Actually, the intended price was always listed on the merchant. The issue was that it didn't require everything that the merchant said was required, so there was in no way any reason to suspect it would take anything less than that.
I do not agree. While I didn't take a screenshot of it (hope you did) but I bet I can get some others to confirm, prior to the merchant being ganked the price for the ring did NOT show the need for EITHER of the charms as part of the purchase price. We opened the merchant each time we killed Captain A, looking how close we were and then boom, merchant gone and returned WITH the purchase of the charm as part of the cost. Ie increasing the time needed for anyone to get it in the future.
If I remember correctly.... I think the Charm being a purchase requirement was in red text when you hovered over the ring.
If people purchased it due to a bug with the NPC, it would only be fair to remove that item and refund them what they paid for it (And pop off the adornments.) However do I expect it'll happen? Probably not.
This is correct. The requirement to have one of the charms was the intention. However, that requirement, although it said it was required, did not appear to work. The price was changed to just require one of the charms as a purchase currency. The price of the ring has never changed in intention. No exploit was used to purchase the rings previous to the change and we took the merchant down as soon as we noticed it was not working properly.
So because no one else got lucky and bought an item during a bugged phase, we now all have to do it the hard way, and those who got the item get to keep it due to taking advantage of a bug?
I guess in hindsight the way of obtaining the ring actually did change. Requiring the two captain insignias instead of the one. Seems not all bugs are treated equally ! Not likely to happen but folks who got this the non intentional/bugged way should get refunded and be made to work the faction as what was supposed to happen. Alternatively adjust faction on each captain kill so its not another month or so before most get their hands on this item.
"Other ways to obtain this item" is the part I'm curious about... The faction grind is fine the way it is... I'm just glad we don't have to kill the mob 4 times to get 1 item for the raid... Maybe the item was added to Forge Golem's upgraded loot table? Im fine with waiting 1-2 months for the whole raid to get a nice upgrade. Much better than loot tables with "rare" drop rates, that seem to never drop...
so is it in the rules that its ok to take advantage of a merchant who is bugged and has mis priced items? isn't that exactly what some people did to get sent to drunder? I can understand people getting it for themselves for the first time without knowing it was bugged..but to do that repeatedly for their alts is too much.
Thanks Gninja, i think I have got it now. Buying items from a merchant and reselling to generate currency = exploit. Buying item from a merchant and reselling to generate status = not an exploit. Avoiding the purchase restrictions on getting an item, getting it before anyone else can and being able to buy for alts as well = not an exploit. I see via your feed (if its correct), the Ashenfell and Graybeard Stone of Power charms have been discoed ONLY on Barren Sky server. So how anyone has the ring already other than on Barren sky is a mystery, if the purchased requirements for the ring have always been both faction insignia and then buying one of the charms.
I have to agree, 3 months in to an xpac and this is just discovered, you let a whole lot of folks bypass your "intended" mechanic. Only fair thing to do is change your mechanic to allow those from here on out to get it on the same timeline as those that did it previously.... 100 million status is still a huge time sink for many players, except maybe for those players which probably already have their ring. As a midlevel guild the status requirement will probably hold more of my members back from getting the item than the need to grind the faction anyway..but in the spirit of fairness there is only one answer to this situation.
