Enchanted key 40% discount voucher

subnocte · November 2015

Has this voucher been silently removed from the invocation drops since mod 8?

I used to get them very regularly. I haven't got a single one (across a lot of alts) since the new mod, and I opened around 40 or so I'd saved last night. I've got all the others several times over.

d4rthd00fus · November 2015

Cryptic's grand plan seems to be to make players feel that VIP is a necessity (putting vital items in the TB store and ganking them from WB and ZM are good clues). You can only get TBs from lockboxes and can only open them with keys. Removing any other methods of inexpensively procuring keys would make sense if you really wanted to drive home the need for VIP sub.

subnocte · November 2015

d4rthd00fus said:
Cryptic's grand plan seems to be to make players feel that VIP is a necessity (putting vital items in the TB store and ganking them from WB and ZM are good clues). You can only get TBs from lockboxes and can only open them with keys. Removing any other methods of inexpensively procuring keys would make sense if you really wanted to drive home the need for VIP sub.

I did wonder this, since the bars in lockboxes have instantly become extremely valuable. But it'd be a cheap shot, as this was by far the most valuable voucher.

They may have nerfed the drop rate heavily, or it could be very bad luck (though I used to get at least one or two a day, usually more, even without opening a ton of saved boxes).

fatbelliedsage · November 2015

Must be bad luck, I just got some last tuesday.

blackjackwidow · November 2015

It feels like they nerfed the drop rate on them, although I did get one Wed.

urabask · November 2015

subnocte said:
Has this voucher been silently removed from the invocation drops since mod 8?

I used to get them very regularly. I haven't got a single one (across a lot of alts) since the new mod, and I opened around 40 or so I'd saved last night. I've got all the others several times over.

I get them all the time. I think it's more than you tend to remember when you don't get the coupon you want.

subnocte · November 2015

urabask said:

subnocte said:
Has this voucher been silently removed from the invocation drops since mod 8?

I used to get them very regularly. I haven't got a single one (across a lot of alts) since the new mod, and I opened around 40 or so I'd saved last night. I've got all the others several times over.
I get them all the time. I think it's more than you tend to remember when you don't get the coupon you want.

I'd normally agree, but since they first appeared I've been getting a couple every day. I notice as I pretty much always use them (as you tend to break even on average selling the contents compared to the cost of the key). Across a load of alts, with the VIP double drop rate, I guess I open about 60-80 invocation thingies a day.

If they're still dropping that's good, but it does seem the rate has fallen a lot.

zoiks100 · November 2015

They still seem to be dropping at the normal rate to me, I've gotten a number of them since mod 8 launch.

That being said, why on earth would you want one? The average drop value from a lockbox is sub 10k right now, that's 20k less than (66% loss) if you bought them with a 40% off coupon, 30k less than (75% loss) if you buy the 10 pack at 15% off, and god forbid you buy them at full price. Outside of VIP generated keys, they simply aren't worth it. I've been letting key coupons timeout since soon after VIP was added when their value was destroyed, besides the ridiculously rare drops.

Keys have always been a money-pit for most players, now they're more like a money-landfill for everyone. And there's still the (likely) 50% off sale next week, save your zen for then if you absolutely have to throw it away on keys.

subnocte · November 2015

zoiks100 said:
They still seem to be dropping at the normal rate to me, I've gotten a number of them since mod 8 launch.

That being said, why on earth would you want one? The average drop value from a lockbox is sub 10k right now, that's 20k less than (66% loss) if you bought them with a 40% off coupon, 30k less than (75% loss) if you buy the 10 pack at 15% off, and god forbid you buy them at full price. Outside of VIP generated keys, they simply aren't worth it. I've been letting key coupons timeout since soon after VIP was added when their value was destroyed, besides the ridiculously rare drops.

Keys have always been a money-pit for most players, now they're more like a money-landfill for everyone. And there's still the (likely) 50% off sale next week, save your zen for then if you absolutely have to throw it away on keys.

I'd say I get a range of 10k at worst and 50k at best, excluding mounts etc. (I've never had a mount once) and the cost with the key is 30k AD. Though because they haven't adjusted the contents to compensate for trade bar changes, some of the contents are pretty worthless now. Still, 5 bars equate to about 15K AD now in terms of selling stuff you buy with them.

zoiks100 · November 2015

You're forgetting the typical drops of <50 AD from the troves and the <5k from artifact packs, profession packs, and companion fortification kits. Of the more common drops, pretty much only enchantment packs have a reasonable chance of getting close to the zen store cost of a key in value.

If it's true that trade bars are valued at 3k each right now, which seems high to me but I haven't made any effort to check it, that would push the average lockbox value up to around 25k (assuming you pawned off the riskier box drops on someone else), still less than even 40% off.

Feel free to buy them if you want, but personally I wouldn't touch zen store keys with a 10' pole made out of 50 zen worth of astral diamonds.

subnocte · November 2015

zoiks100 said:
You're forgetting the typical drops of

I never open any of the boxes. An RNG box dropping an RNG box is pretty lame, I just sell it. The worst value at the moment are companion boxes, as these drop effectively worthless experience tomes (worth about 200 AD), and rank 7 runestones (1K each). I wouldn't say the average is 25K -- selling the contents of almost every VIP box I've had, I've averaged about 30K, without including the value of the bars.

I didn't make the figures up. Sell a 5x ward pack, it's 15-18K. Obviously not everything is equal, you'd be stupid to buy silvery wards with the bars since they are going for 2000 AD each. The more popular, like azure and dark, go for 12-13K (~2K per bar), but still quite reasonable.

I would never buy a key at full price. At 40% off, with the value of the bars included, it has from my experience been worth it. There's obviously the (highly improbable) chance of getting a mount too, but I'd strongly recommend against anyone buying lockboxes simply to try to get those.

cerberusxll · November 2015

from my experience, they are still there, just not as common as the other vouchers.

I often get at least 1 a day invoking on 14 characters to get all celestial bags, though the day before yesterday, I got 1 from 3 characters in a row.

hammbo1969 · November 2015

I had one yesterday, but couldn't use it as there's already a 15% off keys offer running in the Zen Store. As the voucher disappears after a while, it seems a pointless drop this week.

cerberusxll · November 2015

hammbo1969 said:
I had one yesterday, but couldn't use it as there's already a 15% off keys offer running in the Zen Store. As the voucher disappears after a while, it seems a pointless drop this week.

just got another one now, I managed to use mine, it didn't knock 40% off the reduced total though, still cost me 75z with the voucher.

hammbo1969 · November 2015

Strange, tried to use mine yesterday but there was no voucher option despite it being in my bag. No loss though - after 50+ boxes opened this mod, I have not been lucky and think I'll just stick to my VIP one a day from now on.

beckylunatic · November 2015

Good lord, you whiners.

Some nights I get no key coupons. Yesterday I got 4 (and used them... just have to pull it up; does not stack with sale). The day before, I think it was 2.

You have a 25% chance to get a coupon in every bag, and there are quite a lot of different ones. I don't know if their drop chance weighting is equal, but based on the sheer numbers of all the different types that I've seen in the long run, it's probably close enough.

tantrumusmaximus · November 2015

I personally like the 15% off ANY item ones. That is when I tend to get the "services" stuff. I got both my 6 month VIPs that way on my wife/my accounts.

Turned both into 4335 instead of 5100 for 6Mos which makes each month VIP: 722

Not bad.

grogthemagnif · November 2015

I got an enchanted key voucher earlier today and it worked fine - overriding the weekend 15% discount.

kaedennn · November 2015

i got 3 yesterday on 2 toons , there is no nerf , you just had bad luck

namelesshero347 · November 2015

As in many things RNG-related in this game, pretty streaky. I have 4 toons and haven't seen a key voucher in weeks. Then I got one last night, and one this morning, on the same toon.

zebular · November 2015

I got two 40% off Enchanted Keys the day before yesterday, on the same character. I usually don't open my bags right away, saving them for when I have extra AD or Zen, and then open them up, one character at a time until I get the coupon(s) I am looking for. After opening up 8 bags, I got 2 40% off keys and the 15% off coupon I was looking for to buy VIP for 850 Zen.

instynctive · November 2015

Yeah.. I've noticed a lack of the key coupons as well.

At this point, the ONLY time I really spend Zen is on keys... and I'm not spending the Zen unless I have a coupon.

bioshrike · November 2015

Save up your invocation bag thingies and open a bunch at a time - you seem to get better results if you can spam a bunch of them open in a single sitting. I have definitely gotten a 40% off coupon as recently as the last time I opened some of the bags - last night.

oldbaldyone · November 2015

Sure would be nice if the Invoking bags STACKED.....

Unknown · November 2015

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bioshrike · November 2015

oldbaldyone said:
Sure would be nice if the Invoking bags STACKED.....

Here here!

subnocte · November 2015

I just use a character I have for professions and invoking to build up lots of invoking bags. Since the only thing of interest in them are key vouchers and the 15% off everything, it makes no difference who has them.

As for drops, yes, they're still dropping - no need for people to keep saying

hustin1 · November 2015

I was getting them like crazy yesterday -- four or five at least.

Unknown · November 2015

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zman81420 · November 2015

I got my first one yesterday! Profession pack lol.

wildfirede · November 2015

4 Companion fortification kits and 2 Profession packs in the new lockbox - at this point (speaking with AH prices in mind) if you are not really into urgently getting some fashion/dye from the bar vendor or don't feel specially lucky you would be better off ignoring the keys - even at 40% off. With current price it just does not pay off.

Enchanted key 40% discount voucher

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