Yomo Kimyata

Or, OR you could just carry a full tray of large purple inspirations and reload after each mission. Sorry, didn't mean to hurt your feelings PK!

This isn't that far from the truth. I know how much I have in bids on impossible items. I know how many 999,999,999 emails I have (which I transfer to bids on impossible items monthly). For the rest, I know how many alts I have and I estimate based on a historic average inf per alt. It's a lot.

I can know how much I have, or I can know where I have it hidden, but I cannot know both. Call it Yomo's Uncertainty Principle.

No one expects Yomo!

I was born a Combat Jumper and I will die a Combat Jumper.

What is true is that playing the game organically (just playing for playing's sake, not making any plans on how to make inf or get items) doesn't really result in a cash flow positive experience until you are in your upper 20s or low 30s. So if you are playing for the first time, I can see how it may seem daunting to keep your enhancements above red level. But fear not, for many reasons! 1. There *is* a breakeven point, where you can sell everything that drops to vendors and buy SOs from vendors and be ahead of the game. So if you haven't gotten there yet, it's coming. 2. Honestly, up to that point you can probably play completely unenhanced. It's a forgiving game. But you can also only slot things that drop, or pick and choose what to spend your limited resources on. See @Ukase's thread on the drop challenge. 3. Once/if you use the AH to sell your items, or even better to use it as a source of income, you'll never want for anything. There are tons of useful suggestions above on how to accumulate inf using that system, if you so choose. 4. People are generous, because many of us have more inf than we know what to do with. All you need to do is ask. See the link in my signature.

I've always thought that something like Katana/Willpower on a Scrapper was just about the middle of the road. Disclaimer: I do not have a Katana/Willpower scrapper. Yet.

I got the order wrong in this quote chain, but @UberGuy [all hail @UberGuy] answers that last mystery. It appears to be by design, or at least to fall out from how the programming manages queue order. It's a weird design, to be sure!

Make about 2bn inf worth of rare salvage? That's a pretty low inf/click strategy though.

I feel that there is some incorrect information in the previous post, and some pretty big guesswork, but wanted to directly address these two comments. The first happens all the time, and should happen all the time under the constraints of the system. If there is an overlap, the offer goes to the best bid. Someone came in and posted at a lower price than you did. Working as intended. The second should not happen if you have bids in the queue at a higher level. Maybe your bids aren't registering, maybe it's a presentation glitch, who knows? But it should not happen. Going back to the OP's picture, we know they have 6 bids of 50k in the system, and based on their commentary those bids have been there since before 9/2. Under my understanding of the AH rules, unless those bids have somehow been invalidated, they are higher than the print of 11,111. Maybe this history is of a different item. Maybe a false trade printed. Maybe a trade executed that shouldn't have due to a glitch. But based on the rules as we see them and the information we have, this should not have occurred. Now, I know for a fact that glitches occur all the time, because I see a lot of things that shouldn't happen under the rule set. But non-glitches occur even aller the time, and 99% of the information I see matches with my knowledge of how the system is supposed to work. Is it possible that I don't understand the rules correctly, and that if you put in a trade with your left hand on the weekend after midnight while eating a turkey sandwich, a trade goes off randomly? Sure, it's possible, but I'm going with Occam's Razor here and saying that the AH is buggier than the Jersey Shore in August. That seems to match up with what I hear from the devs.

One character cannot sell to itself. Another character on the same account (or a different account) can. Also, if you are buying and selling the same object on the same character, make sure that your bid is lower than your offer. Otherwise the queue gets mucked up, since you are prohibited from dealing with yourself and that doesn't mesh well with the other algorithms.

A short-cut that I use that may seem obvious is remembering that red IOs are all damage based (ranged, melee, st, AoE, etc.). Two ways I've found that useful: 1. If I am crafting a lot of purple recipes, I will generally convert until I get a red one (except the pet damage one). There may not be a big discrepancy in prices between an Absolute Amazement and a Hecatomb (or maybe there is, I dunno), but I've found the damage IOs turn over a lot more quickly. So if I roll an orange hold purple, I'll spend one or two more conversions to get something red. This is more useful if you are doing a block of 30-70 than doing a few, but it really shaves some time off the process for me. 2. If I am crafting a lot of uncommon recipes with the intention of turning them into rares, if I start with a red, I will almost always roll by uncommon first before rolling by category. In many/most level ranges, a damage uncommon won't automatically convert to a rare since there are more damage sets, and therefore more uncommon damage sets. I'd rather spend one or two converters to get something that will either be guaranteed to turn into a rare, or at least is a greater than 50% chance. I cannot stand it when there are two rares and two uncommons in a category, and you roll by category 5-10 times only to switch back and forth between the uncommons (which is basically a 1/3 chance each roll). It is a net saver of converters, but again has the greatest benefit if you are crafting and converting in blocks.

But it *is* a normal sight for a lot of recipes. In fact, that's probably one of mine. I mean, I don't own the rights to "50,005" but it is one of my fists that I use for buying large amounts of recipes, generally rares. This example could be a straight port from another, real, item's history. If we ever get a time stamp, it would be easier to suss out.

Or is it a 12mm IO?...

A few thoughts: 1. Maybe not a lowball bid? Personally I would bid 1.5mm on it and expect to fill in a few hours. Or maybe someone was just feeling generous. 1.2mm seems to be an odd lowball bid -- 1mm I could see. 2. This should be a lesson to everyone who sells things. You have *no idea* what someone is going to bid. Maybe it's an accident; maybe it's on purpose. But the only person who is going to sell something into a high bid is the person who had it listed high enough that it didn't transact immediately, and low enough that it would transact at some point. ABC: Always Be Cselling! 3. I tend to blank out the fees, since then people can identify your selling price. Maybe that's a big deal; maybe not. But as Flanders would say, "I can see your doodle."

Nice! Well done! I had a much smaller footprint this year than last, but probably made a much bigger profit. I ended up buying 1,000 packs, and 2-3 thousand assorted WOs somewhere in the 4-9mm range. Once WOs started moving to 20mm+, I started to liquidate. Sometimes I sold them as is; most of the time I would convert from a bad set (Entomb) to a better set (Avalanche) based on how I saw demand and flow. I would check in on my WO alt once or twice a week and sell off 50-100 at a time. Sometimes there were odd price spikes, so I would front load WOs while it lasted. And I always monitored the lowball bid levels, and probably picked up an additional few thousand WOs at or under 10mm which got flipped or converted and flipped. Then I started digging into my Winter Packs. I would also monitor the Pack price, and if it was significantly below what I could expect to sell 1.2 WOs for (average) less fees, I'd pick up more. Lots more. I flattened out on inventory right around the first of July. And then, then I started to have a real need for large numbers of converters across all my alts. So I ended up buying a lot of the ones you listed at 24,501,111. Hundreds if not thousands. I figured that at worst, I broke even on the cost of the packs by selling the WOs, and everything else in the packs (the merits were what I really wanted in the Character Items) was gravy. A few weeks ago, I noticed that demand for WOs seems to have tapered off from the levels that interest me, so I stopped monitoring it except once a week or so. It's difficult to say how much profit I made from WOs in total this year. North of 50bn and south of 100bn is probably a good guess -- probably on the lower part of the range. I'm astonished at how much inf gets thrown at these things! And come the event this winter, I'll probably complain again about how no one can make any money if everyone is doing it, and then I'll do the same thing again...

I'm a little amazed that this thread has gone on for as long as it has. I think the fundamental problem that many people have is that no matter how imaginative or funny or clever you think you are, someone else was as well, and (here's the critical part) was faster than you. There are no judges to say who wants it more. If your name is gone, it's gone. In the real world, you might have legal options with trademarks, dba, etc. But if it's gone, you have no idea if it has been taken by a nefarious name-squatter (I hear they are raking in the cash), or someone else who already has the name on a "real" character, or someone who is in the military stationed overseas, or whatever. It's gone. There are certainly ways to deal with your grief. The other day I had a concept for a staff tanker, but the name Gondolier was taken on Excelsior. Really?!? So I tried on Everlasting and bam! Did I want the name more than that low-life who already had it on my server of choice? Absolutely. I want things with a fearsome passion. But I made do. And sometimes, you just get manna from heaven. I fully expected this one to be taken:

Every now and then I go through my alts to see if any of them have over 1.2bn.

Based on your photo, and based on my knowledge of the programming of the AH, there are a number of options that are based on errors. 1. You falsified your image. Shame on you! You should use your Photoshop skills for good, like putting Jeff Bezos on a space unicorn. 2. The past 5 is glitched and is showing a history for a different (possibly imaginary) item. 3. A glitched trade went through. Should that happen? No. But it’s glitchy. 4. A fictitious trade got printed. Again, that shouldn’t happen. I’ve seen 3 and 4 happen occasionally and 2 happen all the time.

My rad/dark blaster is about 40 and is lots of fun. Not as punchy punchy (or as well defended) as my dark/atomic was, but my ranged damage feels *much* higher. I skipped neutrino bolt and electron haze from the primary (considering dropping neutron bomb) and skipped Death Shroud and Suck Maul from the secondary.

There are several possible reasons: -- IOs are bucketed in the AH by type, but not by level. So you may be buying a level 50 Cleaving Blow A/D (which would indeed cost 490,400 inf to craft from recipe, plus cost of salvage), but that could have been sold as a level 10 Cleaving Blow A/D (which costs a few thousand). So it did not necessarily cost more to make than it is being listed for. -- there are some other ways to make crafting costs cheaper, including memorization and day job powers. -- most likely it is because the seller wants to get rid of it and sells at a low enough price to sell instantly, and they are *hoping* to get a bigger payday. This is also because people are lazy/stupid (take your pick). -- other

There's a number. Some can be overcome; some cannot. Elemental swords -- out. Elemental breath powers -- out. There are a few characters where these are essential powers (Ice stalker, e.g.) so they go to rot. I have issues with most of the EATs. I dislike the non-human forms of the Khelds aesthetically. I made my first crab form Soldier and I am going to have to change body type, because I can't see a damn thing with all those arms.

On the demand side, your arguments are valid. Most (more than half, I'd estimate) builds have one of more slots for to-hit buffs, and the Gaussian proc is probably the best choice for a single slot in Build Up or Aim. The set bonuses are good to great all the way to 6-slots. It's a good set. On the supply side, it's just too easy to come by, so if any one tries to restrict the supply out there, they can (will?) be flooded by more entering the market. And people have mostly gotten used to the current price bands and without a macro event to change the dynamics, I would expect any manipulation to have only short-term, if any, effects on prices. I've often lamented the inevitable "death by ice" of the AH, since supply is essentially infinite, but demand is limited by new players and new alts. But now I'm trying to come up with ways to spark demand, and I have an idea or two that I'll probably implement shortly. It's a marketing job, and that is certainly not my strong suit. If anyone else has any ideas, I'm all ears.

Step 1: Each enhancement enhances one or more characteristics of a power. Get familiar with those characteristics. For your "standard" damage power, those will be damage, accuracy, endurance reduction, recharge, and maybe a lot more based on the power. Step 2: Each enhancement has an "origin", which is why everyone uses abbreviations like SO and DO. The basic enhancements are training origin/dual origin/single origin ("TO/DO/SO") that will enhance a single characteristic. I listed those in increasing order of enhancement power. You can buy these from vendors or get them as drops from defeating enemies. (NOTE: TOs may be obsolete at this point. To make things confusing, you can only use DOs or SOs if they match your character's origin type (natural, magic, science, etc.) Step 3: Most enhancements have a level attached (exception: attuned, which will come later). How powerful they are depends on your level in comparison to the enhancement. You can slot an enhancement that is up to +3 to your level (or down to -3). As you level, the enhancements will stay the same level, and thus become relatively weaker. Once they are -4 to your level, they stop providing any benefit in terms of power enhancement. Step 4: There is now an invention system. Recipes drop from defeating enemies (or you can get them elsewhere). You change them from recipes to enhancements with salvage, a crafting station, and a fee. There are two types of recipes: common inventions and invention sets. Common are like DO/SOs, insofar as they enhance a single characteristic. The amount of that enhancement depends on the level of the recipe. Here, you can slot something that is more than three levels beneath you, but the enhancement level you get will not change as you level. A level 15 damage common IO will provide the same (low) enhancement levels to your power as long as you slot it. Step 5: Invention sets are the bread and butter of most builds. Not only do most set IOs enhance more than one characteristic, but you get various bonuses if you slot two or more of the same set in the same power. In general, you can get up to 5 of the exact same bonus, but no more. These bonuses are really what makes the game so powerful at this stage. Also, many sets have "procs" or otherwise special effects that can really assist a power. There are lots of resources on this when you are ready for it. Step 6: You can attune most set IOs if they have a specific level. Attuning changes the shape from a hexagon to a circle, gets rid of the associated level, and now the relative power of the set IO will rise as your level rises (up to the limit of the set's max level.) Some enhancements *only* come in attuned form. There are plenty of exceptions to this, but I hope that gets you started.

If anything in the Gaussian set was trading at 4-5mm, get on that horse and ride it as long and as far as you can. I think of it as 1-2mm -- just about converter fodder.