winter packs

[50caltech]

what is in them? how much stuff?   i have never had any but have heard many players talk about them?  at 25 mill on the auction house, are the goodies worth the expense?     examples, details please......

[Greycat]

WInter packs are like the hero/villain packs (or rogue packs) with various "stuff," primarily of interest for the winter IOs which are themselves fairly expensive.

 

Worth... is pretty subjective. *shrug* Surprisingly I don't see them listed on either wiki.

 

(You can, of course, just hop on beta and give yourself a bunch of inf and pick them up.;) Which is what I'm about ot do to refresh my memory.)

 

Edit: Saw what I wanted to be sure of. Yes, you can get candy cane salvage from them, as well as winter-os (of course.) Other unique things that are in these vs. the other packs are temporary powers like Winter Ward, Frosty Aegis and Summon Snow Beast (which... never seems to live that long.)

 

And, of course, you're not guaranteed a winter-o in them. Again, test server, opening up a bunch of them, most have at least one Winter IO, I've had a few with two and a few with none whatsoever - it's a 25m risk per. But if you've got the inf... *shrug*

Edited August 4, 2020 by Greycat

[Six-Six]

winter packs are just like super packs with the exception that instead of ATOs, you get winter IOs.

So you have a chance to get catalysts, unslotters, merits, converters, tailor coupons, experienced temp power, windfall, large (not super) indv and team insp, and brainstorm ideas (I think that's it, I can't recall any more off the top of my head).

personally, I'm not a big fan of winter IOs and I find them overpriced at that. I do occasionally by super packs because it's easier to make a profit off of them, especially when you luck out and get to ATOs in one go.

[50caltech]

ok kool, can any one explain with detail.....the same with super packs and or others?    on average just how much stuff are in these packs?   10 ,15, 20 items?  red/orange or purple recipes? or atos? etc.....its known that each are random.....but can you give some examples?    if a pack costs 10 or 15 million each etc...how much did you get back from selling the stuff, to compensate for the initial cost?

[Sir Myshkin]

Easier to just redirect you to the Market subsection where Marketeers have already gone over these things. Here is a link to a current mass-opening that shows all contents earned from 1,001 packs.

[Greycat]

2 hours ago, 50caltech said:

ok kool, can any one explain with detail.....the same with super packs and or others?    on average just how much stuff are in these packs?   10 ,15, 20 items?  red/orange or purple recipes? or atos? etc.....its known that each are random.....but can you give some examples?    if a pack costs 10 or 15 million each etc...how much did you get back from selling the stuff, to compensate for the initial cost?

You buy a pack, you get a salvage item (the "pack" itself.)

Each pack has five "cards."  You tell it to open, the cards flip.

Each "card" can grant something - an IO (considered rare/very rare, you will not get five of these, for instance - you'll get from 0-2,) or something like a tailor session, respec, 20 brainstorm ideas, 25 reward merits, etc. You will *not* get purple recipes, pvp recipies, etc. - you won't get Hecatomb, etc. from them. You are not guaranteed an IO.

 

Seriously, load up the test server, create a character, grant yourself 2 billion and pick up a pile of packs, you'll see. 🙂

Edited August 4, 2020 by Greycat
Added some example results of packs

[Six-Six]

On average, I might get:

1. 5 unslotters, 2. 20 Brainstorm ideas, 3. Dominion of Arachnos damage/end (ATO) 4. respec token 5. windfall temp power

Each card has a chance to get one of the items, as Greycat and I have listed. and Rarity plays. Sometimes you get 2 ATOs, sometimes none. I don't think anyone has ever rolled 3 ATOs. Temp powers and insps are quite common, so are unslotters and converters. Merits less common, etc. (I think you can also get boosters IIRC)

No purple or PvP IOs in the mix, nor recipes.

Additional note, these will end up in your character items (other tab of email--buttons at the bottom). And you can have any alt claim them.

What can you do with them? some things are account-locked like merits and temp powers. others, like converters, catalysts and unslotters you can sell in the AH. Merits you can convert to the aforementioned items and sell; similarly, brainstorm ideas can be crafted to salvage which you can also sell. ATOs, you can also sell, usually for 8mil. so if you invested 10mil for a super pack, it's easy to see how a lucky draw can earn you a profit, one catalyst + one ATO = 11 mil so you're already 1 mil ahead. though sometimes you break even or lose inf. 

In my case, I view super packs as a mini-game when I have inf to spare and alts to ATO up. (I don't slot ATOs in all my alts)

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by Six Six

[50caltech]

thanks very much for your explanations and details......it seems like high stakes gambling......

[Six-Six]

I suppose it's gambling, but I wouldn't call it high stakes. I wouldn't buy one if I only have 10mil. but If you've got a couple of 100mil (which you will just by enjoying the game, trust me), then it's a fun distraction. more often than not your break even. rarely do you lose and if you do, not by much. you can still easily make at least half of the 10 mil back if you sell stuff at the right time.

 

[Dazl]

Since Winter IO's sell for +20 million, you could look at it a number of ways. You could have picked up a Winter IO and a number of other goodies for the price of a Winter IO. You could sell the Winter IO and get your money back and keep the extra goodies. You could get 2 Winter IO's which you could keep, or sell to make a nice profit. Or you could get nothing and lose big time. It's a bit like playing the lottery.

[Yomo Kimyata]

7 hours ago, 50caltech said:

what is in them? how much stuff?   i have never had any but have heard many players talk about them?  at 25 mill on the auction house, are the goodies worth the expense?     examples, details please......

Some hard workers put together this listing:

 

 

[50caltech]

thanks folks

[Aberrant]

Created a page for them on the wiki using the list in that thread: https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Super_Pack/Lords_of_Winter

[MTeague]

I only buy SuperPacks and WinterPacks when I have enough influence for at LEAST six of them at once, plus 5-10 mil left over.

So if I have 65 mil?  I might buy 6 superpacks for 60 mil, and have 5 mil left over.

Or if I have 155 mil, I might buy 6 winterpacks for 150 mil, and have 5 mil left over. 

 

Why save 5-10 mil after? 

• I hate being totally broke.
• to afford market fees if I feel like posting anything for sale
• and/or to be my Seed Money for the next round of Converter Roulette

Why buy 6 at a whack minimum?

• because duds happen.  If you were still getting used to the market, still at a point where saving up 25 mil seems like a HUGE undertaking... then you don't want to spend all 25 mil on a single winter pack and be the unlucky guy who gets ZERO IO's and just gets a single booster and 80 Brain Storm Ideas for your rares. You'd feel like you just took a massive gut punch, you'd be burned and you'd never buy them again. 
• But if you buy 6 or more packs, sure, you might get 1-2 packs with duds, but you also might get a few packs that contain TWO winter-O's per pack. 
• I am personally convinced if you buy in bulk, you WILL get something like 1.4  Winter-O cards on average.  I do not have hard data on that, it's just my impression / experience. 
• it's just if you can't front the cost of buying in bulk, you'll have more change of scarring bad luck. Because some times the RNG gods smile upon you, and sometimes the RNG gods point and laugh at you. 

I also tend to no longer post Winter-O's for sale.  I tend to mail them around to my alts, perhaps converting a few times first. 

Some of the sets are *Quite* nice for set bonuses when you Superiorize them, and are still Not Too Shabby even before then.  Avalanche in particular. 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by MTeague

[SuperPlyx]

Just to be clear @MTeague   meant ATO from super packs not WInter-Os  ....believe he got his winter and super mixed up.

....some of the ATOs sell for a pretty penny.

 

 

Also..has anyone come across my ugly penny?

[Six-Six]

I think I got it. It is now my lucky penny 😃

[Saikochoro]

14 hours ago, Six Six said:

I suppose it's gambling, but I wouldn't call it high stakes. I wouldn't buy one if I only have 10mil. but If you've got a couple of 100mil (which you will just by enjoying the game, trust me), then it's a fun distraction. more often than not your break even. rarely do you lose and if you do, not by much. you can still easily make at least half of the 10 mil back if you sell stuff at the right time.

 

I decided to do it once and bought 2 super packs. Got mainly temp powers. Didn’t make anywhere near even half of the 20m I spent on the two. I know it’s random and just happened to be unlucky. But, for me, it was a failed experiment enough to make me not ever want to do it again. 
 

It is exciting to open so I do agree it can be a nice little side activity. But it’s pretty crushing when you get temp power, temp power, booster, brainstorm ideas. I might try again at some point, but probably not. 

Edited August 5, 2020 by Saikochoro

[Six-Six]

you sound like you could use a lucky penny.

[MTeague]

1 hour ago, SuperPlyx said:

Just to be clear @MTeague   meant ATO from super packs not WInter-Os  ....believe he got his winter and super mixed up.

Guilty.  I don't see WO's as acronym for WinterO's so my brain incorrectly autocorrected to ATO's.

[Greycat]

16 hours ago, Six Six said:

I suppose it's gambling, but I wouldn't call it high stakes. I wouldn't buy one if I only have 10mil. but If you've got a couple of 100mil (which you will just by enjoying the game, trust me), then it's a fun distraction. more often than not your break even. rarely do you lose and if you do, not by much. you can still easily make at least half of the 10 mil back if you sell stuff at the right time.

 

Eh, that's why I did mine on the test server. 😄

[tidge]

If you have a build that is specifically looking for a Winter IO set, and you have the Inf, buying Winter packs and playing converter roulette isn't a bad way to get a significant fraction of any given set. I don't often use Winter sets in my builds, but it has been more cost effective than placing near-BIN bids for entire sets.

 

You do have to have a level of comfort with buying multiple packs, converting, and relisting extras to get the "full savings" of course.

 

The same strategy applies to the ATO from the other packs, but my experience with Winter packs has been that they will (on average) yield more IOs.

 

Also note that the IOs from packs will not be catalyzed, although packs occasionally contain catalysts.