Sharandar/Dread Ring Keys - worth it?

pointsman

Before Module 2, it was rarely worth it to buy the keys to run all three minidungeons in Sharandar, since the loot you got at the end almost never justified the cost of the key. But now with all of these Marks of this and that dropping, is it now worth it? Do Marks of Potency drop from the Sharandar/Dread Ring minidungeon chests? (Not the arcane coffers, but the chests) And would it be worth it to spend the 20k per day to get them?

shauku11

I think the keys are profitable on the greater mark days when you can sell the Marks pretty quickly. I was spending 5kad on a key and selling the bonus mark instantly for 14-16k. I assume the Greater mark price will tank (even more) at some point because of this. Scrips are pretty easy to get to keep getting more keys.

kolbe11

Review the "Campaign Rewards" to have a look at the items offered. If they appeal to you, go for it. Some will do it for aesthetics, some will do it for gear score while others may do it for the profit in mark farming.

Personal opinion: If you already a T2 Armor and Weapon like the ancient or formian set, don't bother. The "Dread" armors and weapons focus around "life steal" and are generally inferior to other options out there.

ulkaur

I am both pleased with the appearance of the new armor and disappointed yet again with the only use of it with my gear is to get me to waste 250k in diamonds, since the stats are base t1 and t2. Why can we not have an appearance tab that we could imprint the armor into so that we can change appearance on the fly?

zebular

. . . . . . Just know, you don't get Thayan Ciphers from the chest when using keys. You only get the Cipher when you loot the chest while on the daily quest for that Lair. If you're farming for Marks or Collection Gear, they may be worth it to you. Otherwise, they may not. Remember though, to check the Schedule in the Campaign Window for the Dread Ring, as not all days reward a mark and certain days reward specific types of marks and most are only chances at getting one, not all are a guarantee.

rabbinicus

ulkaur wrote: »

I am both pleased with the appearance of the new armor and disappointed yet again with the only use of it with my gear is to get me to waste 250k in diamonds, since the stats are base t1 and t2. Why can we not have an appearance tab that we could imprint the armor into so that we can change appearance on the fly?

I love this idea. Great thought!

pointsman

Well today I did spend the 10k to get two additional keys, and I suppose it was just a lucky day because I got two epic T1 items from two chests (the Cowl and another one, can't recall right now, maybe the gloves?). Sadly the Arcane Coffer only gave me a Rank 3 enchant. Oh well guess there's always tomorrow.

wiserwithage

Pointsman:

As others have said, it's only worth it to potentially spend AD on a day where a bonus Purple Mark is dropping. (Tues, Wed, and Thurs all require a specific dungeon and you that the associated Mark with that dungeon. Then on the weekends, you can get a bonus Mark from any dungeon.)

Why? Assuming that the Auction prices are going to quickly settle out, there is still a compelling reason to buy keys on the bonus Purple Mark days. These Purple Marks are worth a ton of upgrade points for the Artifact category of these type. If you spend through a run of Gnarlroot for a Shard of Terror Enchantment, then you could upgrade a Power category Artifact (Green / Blue) with +1,080 refinement points. But a (Purple) Greater Mark of Power could upgrade that same Power artifact with x3 times the refinement points.

Once people calm down about the Greater Marks, people will start to burn them for refinement points to upgrade their artifacts since the process is extremely expensive. Unlike the upgrade of Green -> Blue (where +1,080 is usually worth an upgrade level), the upgrade of Blue -> Purple gets insanely expensive. I dumped over x100 R5 upgrades into a Blue artifact (which are also worth +1,080 refinement points a piece) and gained less than x20 of the x30 levels I needed for the Purple tier.

pointsman

I am still trying to get my marks to get to the Blue stage for my artifact. It's pretty frustrating. I don't need a Greater Mark right now, I need the regular blue mark.

Edit: so let me see if I understand, on the weekends, if I buy keys for the other two minidungeons, I get a bonus Greater Mark in *each one*?

wiserwithage

pointsman wrote: »

I am still trying to get my marks to get to the Blue stage for my artifact. It's pretty frustrating. I don't need a Greater Mark right now, I need the regular blue mark.

Edit: so let me see if I understand, on the weekends, if I buy keys for the other two minidungeons, I get a bonus Greater Mark in *each one*?

1) When you open the standard loot chest at the end of one of the Module 2 mini-dungeons (accessed through the daily quest or a 5k AD key), there's a chance of getting a Cask. This purple chest can contain Marks of any type or quality level. For example, I cleared the Stability granting dungeon and found a (Blue) Mark of Stability in the Cask that I lucked into at the end of the dungeon (in addition to whatever daily bonus reward you can get). Then in the Union granting dungeon, I lucked into a (Blue) Mark of Union in a Cask. But when I got a Cask from the Power dungeon, it gave me another Mark of Stability. (It seems that the dropped item from a Cask tends to be of the same type as the dungeon, but it can be different at times.)

2) Yes, that's one option. But you're thinking about things from the wrong angle. Over the weekends, each dungeon grants a Greater Mark as a bonus. If you're working on upgrading a Power based Artifact, you could run the Power dungeon x20 times in a row. (This would count as x1 daily quest and x19 keys to access any dungeon before the daily reset.) This would grant you x20 Greater Mark of Power and potentially some (Blue) Mark of Power from a Cask drop at the end of the dungeon.