The Monologue Thread

[Yomo Kimyata]

MuahaHAHAHAurgh, *cough cough cough*

 

Much like we used to post a new thread every once in a while when things were too quiet, I wanted to start a new thread.  If you want to brag, give advice, complain about how much better things were back in the good old days, whatever!  It's your monologue.

 

I'll start with a bit of a strategy I use when I need a WO set, I want it right away, and I don't want to pay buy-it-nao prices.  Despite the fact that I own plenty of these things, I can't be bothered to send myself emails or put them in base storage.  So let's say I need 5 Avalanches.  What I do is buy 5 Winter Packs (still available under 25mm!) and open them.  If that doesn't yield you 5 WOs, then buy another pack.  Anyway, many people don't seem to realize how easy it is to use the converters/merits that you will get in the pack to make exactly what you want.  There are only 5 different sets, and it will take on average only 4 rolls (at 1 converter each) to get the set you want.  And converters are free!  Or at least already included in the Winter Packs you just bought along with a lot of other stuff that will make you whole.  Then when you have five of the set you want, you will probably only need to convert in set for one or two of them.  And sell off everything else you got.  Is this cheaper than buying a full set at instant prices?  In my experience, usually, and it's a lot faster than putting in bids and waiting.

 

I also will do this when there is a disparity in prices among sets, which is often.

 

Next!

[Aeroprism]

I built my solo super-base (I sadly don't have any friends) with all my neatly labeled containers and I discovered that unslotters are my best friends: my alts recycle everything they no longer need,

 

I store and store and store like a packrat and my purchase needs plummet as I store even more.

I am an ecological, influence-friendly happy player.  Yay.

 

(Hey it's your fault, you encouraged me to brag)

[iBot]

<captures bad guy... proceed with monologue...>

 

I sell everything on the AH.  All salvage goes on there.  All yellow, orange and purple recipes go on there.  All catalysts go on there.  All converters go on there.  Then when I need something I just use the easily emailed stash of inf I have on hand to buy it.  I have started to also purchase either hero/villain packs or winter packs when the IO I want is either in short supply or is priced higher than the pack itself.  When I was younger I was stupid and would pay 15 mil for an ATO but no more.  Now I pay 10 mil for the pack and just convert to what I want sell everything else.  Bonus if the pack had 2 enh in it.  No need to build a base.  No need to remember what character has my stash of stuff.  The email system and AH for the win and with the side benefit of I can access it from almost anywhere.  I've also started to place a stash of large insp in email as well.  I just empty my tray of them whenever full and I'm running around doing 50s stuff.  Fills up quick and I get to have plenty on hand for when I want those special loadouts for a tough fight.

 

Wait... where'd that villain go?!???

[Ukase]

So...my character emails are filled with winter sets and ATOs, and my sg has 10 bins for purples - one for each kind. When I get a purple, I don't convert them, I just craft and drop it in the appropriate bin. 

Oddly - Apocalypse and Armageddon are easily the least dropped - at least for me, anecdotally. Have never kept a specific work sheet on them - but over time, it's curious how I have 80 something of all of them except Arm & Apoc. Only about 50-60 of those. I thought maybe it was because of slotting..but I seem to use more Hecatombs & Ragnaroks. 

But now - a curious question since some of you are bored. We all know an item is worth as much as people are willing to pay for it. 
But, I have a farmer with close to 10K incarnate threads. 

That's only 333 super team inspirations I can get. Sometimes, they go for 2 million, but you'd have to be fairly patient to get that. Presumably mostly on the weekends. 

1. What do you think they're worth? 
2. Why do you think they're worth that much? 

With an IO, we have seeded salvage that can put a cap, ultimately, on what the salvage is worth, plus the crafting cost. So, we do have a general sense of what an item is worth. It's the perceived utility of that IO that drives the price up or down. 
Common IOs that cost close to 500k at level 50 to craft are routinely sold for 300k or much less. This is often due to insane people like me, who badge. When the game has you craft literally hundreds of common IOs and you don't want your AH slots filled with items that will never bring you more than 300k on average...you may be inclined like me to sell them cheaply, take a loss just to be rid of them. 

The salvage is seeded to put a cap on what they are worth, and they're also bucketed to further suppress the demand, which keeps the cost on the AH down. Not to mention all the winter packs that were bought with who knows how many damn brain storm ideas that are still left in emails. 

So, supply and demand seem to be the primary drives of the price of super inspirations. The large, despite their low resale value at the vendor can usually claim 25k up to 100k, depending on the supply/demand. But the supers...they don't drop, unless someone claims it as a reward, but you only get one. Seems odd that someone would claim those anyway. 

I thought maybe I would "upgrade" some shards to threads...and pay 1m to upgrade 10 for 10, but 10 threads won't get me a super team, only a super. And those...occasionally you might get 1m, but seems like those are usually selling for 250k, or thereabouts. Only rarely would it be worth it to sell those, in my opinion. I think I did see the super reds sell for 500k about a month ago. And candidly, since I have so many, I don't really keep track of the prices. 

But, I think the super teams and the ultimates are the most popular, as far as AH goes. 

Thoughts? 

[iBot]

Interesting question and possible hijack of a thread so I approve.  I will admit I've also wondered why insp sell for what they do on the AH.  The normal large ones can go sometimes for more than 50k which seems ridiculous to me.  The dual insp I can see sometimes going for a bit more but even those are a pain cause while they do drop they cannot be combined.  The team ones I guess some use them but honestly I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've actually seen one pop on my buff bar because someone on the team used it.  Maybe more so during iTrials or Hami since I haven't done those since coming back I've no data there.  As for the supers I think the only reason I have one or two is someone gave them to me when HC came back saying "Look at this!"... and I've never used them.  They sit in my AH stash.

 

I think that is the primary driver for those types of insp.  Players just don't use them enough to see them as anything worth having.  When you can cap most of the important stats with a proper build why bother with insp at all?  You'd think that lower characters would utilize them more but since you can only carry so many at once and they don't drop while in mission it makes them even less likely to rely on them.  And turning them on so they do drop just increases the number of items for RNGesus to decide you really don't need that enrage for a long long time.

 

That's my initial thoughts at least.

 

... And now back to your regularly scheduled thread 😇

[Ukase]

There's no question the Ultimates are primarily used for Really Hard Way and serious speeders on speed tfs/trials. 
Same with the super rages and intuition imbuements (the team super dual red/yellows)

When I solo tfs and fight an AV, I will use a boatload of the super team reds, (for the summons or lore pets) but never even think about using the ultimates, and I have no idea why. 

I will also use the super lucks on master runs, just in case, or to shore up any numbers when facing AVs. But, you make a point, it's often over-doing it, as their chance to hit is floored with a small luck in most cases, but I can never be sure about debuffs. 

[iBot]

I've never fully looked into how debuffs are affected by insp and what it takes to overcome certain break points.  Whenever I'm playing I almost have to force myself to remember to use the insp even during a tough fight.  Sometimes I remember to pop a purp or orange if I get overrun but typically if I'm that bad off I did something poor tactically and will be dead before the insp even fires.  I find that the desire to hold the insp for a "tough fight" is probably the main reason why I don't just use them more.  My builds are designed to handle the "tough fight" so the insp doesn't matter even if the mob has some form of debuff.  Personally, I don't bother trying to solo AVs or GMs so I'd say that is probably why I never really looked into what it takes to do it.  Still you'd think that given how useful they can be for certain tasks that the market would be more liquid and definitely a higher base price.  But that requires more psychology then I'm equipped with. 👍

[Yomo Kimyata]

17 hours ago, Ukase said:

That's only 333 super team inspirations I can get. Sometimes, they go for 2 million, but you'd have to be fairly patient to get that. Presumably mostly on the weekends. 

1. What do you think they're worth? 
2. Why do you think they're worth that much? 

 

 

Ah, the whole superfluous thread issue.  There really should be an option to turn off threads on a character because at a certain point they are of no more use to your character (assuming you are T4 in every incarnate that you want to be) and you can't trade them.  (I do not think you should be able to trade them, myself.)

 

But back to the inspirations.  I use a lot of them, especially on new characters.  Mostly large, since I seem to be able to buy them in bulk for about 1,000 a piece and then if need be convert them to what I want.  I spent a bit of time trading super inspirations, but stopped quickly.  You can buy at 5 and sell at 10, which is good, but the consistent volume is not there.

 

So what is it worth?  To me, I would have to start with the value of a large inspiration.  Call that 10k.  I can see a case for Super damage, endurance, health, resurrection but I wouldn't ever use any others unless they dropped in play.  Personally I only use team inspirations with masterminds, because I'm selfish like that.  So maybe 10x a large?  I'd probably buy some at 100k, but 1mm feels like a waste of inf.

 

I have no experience with the level shift ones.

 

Again, just my opinion on a relative value play.

[Sakai]

Had no idea that Team inspirations affect MM pets. Do they help Troller pets or P2W summons?  Do Team mates and pets need to be in a certain range to get the benefit of the inspiration or is being on the team good enough?

 

I enjoy the Ultimates.  Nothing like all of a sudden being tough enough to rip Frostfire apart.  

Edited June 9, 2021 by Sakai

[tidge]

Rando contributions:

 

1) for ATO and Winters: if the market looks hostile (i.e. BIN too high, or too few pieces) I will just buy packs and play roulette. I typically stop when I'm within 1 piece of what I want and then go to the market to fill the specific hole.

 

2) Team insps: I try to pull them out for use (by level 50s) during low level TFs / SFs. If you play them frequently enough you can get a sense for which parts you will need them... Hello, why is everyone always grouping against +4 Clamor? <- Seriously, do folks not pay attention to her attacks? I think every time I've seen a team wipe in a Penny Yin TF at +4 it is because a majority of the team is standing toe-to-toe with Clamor, including the folks with ranged heals/debuffs/buffs/blasts.

Edited June 9, 2021 by tidge

[Yomo Kimyata]

10 hours ago, Sakai said:

Had no idea that Team inspirations affect MM pets. Do they help Troller pets or P2W summons?  Do Team mates and pets need to be in a certain range to get the benefit of the inspiration or is being on the team good enough?

 

I... I... I just assumed that they did?  They appear to affect MM pets based on some half assed testing I just did.  No idea about other summons.

Edited June 9, 2021 by Yomo Kimyata

[Yomo Kimyata]

Muahahahahaha!

 

Inventory:

 

That's for other people and the AH to hold.  I have many SGs and for the most part I gave up on them shortly after I registered them.  Travel?  Homecoming is this far away from making an instant travel button to wherever you want to go with zero recharge time.  Storage?  I can keep up to 1,800 items in each SG.  You know what holds more than 1,800?  Everyone else.

 

For reals, I don't bother with using SGs to store inventory.  I have enough alts that I use them to store lots and lots of work in progress inventory (WIP) in their personal holdings and their AH slots.  I don't see the need in holding 10,000 or even 1,000 LotG recharge IOs unless I can quickly sell them for significantly more than I bought them.  If someone starts bidding 20mm for LotG recharges, I am sure I can produce 500 in an hour, and 5,000 in a day from what I have on hand. 

 

I see the value in holding large amounts of rare salvage, even yellow salvage.  But finished product?  Not so much.

 

Wait!  Don't press that button, that is my secret weakness!  Aaargh....

[Scientist]

8 hours ago, tidge said:

Rando contributions:

2) Team insps: I try to pull them out for use (by level 50s) during low level TFs / SFs. If you play them frequently enough you can get a sense for which parts you will need them... Hello, why is everyone always grouping against +4 Clamor? <- Seriously, do folks not pay attention to her attacks? I think every time I've seen a team wipe in a Penny Yin TF at +4 it is because a majority of the team is standing toe-to-toe with Clamor, including the folks with ranged heals/debuffs/buffs/blasts.

I have been on at least one Posi 1 TF which ultimately failed where if I had had enough team insps, we could probably have succeeded.  There were only two chars above level 20 on the TF, and the leader had never run a TF before so had it on +2, and we couldn't beat ourselves.   There are often very few team insps on the market, and I didn't think of it in time.  I now have some stashed.  

[EmperorSteele]

2 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

If someone starts bidding 20mm for LotG recharges, I am sure I can produce 500 in an hour, and 5,000 in a day from what I have on hand. 

 

That is DISGUSTING!

 

Good job!

[Troyusrex]

4 hours ago, Scientist said:

I have been on at least one Posi 1 TF which ultimately failed where if I had had enough team insps, we could probably have succeeded. 

I've been on many TFs where things are going poorly until I pull out the team insps. Better yet, I have an almost unending supply since they are stored in Email/Character Items.

[Ukase]

On 6/8/2021 at 10:38 PM, Sakai said:

Had no idea that Team inspirations affect MM pets. Do they help Troller pets or P2W summons?  Do Team mates and pets need to be in a certain range to get the benefit of the inspiration or is being on the team good enough?

 

I enjoy the Ultimates.  Nothing like all of a sudden being tough enough to rip Frostfire apart.  

Team inspirations are the only ones that will help an MM pets - UNLESS you literally click and drag an inspiration to your MM's stat bar in the pet window. And even then, they have to be within 20 feet of you. 

This is why I often disobey our league leader during RHW runs, as I tend to wait for teammates to be within that 20 foot radius. For most of these fights when solo, other than the reds, I'll just use them just before I engage the AV, to hopefully mitigate the alpha. I'm generally not worried after the alpha, and just want to clobber the AV as fast as I can. Thus, the reds. 

In a way, it's interesting to me to hear others thoughts on these "tools" at our disposal. The team supers cost 30 threads. The individual ones only cost 10. And yet, The supers often command a 4-5x price point. (and, lol, sometimes they don't) 

The game seems to think that 10 shards, converting into 10 threads (once per day! ) is worth 1 million. Could that suggest that, given our old Paragon Studio devs tendency to look for inf sinks at every opportunity, they thought 10 threads was worth about 100k? Or a million? 

Ultimately, they're worth as I stated initially - as much as someone is willing to pay. With Luna, and the abundance of players with farmers on second (and even third or fourth accounts), threads are all but free, outside of the opportunity cost of time - which is often paid by pursuing XP, drops, whatever. The threads are a bonus. I think this is the only thing keeping the price of these sky-rocketing to 2M or more. The demand is definitely there. I sell out routinely. My poor farmers are rebelling, having been stripped bare of their emp merits, and now their threads. (no, they aren't really rebelling. But sometimes..I swear they are looking at me cross-eyed like I'm an evil slave master. ) 

In my mind, the single supers are worth no more than 500k, and the teams no more than 1.5M. Crazy, right? 

[iBot]

Interesting comparison and I hadn't thought of it along those lines.  I wonder if the high prices are players that don't realize that they can use threads that are useless once you are T4 to get the insp instead of buying them on the AH.  Honestly I would have thought that given how many threads are laying around on all my various characters that the specials would sell for no more than 50k - 100k depending on demand.  And given that you can run DA arcs to get components you don't even need to use threads to get to T4 so it really means they are worthless and in large quantities that should drive any cost basis for them towards zero.  Going to have to noodle on this one a bit.  And damn it I hate thinking on a Monday 😜

[Ukase]

I have literally 10,000's of threads across a number of characters/accounts. 

But  - wait! There's a RHW this Saturday! Every Saturday. The characters with all those threads already have The Really Hard Way badge, and Master of Magisterium. So, what to do? I just spent all my threads getting this newer character ready for RHW, getting t-4, etc. No more threads left! At least, not the 400 threads needed to get the inspirations desired. 
4*30 ultimates =120
4*30 dual team red/yellows=120

8*30 Team reds = 120
4*10 solo reds = 40
400 threads

That's a lot of threads unless you have done a ton of content with your newish 50. And generally, we use threads to make the common components needed, right? 

So, anecdotally, that's what happens in my case. I try to get my alts that are thread rich to stash what's needed in my sg base ahead of time. And generally do. But every now and then, I get busy and can't get that done. So, I end up over-paying for these inspirations. (usually buying them from my own alt, lol) 

Additionally, the staging area for iTrials is sometimes Pocket D - which doesn't have a Luna to sell them. Recently, folks have been using Echo Plaza, as there's a Luna there as well. This may actually cause the prices of these inspirations to drop. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

You know what really gets my spandex in a twist?

 

So you decide to clean out the recipes on a playing alt.  I go to a vendor and sell all of the common recipes, all of the unsexy rares.  Then I start to craft and gather salvage and I open up and find a yellow recipe that requires rare salvage.  That is generally the only time I will delete a recipe -- purely out of spite.

[tidge]

Ugh, Yellow Recipes (sometimes true Uncommons!) that require Rare salvage are a grief. The Orange (Rare) recipes that don't require Rare salvage don't make up for it IMO.

[iBot]

I've always wondered if the yellow recipes that require orange salvage were some sort of database entry error.  And if that is the case wonder if at some point HC will fix that error.  Same goes for the few orange recipes that require no uncommon. 

[Ukase]

What really tickles me is the new PvP snipe set. If you look, all 6 recipes all take the same exact salvage. 

But, I always craft those yellows that take rares. The rare salvage is free, the converters are free. So craft it, convert it, see what you get. You know you're gonna make inf. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

What really tickles me is the new PvP snipe set. If you look, all 6 recipes all take the same exact salvage. 
 

 

I think that Homecoming took that tact with every new set they have introduced.  I'm particularly thankful for the PvP snipe set though.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Muahahahah

 

I recently bought every Trap of the Hunter proc from the AH (highest price I paid was 9mm).  I don't remember exactly how many, but it was somewhere between 500 and 700 of them.  I reposted 10 of them, and have been converting the remainder and selling them.

 

Today I broke even on my expenditure, and I've got about 350 more to convert and sell.

 

 

[Black_Assassin]

Oh that is delightfully ebil