Buy ATOs?

[Andreah]

9 minutes ago, Troo said:

So what I'm reading here is prices are too cheap?

I would say Merit prices for most things are generally too high, but not greatly too high for some things.

 

For example, buying a LotG global recharge recipe will cost 50 Merits. Those are worth 10 Million Inf, and an already crafter LotG global recharge enhancement can be had off the Auction for 8 Million. The recipe costs 10 million plus two rares worth about another million and some odds and ends plus crafting fee. It's more expensive, but not hugely so. And this also puts a soft cap on the price anyone can reasonably charge for this enhancement on the auction.  A casual player would do better to convert their merits to Inf and then buy it, and save a couple million.

 

There are other rares which are not remotely worth 50 merits' equivalent of 10 Million on the auction. And uncommon recipes sell for 20 Merits, which is still 4 Million. A lot of uncommons enhancements can be had for a fraction of that. 

 

It's a matter of whether you feel you need to spend wisely in the range of millions or not. For wealthy players, probably not. But I think most all casual players should consider their options carefully. It can add up a a big savings in Influence or time to get a build slotted out.

 

It's possible Boosters and Converters sell too low. If their Merit prices were raised, the 50 and 100 Merit recipes might be better placed in terms of cost, but this would generally drive prices of everything downstream from converters on the auction up.

 

Finally, Catalysts are priced wildly too high in terms of Merits. They're just not as useful as they were on Live, and spending 20 Merits on them, the equivalent of 4 Million inf, is downright criminal when they can be had for 1.5 Million on the auction. They would be more sanely priced at 10 Merits.

Edited June 28, 2022 by Andreah

[Andreah]

I've considered suggesting the HC Devs do a merit price rebalance, but it's a more complex problem and fraught with potential adverse downstream impacts. It would also need to be done with an eye on the value of AE Tickets, superpack drop rates and prices, and the metas of converter roulette.

 

If we rebalanced prices, I can't think of anyone winning other than the large scale marketeers. Except Catalysts. Those are a trap for casual player and ought to be reduced in price or removed from the merit store.

 

Or, alternatively, unbucket the attuned and leveled IO Set enhancements. Now that would make catalysts valuable again, and player who're using catalysts to attune their set pieces wouldn't be wasting their merits and influence any more.  Catalyst prices on the auction would float up a little closer to their equivalent merit value, and they wouldn't wreck the downstream economy the way messing with converters would. But this isn't going to happen, and I'm okay with that. We just need to continue educating the non-marketeers and casuals on how to best use their Merits.

[Andreah]

38 minutes ago, Ukase said:

The long and short of it is: with Hero/Villain packs, you can make inf, but not a great deal.

With either a little luck or some volume, a player can make a million or so off each pack by selling those contents which can be sold, or used by you instead of buying them from the auction. But it's a lot of UI clicking and claiming from emails which can be fussy, and then posting to the auction and pricing for selling.

 

The packs also drop things that are useful but can't be sold. Things like "Experienced" ,"Windfall", and etc. temp powers, amplifiers, free tailor sessions and free respecs. If you open a lot of packs your email claim will be jammed with them. If those have value to you, that helps.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Deep exhale.

 

There are always arguments about how to best monetize merits.  They are a gift from above that rewards you for playing the game.

 

There seems to be a number of approaches.

 

1.  (and vastly popular) Spend merits on an item.  Instasell item (offer at 1 inf or 5 inf or whatever).  Move on with your life.  It's not that difficult to figure out what items are seemingly the most profitable.  Converters are a popular choice, since you will generally be able to sell them in mass quantities (frequently to me!).

 

2.  Spend merits on an item.  Offer item at a price that does not sell instantly but will sell soon(tm).

 

3.  Spend merits on an item.  Transform said item into another more profitable item and sell it, either instantly or soon(tm).

 

4.  Spend merits on an item and *gasp* use it!

 

Then there is the question of how much you want to sell and how quickly.  I wouldn't want to dump 10,000 merits worth of unslotters in a day, for example.

 

Personally, my merits go to converters for personal use.

[Redletter]

17 hours ago, Andreah said:

I think the merit costs of a number of things could be adjusted to not be quite so far off the market equivalent values of the merits and the things you could buy directly with them. Some of them are wildly bad deals. Others, pretty fair. I think the losers in this are the more casual folks who don't stop to work out the ratios.

As a casual person who tried to dip their toes into IO sets because "Wait, my Snap Shot can have a chance to HOLD?! Wow so cool!" had my buying a lot of crap that just isnt very good at all, being sold at frankly insane prices that fluctuate wildly (in some part due to how people who play the market, manipulate the market).

 

On 6/27/2022 at 5:18 AM, Erratic1 said:

From the Merit Vendor you can purchase an ATO for 100 merits. You can purchase 3 converters for 1 merit.

 

On the Auction House, converters sell for 70 thousand influence. Most ATOs I look at sell for around 10 million influence.

 

So if you had 10,000,000/70,000 = 143 converters lying around you could sell them for the influence to buy the ATO. 143 converter would cost 143/3 = 48 merits, which is 52 merits less than buying the ATO from the Merit Vendor.

 

Yeah, you have to wait for the converters to sell (but they do sell).  Is there anything else I am missing?

 

I mean. I don't know the math, but buying Winter's and a catalyst (for 120 merits, assuming you don't have one of these on hand) sells for 20->30mil depending on the IO, which is 20 LESS merits than converters, for double the profit. These 20 extra merits could be use to buy converters, or, spent on a catalyst for the next time you get a winter's.

 

What we REALLY need to talk about is how Overwhelming Force is a universally applicable IO set with great bonuses, that takes usually less than 45min to get (per Enhancement), but NO BODY seems to want to play the very fun Trial to GET them, and yet despite being in literally endless supply (it's probably easier to get an Overwhelming Force enhancement than a Super Inspiration) they STILL sell for 6m on average... and they ALSO cost 100 merits to buy off the merit vendor.

 

Im not saying we should sell Overwhelming force for 100inf on average, but, I am saying I want to play SBB more, so start answering my posts in LFG or I'll be angy 😡

Edited June 28, 2022 by Redletter
I forgot that Overwhelming Force is ALSO 100 merits, so I put that in there

[Redletter]

4 hours ago, Andreah said:

The packs also drop things that are useful but can't be sold. Things like "Experienced", "Windfall", and etc. temp powers, amplifiers, free tailor sessions and free respecs. If you open a lot of packs your email claim will be jammed with them...

 

If those have value to you, that helps.

 

Literally more valuable than 60 Converters, for some...

[Sovera]

On 6/27/2022 at 1:18 PM, Erratic1 said:

From the Merit Vendor you can purchase an ATO for 100 merits. You can purchase 3 converters for 1 merit.

 

On the Auction House, converters sell for 70 thousand influence. Most ATOs I look at sell for around 10 million influence.

 

So if you had 10,000,000/70,000 = 143 converters lying around you could sell them for the influence to buy the ATO. 143 converter would cost 143/3 = 48 merits, which is 52 merits less than buying the ATO from the Merit Vendor.

 

Yeah, you have to wait for the converters to sell (but they do sell).  Is there anything else I am missing?

 

Now this has changed some, but so little as one year ago (AKA HC had been up for a year at least) I'd still find normal ATOs for 7-10 mill and superior ATOs for 20+ mill. I had a very brief stint of buying ATOs, slotting them, attuning them, then selling them, before I decided I could not be arsed despite the absurd lucre in buying one thing for 7-10 mill, a catalyst for 2 mill, then resell for 20-25 mill.

[Andreah]

46 minutes ago, Redletter said:

I am saying I want to play SBB more, so start answering my posts in LFG or I'll be angy

I tried SSB once back on Live and I was so confused and hated the #@!$% thing so much it's got to be the very last thing I'd run ever. You go enjoy the SSB; I'll just buy the OWF off the market. :D

[Andreah]

30 minutes ago, Redletter said:

 

Literally more valuable than 60 Converters, for some...

If I could sell the ~1,000 free tailor sessions that I have, I would. Well, most of them, anyways. :)

[Marshal_General]

I run SBB so much that Sylvia has a restraining order placed against my characters.

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

4.  Spend merits on an item and *gasp* use it!

 

No! Unheard of ...

 

 

...well... wait... that's the only thing I spend merits on.

 

 

[SwitchFade]

With 100 merits I can get 300 converters.

 

With 300 converters I can make 80 million.

 

Some can average about 100-120 million, but I'm impatient.

[Golden Azrael]

On 6/28/2022 at 2:22 PM, Andreah said:

I would say Merit prices for most things are generally too high, but not greatly too high for some things.

 

For example, buying a LotG global recharge recipe will cost 50 Merits. Those are worth 10 Million Inf, and an already crafter LotG global recharge enhancement can be had off the Auction for 8 Million. The recipe costs 10 million plus two rares worth about another million and some odds and ends plus crafting fee. It's more expensive, but not hugely so. And this also puts a soft cap on the price anyone can reasonably charge for this enhancement on the auction.  A casual player would do better to convert their merits to Inf and then buy it, and save a couple million.

 

There are other rares which are not remotely worth 50 merits' equivalent of 10 Million on the auction. And uncommon recipes sell for 20 Merits, which is still 4 Million. A lot of uncommons enhancements can be had for a fraction of that. 

 

It's a matter of whether you feel you need to spend wisely in the range of millions or not. For wealthy players, probably not. But I think most all casual players should consider their options carefully. It can add up a a big savings in Influence or time to get a build slotted out.

 

It's possible Boosters and Converters sell too low. If their Merit prices were raised, the 50 and 100 Merit recipes might be better placed in terms of cost, but this would generally drive prices of everything downstream from converters on the auction up.

 

Finally, Catalysts are priced wildly too high in terms of Merits. They're just not as useful as they were on Live, and spending 20 Merits on them, the equivalent of 4 Million inf, is downright criminal when they can be had for 1.5 Million on the auction. They would be more sanely priced at 10 Merits.

 

I think you make some sound points.

 

If it was me?  I'd just take a chainsaw to the price of things and kneecap it in half.  Double the price of TF Merit Rewards (the TFs are long enough to justify it.)

 

Maybe I've just got a short attention sp...  

 

Where was I?  Oh yeah.

 

I'd like to just go to my Hero Origin vendor and purchase the AT and Purple Sets that with a Hero Merit(s).

 

Another way of doing it, would be narratively.  You complete a series of Origin arcs and get your 'purple' sets as you complete your arcs with 'unlocks' that boost your Snipe...or your Super KO punch etc.  More specifically linking missions with the rewards that improve your power.

 

Azrael.

Edited July 3, 2022 by Golden Azrael

[Golden Azrael]

Update.  I resisted the urge to use Merits at all for my Peace Bringer build.  

 

Because the fact remains (as others have said) you can make more money from Merits and then buy the ATs you need.

 

eg. Peacebringer ATs?  5-6 million a pop on today's market.  Most I paid for some was 8 million.  It didn't make sense to use Merits for that.

 

Even the Blistering Cold I paid 25 million each hard cash rather than use the merits.

 

I find cash comes alot easier than Merits.  

 

Azrael.

[Without_Pause]

I don't sell converters for 70K. I use them to convert other things and make even more than the 70K. If I'm not making a million/converter as an example, that's a bad deal on my end.

Edited July 9, 2022 by Without_Pause

[Yomo Kimyata]

4 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

I don't sell converters for 70K. I use them to convert other things and make even more than the 70K. If I'm not making a million/converter as an example, that's a bad deal on my end.

 

Considering you can buy three converters for 1mm inf (via merits), you're in the black!