Is the AH the End all and Be All?

cap1776

OK folks, I am relatively a newbie. I bought into the game when it came out, but didn't play long, and am just coming back.

I am having an issue with the game. I want to start by saying that I am one of those old school gamers who prefers to EARN my stuff in games. It's cool to go after a monster and kill it and get something special, or atleast that's how I feel.

I understand the Zen store. I get that the company is offering special stuff there. I have no issue with the store only companions.

Where I have my issue is the Auction House and the mentality surrounding it that I am seeing on a lot of posts that I have read on the forums.

Someone new posts and asks how they can get something in the game, and 90% of people immedciately tell them "Buy it on the Auction House."

Really? Really? The Auction House is the primary method of getting everything in the entire game?

This is supposed to be an adventure fantasy MMO, isn't it? I have played a lot of them, and in almost every one, there are ways to play and enjoy the game without ever needing to go to the Auction House. As far as I understand, the Auction Houses are supposed to be a plavce where folks can sell the extra stuff that they get that they don't need or want, and where someone who has trying to get something for awhile might be able to buy it.

I understand buying and selling, but wher in most games it is an extra feature, offered for convenience, the comments that I see online seem to make it out to be a feature that no player can do without.

I want to play the game and earn and find stuff and companions IN GAME. I don't want to go to the nmagic store and BUY every bloody piece of equipment that I use. I want to fight for it and earn it.

However, from what I read, and my experiences in game, there are very few possibilities to get companions in game from adventuring and no possibilities to get mounts at all, except for buying them.

It seems that all that can be earned in game are enchantments and some weapons and armor pieces.

So I have to ask.. is it possible to play and earn anything really cool in game? Will I ever be able to acquire companions or special stuff by adventuring/? Or will I be stuck sitting at the Auction House or waiting for the 3 festivals a year that I have read about?

plasticbat

It all depends on what "really cool" means. I got many companions from the game itself without buying from AH, Zen Store, AD store or trading.
So many that I have to stash them somewhere. However, are these companion "cool"? Hard to say. I got purple, blue, green companions from the game. I got mounts (green and blue) from the game. Are they cool? May be they are cool. However, I am not using them because they are not purple. So, in practice, cool alone does not help me.

I have 2 active companions which are purchased from Zen store. The other 3 are from the game.
My mount is also purchased from Zen Store.

reiwulf

you're pretty much correct, and many agree with you. you indeed get many stuff by yourself but in most cases it isn't worth it. It's too much work for very little gain.
And yeah, forget about companions and mounts to be earned in game. except for just a few you can't get them that way.

rhoriangelus

Then play the game to get what you want. You don't HAVE to use the auction house to get every piece of equipment - in fact, the top tier stuff binds to character so you HAVE to put in the dungeon crawling to earn it. The auction house is a convenience, and for some things (skill kits, ID scrolls) it's much cheaper than the alternative, because these things drop like candy.

There are a quite a few companions and a handful of mounts you can get via questing/grinding during certain events, but yeah, most of these have to come from the zen shop. Sorry, this is a free to play game, they have to make money somehow. You can still quest and work for the AD to convert into zen to buy stuff from the zen shop.

santralafax

rhoriangelus said:

Then play the game to get what you want. You don't HAVE to use the auction house to get every piece of equipment - in fact, the top tier stuff binds to character so you HAVE to put in the dungeon crawling to earn it. The auction house is a convenience, and for some things (skill kits, ID scrolls) it's much cheaper than the alternative, because these things drop like candy.

Even there, now you have the Seals store. It's not the same as going after something and winning it. The surprise isn't there. Maybe you were trying to get a piece from a dungeon or lair and wound up with something even cooler, or more surprising for your character.

But with drops being what they are, this is only a fantasy of a fantasy game.

rhoriangelus

I do agree that they really need to rework the drop system. You can get some gear from drops in dungeons, but for the most part, you're just there for seals. There really should be a chance to get higher tier gear from actually defeating bosses... but then again, they did change the difficulty yet again, so. It wouldn't be much of a challenge anyway.

In all honesty? I mostly use this game for Roleplaying. I run dungeons and I do Strongholds stuff but most of my characters are for roleplay only. I have way more fun doing that. Don't rely on the game to make all of your fun for you, use your imagination.

reiwulf

this game is pretty much horrible for rp though (can't blame you, I also use it for RP) but the main thing about most MMOs are character progression, and in here we get most of it by just buying stuff.. specially enchants and stuff like that. it's really not worth it to get our own.

cesuke

Well Man grinding monster million of times only giv good staff in PS1 games because was not online .... And the Zen Store only gives you "helpful" stuff... The endgame armor and weapons come free from quest as Well as boons.... Now if u want to get the best of the best in the whole server .... Is other thing

cap1776

I don't know anything about "endgame" content. I have only reached that kind of level in STO, and that didn't last long, because I didn't have the time to put in to belong to a guild, and the lack of a guild put almost all high level content out of my reach.

I like the idea of RP in this game, thought I haven't actually had much chance to try it, as I am a lowbie and in my experience, even guilds that recruit lowbies don't usually pay much attention to them until they reach high levels, unless it is a tiny guild of actual friends.

I understand that you can grind gear all the way up...I just had not seen too many opportunities to grind for companions or mounts.

I guess that I keep hoping for some cool game events like the one in Star Trek Online where, after playing through and helping the Romulans, you got one of them as a crewmember. I know that this is not the same game, but it's owned by the same company, and the know that players like that sort of thing. It makes the game feel more like an RPG.

To me, I love the small thrill of opening a chest and wondering what is inside. I love finding cool things at random. What I have never ever enjoyed was playing a fantasy game where all the neat stuff was only available at the "magic mart." I have never really enjoyed games where the only neat stuff was only available by buying it from a store. That's why the Auction House setup in this game is frustrating me so much. I understand buying neat stuff from the Zen Store, but I don't like feeling that I have to do it in game in order to get anything but the most basic stuff, regardless of my level.

And even if I were that interested in the AH... many of the prices for anything interesting run from hundreds of thousands to MILLIONS of astral diamonds. Without being someone who plays the market on the AH, I simply don't see how a more casual gamer can ever afford such things, considering that the game seems to offer only around 10-15K AD or so per day if you just run the Daily Dungeon, skirmish, and foundry, once you start hitting level 30 plus. And just doing those 3 can take up all the available game time of many casual players, let alone actually running quests/missions.

Thanks for responding folks.... It has been enlightening.

blazious11

If you were here few mods ago... Drops are RNG - you could go to dungeon 100 times, and still not get the piece of equipment you wanted, or seomeone could get it the very first run. But by going into dungeons, you eventually got a lot of AD, so you could buy your stuff.
Just look at lostmauth artifact for example. Some people went to ELOL 100-200+ times, still not get the artifact. But you have different ways to earn AD (or buy ZEN to fasten progress). Without AH people would be cut from a lot of stuff.

Altough you are right about opening chests. There are so few equipment in the game now, opening the chest barely worth it. You go to dungeons just to earn seals, which is bad. We need more BOE drops from bosses, and different BOA/BOP equipment from chests. Also some companion, artifakt, RP items from chests, or Vouchers.

suicidalgodot

AH = Failsafe, fast way to acquire your special something.

Economically. the game is very much centered around the holy Refinement Point, especially when it's the sort of RP that can go into the ArtiGear. You can always go after what you want yourself. Most people,, however, go for the easy way to instant desire fulfillment, and with the Cryptic way of making AD purchaseable with RL money, this seems to be a major source of their income. So be it like it is...

...also, some stuff can only be collected the classical way - which sometimes, thanks to RNGesus can take years. For example I've been to Celadaine hundreds of times, have looted hundreds of DR daily lairs with top notch gauntlets, and still have neither a Blink Dog nor an Eye of Lathander. Further stuff one has to get for oneself includes the Fey transmute items from the daily lairs there, e.g.

So, while the AH is the fast way, there is quite some stuff you can spend your time chasing.

darkstarcrash

Apparently you just missed the last Call to Arms, which gave everyone a chance to grind the Storm Front skirmish for a rimefire golem. Other CTA events have awarded mounts or companions. Midsummer Festival and Winter Festival also let you earn mounts and companions.

At level 70, you can run Tower of Celadaine (lair in Sharandar) for a Blink Dog, lairs in Well of Dragons for a Repentant Cultist, and the "Need for Mead" quest in Icewind Dale for a Yeti. Level 70 dungeons give you a chance for artifacts and artifact gear.

There's even a free dog companion for running the tutorial in Sword Coast Adventures on Gateway.

For 360 Ardent coins from logging in daily you can get the Angel of Protection, one of the best healers in the game.

If you want a specific companion or mount -- especially a blue or purple one -- you will probably have to buy from the Zen store or use the AH.

cap1776

Actually my son and I were able to play the skirmish and we were both lucky enough to score one of the golems. (Not that I personally wanted that particular companion) I have also earned the Damaran Shepherd from Sword Coast Adventures. To be honest, the Shephard had been the only companion that I felt like was earned through play. The script had the party "rescue" the dog. THAT I liked a lot.

I understand the festivals and skirmishes. The angel is still a magic shop purchase. But if I ever get to level 70, I will definitely spend a lot of time trying to run through this Tower of Celadaine and the other quests that you mentioned... Are they daily dungeons, or raids that require belonging to a guild?

darkstarcrash

cap1776 said:

But if I ever get to level 70, I will definitely spend a lot of time trying to run through this Tower of Celadaine and the other quests that you mentioned... Are they daily dungeons, or raids that require belonging to a guild?

The Tower of Celadaine is the lair in the last sub-zone of Sharandar. You can enter it as soon as you unlock the gate to the area. You can get one free key daily from the leprechaun outside the door if you have a quest for any of the 3 lairs in Sharandar. I usually save my keys while progressing through Sharandar, and use them for Celadaine when I'm in the mood to try my luck for a blink dog. You can also buy keys from the leprechaun for 5k AD and 10 crescents. By either buying keys or saving the free ones, you can enter the tower as many times in a row as you have keys.

The Well of Dragons lairs are part of the daily quests, and the bosses of any of the 3 lairs have a (very low) chance to drop a Repentant Cultist Cage Key. Unlock the cage near the end chest and get a Repentant Dragon Cultist.

"Need for Mead" is a daily quest in Icewind Dale that you unlock when you unlock the Hook, Line and Sinker II task in the IWD campaign window. If the yeti appears in your quest (some conflicting ideas for why he appears or not, possibly related to keeping all the npcs alive), he drops a Yeti Treat which you can offer to the caged yeti in the Hook, Line and Sinker bar. There is a low chance that he will accept the treat and you will be rewarded a Young Yeti.

Edit: Oh, and another thing you can grind for solo is the Eye of Lathandar artifact, which can be found in the arcane coffers of the daily lairs in the Dread Ring. You need to be able to make an adamantine gauntlet to have a verrrry low chance to get the artifact, so it will take quite a while into the campaign before you can even try for it.

plasticbat

darkstarcrash said:

"Need for Mead" is a daily quest in Icewind Dale that you unlock when you unlock the Hook, Line and Sinker II task in the IWD campaign window. If the yeti appears in your quest (some conflicting ideas for why he appears or not, possibly related to keeping all the npcs alive), he drops a Yeti Treat which you can offer to the caged yeti in the Hook, Line and Sinker bar. There is a low chance that he will accept the treat and you will be rewarded a Young Yeti.

No, that has nothing to do with keeping all the npcs alive. I keep all the npcs alive every time now and the Yeti may or may not come.

suicidalgodot

darkstarcrash said:

cap1776 said:

But if I ever get to level 70, I will definitely spend a lot of time trying to run through this Tower of Celadaine and the other quests that you mentioned... Are they daily dungeons, or raids that require belonging to a guild?

The Tower of Celadaine is the lair in the last sub-zone of Sharandar. You can enter it as soon as you unlock the gate to the area. You can get one free key daily from the leprechaun outside the door if you have a quest for any of the 3 lairs in Sharandar. I usually save my keys while progressing through Sharandar, and use them for Celadaine when I'm in the mood to try my luck for a blink dog. You can also buy keys from the leprechaun for 5k AD and 10 crescents. By either buying keys or saving the free ones, you can enter the tower as many times in a row as you have keys.

The Well of Dragons lairs are part of the daily quests, and the bosses of any of the 3 lairs have a (very low) chance to drop a Repentant Cultist Cage Key. Unlock the cage near the end chest and get a Repentant Dragon Cultist.

"Need for Mead" is a daily quest in Icewind Dale that you unlock when you unlock the Hook, Line and Sinker II task in the IWD campaign window. If the yeti appears in your quest (some conflicting ideas for why he appears or not, possibly related to keeping all the npcs alive), he drops a Yeti Treat which you can offer to the caged yeti in the Hook, Line and Sinker bar. There is a low chance that he will accept the treat and you will be rewarded a Young Yeti.

Edit: Oh, and another thing you can grind for solo is the Eye of Lathandar artifact, which can be found in the arcane coffers of the daily lairs in the Dread Ring. You need to be able to make an adamantine gauntlet to have a verrrry low chance to get the artifact, so it will take quite a while into the campaign before you can even try for it.

...and if you're really, really, REALLY tenacious you can go for the Emblem of the Seldarine chez Malabog...