ulkaurMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited February 2014
I still see no point in paying so much to upgrade the pets. I've tried to split the zen and diamond aspects of the game but i still end up putting a value on the diamonds. They added SCA so we would see a reason to do it, but you just get a possibility of a blue pet that you once again have to pay to upgrade. Again, why bother? Lower the cost and we'll revisit this.
Interesting that this has gone on for almost a year, and none of these absurd prices has been adjusted. (the laughable 10% decrease to transmutes is not counted.)
I wonder what that is implying?
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adinosiiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,294Arc User
edited February 2014
Maybe I'm in a minority, but I think the upgrade costs are mostly just fine, at least for green->blue and blue->purple. Going from white to green is just silly - you can get equivalent green companions for far less than it would cost to upgrade a white one....with one exception.
The only case where it might make sense to upgrade a white companion is if you want to take the white cleric companion all the way to purple for the +300 Regeneration bonus, as there is no other companion which can give you that. Upgrading some of the green companions to blue or even purple makes perfect sense, and quite frankly, for the stat-improving companions it´s not that expensive, compared to, say going from R8 to R10 enchants.
I very much doubt they will reduce the price of upgrading from Green to Blue by much if at all. Otherwise everyone who got a Ioun Stone of Radiance (and there were a LOT of people) would simply upgrade that instead of buying the Ioun Stone of Allure from the ZEN store. They might reduce the upgrade cost from Blue to Purple though.
I've upgraded several companions (probably 30+ from various stages) and about 5 white clerics all the way to purple. Is it higher then I'd like sure but I understand the need for AD "sinks" and these are about the only thing worth it after mod 2 IMO. (I guess you can do the AD to Keys lottery for AD sink as well but I'm all done with Keys in this game I just buy the stuff out of the AH now way cheaper in the long run).
Upgrading Sellsword can be worth it. It is like an extra R10 Radiant.
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chaoscourtesanMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited February 2014
Upgrades to me are for the higher active bonus value, and absolutely no other consideration. Who wouldn't want a +300 regen bonus (I -think- that's what a purple free-cleric would give?) I'd never upgrade my Ioun Stones, even if it was account-wide for one price. I'd never buy a blue pet (non-augment,) because I know I'd never get around to upgrading them. Of course even when I add characters, as they add classes, I won't buy another stone either. I bought 5, that's plenty (plus a cat.) And I won't buy any purple ones as long as they remain single character claimable (which likely means forever.) So anyway, I decided that eventually, when I run out of other things to upgrade, I will upgrade the pets on ONE of my chars. All the others will just have to make do.
Rhyon Cawdorian GWF | Opa Loka TR | Cormac Argentus III DC | Annika Thornblade GF | Aerys Skydark HR | Bartin Findlor TR | Aellia Baalthrall CW | Lucan Hawkmoon CW | Opa Brahk GWF | Korzbyrk DC | Den Kruk GWF | Jherek Skarsin CW |
Roland Mac Sheonin GF | Tarron Direheart SW |
Yes this is way too much to upgrade for a companion that doesn't really make that big of a difference. From my experience using a wide variety of companions they don't make or break a fight. They can help sure, but they do little damage/healing and get wiggy now and again. To spend so much on a weak unreliable ally is not cool.
Now if they could be commanded, to guard, attack, use abilities when we want and not when they feel like they would be much more beneficial and it would justify the price a little better. But how it stands it is just WAY too much for a single companion, especially for casual players.
Considering that right now it is cheaper to buy a blue companion than to upgrade a green companion to blue by around 115 Zen worth of AD (assuming a 380 AD to 1 Zen conversion which isn't an unreasonable assumption right now as 500K AD is roughly 1315 Zen, which is more expensive than the price of any blue companion), there is really no reason to ever upgrade any pet from green to blue unless you want that pet's specific active bonus or something like that and are willing to shell out the extra AD. Ever since they did the blanket zen price reduction for companions they have needed to address the upgrade costs as they haven't adjusted those yet. If they want us to buy green and blue companions they shouldn't make it so much more expensive to do that instead of just buying a purple companion.
For what you get when you upgrade a companion, it really is a major ripoff for the price we have to pay right now, which makes companion upgrading practically non-existent for most people, which removes a AD sink the devs wanted to add to the game. If the cost to upgrade was more reasonable, people would buy more green and blue companions and upgrade them, requiring a total of more AD, and some of that AD (if not much of it) could be purchased via Zen to AD conversion, not counting the zen spent to get the green and blue zen companions. High companion upgrade prices just means less Zen and AD are spent on these things, thus less money for PWE as less profit on Neverwinter. (I doubt the prices should be adjusted too more than say 20%, but you'd probably want an economics major to figure out what would the the optimum price point based on expected demand per price-point as the supply is effectively infinite, the controlling factor is the price which limits the demand.
Comments
I wonder what that is implying?
The only case where it might make sense to upgrade a white companion is if you want to take the white cleric companion all the way to purple for the +300 Regeneration bonus, as there is no other companion which can give you that. Upgrading some of the green companions to blue or even purple makes perfect sense, and quite frankly, for the stat-improving companions it´s not that expensive, compared to, say going from R8 to R10 enchants.
Cheers
Roland Mac Sheonin GF | Tarron Direheart SW |
Now if they could be commanded, to guard, attack, use abilities when we want and not when they feel like they would be much more beneficial and it would justify the price a little better. But how it stands it is just WAY too much for a single companion, especially for casual players.
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For what you get when you upgrade a companion, it really is a major ripoff for the price we have to pay right now, which makes companion upgrading practically non-existent for most people, which removes a AD sink the devs wanted to add to the game. If the cost to upgrade was more reasonable, people would buy more green and blue companions and upgrade them, requiring a total of more AD, and some of that AD (if not much of it) could be purchased via Zen to AD conversion, not counting the zen spent to get the green and blue zen companions. High companion upgrade prices just means less Zen and AD are spent on these things, thus less money for PWE as less profit on Neverwinter. (I doubt the prices should be adjusted too more than say 20%, but you'd probably want an economics major to figure out what would the the optimum price point based on expected demand per price-point as the supply is effectively infinite, the controlling factor is the price which limits the demand.