Is the Price Rise to Spell Research Reduction Reasonable?

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Milliebii, Aug 30, 2014.

  1. Kari Well-Known Member

    Have they indicated if the grandmaster spells will drop in game, or are they research only?
  2. Malleria Well-Known Member

    If 90+ masters dropped at the same rate lower level masters drop, I'd agree with you Cory. But they don't, not even close. Drop rates are used as a gouge to get people to spend SC.
    Wirewhisker and Dulcenia like this.
  3. Ynnek Well-Known Member

    While I wouldn't quite phrase it the same way - I do agree with the sentiment.

    Masters used to have meaning. Looking them was exciting. People would say "Oh look, a Master Chest" when an exquisite chest dropped. Finding a master you need, giving a master to friends, etc... Everyone got Expert (well, Adept III) trivially - then worked to get Masters.

    With RA's, then SC, it became yet another part of the game that faded into obscurity. Masters became something automatically granted over time. One a month on every character, plus one a month on every account. When a Master drops, everyone says "Bleh, that's what made the chest look Exquisite, what a rip off!".

    So.... with Masters being the new normal - they try to solve the problem with Grandmaster and Ancient tiers. Everyone trivially gets Masters, and you work for your GM or above... or at least, that would have been sane. Imagine if the progression up to Master was unchanged, but they introduced dropped or crafted GMs and Ancients to work on collecting in game. I think it could have made everyone happy.

    But instead, GM's will be researchable. And they raised the price on researching up to Master to the point where people are giving up. Basically, instead of taking the opportunity to make both sides happy, they cheesed both sides off instead...

    (And the Ninja change was a low blow - even if you don't like the fact that the things are for sale at all, putting them on sale, and upping the price at the same time was low)
    Wirewhisker and Rhodris like this.
  4. Corydonn Well-Known Member

    I have gotten two masters in a few hours of writs in Obol Plains and that is solo mobs. Masters so common that you barely notice when they drop in a group and masters I can't even give away for free in an RP channel
    suka likes this.
  5. Corydonn Well-Known Member

    Grandmaster will be researchable (bah) but Ancient which are mythical are drop only and only 4-5 for a class will be ancient
  6. Avahlynn Well-Known Member

    Dude. Come to my server, if it's for my main and someone is offering masters? Yes please. Dang.

    I notice when a masters drops. My group all goes oh exquisite, and there is occationally the please oh please be one I can use heard as the chest is opened, lol.
    Dulcenia likes this.
  7. Malleria Well-Known Member

    You must have better luck than everyone else then! Run any pre-skyshrine heroic dungeon and it's almost guaranteed at least one master will drop. Run any heroic dungeon skyshrine and on and you're extremely lucky to see a master drop. 4+ hours grinding in HK contested? Lucky to get 1 master. The broker would be absolutely packed with cheap masters if they were common. But it's not. Infact, since skyshrine launched masters have become rarer and more expensive on the broker.
    Kinya, Dulcenia, Milliebii and 2 others like this.
  8. ShaggyBodom Well-Known Member


    Don't go to Avahlynn's server, come to mine instead! Seriously, I rarely get masters to drop. I would love to get some masters for my characters, especially if you give them away for free! :eek:
    Wirewhisker and Avahlynn like this.
  9. Kurei Hitaka Well-Known Member

    WTT: My entire Wednesday for Master Spell farming :p AB server of course.
    Wirewhisker likes this.
  10. Lucus Well-Known Member

    seems like anything that is new and useful is being monetized. i told luperza what i thought of that potion of allied advancement potion's price, now we have two status boost potions on the marketplace, the uncalled for price gouging of research time and soon we'll probably see that comment made reality from one of the livestreams about the possibility of a faction boost potion monetized too.

    For the record though the research price rise wont affect me never bought time myself but back when you could buy and gift time as potions i got some from a friend.
  11. Milliebii Well-Known Member

    ?? Research Assistants?? Do you actually play the game?
    Research Assistants are a feature added to the game in DoV they research tradeskill recipes that use special items to make armor and jewelry.

    The research spell/ca ability is a means of upgrading a spell/ca to the next level and has been in the game almost since launch. It has moved to being part of the UI rather than being an NPC you talk to in your home city but it is still the same basic feature that has always been there. Except we have the ability to pay a SC fee for an "Instant Upgrade", now there used to be "research time reducers" of varying strengths but this has been replaced by a one button all or nothing feature.

    What this thread is about is the cost of that research time reduction, from 600SC to 1400SC for a level 91+ expert to a master.
    suka and Kraeref like this.
  12. Ynnek Well-Known Member


    I... ummm.... No... I'm sorry, you're wrong on both points. Corydonn is correct on both points.

    Research Assistants are the folks that used to upgrade spells. Then they got moved from being NPCs, into our knowledge books for convenience.

    You're mixing them up with Tradeskill Apprentences, which uncover new tradeskill recipies.

    Second, neither has been in the game "almost since launch". There was no such thing for the first 5 expansions - they were introduced sometime just before Sentinels Fate was released. They were one once spell per account, which was fairly innocuous. And it wasn't until January of 2011, that they moved into our knowledgebooks, and became one per character. And Instant Upgrade and RtR's didn't come along until after that. Nowhere even remotely close to "almost since launch"...
    Finora and Katz like this.
  13. Foretold Well-Known Member

    The ability to research spells has not been in the game since launch. It came in sometime after RoK, when I took my break. When I left during RoK, there was no researching. I came back during Sentinel's Fate... and there was researching.
  14. Milliebii Well-Known Member

    Not true. The npc's were removed from the game in GU52 (June 16, 2009) during RoK. They were around for a long time before that.

    Correction:
    They were brought into the game in GU52 (June 16, 2009) during RoK. I stand corrected, but five years is still a long time.
  15. Ynnek Well-Known Member

    No, I'm sorry, you're just flat wrong.

    Research Assistants were put INTO the game in GU52. Which was an intermediate update between TSO and SF.

    They were removed (according to zam) 12/7/2010 (and according to eq2i in january of 2011, but eq2i's always slacking off).

    http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/GU52
    http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Research_(EQ2)
  16. Milliebii Well-Known Member

    Yep, I corrected myself while you were posting this.
  17. Corydonn Well-Known Member

    I can agree with you all on the lowered droprates in heroic zones after skyshrine. I didn't do any CoE heroics at all and have just started ToV and have gotten a few in groups that I just outright decline on habit now because they are usually just the price of a mana even if I did want to greed them.

    I imagine the droprate is lower because they either wanted less loot spam (not likely) or just never upped them to skyshrine contested levels because I -think- some contested named have a boost to the drop rate of masters.
  18. isest Active Member

    Just think about it for a minute. They said at soelive or whatever it is called now that soon, you could research masters for all you spells, and grand masters. So the way I see it, this is there way of capitalizing on that. Yes it is too much, and the fact they more than double the price and then said stuff is on sale at the same time. It is a cash grab, But yes I kind of expected these prices were going to go up once we found that everything was fixing to be grand master. Same really, not a very good thing to pull on your customer base, on a game that fewer and fewer folks are playing.
  19. Deveryn Well-Known Member

    They also said free players wouldn't suffer from a lack of ranks in any spell, so it's not like the rest of us will suffer without our grandmaster abilities, which can still be researched for free. If you want a spell so badly, you can also hit up some early 90s instances for research reduction drops. I don't care for the price increase, but I didn't feel like spending the money before, so it doesn't matter much to me. I don't see a reason to flip out over a business trying to stay in business. This is nothing more than a convenience fee and as we discussed with the group XP potions, there are those out there who will actually buy them. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Everything on that shop is just a luxury and not worth throwing a fit over.
    Dethrayzin likes this.
  20. Axterix Active Member

    Don't know about that. Masters sell decently enough. The main thing that tends to suck about them is that the odds are so much worse in terms of you being able to use it on the character you're playing. A weapon has pretty good odds. Armor also isn't bad. But when you've got over 25 classes... well, even in a six person group, the odds are against anyone being able to use it.