Better Ways to Get INFLUENCE

joelmessedup · May 2021

As most of us know, running around the Stronghold gives you 400 Influence a day. Each toon can also run Marauder's once a week for another 600 Influence. One can also purchase Influence Vouchers off the AH at exorbitant prices (or if you're lucky, they'll drop from boxes). With these few options it is near impossible for a guild to gain Influence at an okay speed. Trying to find enough people within the game to run Influence runs with is already tough, but now that a lot of people have left the game (OR are too new to understand/complete them) it is seemingly impossible. Every time my current guild tries to level up, we are solely waiting on our Influence amount. We will then wait for what is starting to stretch into months until we can complete a goal JUST based on the Influence.

So what do I suggest? Well, there are a few things I could think of as a solution. Maybe the Influence amount a day running Heroics should be higher (not 400 but something more practical like in the thousands?). Maybe allow another way to gain Influence through grinding that is uncapped? Maybe bring Siege back so people can grind for Influence vouchers there (even though the amount of Influence is ridiculously small since being nerfed awhile back). Maybe the amount of Influence to level up things should be reduced??

It is hard currently in the game to create a guild. Yes I understand there are plenty of level 20 guilds out there currently...but does that just mean it is an avenue we cut out completely for any new players? Essentially ONLY joining old guilds is possible at the moment? As a guild leader myself it has become exceedingly frustrating to come on everyday to run my own Influence runs, but have no one else in the guild run them (except for a small fraction of the guildies). I am hoping sometime soon Influence can be modified to reflect how the game is now/how little people can join up for Influence runs nowadays.

plasticbat · May 2021

I don't know how feasible these days. In the old days, everyone ran multiple toon daily to get influence in SH. They could join party, etc, without actually fighting much for the weak toon. There was less than 10 players doing that in our guild back then. For the stronger toon, they also joined party to spread out to complete different quests in different location for ALL party members to speed thing up.

kharkov58 · May 2021

There are also additional quests from some of the structures that reward up to 100 influence each per day. Stables only up to 40 depending on rank. Others up to 100 inflluence per day depending on rank. I think all of the boon structures offer a daily quest, but I am not positive. I used to get up to 740 influence per day, plus Marauders weekly before my guild changed boon structures to ones I was not willing to do the quests for.

greywynd · May 2021

You can use the Stronghold Cleric for an additional 10% of influence gained from a task.

kalina311 · May 2021

...or you could always farm Influence vouchers in the auction house: D

armadeonx · May 2021

I used to run it on 6 toons daily when my old guild was levelling up. That was 2.4k inf per day and we had maybe 50 out of 150 members running it daily - everyone was expected to run it at least 3 times per week and a rank 6 would keep a spreadsheet of the donations to make sure it was done - this was before the Alliances mod, so we didn't have an alliance discount or donations from other guilds.

Stronghold construction costs have always been high/difficult so I think it would be fair to drop the costs now, especially as Cryptic have now significantly reduced the effectiveness and value of guild boons.

Originally, an 8k boost to any stat was absolutely huge so everyone wanted it - these days, the 3k boost is not worth the massive effort required to obtain it.

One way to encourage newer members to run influence (preferably in groups organised by higher ranked members) is to let them know guild marks can be exchanged for rough AD. Players that can't yet effectively run epic content, struggle to cap their daily refining limit.

kharkov58 · May 2021

Purchasing rough AD with guild marks is very in-efficient. Much better to purchase crafting items from the professions merchants you can summon in the guild and sell those on the auction house.

rockster · May 2021

joelmessedup#5710 said:
Maybe allow another way to gain Influence through grinding that is uncapped?

I think that making influence uncapped at the lowest 20 (so it just keeps giving 20 from then-on) would be a good start, this game has a horrible habit of preventing people from earning currency when they are more than happy to grind for it, the fact that it stops after 20 and you get no more is ridiculous. Especially when it's more important than ever to get a guild ranked-up because the boons have IL. They let you grind for so many things for an RNG chance which never happens, people do the same content over and over and over again just to farm stuff, influence should be no different. If I'm happy to mindlessly run around from minor HE to minor HE for a few hours on my own just to get 20 influence each time why stop me, it's no different to me running CN over and over and over again in order to get stuff to sell for gold or a few blue insignia to refine down, or countless other ways people farm the same content over and over again for limited rewards.

I also think maybe some kind of conversion system put in place is another idea, being able to convert one type of stronghold currency into another, maybe a system like the ZAX where players game-wide can put stronghold currency into one place and convert it to any other stronghold currency taking a small loss in the process. Or just some plain and simple straightforward system where you go to an npc in the stronghold and directly convert. Dunno. But either idea would allow guilds to take currency they have an excess of and convert it into something they desperately need to level up at the time.

greywynd · May 2021

kalina311 said:
...or you could always farm Influence vouchers in the auction house: D

Too busy scrabbling in the dirt to find rAD. Not going to spend AD I don't have.

kalina311 · May 2021

greywynd said:

kalina311 said:
...or you could always farm Influence vouchers in the auction house: D
Too busy scrabbling in the dirt to find rAD. Not going to spend AD I don't have.

whether you personally have the ad or not to spend on your 50+ tunes invocation army is irrelevant to the topic
the suggestion is still valid and was not targeted to only you..

greywynd · May 2021

I've never been near 50 characters. Never had a Leadership army.

kemnimtarkas · May 2021

greywynd said:
I've never been near 50 characters. Never had a Leadership army.

Are invocation armies still a thing? I thought that whole tradition died when they nerfed invoking and axed the Leadership profession years ago.

I have about 6 toons I invoke on, mostly to work on earning the rare coal ward drop - but those are account bound, so not relevant to an AD earning discussion.

greywynd · May 2021

I have 9 characters; one of each class and an extra barbarian I made to poke fun at a friend. My intent was always to rework him if they ever got around to a 9th class.

armadeonx · June 2021

greywynd said:
I have 9 characters; one of each class and an extra barbarian I made to poke fun at a friend. My intent was always to rework him if they ever got around to a 9th class.

lol same here, except my spare is a wizard

hadestemplar · June 2021

@joelmessedup#5710
From Heroic( daily) = 400 influence
Marauder ( weekly) = 600 Influence

From quests.. Like baraks - complete x4 HEs in Well of Dragons = 100 influence
From Explorer guild structure - collect items from Masterwork charts = 100 influence.
From Stable - participate in race like stuff ( never done) but I assume it's also gives 100 influence.
From temple - Claim item from Malaborg Castle - ( after end boss, in right to reward chest are pile of books) - 100 influence.

Also vauchers. Either from Stronghold lockbox, or Dragon Flight or simply buy from AH/ZEN.

Also temp vendor which generate Influence..

If you compare to how you have to generate shards like Heroic, dungeon and adventurers, the Influence gains stop looking so problematic.

Now even lets say staff add extra way to generate influence or shards.

The problem is that, guild is never meant to be upgraded by few players, it's guild level task. That is not like 5 players can't upgrade stronghold to max, but that it will take a looong time.

But now look from new players view point. What the point for me to do these stronghold content if they are outdated? They give me no benefits. Gear in stronghold outdated, content itself outdated. And in the end there are countless max out strongholds.

As long there are not big stronghold rework and make it's content more interesting and more rewarding, then players will simply move to guilds who are max upgraded.

horizonxael · June 2021

just the flu? and how about all the rest that is really worth it for not talking about the timing of the missions.

horizonxael · June 2021

he wanted to add that in any case no administrator has answered you that means only one thing they don't give a damn

greywynd · June 2021

horizonxael said:
he wanted to add that in any case no administrator has answered you that means only one thing they don't give a damn

I don't see Julia or any other devs tagged. From my understanding they read, but rarely respond. Usually because the appearance of a dev on the forum is akin to a piece of meat dropped in a piranha tank.

arieswytch · June 2021

hadestemplar#9918 said:

From quests.. Like baraks - complete x4 HEs in Well of Dragons = 100 influence
From Explorer guild structure - collect items from Masterwork charts = 100 influence.
From Stable - participate in race like stuff ( never done) but I assume it's also gives 100 influence.
From temple - Claim item from Malaborg Castle - ( after end boss, in right to reward chest are pile of books) - 100 influence.

OP is talking about leveling up the guild, so I'm guessing that their boon structures are not a max yet either. I think these influence amounts are for fully or nearly fully leveled up structures.

kharkov58 · June 2021

And no, the stable reward only goes up to 40 influence at max level.

kronus · June 2021

greywynd said:
You can use the Stronghold Cleric for an additional 10% of influence gained from a task.

I run 8 toons almost daily. It takes an average of 10-15 minutes per toon. 7 of the 8 also run the whispering caverns race. That's 485x7 and 1 for 441. I can rake in about 20k/week with that myself and it doesn't even bring into account a few dragon runs and collecting mugs by doing skill checks.

kronus · June 2021

joelmessedup#5710 said:
As most of us know, running around the Stronghold gives you 400 Influence a day. Each toon can also run Marauder's once a week for another 600 Influence. One can also purchase Influence Vouchers off the AH at exorbitant prices (or if you're lucky, they'll drop from boxes). With these few options it is near impossible for a guild to gain Influence at an okay speed. Trying to find enough people within the game to run Influence runs with is already tough, but now that a lot of people have left the game (OR are too new to understand/complete them) it is seemingly impossible. Every time my current guild tries to level up, we are solely waiting on our Influence amount. We will then wait for what is starting to stretch into months until we can complete a goal JUST based on the Influence.

So what do I suggest? Well, there are a few things I could think of as a solution. Maybe the Influence amount a day running Heroics should be higher (not 400 but something more practical like in the thousands?). Maybe allow another way to gain Influence through grinding that is uncapped? Maybe bring Siege back so people can grind for Influence vouchers there (even though the amount of Influence is ridiculously small since being nerfed awhile back). Maybe the amount of Influence to level up things should be reduced??

It is hard currently in the game to create a guild. Yes I understand there are plenty of level 20 guilds out there currently...but does that just mean it is an avenue we cut out completely for any new players? Essentially ONLY joining old guilds is possible at the moment? As a guild leader myself it has become exceedingly frustrating to come on everyday to run my own Influence runs, but have no one else in the guild run them (except for a small fraction of the guildies). I am hoping sometime soon Influence can be modified to reflect how the game is now/how little people can join up for Influence runs nowadays.

There is no easy way, but if you have level 80 guildies that are dead weight and don't want to learn or help, cut them. I've kicked many people over the years for various things. Refusing, and I do mean refusing, to help with the Strongholds campaign was one of them. No help no benefit. You don't mention what level your guild is, but I will warn you that once you get to the end stretch, the last upgrades are PAINFUL! If you build the recruiter at Millabout and keep it tended that is another 2400 influence per day and only costs a small amount of professions stuff, and the 4 normal resources.

Better Ways to Get INFLUENCE

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