff can be obtained through quests, groups, or raids. This is about as balanced as we can hope for.

[Lilosh]

I'm personally happy with this situation. The best tradable gear is made with tradeskills. "Almost as good" stuff can be bought in the bazaar (as mob drops). Better no-drop stuff can be obtained through quests, groups, or raids. This is about as balanced as we can hope for.

Well said.

/agree.


-Noish

[Delores Mulva]

I told you so.

The 17/20 H2H weapons hit 10 K over the weekend on Quellious. Yup, for less than the cost of pretty much any piece of Ornate you too can own the best droppable H2H weapon in game. This thing makes doing any pre-PoP content a waste of time for the owner, and even arguably makes doing any pre-Elemental content a waste of time. Same thing with rogues and the 16/20 piercer, although that's holding strong at 19 K. But it won't hold for long. One independent Bazaar trader has 70 of Raw Shimmering Nihilite and Shimmering Aligned Ore for sale, and that's another 70 to 140 weapons hitting the market. He's not even a guild salesbot, just some guy that likes to four-box in Kod'Taz. The guilds could make this ten times worse, like the guy that was selling twenty of the 34/28 2HS's for 12 K.

Delores Mulva
Lotus Cult
Quellious

[muana]

tradeskilled stuff

One thing you have neglected to say about dropped (whether droppable/or no-drop) they many times have extra stuff on them besides stats (take ornate) that is why their price is so high. Most of the high end people that I know love to have click buffs since it can help a ton to speed up the kills in an adventure if everyone dies. Ornate silk pants for example....can get it so you can get proper buffs before continuing your adventure. Others also help, thereby making most tradeskilled equipment not as useful overall.

Weapons are one thing that most can use and people aren't as worried about having click buffs or effects so this was a great add by Sony and finally gives something that people can use for a longer period of time.

Prices will always depend on how much people want to farm, that can't be stopped unless they nerf drop rates so much nobody will farm them...then the zone get quiet and unused. I personnally would rather it be that most places had something for everyone so it would be enjoyable.

My 2 cents

[Sylphan]

Maybe people are just dumping the ones they bought before because they've been nerfed. I recall hearing something about adding a recommended level.

[Drawde]

Recommended level got lowered, from 65 to 63. And the claws (don't know about any of the other one-handers) got an extra point of damage. Unfortunentally, they also added a required level of 60. I hope I don't die before I get there. A tad more than a yellow to go, and I can switch my weapons around again. Level 59 monk with the hammer equipped, before the patch.

[Luminare]

The problem is not that you CAN make weapons this good. That's fine. The problem is that the drops are way, way too common. Sony limits dropped gear for a good reason. It keeps it from being trivial to get and flooding the market. Tradeskill items should be no different. In order to avoid flooding the market, they have to much more severely limit drop rates.

I strongly disagree that just making upgrades easier for everyone is the way to go. Upgrading gets somewhat easier as a natural progression of the game from expansion to expansion, but it should not be done in huge leaps like this causes. That makes players who already put a great deal of effort into getting these weapons feel like their effort is crap. Just a short time later a whole bunch more players can get weapons that are just as good for far less effort. Sure, those new players are happy, but the others feel like their accomplishments are cheapened to an excessive degree. That's mudflation in a bad way.

This thing makes doing any pre-PoP content a waste of time for the owner, and even arguably makes doing any pre-Elemental content a waste of time.

Here's perhaps the biggest problem, besides too rapidly cheapening the accomplishments of players. The faster mudflation goes, the faster older expansion content becomes useless. Totally flooding the market with such high quality droppable weapons is mudflation at its worst. Windblade initial drop rates in PoP were a big mistake, and gem inlaid right now are an even bigger mistake because it's 1 handers and 2 handers for a wider range of classes.

[Luminare]

incidently,

Most of the high end people that I know love to have click buffs since it can help a ton to speed up the kills in an adventure if everyone dies.

Clickie buffs are a convenience that's nice to have, but not a big deal usually. A few clickie buffs are really nice to have. Many make little difference at all.

From what I hear a lot of the components are not farmed. They are fairly common drops in places that people are hunting in anyway.

[Axemaster]

Actually, I think drop rates are fine. What you are seeing is a sudden influx of weapons because now there is a *reason* to use the ore thats been sitting around. Before they upped the stats, there was no reason to make these (for me at least). I had a stack or two of the ore in the bank - collected over 3 months. Ive used it up. I dont have any more, and the couple I get a week now will limit the influx.

Give the rush time to die, the ore isnt that common, there was just a stockpile of it accumulated.

also, these weapons might have the stats of Luclin weapons, but they dont have the effects. They are an incentive for people to use LDON to personlize their weapons.

[Angelsyn]

Huh...

On Xegony, GoD Smithed Weapons (& supplies) are still pretty rare and expensive.

Now the price for Velium has dropped noticably though... it used to sell for 60p per small piece, now it's down to 35p. Right after I resupplied myself, too.

[Delores Mulva]

Actually, I think drop rates are fine.

Currently, on average a Kod'Taz XP group will get the materials for one of the standard weapons per hour. With failure I'd estimate you're seeing 0.9 of those weapons come into the game world per hour, assuming the group bothers to convert them.

Compare that rate to historical drop rates on best tradeable weapons.

Pre-Kunark: Lower Guk has roughly a 28 minute repop time. The Ghoul Lord is not a 50-50 pop, not by a long shot. He has the Yak maybe one third of the times he pops, maybe 40%.
Kunark: mobs in Karnor's and Sebilis are on between 20-30 minute respawns. I can't think of any named that pops once per hour on average or faster, and they don't have weapons as the only drop. Random rare drops are exactly that, rare - I've only ever seen one Sebilite Croaking Dirk drop in many hours of camping Juggs.
Velious: the Avatar of War's respawn time is measured in days, not hours, ditto the Statue of Zek.
Luclin: even pre-nerf, Centi weapons weren't coming out of ME/Akheva at the rate of one per hour per XP group. Other weapons, like the high end H2H weapons, are off mobs with spawn times measured in days.

I could continue, but you should get the point by now. The rate at which these weapons are entering the world is far, far beyond past rates. We have one four-boxer on my server selling off 60-odd of each of Raw Shimmering Nihilite and Shimmering Aligned Ore, AND he has a small supply of weapons for sale, AND he continuously restocks his trader with both. That's one four-boxer - you can set up almost anyplace in Kod'Taz and get the same results, or you could get guilds selling the multitude of drops they get from clearing in any post-Kod'Taz raid zone.