Companion upgrade cost

dadapawa

Now that we recently came nearer to a decent price on companion (thx to the 60% discount, and the permanent price reduction) I would like to know if Cryptic plan on reducing the AD cost to upgrade.

Currently:
Common -> Green = 300k
Green -> Blue = 500k
Blue -> Purple = 750k

at this price, and whit a AD/zen price at cap (500AD per zen), it would mean it cost

Common -> Green = 600zen
Green -> Blue = 1000zen
Blue -> Purple = 1500zen

to upgrade. This is at the lowest price possible. Going down to 400ad/zen increase those by 25%!

But why are those price too high? Well it all depends. Green price is ok has it is. For the blue/green, thats an other story. Whit the new price of companions, they now cost around:

Common = 0zen
Green = 800 zen
Blue = 1200->1500 zen
Purple = 2500 zen

-Going from Common to green cost 600 zen, thats ok there since a Green cost 800zen (and its not too little since the 600 zen to upgrade is whit the lowest possible price!)

-Going from Green to Blue cost 1000 zen... sure, the one in the store cost 1200 to 1500 zen, but dont forget there is also the price it costed to get it to green or to buy it from the store! so thats 600 (min) to 800 zen. So you can buy one blue for 1200 to 1500 zen, or upgrade one for the cost of 1600(min) to 1800 zen... and we all know the active bonus of those arent that great VS other real "blues". So its a minimum of +300 zen to upgrade VS the one from store. My sugestion: Drop the price by 100k AD (200 zen)... so down to 400k to upgrade. it would still cost "100" zen extra VS buying one, but its a win-win.

-Going from Blue to purple cost 1500 zen... Same thing there, its way cheaper than the 2500 from store, but you need to get the blue first! has seen just above, it will cost you (currently) 1200 to 1500 + 1500 = 2700 to 3000 zen OR 1600(min) to 1800 + 1500 = 3100 to 3300 zen. This is still 200 to 500 zen extra more than buying one if you bought the blue, or 600 to 800 more if you upgraded it... If you change the price has I suggest, upgrading from a upgraded blue would still cost 1400(min) to 1600 + 1500 = 2900 to 3100 zen, which is still 400 to 600 zen higher than buying one. Suggestion?: Drop the price by 150k (300 zen)down to 600k to upgrade. Again, its more than the if you buy one, but its a win-win.



So overall, we would go from -> to


Common -> Green = 300k -> Leave it has it is
Green -> Blue = 500k - > 400k
Blue -> Purple = 750k -> 600k

so the overall price on upgrading them would go from -> to

Common = UNCHANGED (0 zen)
Green = UNCHANGED (600 zen)
Blue = 1000 -> 800 zen
Purple = 1500 -> 1200 zen

Overall, a Companion would cost = Store price (Upgrade price)

Common = UNCHANGED (0 zen)
Green = UNCHANGED (800 zen if bought, 600 if upgraded)
Blue = 1200 to 1500 (1600 to 1800) -> 1200 to 1500 (1400 to 1600)
Purple = 2500 (3100 to 3300) -> 2500 zen (2600 to 2800)

so upgrading still cost more than buying, but it is more up to date whit current companion price. Otherwise, why not simply buy the companion from the store for a lesser price? while upgrading allow more diversity, and at the same time, would give the same "revenue" (zen cost), even a little more. Also, someone who bought all the purple companion can still get more (whit upgrade), without a price that is out of hand


Hope you liked the numbers and implement this soon

mconosrep

Good sensible and well reasoned post on this topic. +1

I still don't get why they have kept the upgrades so expensive before companions gave you passive bonuses - now it might be worth it for people who have maxed everything else.

charononus

The upgrade costs might not be too far off at this point. The active bonuses make a big difference. Here is the bonus for a purple epic pet for example.

Deal up to 10% more damage based on the percentage of damage you have taken

Now to get that 10% more damage requires you to have 100% low health or in other words be dead.

So lets look at some green and white pet bonuses.

+25/100/190/300 Regeneration
+25/100/190/300 Armor Penetration
+100/190/300 Recovery

Then for a couple blue pets

+3/5% Critical Severity
+1/2% Deflect chance

So you can see that upgrading lower leveled pets gives more power than purple from the start pets. This means that for those that are gearing up and already have r10's and perfects, upgrading pets is the next avenue for character advancement and more power. When looked at from that light the prices are about right.

charononus

nwnghost wrote: »

Galeb Duur grants 10% bonus damage at 25% HP remaining, not at 0% remaining. No idea where you got the "you have to be dead to get it" from.

That was the numbers I've heard on it from multiple people. Regardless it's a worthless active for pve as you're not going to be spending that much time at low health. I'd actually rank the CD's 25 regen when she's non-upgraded as marginally more useful, and that's the point. The epic companions with just a few exceptions have horrible actives.

here's some others
+2% Action Point Gain
+10% XP Bonus
Damage taken reduced by 10% when HP is less than 35% of max
Increases damage against Prone targets by 10%

ortzhy

graalx3 wrote: »

I think somebody does know how it works.

"Deal up to 10% more damage based on the percentage of damage you have taken."
If you have 75% of your hp left you gain 2.5% damage bonus. If you have 50% of your total hp left you gain +5% damage bonus. If you have 0% of your hp left you gain +10% damage bonus, at least you would if you weren't dead.

so 10% at 0 HP

ambisset

ortzhy wrote: »

so 10% at 0 HP

More like a sliding scale:
0-9.99% Health = 10% Bonus
10-19.99% Health = 9% Bonus
20-20.99% Health = 8% Bonus
...
80-89.99% Health = 2% Bonus
90-99.99% Health = 1% Bonus
100% Health = 0% Bonus

Although its probably a simple linear formula rather than stepped bonuses. ie: 1% health might be 9.9% bonus.

So some formula like 10*(1-health). Where health is expressed as a percentage. So 10% health is 0.10. Thus the formula would be 10*(1-0.10) = 10*0.90 = 9%.

ortzhy

ambisset wrote: »

More like a sliding scale:

graalx3 wrote: »

It is a calculated value. If you have 37% of your hp left you will gain a 6.3% damage bonus.

graalx3 is the designer...