Free Combines

[wayshaper]

i occasionaly do free combines for guildies and close friends, im sure we all do........

ive seen people do free combines for non trivial items in hopes of getting a skill up, no problem there realy, as the person wanting the combine is aware of the failure rate....

but this one realy realy gets my blood boiling.....
for someone, whom is max skill, acutioning free combines, with the apparent intent of pushing out other tradeskillers.......

[Tyfold]

Perhaps he is just looking to do a nice thing. It can be hard to find someone to do tradeskills for you. It's very cynical to immediately assume someone has malintentions.

[Taadieri]

Perhaps the person offering free combines does have some nefarious intent.

In support of wayshaper's suggestion, however, would most of us consider players setting off MGB buffs in PoK to be unfairly targetting the ones doing buffs for donations or to be doing a favor for everyone else, or maybe both?

[wayshaper]

normaly people offering free combines would not bother me, its how this individual does it , how he/she says it, the way he spams it when another tradeskiller offers their services for higher,

[Itek]

Ahh...

Person A: Doing smithing combines for 30k per.
Person B: Doing smithing combines for free if non-trivial.

Yeah I can see that being annoying.

But, let's be honest. If you are in the market to have someone you don't know (not knowing the rep of Person A vs Person B, and there are HUGE points of whom to trust based on guild tag etc that don't really fit in this thread) do a combine for you...

Do you pay 30k for the master with AA skills and salvage?
Or do you risk it all on the non-trivial (therefore lower success rate) combine for free?

That's gotta be a close call....

Oh, I generally will log on my retired Enc for MGB KEI if people are howling for it, but I won't MGB KEI if someone's vendoring it. I think it's wrong to mess with someone's bread and butter. I got really tired of scrape'ing by vendoring KEI and I won't do it ever again. But other people do need the plat, or they wouldn't be /ooc'ing it. So no, I don't meddle in other people's business ventures. (Unless I traded my KEI for someone elses. e.g. they buff me as my cleric, and I log in and MGB so their twink can have it.)

[Dutchy]

If hes not accepting any donations, give it a bit of time untill he quits doing it, doubt that person will spend hours a day just doing combines for others for free for a long time.
I tried to help people out by casting max ext. c1 c2 and c4 for free for a couple of weeks when no other chanters where buffing (clicky tranq pants), and logged my chanty out the moment another chanter logged on who wanted to make some pp. My good intentions didn't last long, too many people who got rude about me not being able to cast KEI yet and telling me 2hours+ of tranq was for gimps... now keeping my enchanter at 59, saving up the AAs for bombs... will be bombing 70% ext. c1 bombs for a couple of weeks for all the lower levels before I decide if I actually want to take her to 60 now...

[Itek]

Ouch... Enc w/o KEI ... I've been there... And having had it for a while... Well that's another thread...

But it kinda depends, because if our good samaritan is not doing 'non-trivial' combines out of the goodness of their heart, but rather to get other people to camp materials for them, they might think it's a good return on their time.

But I think most people in the market for "stranger combines" of their hard earned materials are gonna take "free, cause I might get a skill up" vs "pay me, cause I'm the best" into account and weigh the cost/benefit ratio.

Itek: Hmm. I've got 50k in a stone, 100k in discordant sicorae, and I want a Radiant Goggle-stone of Pure Nerfdom.
Person A: 30k for augment combines, JC 300 + geerlok, 300 smithing + geerlock, salvage 3, JCM3, Smithing Mastery 3, and 300 skill Shaman with salvage 3 on alt.
Person B: Doing non-trivial JC, Smithing and Alchemy combines for free.
Itek: Hmm... this might be hard to decide.

[Phantron]

The person doing free combines could be lying about the skill levels. I remember when Solstice earring came out people would lie about their skill level and offer to do 'free' combines.

Though seeing the Master tag probably helps solving some of that.