Winter IO Drops

[Dacy]

Does anyone know what rules are in place regarding Winter IO drops? I know they are associated with the winter event...do you only get them running the Winter Lord's realm event? Are they random? Are they only for 50s? Is there anything that increases odds of a drop?

 

-Dacy

[Roderick]

I could be wrong, but I don't think they drop at all. I believe the only way to create one is to buy it from a Merit Vendor or pull one from a Lords of Winter Super Pack.

[Dacy]

I know you can get them those two ways, but there was a conversation on one of the public channels about how they were about to become more common, and I remember them first appearing during one of the holiday events on Live; I just don't remember the details, nor do I know if this dev team would even do things the same way.  Just hoping someone knows something. 🙂

 

-Dacy

[Lost Ninja]

According to the original super pack announcement the Winter Super Pack will be cheaper during the event too... I'm guessing due to the way they're seeded this won't be the case?

 

[oxmox]

They're about to become more common because winter packs are 60% off for the winter event (25 mil to 10 mil) so people are buying a lot of them. More winter packs means more winter enhancements in circulation.

[Li_Sensei]

There are the Winter Pack IO's, but there are also the Winter's Gift Universal travel IO Recipes that you can buy from the Candy Keeper in the Chalet.  Maybe some confusion about which Winter IO's were being talked about?

[Dacy]

No, I’m sure of what they were talking about, but, I think they were misinformed. I just saw a video someone did on the winter event, reminding people about what’s going on, and the only mention of the IOs was mentioning that winter super packs would now be 10 million instead of 25 million.  So, that answers that. Thanks!

 

-Dacy

[Dacy]

And that's what I get for responding from email. I didn't see the whole topic and the other responses! Thanks, @Li_Sensei and @oxmox, that lines up with what I've heard, too.

 

-Dacy

[Snarky]

10 hours ago, Dacy said:

No, I’m sure of what they were talking about, but, I think they were misinformed. I just saw a video someone did on the winter event, reminding people about what’s going on, and the only mention of the IOs was mentioning that winter super packs would now be 10 million instead of 25 million.  So, that answers that. Thanks!

 

-Dacy

Yeah I tend to not even read stuff that says pack (means random in city speak right) at 25 mil

 

so what are these packs and where can you get them. My thinking is I need a couple sets of the Winter super rare sets. Winters bite etc Dropping 10 mil for a guaranteed one (any) would make sense for that

Edited December 2, 2019 by Snarky

[Clave Dark 5]

They're for sale at a set price in the /ah window.  I forget what they're under, 'salvage' maybe?

[Snarky]

5 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

They're for sale at a set price in the /ah window.  I forget what they're under, 'salvage' maybe?

Hate to be annoying. Comes natural. What do you get for the ten or twentyfive mil?  The joy of helping with inf sinks?

[drbuzzard]

They are under special salvage. 

 

They get you six cards drawn I think and the outcome is random. I've never bought more than a single, since at 25M it's a bit steep. Will probably get a lot of them while the event is up since it's the only opportunity. If they are like hero packs, the enhancements should average a bit over 1 per pack. 

[Hardship]

Here is a pretty good list of items that you can get from the Super Pack: Lords of Winter.

 

 

 

[Snarky]

Okay. My mistake. I don’t jnow why but i thought the rewards were categorized. You get 1 enhancer. Some weird insp. A pick from another type of thing

 

long story short i did a Posi on my 50 with some lowbies. Real fast of course. Made a little over 10 mil once rewards were converted 

 

and wasted it.  10 mil i should havr just given to domrone random

 

really angry i was so gullible. In future i will not buy these things. I may just start doing AE solo as well. The rate of return is higher farming. Why am i wasting my time running task forces. Especially if the money sinks are everywhere

 

bas teleporter. 1 mil. Everyone else used passcode bind

 

10 mil to buy a few insp? everyone in game telling me its such a good deal. Really pissed at myself forBuying  fhat

[Myrmidon]

20 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Okay. My mistake. I don’t jnow why but i thought the rewards were categorized. You get 1 enhancer. Some weird insp. A pick from another type of thing

 

long story short i did a Posi on my 50 with some lowbies. Real fast of course. Made a little over 10 mil once rewards were converted 

 

and wasted it.  10 mil i should havr just given to domrone random

 

really angry i was so gullible. In future i will not buy these things. I may just start doing AE solo as well. The rate of return is higher farming. Why am i wasting my time running task forces. Especially if the money sinks are everywhere

 

bas teleporter. 1 mil. Everyone else used passcode bind

 

10 mil to buy a few insp? everyone in game telling me its such a good deal. Really pissed at myself forBuying  fhat

At 25 million, I agree. At 10 million, I am all aboard, even if two of the 20 that I have bought so far were almost duds (3 Catalysts + merits made up the difference on one of those and at least 10 packs have had double Winter IOs).

[Dacy]

Okay, I gotta ask: why does everything need to be so expensive? This is not a company trying to get us to spend real money in a store on bonus items. This is a game kept alive and brought back because we LOVE it, not because it was so challenging to get outfitted! Other games say, "If we make it too easy, people will lose interest." I think we've passed that bar! WE LOVE THE GAME. WE WOULDN'T LEAVE IF THINGS WERE EASIER. But it's possible that, especially new people, they might get frustrated with the prices and how slowly the average player is able to get enough influence to get anything near a decent enhancing for ONE character, never mind the altaholic.  I've heard it time and time again from all sorts, how frustrating it is that everything is so expensive. The "general consensus" seems to be most people don't slot ANYTHING until they are in their 20s or more.

 

I have heard the private server gave their players a influence bonus they could claim to get started. Also, they would routinely give codes for prizes like the winterpacks and such. That sounds fun! And like the devs cared about making people happy! Even a little of that would go a long way around here. Quit making it such an effort just to get your character outfitted, and let us just do what we like to do, kick butt, make bases, have costume contests, run task forces and trials, RP, or  farm (would farming still be around as much if things were easier to buy?)

 

-Dacy

[nihilii]

Homecoming has had numerous adjustements to make things massively easier to get. All enhancements can be bought for merits, and influence can be traded for merits, which makes effective price caps on everything. Converters let you turn every bad enhancement into a good one. Recipes and enhancements are sold and bought irrelevant of level on the AH, so you can sell a level 21 IO and someone else gets it as a level 50.

Overall I'd say the game is between 5x and 10x easier than it was on Live. There's one effort you have to make: the initial investment of understanding the system. This game never explained systems well, I think that's a legitimate complaint. Forum guides can be helpful.

[Clave Dark 5]

3 hours ago, Snarky said:

10 mil to buy a few insp? everyone in game telling me its such a good deal. Really pissed at myself forBuying  fhat

I think those are the Bit O Honeys of the superpack trick-or-treat bags too.  Still, from what I've seen those enhancers tend to sell for closeish to 20 mill.  I've bought all of one pack so far myself as well (I usually have a list of things I want to buy and so don't feel the breathing space to splurge) and I pretty much just broke even right there.

[siolfir]

6 hours ago, Dacy said:

Okay, I gotta ask: why does everything need to be so expensive?

Because if you have, and play, a single level 50 character for about a week you can outfit 2-3 alts just from inf drops and selling common recipes. That's not even accounting for using the market to make money. For farmers, you can make millions per minute. 

 

You could argue that at low levels the rate of inf gain is too slow, and I'll agree with that - but that's when you can start using the market to your advantage if you're going to run a lot of alts without hitting 50 on any of them. I just don't like bothering with the market unless my inventory is full or I'm looking for something, and I have 50s so I just play them and email inf to my global to seed money for new alts.

[Snarky]

49 minutes ago, siolfir said:

Because if you have, and play, a single level 50 character for about a week you can outfit 2-3 alts just from inf drops and selling common recipes. That's not even accounting for using the market to make money. For farmers, you can make millions per minute. 

 

This has not been my experience on Homecoming. It took a little over a month of non stop task forces after i hit 50 to outfit my build. And i statrted with procs and uniques in my bank as well as an ATO set and other parts of final build. 
 

maybe you are just more efficient than me. I am not the best at this thing

 

i play non stop task forces earning over 50 merits weeknights and almost 200 on weekend day grinding. Converted to converters sold and then used to buy. For some expensive i/os i just spend 100 merits to get and slap them superior

 

sure you can take 300-500 merits cash out and have an okay build. It will not be top rated. Not close. O can play the game on a SS/Will Brute using i/os.  With a single task force paying for every SO. For the entire game.  Does not make it optimal

 

maybe you could share more on your 1 week strategy?  Because i would love to fully enhance 1 character per week

[Dacy]

I will definitely agree that SCORE made things much easier with the changes to the market and the drop rates, etc., and I love converters!! However, one side effect  of the market being a pool instead of level specific is, you pay as much for a recipe or IO set at level 10 as you do for 50. Unless you’re topside with a decked out 50, you’re struggling! And believe me, not all farmers are making millions per minute. Also, I’m not sure how much play time you are using to show that you can deck out two to three characters a week, but it’s definitely not a casual player like many I know. 
 

You only do well in being able to outfit characters in this game if you have an outfitted 50 or better yet an outfitted idealized farmer, and you understand the system, as in how to leverage what you have on the market or build that farmer who can rake in millions per minute. I have given away millions to players who understand neither of these things. I have heard people comment over and over again in help that they have no influence and no way to buy enhancements. I’ve known people who are still playing a level 50 with few IOS, let alone sets. 
 

Yes, the game is much easier than it ever was on live, and if you understand the systems, especially if you already have a 50 making you all your influence, it’s really easy to get your characters completely set. But, it is really hard to get going if you are a player who doesn’t get to get on all that often, and who doesn’t have a 50 they play to get their influence. You should not have to have a high top tier character to be able to outfit your lower level character! And I do not think that you should have to understand how to work the market to your advantage to be able to do so, either. 

 

-Dacy

[Galactron]

1 hour ago, Dacy said:

You only do well in being able to outfit characters in this game if you have an outfitted 50 or better yet an outfitted idealized farmer, and you understand the system, as in how to leverage what you have on the market or build that farmer who can rake in millions per minute

Respectfully disagree.  Just by casually playing the market *as I leveled up* my very first character was fully kitted out with set IOs well before level 50, and fully ready to swap in purples/catalyze ATOs when he finally dinged 50.  Yes, since then he has made my other alts lives easier - as in they rarely even bother with the market - but it's certainly doable as you level up.

[Erydanus]

12 hours ago, Snarky said:

Okay. My mistake. I don’t jnow why but i thought the rewards were categorized. You get 1 enhancer. Some weird insp. A pick from another type of thing

. . . .

10 mil to buy a few insp? everyone in game telling me its such a good deal. Really pissed at myself forBuying  fhat

You're not guaranteed any particular item in these packs. You get 1 rare item, which is often the rare enhancement associated with the set but maybe it's a respec (which is basically worthless on HC) or the Windfall power. You get a semi-rare item, and then you get 3 common things. 

 

On the AVERAGE, you will get an enhancement in every pack, but that means sometimes you get 0, sometimes you get 1, sometimes you get 2; someone who bought a bunch of winter packs said they got 1.4 enhancements on average.  If you just want a rare enhancement, whether it's the winter set or an ATO, just buy it on the auction house, most of them go for right about 8 million. People are buying the various packs for 10 mil, keeping merits & rare salvage, and selling the enhancements that aren't the ones they want for about 8 mil. When the winter packs cost 25 mil, the enhancements were being sold for 22-25 mil. When the winter event ends the price will probably go right back up there. 

 

As @Galactron said in the post above mine you do not need to be a farmer to make plenty of money in this game. While I do have a 50 I generally "silo" all my characters other than I now provide generic level 25 IOs in the supergroup base. I have a level 24 alt who was up to 60 mil the other day from playing the market casually as I moved him from day job location to location.  I wrote an entire treatise and cost breakdown about how much money you save leveling by crafting generic IOs and not wasting money on SOs, for instance. Other people have literally written out step by step how to make money on the AH and so on.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Erydanus

[Snarky]

I hear people talk about casually playing the market as they level up and having ATOs and purples ready when they 50. Then my brain squirts out my ear

 

i dont play casually. I grind pretty hard. A full set 6 enhancers of Winters  Bite or Superior Avalanche or the 5 sets of 4 Gladiators Armor i have did not come from casually playing the market.  Can you casually play the market and make a billion?  If you can props!  I Ground task forces for merits.  like it is a second job

 

it is not that i do not believe you. I do. So many people say they casually kit out 50s in a few days and make tons of money on the market they must be telling the truth. No one challenges them so people must see it among their community

 

personally that just does not happen for me. I tend to lose on the market much like i lost 10 million on this latest debacle. I do not make millions every minute farming as was stated earlier in the thread. O. A good hour i make enough for one ir two nice enbancers.  And then am so burnt i wont go near a farm for days

 

i like task forces and the experience of eating a few maps with teams. I make decent rewards there. But i do not earn lime you folks

 

 ut

[quixoteprog]

It is not all that hard to get going. I am all for players experiencing the early game, or "roughing" if, if you will; but once you have done that on a couple of toons you don't have to. It is really easy to go from 0-50 on a toon if you don't care about playing through the content for the umpteenth time. There are a bunch of tutorials for starting up a fire farmer and while it may take a bit longer than some of the people claim in their videos it is pretty quick. They key is in getting started for minimal money.

 

If you don't have a lvl 50 sugar daddy you can easily make one with 10 easy steps.

 

1. Make a fire/Spines brute. (There are other ATs you can do it with, but this is simplest. Just take all fire defense powers and AOE powers available as they come up, The main idea is to cap your fire resistance and fire defense. The tutorials can show you how to add a tracker for these in your UI and there are threads here to give you optimized builds)

2. Run the tutorial. While there, visit the P2W vendor. Get the double XP boost, maybe a couple hours, but not the full 8. Kind of depends on how much inf you have to start with. Also, grab the 5 complimentary enhancements. These are useful until 20-30. You can also turn off any inspiration drops except orange, purple, and red here. and you may want to do that now.

3. Keep the two big inspirations you get from the tutorial. (to sell in the AH. They are worth a lot more than to spend them killing toxic thugs)

4. Once in Atlas Park, or wherever, get a couple hundred influence, either from another toon or kill a couple thugs to get an enhancement drop to sell. Whatever. You need this to pay the fee on the Auction House.

5. type "/ah" in your menu bar to bring up the Auction house. Sell the two inspirations. You should net about 50K but this can vary widely. You can now buy a full set of training enhancements, if you want. Probably just wait. But I usually do because they are cheap.

6. Run a couple DFBs while you have the double XP. This should get you to lvl 10-15 and make

7. However long you do DFB runs, once you have 10 insp. slots you can go to the Architect mission building. There is an NPC that sells insp right next to the mission room. Buy 5 purple and 5 orange inspirations. Don't take them yet. All buffs seem to get wiped away whenever you enter or leave an AE mission.

8. Look up a fire farm mission (Big Dog is fun but there are a lot) set your mission difficulty to -1/x4-8-no solo bosses (you can bump this up as you level and get better enhancements)

9. Once you are in the mission gobble all of the insp. This will cap, or nearly cap your fire defense and fire resistance so that you won't die from 20 mobs pounding on you. Kill everything. You will probably die several times until you get the hang of it but that's part of the fun.

10 Repeat step8 and 9 until 50.

 

The inspirations will not last for the entire mission, but as things die they will drop more inspirations to replenish your store. You just keep eating the purple and orange and red ones until you either die or complete. You can turn 3 of any kind into one of another. As you level up you will focus more and more on turning things into purple, since defense is the hardest thing to cap. With even a gimped spines/fire brute you will cap resist pretty quickly. Look up a farming build on the internet and optimize as desired.

 

You will level quickly. And make a bunch of inf. Sell the rarer recipes and salvage on the AH. Sell the other to the vendor in the mission room. Once you make 50 and start getting some set bonuses you should be running +4/X8 with bosses on.