I haven't brought a coal ward since the streak breaker was added. The 150 guaranteed upgrade is actually quite generous. So far I've done 12 1% upgrades using pres wards and averaged 57. Not one time hit 150 yet. Knock on wood.
I tried using the Pwards for the 1% but of about 10 times they all went to 150. Also, having played for over three years every day for hours, I have received 2, yes just 2, Coals from the game free in any capacity (not counting when we got them as rewards for spending Zen) . So, I just can't count on getting them for free.
See the thing is for me, I have 20+ toons and those 1500 wards I burned through on the above would have went a long way on my other toons, dozens and dozens of upgrades in fact compared to 10 on my 1%s.
I don't know if the maths really add up if I am doing right, but I do feel, on the last sale where Zen was 30% off and Coals were 30% off at the same time, I just buy a handful of Coals at that time and they last me until the next big sale and then some sometimes. They are in my bank if I need them and I don't end up having to buy as nearly many P-wards because I can use them on the other non-1%s much more efficiently.
My response would be to remove the cap on ZAX immediately and let the market choose the value much as krumple01 says above
As awesome as it would be to see that happen... the average player is a greedy little monkey. The ratio would skyrocket to 5000:1 or better. If you are a cash player or just don't care, then it would be a boon to you. If you are a player who grinds out AD from quests or dungeons, then you are doomed and people won't play for chump change. Take a look at what most of you convert the AD to Zen for anyway. A lot of you grind it for $10 worth of VIP per month. Last year VIP sold at 1000 Zen, use to be 500,000 AD. Do you think you are going to continue, if you need 3 to 5 million AD for one month of VIP? The cost would then trickle down into the auction house and you get to pay for epic mounts at legendary prices.
My response would be to remove the cap on ZAX immediately and let the market choose the value much as krumple01 says above
As awesome as it would be to see that happen... the average player is a greedy little monkey. The ratio would skyrocket to 5000:1 or better. If you are a cash player or just don't care, then it would be a boon to you. If you are a player who grinds out AD from quests or dungeons, then you are doomed and people won't play for chump change. Take a look at what most of you convert the AD to Zen for anyway. A lot of you grind it for $10 worth of VIP per month. Last year VIP sold at 1000 Zen, use to be 500,000 AD. Do you think you are going to continue, if you need 3 to 5 million AD for one month of VIP? The cost would then trickle down into the auction house and you get to pay for epic mounts at legendary prices.
Go for it!
Not sure 5000 to 1 is very accurate. That's like saying if a person has a leg mount they can sell it for a billion AD just because they want. No the market doesn't work like that. It would find it's equilibrium price (which is a real economic term). If players are willing to grind out for millions and are willing to spend millions for 1 zen then sure that would be the fair market value. Just because you say no doesn't mean it isn't really worth that much ad. But my honest assessment is that zen is really worth around 1200 ad per 1 zen.
The reasons you state above is partly to blame by cryptic, raising the price of VIP. This of course is going to have an impact. I'm pretty certain now that even the devs behind the ZAX and the Zen shop don't even understand how economics works. Essentially by artificially capping the ZAX is no different than how the FED artificially sets interest rates. It's usually to hide another issue.
I can understand why they would raise VIP. But they wouldn't have to do this if they provided "useful" ad sinks in the game and not silly ones like 5 million for rank 4 workshop, or 500k for a companion upgrade. Those two methods have major work arounds and besides its just obvious they are attempting to use it as player robbery. You could essentially spend that 500k ad on pet boxes and get enough upgrade tokens to upgrade several companions.
As it is, the price of pwards, coals, companion tokens and legendary insignias all primarily depends on The Zen to AD ratio.
I think we can agree that those items are important to all of us.
If the Zen to AD ratio is allowed to go beyond 1:750, the game will be increasingly inaccessible to those that can or will not buy those items for real money.
If that is a good thing can of course be discussed.
As it is, the price of pwards, coals, companion tokens and legendary insignias all primarily depends on The Zen to AD ratio.
I think we can agree that those items are important to all of us.
If the Zen to AD ratio is allowed to go beyond 1:750, the game will be increasingly inaccessible to those that can or will not buy those items for real money.
If that is a good thing can of course be discussed.
I don't use any coal wards or pres wards ever. Because it is more expensive to use them, than to just out right buy the next rank enchantment you need. I NEVER upgrade anything. What I do is buy the next higher rank and sell the previous rank to make a little bit of my AD back. Then I sell every pres ward and coal ward that is not bound.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,098Arc User
I don't use any coal wards or pres wards ever. Because it is more expensive to use them, than to just out right buy the next rank enchantment you need. I NEVER upgrade anything. What I do is buy the next higher rank and sell the previous rank to make a little bit of my AD back. Then I sell every pres ward and coal ward that is not bound.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
And if everyone does it your way there wouldn't be any next rank to buy.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
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plasticbatMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 12,233Arc User
As it is, the price of pwards, coals, companion tokens and legendary insignias all primarily depends on The Zen to AD ratio.
I think we can agree that those items are important to all of us.
If the Zen to AD ratio is allowed to go beyond 1:750, the game will be increasingly inaccessible to those that can or will not buy those items for real money.
If that is a good thing can of course be discussed.
I don't use any coal wards or pres wards ever. Because it is more expensive to use them, than to just out right buy the next rank enchantment you need. I NEVER upgrade anything. What I do is buy the next higher rank and sell the previous rank to make a little bit of my AD back. Then I sell every pres ward and coal ward that is not bound.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
It is cheaper for you because there are others who did that for you with no/low cost wards. Somebody like me. It is way cheaper for me to upgrade myself this way because my wards are no/low cost. Hence, I do not buy high rank enchantment/runestone from AH.
*** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
As it is, the price of pwards, coals, companion tokens and legendary insignias all primarily depends on The Zen to AD ratio.
I think we can agree that those items are important to all of us.
If the Zen to AD ratio is allowed to go beyond 1:750, the game will be increasingly inaccessible to those that can or will not buy those items for real money.
If that is a good thing can of course be discussed.
I don't use any coal wards or pres wards ever. Because it is more expensive to use them, than to just out right buy the next rank enchantment you need. I NEVER upgrade anything. What I do is buy the next higher rank and sell the previous rank to make a little bit of my AD back. Then I sell every pres ward and coal ward that is not bound.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
I have run the math. on xbox at least it's cheaper to make than buy most of the time. at least for the enchants that matter. true, for black ice and the like it is not cheaper to make it is cheaper to buy. but if you're going for bondings, empowered, tacticals and rads it's cheaper to make. it's also cheaper to make enchants from about R12 or so and up.
I don't use any coal wards or pres wards ever. Because it is more expensive to use them, than to just out right buy the next rank enchantment you need. I NEVER upgrade anything. What I do is buy the next higher rank and sell the previous rank to make a little bit of my AD back. Then I sell every pres ward and coal ward that is not bound.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
And if everyone does it your way there wouldn't be any next rank to buy.
I agree @krumple01 on this fact. I get free coalescent wards from the Celestial Chest and I don't use them for ranking up my enchants. I just buy what I want and can afford from the AH. There is always someone out there selling it, but let's for a moment suppose there is not. The lock boxes often drop enchantment packs or they have in the past. Those get sold in the AH. If people stop doing what I myself refuse to do, then Cryptic would need to open up another source.
As it is, the price of pwards, coals, companion tokens and legendary insignias all primarily depends on The Zen to AD ratio.
I think we can agree that those items are important to all of us.
If the Zen to AD ratio is allowed to go beyond 1:750, the game will be increasingly inaccessible to those that can or will not buy those items for real money.
If that is a good thing can of course be discussed.
I don't use any coal wards or pres wards ever. Because it is more expensive to use them, than to just out right buy the next rank enchantment you need. I NEVER upgrade anything. What I do is buy the next higher rank and sell the previous rank to make a little bit of my AD back. Then I sell every pres ward and coal ward that is not bound.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
It is cheaper for you because there are others who did that for you with no/low cost wards. Somebody like me. It is way cheaper for me to upgrade myself this way because my wards are no/low cost. Hence, I do not buy high rank enchantment/runestone from AH.
With the amount of pwards or coals required for an r15 I can guarantee you that most r15's are made by coals or pwards that originate from the Zen store
I occasionally do the math of upgrade costs vs. purchasing, and generally the answer is it pays to do upgrades yourself. Last time(on PC) I calculated on doing a radiant r9->r10, and the expected price for doing it myself was 125k(price of r9 + marks + pwards) vs. 140k to buy r10 off AH.
I also think that most people use the enchantments while they upgrade them. If you are to sell your old and buy the next rank that would also add the 10% fee from AH, which makes it even less likely to pay off.
As it is, the price of pwards, coals, companion tokens and legendary insignias all primarily depends on The Zen to AD ratio.
I think we can agree that those items are important to all of us.
If the Zen to AD ratio is allowed to go beyond 1:750, the game will be increasingly inaccessible to those that can or will not buy those items for real money.
If that is a good thing can of course be discussed.
I don't use any coal wards or pres wards ever. Because it is more expensive to use them, than to just out right buy the next rank enchantment you need. I NEVER upgrade anything. What I do is buy the next higher rank and sell the previous rank to make a little bit of my AD back. Then I sell every pres ward and coal ward that is not bound.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
It is cheaper for you because there are others who did that for you with no/low cost wards. Somebody like me. It is way cheaper for me to upgrade myself this way because my wards are no/low cost. Hence, I do not buy high rank enchantment/runestone from AH.
With the amount of pwards or coals required for an r15 I can guarantee you that most r15's are made by coals or pwards that originate from the Zen store
I occasionally do the math of upgrade costs vs. purchasing, and generally the answer is it pays to do upgrades yourself. Last time(on PC) I calculated on doing a radiant r9->r10, and the expected price for doing it myself was 125k(price of r9 + marks + pwards) vs. 140k to buy r10 off AH.
I also think that most people use the enchantments while they upgrade them. If you are to sell your old and buy the next rank that would also add the 10% fee from AH, which makes it even less likely to pay off.
You should do the math for each case though.
I've done a lot of trading in enchants in the last 6 months. 13's and 14's do sell (but can take some time). (for weapon and armor) 14's and 15's sell for regular desirable enchants but selling lower levels can be a bit of a challenge. there is no guarantee you'll get the price you see when you look to check prices. on the non bis it's even more of a challenge and can be challenging even for bis at times. it's not a hot market most of the time. for me upgrading what I have or buying a r 9 thru 11 depending on the bis and price factor is what makes the most sense most of the time. if i have a lower level enchant I dont want to upgrade i generally just pass it on to an alt. it just isn't worth fussing with for me.
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plasticbatMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 12,233Arc User
As it is, the price of pwards, coals, companion tokens and legendary insignias all primarily depends on The Zen to AD ratio.
I think we can agree that those items are important to all of us.
If the Zen to AD ratio is allowed to go beyond 1:750, the game will be increasingly inaccessible to those that can or will not buy those items for real money.
If that is a good thing can of course be discussed.
I don't use any coal wards or pres wards ever. Because it is more expensive to use them, than to just out right buy the next rank enchantment you need. I NEVER upgrade anything. What I do is buy the next higher rank and sell the previous rank to make a little bit of my AD back. Then I sell every pres ward and coal ward that is not bound.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
It is cheaper for you because there are others who did that for you with no/low cost wards. Somebody like me. It is way cheaper for me to upgrade myself this way because my wards are no/low cost. Hence, I do not buy high rank enchantment/runestone from AH.
With the amount of pwards or coals required for an r15 I can guarantee you that most r15's are made by coals or pwards that originate from the Zen store
I occasionally do the math of upgrade costs vs. purchasing, and generally the answer is it pays to do upgrades yourself. Last time(on PC) I calculated on doing a radiant r9->r10, and the expected price for doing it myself was 125k(price of r9 + marks + pwards) vs. 140k to buy r10 off AH.
I also think that most people use the enchantments while they upgrade them. If you are to sell your old and buy the next rank that would also add the 10% fee from AH, which makes it even less likely to pay off.
You should do the math for each case though.
If doing it yourself is 125k and buying is 140k, that means the person who sells that at 140k will not earn anything. The seller will only get 126k after 10% AH fee. Hence, no profit margin. In order to have the profit, the input cost of the seller has to be lower somewhere.
*** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
As it is, the price of pwards, coals, companion tokens and legendary insignias all primarily depends on The Zen to AD ratio.
I think we can agree that those items are important to all of us.
If the Zen to AD ratio is allowed to go beyond 1:750, the game will be increasingly inaccessible to those that can or will not buy those items for real money.
If that is a good thing can of course be discussed.
I don't use any coal wards or pres wards ever. Because it is more expensive to use them, than to just out right buy the next rank enchantment you need. I NEVER upgrade anything. What I do is buy the next higher rank and sell the previous rank to make a little bit of my AD back. Then I sell every pres ward and coal ward that is not bound.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
It is cheaper for you because there are others who did that for you with no/low cost wards. Somebody like me. It is way cheaper for me to upgrade myself this way because my wards are no/low cost. Hence, I do not buy high rank enchantment/runestone from AH.
With the amount of pwards or coals required for an r15 I can guarantee you that most r15's are made by coals or pwards that originate from the Zen store
I occasionally do the math of upgrade costs vs. purchasing, and generally the answer is it pays to do upgrades yourself. Last time(on PC) I calculated on doing a radiant r9->r10, and the expected price for doing it myself was 125k(price of r9 + marks + pwards) vs. 140k to buy r10 off AH.
I also think that most people use the enchantments while they upgrade them. If you are to sell your old and buy the next rank that would also add the 10% fee from AH, which makes it even less likely to pay off.
You should do the math for each case though.
I've done a lot of trading in enchants in the last 6 months. 13's and 14's do sell (but can take some time). (for weapon and armor) 14's and 15's sell for regular desirable enchants but selling lower levels can be a bit of a challenge. there is no guarantee you'll get the price you see when you look to check prices. on the non bis it's even more of a challenge and can be challenging even for bis at times. it's not a hot market most of the time. for me upgrading what I have or buying a r 9 thru 11 depending on the bis and price factor is what makes the most sense most of the time. if i have a lower level enchant I dont want to upgrade i generally just pass it on to an alt. it just isn't worth fussing with for me.
Are you factoring in failed rate on upgrade attempts or just burning coal wards on 5 or 3% Because it seems players are even saying for most 1% upgrades due to the pres ward odds forcing success after x number of attempts its still cheaper to burn up pres wards. I just never do that so I don't personally know if its better, its just something i hear players say.
As it is, the price of pwards, coals, companion tokens and legendary insignias all primarily depends on The Zen to AD ratio.
I think we can agree that those items are important to all of us.
If the Zen to AD ratio is allowed to go beyond 1:750, the game will be increasingly inaccessible to those that can or will not buy those items for real money.
If that is a good thing can of course be discussed.
I don't use any coal wards or pres wards ever. Because it is more expensive to use them, than to just out right buy the next rank enchantment you need. I NEVER upgrade anything. What I do is buy the next higher rank and sell the previous rank to make a little bit of my AD back. Then I sell every pres ward and coal ward that is not bound.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
It is cheaper for you because there are others who did that for you with no/low cost wards. Somebody like me. It is way cheaper for me to upgrade myself this way because my wards are no/low cost. Hence, I do not buy high rank enchantment/runestone from AH.
With the amount of pwards or coals required for an r15 I can guarantee you that most r15's are made by coals or pwards that originate from the Zen store
I occasionally do the math of upgrade costs vs. purchasing, and generally the answer is it pays to do upgrades yourself. Last time(on PC) I calculated on doing a radiant r9->r10, and the expected price for doing it myself was 125k(price of r9 + marks + pwards) vs. 140k to buy r10 off AH.
I also think that most people use the enchantments while they upgrade them. If you are to sell your old and buy the next rank that would also add the 10% fee from AH, which makes it even less likely to pay off.
You should do the math for each case though.
I've done a lot of trading in enchants in the last 6 months. 13's and 14's do sell (but can take some time). (for weapon and armor) 14's and 15's sell for regular desirable enchants but selling lower levels can be a bit of a challenge. there is no guarantee you'll get the price you see when you look to check prices. on the non bis it's even more of a challenge and can be challenging even for bis at times. it's not a hot market most of the time. for me upgrading what I have or buying a r 9 thru 11 depending on the bis and price factor is what makes the most sense most of the time. if i have a lower level enchant I dont want to upgrade i generally just pass it on to an alt. it just isn't worth fussing with for me.
Are you factoring in failed rate on upgrade attempts or just burning coal wards on 5 or 3% Because it seems players are even saying for most 1% upgrades due to the pres ward odds forcing success after x number of attempts its still cheaper to burn up pres wards. I just never do that so I don't personally know if its better, its just something i hear players say.
I think the largest thing I ever upgraded was 15 max attempts on the current RP system. If you get your wards from the AH at a discount bulk price of 5000 AD per ward then 45,000 AD on the wards then you also have GMoP, ES, and all the RP you spent getting the item up. I find it much easier, and fewer gray hairs, to just invest the AD into a higher ranking enchantment. Sell off or give away the old one. I also do not upgrade that often. One of my guild buddies said, he gave up on refinement altogether and just waits for better gear and weapons to drop from the professions. I hate to inform him module 18 doesn't have new profession items. Maybe they will get them out later?
But you know, you can show people the math on it all day long, and they will still make the choice to upgrade using this system. As they say, The lottery is game for people who are bad at math.
But you know, you can show people the math on it all day long, and they will still make the choice to upgrade using this system. As they say, The lottery is game for people who are bad at math.
I agree, I think some players have this strange mindset that its "free" to upgrade but costs to just buy enchantments. But they for some odd reason neglect to realize they are probably buying marks or enchanting stones and pres wards to make those upgrades.
As far as the crafting goes. I honestly think when mod 15 was put in they did expect to make two routes for gear, one being rewards through dungeons and the other being through crafting. But I think they discovered that making crafted items just as good or better than dungeon rewards made masterwork crafting players extremely wealthy and it rendered the other equivalent dungeon rewards pointless.
I don't think any game has figured out the solution yet. Most games with crafting never make items better than their pve reward drops unless there is a HAMSTER load of grinding or you have to run the pve raids to collect resources for the crafting so it defeats the point in even having the crafting.
Its clear as the game currently sits, that crafting is just a clever way to make naive players spend time and astral diamonds on crafting with zero reward for doing it. Yes yes there was a time when bronzewood was decent, and in some cases some players still want some bronzewood stuff but for the most part obsolete. I bet those players who dumped 5 million ad to upgrade their workshop to rank 4 are wishing they never even bothered.
Yes that is factoring in the cost of preswards. I had a spread sheet going for awhile. As i needed many enchants after trading all of mine off pre m 16. If you buy at sales. Time your zen purchases. It is cheaper to make than buy bis items. Significantly so. 1percent chance is generally under 70 wards. Some go higher some lower. Averaging it out I was def saving ad. I kept it long enuff to be quite sure it was stable.
Are you factoring in failed rate on upgrade attempts or just burning coal wards on 5 or 3% Because it seems players are even saying for most 1% upgrades due to the pres ward odds forcing success after x number of attempts its still cheaper to burn up pres wards. I just never do that so I don't personally know if its better, its just something i hear players say.
Preservation wards are, in any situation, more economic to use in the longrun for upgrading anything compared to coalescent. But i will defintely burn a bound to account coalescent ward for a 5% chance upgrade instead of involving any of my unbound preservation ward. The reason is I can "convert" the last in AD on the AH if needed, but can't do that with the first (i have an alt-army, so getting BtA coalescent wards is not a problem with a constant flow of celestial chests, i get something like 5-6 BtA coalescent/month)
Comments
See the thing is for me, I have 20+ toons and those 1500 wards I burned through on the above would have went a long way on my other toons, dozens and dozens of upgrades in fact compared to 10 on my 1%s.
I don't know if the maths really add up if I am doing right, but I do feel, on the last sale where Zen was 30% off and Coals were 30% off at the same time, I just buy a handful of Coals at that time and they last me until the next big sale and then some sometimes. They are in my bank if I need them and I don't end up having to buy as nearly many P-wards because I can use them on the other non-1%s much more efficiently.
Go for it!
The reasons you state above is partly to blame by cryptic, raising the price of VIP. This of course is going to have an impact. I'm pretty certain now that even the devs behind the ZAX and the Zen shop don't even understand how economics works. Essentially by artificially capping the ZAX is no different than how the FED artificially sets interest rates. It's usually to hide another issue.
I can understand why they would raise VIP. But they wouldn't have to do this if they provided "useful" ad sinks in the game and not silly ones like 5 million for rank 4 workshop, or 500k for a companion upgrade. Those two methods have major work arounds and besides its just obvious they are attempting to use it as player robbery. You could essentially spend that 500k ad on pet boxes and get enough upgrade tokens to upgrade several companions.
I think we can agree that those items are important to all of us.
If the Zen to AD ratio is allowed to go beyond 1:750, the game will be increasingly inaccessible to those that can or will not buy those items for real money.
If that is a good thing can of course be discussed.
If you run the math, like go through the AH and calculate how many enchanting stones you need and how many marks of potency you need, then average in a failed loss on pres wards you will quickly see its cheaper in the long run to just buy the enchantment already done.
Think of it like this, if you buy the next higher rank, your chance of success is 100%, no wasted pres wards. Then if you sold the pres wards you were able to sell, its net gain towards "saving" ad.
The same goes for insignias.
It is way cheaper for me to upgrade myself this way because my wards are no/low cost.
Hence, I do not buy high rank enchantment/runestone from AH.
I occasionally do the math of upgrade costs vs. purchasing, and generally the answer is it pays to do upgrades yourself. Last time(on PC) I calculated on doing a radiant r9->r10, and the expected price for doing it myself was 125k(price of r9 + marks + pwards) vs. 140k to buy r10 off AH.
I also think that most people use the enchantments while they upgrade them. If you are to sell your old and buy the next rank that would also add the 10% fee from AH, which makes it even less likely to pay off.
You should do the math for each case though.
The seller will only get 126k after 10% AH fee. Hence, no profit margin.
In order to have the profit, the input cost of the seller has to be lower somewhere.
But you know, you can show people the math on it all day long, and they will still make the choice to upgrade using this system. As they say, The lottery is game for people who are bad at math.
As far as the crafting goes. I honestly think when mod 15 was put in they did expect to make two routes for gear, one being rewards through dungeons and the other being through crafting. But I think they discovered that making crafted items just as good or better than dungeon rewards made masterwork crafting players extremely wealthy and it rendered the other equivalent dungeon rewards pointless.
I don't think any game has figured out the solution yet. Most games with crafting never make items better than their pve reward drops unless there is a HAMSTER load of grinding or you have to run the pve raids to collect resources for the crafting so it defeats the point in even having the crafting.
Its clear as the game currently sits, that crafting is just a clever way to make naive players spend time and astral diamonds on crafting with zero reward for doing it. Yes yes there was a time when bronzewood was decent, and in some cases some players still want some bronzewood stuff but for the most part obsolete. I bet those players who dumped 5 million ad to upgrade their workshop to rank 4 are wishing they never even bothered.
Its nearly 100% correct to say that self upgrading is cheaper than buying ready made.
But i will defintely burn a bound to account coalescent ward for a 5% chance upgrade instead of involving any of my unbound preservation ward. The reason is I can "convert" the last in AD on the AH if needed, but can't do that with the first (i have an alt-army, so getting BtA coalescent wards is not a problem with a constant flow of celestial chests, i get something like 5-6 BtA coalescent/month)