The FG server made me remember to upgrade my Master's Strike on my live characters. I didn't even have to switch research targets to do that. I could just press the ^ button next to it. Handy. 44 DBC. However, I tried the same for an ascension skill. 5204 with the member discount?!! So I checked a few more... Siphoned Fervor Journeyman 7541! I mean that's close to the price I pay for an expansion. And it's one of many skills. I'm the first to pony up dough for nearly anything, but this is prohibitive even for me. Am I missing something? Are there discount weekends?
What's funny is a few people do pay the $50 - $100 per spell. Like them LoN cards back when we had em, a box went for like $80 at normal price, I bit a few times, trying for a certain mount I wanted. Outta three boxes and hundreds of add'l packs over like 8 years, trying only that series, I got a total of two mounts...two untradeable copies of the opposite mount, the one out of the two that I didn't want. Prolly wasted 2-300 bucks spread out over 8 years, plus hundreds of free packs, and nearly a decade of frustration. I wanna tell you that running experts nonstop each day to get ten of the same no trade drops for the same adept level spell is worth it, but the truth is that seems as dumb to me as paying $80 for a spell. If one has the patience, perhaps research your best spells. Perhaps next xpac they will gouge us less...for instance, if it were $5 per tier, they would sell a lot more, netting more money overall.
The 'cost' to research spells is based on their level. Fallen gate is capped at lvl 50 current. Ascensions are lvl 100...
Well actually the one I named is level 107. That's one reason that I think maybe this is unintended and a math error. Maybe the price will calm down when we can level to 110 or something. I am on the bandwagon that says all artists should be paid properly. But we are simply unable to pay this. It's not like we don't want to pay, or we want something for nothing. But multiply this by 8 and you have about $700 for just one level, multiply by the levels.... It gets beyond the rabbit proof fence, in the immortal words of Bertie Wooster. When I contemplate spending $3k on something, my ambitions turn to more complex things like a vacation or a cruise or something. What I'm really concerned about is.... maybe this is the price it takes to keep EQ2 going? Because if so, wow. For the moment I'll hope it's a situation that will change when we can level up higher than the spell levels. But I feel like this is a lost opportunity for them. If it was around $20 a pop, I'd be less likely to start adding things up in my mind.
I can't imagine they'd ever lower the price of using DBC to upgrade ascension spells. A slow dime is worth more than a fast nickle I guess? As I see it, its a pretty interesting social experiment tbh... Same class / archetype: Player 1 - upgrades all their ascension nukes to GM level at XXXX dbc each. Player 2 - starts to upgrade 1 level every XX days via research (free) P1 - Ascension spell 1 - hits for 100 billion P2 - Ascension spell 1 - hits for 100 million Naturally, as humans, we tend to compare. If not you yourself - someone you're playing with is running ACT, and is more than happy to post the parse after every fight - 99 percent of the time - its Player 1 - showing their 4 billion zonewide parse - as compared to the other players XXX million. P1 - gets invited to all the groups / raids P2 - gets invited when P1's offline "No way, that never happens..." <cough> Granted - everyone wants to do well and be a productive member of their group. But when the disparity in DPS output can be directly changed by how much money I spend upgrading my ascension abilities - I kinda have to draw my own moral line. The real issue isn't the money - its the gigantic effect on the DPS that's the problem. So, most will give in to peer pressure, trying to keep up with the Joneses. Some will do it just to stay relevant and hold a spot in their guild... some do it just to be that guy... "zomg, this scout tanks all the xperts and yadda yadda...solo's everything"... Posterity. This is the mentality that's banked on, and is clearly the right business model. I'm content to be an outlier and foment relationships with like minded people who still play for the fun and camaraderie ...and not so much the big parse numbers since this P2W shift. I can't consider it skill, really. Just... don't lord your over-inflated broken parse over my head and tell me I suck and exclude me groups because my Implosion isn't Grandmastered... really. I run ACT too and can see exactly what spells are building your dps; It usually looks like this: 1000 Ascension / Pet 995 Ascension / Pet 852 Ascension / Pet 20 Proc 20 Proc 6 Melee 5 Ascension 3 class's original spell set c'mon mate.
The experiment will continue next expansion, with a much wider net in place. DBG claims the upcoming restriction on scribing abilities (step by step progression, no skipping tiers) is being done to help crafters. Such a generous gesture to the crafting community! That is unless one notices the angle, where the system is being changed in a way that will place more incentive to use DB-Cash to accelerate ability progression. There was nothing subtle about how DBG handled ascension abilities in this expansion. I wish I felt different, but I expect things will get worse in the next expansion, not better.
If you are inclined to spend cash, the most efficient way is to get journeyman Ascension off the broker, then pay for adept and expert with cash. It's roughly $18 per spell that way, and the best return on investment relative to gains. With all the zone grinding the adepts and masters should be hitting broker soon too en masse.
I only have etherlord at grandmaster and I nuke too. It is funny how many people have fully grandmastered ascensions but still parse poorly. The skill gap is of much greater influence than ascension upgrades. Don't get me wrong, I was one of the first to make threads about ascension upgrading being pay to win (or well, more like pay to compete, which it really is).
Which all of us know is a boldface lie, I am surprised there wasn't more of an uproar over it. Maybe everyone is doing a wait and see until the beta.
LOL laughing at dark humor in this. So true and it happened lots even before Ascension made it worse. Sometimes I think ACT is the whole problem, or at least drive by parsing. You know what I mean? When you join a gear group and you're stomping everything, but some bozo has to put the parse up anyway (the named died, we lived, get over it). The people who care about parse, have ACT already, dude, lol. But recently I found a better use for it, and anyway, if this is the situation, I may as well test my parse on an epic dummy even if I can't do anything about it. I've made my peace with ACT. It sure does point out the futility of yelling at people for not playing their archetype very well though. I mean if the difference is big enough, then it doesn't matter what your casting order is. Not sure I'd call it pay to win though (not until it's painful, but doable, say $400 - above that, I start imagining a weekend at the local hotel with a hot tub en suite) because I wouldn't pay it even if I was raiding. Most raid guilds whose websites I read from time to time have upgrades for spells available, so I imagine if I was there I might not loot much and get my spells first, I mean, what's more durable? Anyway this is possibly not something they (DBG) even realized was happening bc of the higher level spells. We've never been able to pre-buy let's say, Dark Nebula level ... idk 65.. at level 60. Maybe the prices were always going to bug? I really hope it 's a bug. Another aspect of this problem is the wierdness around level 100 zones and how hard/easy they are. That has to be a lack of testing. I mean, have you tried to help a priest with Nizara (Fabled) lately? We had to have all raiders and the priest alone to get it for one person. His Resolve I know is around 330 to begin with, mine was 297, and this "older" zone wiped a decently equipped heroic group, literally on the first named until we got two raiders, then kept adding raiders until I graciously exited so they could get one more raider. That kind of thing is not healthy. Yeah we all knew about mezzing them and the strat. But if a random group of heroic geared toons can't help each other for an Epic 2 drop, idk, that's just ....not good. I think I'm playing more on FG partly bc I can't stomach the Epic 2 required zones and their random difficulties. I'm thinking of rolling on the public tests server (can anyone do that? or is it by invite?) bc I'd be happy to help how I can -- but it would be months before I got to max level to help anyway. I was thinking, if it's manpower... ahem, gnomish lady power...
Well idk about lying but I do know I'm waiting for about a year before I panic over this. I'm getting an "under construction" feeling about this. Of course I wouldn't have the luxury if I was raiding.
lol no. Most of them are still undiscovered, this late into the xpac. Daybreak made the master pages stupidly rare. After months of doing experts for SLR and including running the dailies nonstop since the ethereal event, the most I have of any Master page is 3. Its a joke.
Hmm, so is Journeyman more expensive than Adept? I haven't paid enough attention to that, maybe. I heard something about this too. Again it makes me think "under construction." I try not to attribute to malice what can be attributed to poor planning.
Oh trust me its definitely a lie, the change will not benefit crafters in anyway. In fact it will probably hurt the sales of experts, since no need to buy one if you can't scribe it right away. And the thing is if they were honest about it, "Hey we are doing this to make more money." I wouldn't like it, but I'd accept it for what it is. Instead I feel insulted that they think I'm stupid... That, along with knowing I won't be selling experts at the beginning of the expac like I used to (I used to make the effort at the beginning of each expac to harvest enough rares to make all of my own experts and enough that I could make a decent profit off of selling experts to like minded players who want all of their spells to be at least expert as soon as possible), pisses me off.
I can't edit the old reply, so I'll do it here. What ado you mean? Levinbolt (Adept) would cost me over $60 alone. Maybe you're thinking some spells that re NOT Ascension skills? I'm not sure I could ever afford it even if they admitted it, my feelings don't come into it.
Where I come from, we call it "gettin okey doked" "Ya'll want more purple ethereal runes in game? - Okey Doke - we'll add them to KP contested for ya!" I don't mind payin for stuff for the game. Ya know, fluff stuff - quality of life stuff - Full sets of armor that match with nifty graphics - toilets that flush... They wanna cash cow this thing, here's some proTips: 1. Crafter level 100 bauble - heck, or even level 95 2. Fast Travel Bauble 3. Call of the Patreon - (like CoH - but a short short cooldown) 4. Armor dye 5 10.00 appearance mounts. (50.00 for a broom) 6. Transmuter bauble 7. Tinkerer bauble 8. Sigline Bauble(s) - for each /old/ sigline .. and that's just a few off the top of my pre-coffee/caffeine head. I guess if they continue down this path desensitizing the players on the ability to outright just pay for massive dps - they may as well start selling (1) Uber Sword of 995 Truths. (1) Flail of 442 Cuts (1) Nighmare Nunchucks.. If so... I'ma just put my order in right now for a Tinkered Rocket Chicken Launcher....
Although not a perfect match, there is already a tinkered turkey launcher. And do not forget about the clockwork cow catapult. Nothing is more fearsome than a group or raid simultaneously engaging in the launching of turkeys and catapulting of cows at their foe. I am sure if a Tinkered Rocket Chicken Launcher was added to the marketplace, it would deal far more damage than ascensions.
Two more examples: "Y'all want the timer on the celestial rune to match the tooltip? - Okey Doke - we'll change the tooltip for ya!" "Y'all want ethereal coins in normal heroics? - Okey Doke - we'll make sure it takes twice the work for half the reward for ya!"
