Cash Shop Question

Starae - Heavens Tear

Hello, I played PWI probably a few years ago now, the reason I stopped was because you practically had to buy Charms from the Cash Shop every week in order to get anywhere in the game.

Are HP and MP Charms still around?

Is this still how the game is?

I was interested in coming back and playing again, but if I can't get by without using my RL money every week to survive then I probably won't come back.

Also, I'd rather not spend every hour of the day farming for money to buy charms from peoples shops, so that's out of the question.

Hope someone can answer my questions, thanks!

Latemz - Sanctuary

Yes, charms are still around (including Platinum charms now) ... I don't think the need has really changed at all. Personally, I used to farm for the money to buy them, but not any more - too expensive now (if you've been gone for a couple years, you may not realize it ... but Gold prices are around 7-8 times as high now). I simply do without now - but then again, I've never been up to level 80 ... and don't PvP ... so can't really comment b:surrender

jiq

I never used charms except for the ones I got from quests. I think it's a lot cheaper and more practical to buy mana food. And HP food of course, but I don't need those...

LenieClarke - Heavens Tear

the clerics in my guild complain about the high price of mana food (jiaozi). nobody much mentions the price of charms, or buying charms; i get the impression most people (in PvE, casual players, as are the majority of my guildmates) play uncharmed except for what charms they might get from quests.

myself, i don't always even use quest reward charms. then again, my main's only 65 so far, so...

sangodoc

I should note that the Event Boutique carries charms now, and you have a chance get event gold from the weekly Celestial Tiger Event or by NPCing enough Dragon Quest items to get 50,000 Dragon Points, which you can redeem at the DQ Rewards page for a Demon/Sage Event Card (gives you 50 event gold).

So you can get them even if you don't spend any cash or do any gold trading now.

Starae - Heavens Tear

Well I know Clerics are one of the hardest classes to get by without mana Charms especially, I only really ever needed them after lvl 70. So gold prices have gone up even more, that's sad to hear. And Event's are nice, sure, but when you need a charm every week to survive in the game, then it's pointless to try an event and hope you win.

I also remember repairs after grinding were ridiculous prices as well, making chances even less of getting enough money for your skills and charms.

But of course this all happened after lvl 70 for me, which is why I quit, so the gameplay before was fun and not overly and ridiculously expensive to play.

Mayfly - Dreamweaver

Herb Yuanxiao (made from tokens, 50 for 3 tokens, useable at level 75+) is cheaper than charms or regular potions for the amount of mana they restore, even with the current inflation in token prices, and can maintain BB/RB indefinitely (have the same cooldown as regular mana potions, but restore much more.)

Sereneai - Dreamweaver

you don't NEED charms, nor did you ever.

Many of the players i know go uncharmed, even at 8x-10x, and they get by just fine....as do I. Sure charms are nice, but I have no problems surviving, leveling, and having fun without one.

Bottom line: unless you are instance farming (and even then really, you should be able to do it uncharmed), if you can't play without a charm you're doing something wrong and using your charm as a crutch.

LenieClarke - Heavens Tear

Starae - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I also remember repairs after grinding were ridiculous prices as well, making chances even less of getting enough money for your skills and charms.

eh... grinding should bring a net profit even after repairs and potions, so long as you grind on mobs at or near your own level and kill them reasonably quickly. repairs get worse the more you take hits (melee classes) and the longer the fight lasts (everybody), but unless you're playing as a weaponless barb killing things way above or below your own level, you should still be accumulating coin on net.

...said the veno player, whose main of course accumulates coin rather easier than most classes, me usually only repairing my weapon from killing with it... but even so.

2x exp/sp without 2x drops --- as we have right now --- complicates things a little, since it may mean you get a chance to buy skills more often (you level up more) but don't get the coin to buy them with. i recommend you dump XP into genies to alleviate that issue. that's basically buying coin (from grinding) with time (you have to grind more); but, well, that's the definition of "grinding"...

Starae - Heavens Tear

Well like I said, it's been about 2 years or more since I played, so there have been a LOT of changes from what I can tell. It's hard to compare with people playing now because it could be the norm compared to how things were. I'll give the game another shot and see how it goes, maybe you dont HAVE to have charms to survive now. A lot of things could of changed since I played so i'll just find it out for myself.

And Mayfly, I have no idea what tokens are, but that item sounds interesting. I remember being an alchemist on the game so I had a lot of potions I used to help with mana whenever i played without charms.

Anyone on Heavens Tear feel free to add me, I could use some friends when I get the game running.

Thanks all for the input.

LenieClarke - Heavens Tear

"tokens" ("of best luck") are what you mostly get out of packs.

and if you don't remember packs... hooboy, this'll be a completely different game to you, i'd bet. everyone i know who does remember those days sure talk about it that way... packs are gambling, buy them from the cash shop, they give random stuff when opened. mostly they just give tokens; sometimes, lottery-win rarely, they give stupidly high-end stuff.

(such as the "perfect token of best luck". two of those exchange directly for ten million coin. that simple exchange is near game-wrecking, all by itself. but i digress...)

tokens, then, become a barter currency you can exchange for a fair number of things from certain NPCs. among these things is a sort-of apoth thingy that restores MP --- more than potions do, both when counting MP points and in terms of MP points per coin spent. clerics these days run on the stuff, so i'm told. none of my chars are high enough level for it, yet.

people sell excess tokens in catshops --- merchants say the tokens are the fastest-moving trade good in the game now. token prices are one of the most commonly used and most fundamental barometers of the game's economy's health, next to gold prices, and ahead of mirage prices.

Elenacostel - Heavens Tear

Post-level 80, the cleric MP problem is not as severe as it was when you played. I'm aware of the problem to which you are referring; I played back when you were still playing. A large part of this has been solved with this item: Herb Yuanxiao. If you were there for the old Jolly Jone's event, Herb Yuanxiao is essentially a better version of the Sesame Yuanxiao.

You can obtain 50 Herb Yuanxiao by exchanging 3 Tokens of Luck with the PWI Boutique Agent. 1 Token of Luck costs about 17,000 coins at the current market price in Heaven's Tear. Thus, currently, 1 Herb Yuanxiao is about 1020 coins. Tokens can go as low as 10,500 coins if there is a "Pack Sale", and can go as high as 20,000 coins.

Just a note, nobody zhens anymore. Zhenning would technically not require an MP charm, but it's certainly useful and less error prone than utilizing Herb Yuanxiao.

To address your general question of whether or not you need to spend real life money, this depends mainly on your ability to acquire coin vs. your desired goals. That is a separate discussion unto itself. However, what should be mentioned is that compared to what you saw years ago, the standards for "average" and "elite" have changed. In 2008/2009, having Immaculate Shards in your TT90 armor was considered elite. Now, it's average or slightly-above average for players in the 90s, and players at 100 have TT99 and Reputation Rank 8 gear as average.

Many people, including clerics, presently do not cash-shop and still have a fulfilling gameplay experience.

Starae - Heavens Tear

Elenacostel - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Post-level 80, the cleric MP problem is not as severe as it was when you played. I'm aware of the problem to which you are referring; I played back when you were still playing. A large part of this has been solved with this item: Herb Yuanxiao. If you were there for the old Jolly Jone's event, Herb Yuanxiao is essentially a better version of the Sesame Yuanxiao.

You can obtain 50 Herb Yuanxiao by exchanging 3 Tokens of Luck with the PWI Boutique Agent. 1 Token of Luck costs about 17,000 coins at the current market price in Heaven's Tear. Thus, currently, 1 Herb Yuanxiao is about 1020 coins. Tokens can go as low as 10,500 coins if there is a "Pack Sale", and can go as high as 20,000 coins.

Just a note, nobody zhens anymore. Zhenning would technically not require an MP charm, but it's certainly useful and less error prone than utilizing Herb Yuanxiao.

To address your general question of whether or not you need to spend real life money, this depends mainly on your ability to acquire coin vs. your desired goals. That is a separate discussion unto itself. However, what should be mentioned is that compared to what you saw years ago, the standards for "average" and "elite" have changed. In 2008/2009, having Immaculate Shards in your TT90 armor was considered elite. Now, it's average or slightly-above average for players in the 90s, and players at 100 have TT99 and Reputation Rank 8 gear as average.

Many people, including clerics, presently do not cash-shop and still have a fulfilling gameplay experience.

Very helpful! Thanks! I know exactly what you're talking about, so i'm glad to hear it's not as severe as it used to be. Thanks for the explanation of things. I'm gonna give it a try again and try to figure out my Cleric all over again.
I'm only worried that my build might be messed up, or my skills. Are there any items to reset those? I really don't remember.

Elenacostel - Heavens Tear

You can reset your stats with Reset Scrolls, in the boutique.

You can also reset your Cultivation (Demon vs. Sage), but that is not relevant to you yet. This is also in the Boutique.

You can also reset the Affinities and Attributes of your Genie. This is also in the Boutique. I don't know if you left before genies were available.

Mind you, gold is around 700k - 800k at the moment, and it goes up to 950k-1m when there are sales on popular items.