Farming vs whatever for fast inf building

[BigKahuna337]

Hey guys, just a quick one. What's better than farming for inf building? With the drops and selling recipes and salvage and the inf per kill, maybe for lack of trying idk but I haven't found a faster way to build massive inf than farming. And when I say massive influence I'm talking 1B+ for building my heroes. I don't even bother alt'ing until I have a 1B+ inf to invest. That's just barely enough for 5 or so purp sets. Maybe it's overkill but it's the way I build my heroes. What do you guys say? Thanks.

Edited February 29 by BigKahuna337

[Snarky]

i have the most success buying level 15-30 cheap recipes.  this is the level range of all good enhancers on the market 10-30, 15-? 30-50 etc.  also, the lower the level the cheaper to craft.  pref yellow uncommon so do not need rare salvage.  usually, check first.  

 

Then craft.  And start the converter grind.  I almost always sell finished products as things like kismet proc, Steadfast Prot proc, Perf Shift proc, LOTF proc.  i guess those are all globals, but you get the idea.  post on market for about 80% of current sales price.  By the scores.  Volume baby.  All it takes is grinding the buying/crafting/converting assembly line like a monkey on crack.

[Scarlet Shocker]

there is really no substitute for just playing the game

[Monty Haull]

In my experience, marketing is the fastest way to aquire inf.  Now with that said, there is a learning curve.  Like Snarky said buy cheap stuff, convert to stuff that sells for more and has a demand.

 

You can also look at super pack flipping.  Buy super pack, open, convert, catalyse, sell.  

 

I use to make a decent amount but farming and using all the inf to buy super packs.  This gave me a influx of inf with the added benefit of IO'ing out my alts.

 

If you go the super pack route keep in mind that you need to buy a decent amount.  The reason is that you are not aways guaranteed a ATO.  Some times you get 1, 2, or 0.

[Carnifax]

7 hours ago, Snarky said:

All it takes is grinding the buying/crafting/converting assembly line like a monkey on crack.

And it doesn't take too much time. I happily spend 20-30 mins of an afternoon doing this in batches of 30 and making about 70-100 million on the batch

 

I'm not loaded but I can easily slot out my characters using this method. 

 

All my TF merits go into this (discovered during the week that a char I basically just use for Tinplexes was sitting on 900 merits). Convert the merits into the Hero thingies (50 merits = 1), mail them to myself, switch to my Kin crafter, nab them, convert them back to merits, buy converters and start craft-converting yellow recipes.

[starro]

16 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

there is really no substitute for just playing the game

Get out 

---

 

[SeraphimKensai]

If you're patient, and have some degree of start up capital the AH can be used to make a lot of influence in a fairly short time.

[tidge]

No character on Homecoming should take 1 Billion inf to build, unless the goal is to massively over-spend on enhancements... or something crazy is going on and the characters is mostly slotted with Hami-Os and D-Syncs, or buying gobs of boosters/catalysts from the AH.

 

Have a cushion of Inf is nice, and makes play easier. However: It pretty much only takes one level 50 to establish a cushion, and by using a SG base to store goodies every subsequent character should be able to nicely equip themselves from game-play drops.

 

Even if a character has done a mad rush to level 50, it should be pretty inexpensive to buy common IOs (any level, but 45 and 50 get crafted for badges so they are always on the market) and just run PUG TF/SF for massive merit hauls. Few other players are going to notice a level 50 exemplared down is only using common IOs, and no one will care.

[dtjunkie]

9 hours ago, BigKahuna337 said:

 What's better than farming for inf building?

 

Playing the market on the auction house. There are many guides in the forums for this. It is the fastest way to generate tons of influence.

 

If you don't want to do that, then:

 

Play the game and earn reward merits, then convert those to items that you sell on the auction house. When Hess was the WST I ran it with 24 different toons, which generated 2,736 reward merits which I turned into enhancement converters that I sold for at least 191M (list prices were 70K, a small percentage of those bids sold for up to 85K, as well as around 10 hitting a few typos or very impatient bids)

 

 

Edited February 29 by dtjunkie

[BigKahuna337]

@tidge my main toons that I build typically have 4 or 5 purple sets. Each individual enhancement is ~20M so for the set 120M. So then 4 or 5 of those sets 480-600M. Then I still have to slot everything else and yeah I use boosters anywhere I can. Easily costs 1B+.

[Sovera]

5 minutes ago, BigKahuna337 said:

@tidge my main toons that I build typically have 4 or 5 purple sets. Each individual enhancement is ~20M so for the set 120M. So then 4 or 5 of those sets 480-600M. Then I still have to slot everything else and yeah I use boosters anywhere I can. Easily costs 1B+.

 

You don't need to 'boost everything you can'. Attuned is better for exemplaring and boosts run across ED which nerfs boosting. Purples aren't even the best in slot half of the time and just the one that gives more recharge. The number of times I catch people slotting Ragnoroks instead of Bombardments...

 

So yeah, it can cost 1b, but as @tidge it's just massive overspending for the sake of spending.

 

A 'normal' expensive min-maxed build should cost between 600 to 800 million. And it takes 10 minutes to transfer that amount of gear to a new character via a respec avoiding having to re-earn 600-800 million, or even 1b. Not wanting to spend those 10 minutes is sheer laziness and up to the player.

[Ukase]

10 hours ago, BigKahuna337 said:

 What do you guys say? Thanks.

Farming is a decent, but slower way to gain influence. But, it is steady..at least as steady as you are when you play. That said, you can run the largest maps at +4/8, and you get what? 12-15M? It's been so long since I even looked at inf when I farmed, I really don't have a clear memory. 

Let us suppose it's 50M per 30minutes. I want to say that's giving a very clear over-estimation, but what the heck do I know? 
The faster way is from turning trash into gold. 

There are guides by very sharp players who have shared at least some of their tips and tricks in the market forum. Even YouTube (consider watching @Dahles video, even though it's a bit older, I think it's still very relevant. 

In a nut shell, consider the converter. Never, ever sell a converter. Use it. 

For the sake of efficiency, here's what I tend to do: 
First, I reduce the level of what I'm looking for to level 10. 

 

 

Why? Because it's cheaper to craft a level 10 than the higher levels. 

 

The salvage to craft this recipe will cost about 500 to 600K, depending on what market forces are at work. 

Whether it's a pvp recipe or something more mundane like a perplex, you can craft it, and convert it into something that will sell for a lot more than the price you paid for the recipe. 

But wait - that's if you're JUST a marketer. 

What if you're a farmer? Only sell the white recipes. Craft the rest as you get the salvage drops to do so. If you don't get the salvage to do so, don't craft it. Eventually, you'll get what you're needing. 
Once it's crafted, throw it in the AH and look and see how much inf it will get you. Keep in mind the cost of crafting. The "cost of goods sold"...like the salvage that went into the enhancement. You could have just sold the salvage, so how much would you have gotten? 
Your average uncommon recipe will cost about 600k to craft. Converter costs can vary greatly. If you're a farmer, your converters are free. You get vet levels and emp merits. Use those to convert to reward merits and then to converters. And when you hit, say vet level 48, re-roll your farmer and start over so you always have the merits coming in. 

So, convert the uncommon by type, as the uncommon will have a rare counterpart. As an example, think of Titanium Coating, a resist set. It's uncommon. You convert a level 50 Tit. Coat, and you will get an Aegis or an Unbreakable Guard, both rares. And they will sell for more inf than the Tit. Coat. 

When you learn after checking prices what things sell for, your efficiency picks up. And eventually, you're selling every uncommon and rare (and I never sell purples, but you can if you like) and the inf stacks up high. Very high. Once you learn to scale, you'll be rolling in it. 

Just recognize that if you're going to multi-box, do so on a lower populated shard, and be sure to check the population first! 

[Sovera]

18 minutes ago, Ukase said:

For the sake of efficiency, here's what I tend to do: 
First, I reduce the level of what I'm looking for to level 10. 

 

 

Why? Because it's cheaper to craft a level 10 than the higher levels. 

 

Why 1-10? I've had a devil of a time converting level 10 IOs to anything useful. At most there is the +3% defense Steadfast but nothing else at that level is useful. Even Kinetic Combat or Preventive Medicine only opens at level 17 which would be my minimum cut-off for me. I usually stick to level 31 to stay off the useless low level recipes.

[Ukase]

Just now, Sovera said:

 

Why 1-10? I've had a devil of a time converting level 10 IOs to anything useful. At most there is the +3% defense Steadfast but nothing else at that level is useful. Even Kinetic Combat or Preventive Medicine only opens at level 17 which would be my minimum cut-off for me. I usually stick to level 31 to stay off the useless low level recipes.

I didn't really want to reveal everything - but for me, the primary reason is the pvp IOs, primarily the big three, but the damage procs as well. They don't sell for as much as they used to, but with the influx of newer players, the demand for them seems to have gone up a little. 

Grab the recipes for 2-3M, craft for 500-600k, sell for what you think you can get, which lately is anywhere from 6 to 10M, depending on the impatience/generosity/clumsy fingers of the bidder. 

 

That said, the steadfast resist, the kb, the achilles heal -res, and quite a few other level 10 ios sell for 3-6M routinely. And they're a lot cheaper to craft, as I already stated. 

[Sovera]

Ah, the PvP level 10! That makes a lot more sense now.

[WuTang]

I quietly made about 80 mil yesterday in about 30ish minutes. My best day but the AH was hot for some reason. Also got real lucky with converter roulette. I've literally just figured out the Ah and converters so that may not be good for an old pro. 

Though, on converter roulette, I've learned not to laser focus on just one exact enhancement...good way to blow a mil in converters.

[WuTang]

56 minutes ago, Ukase said:

I didn't really want to reveal everything - but for me, the primary reason is the pvp IOs, primarily the big three, but the damage procs as well. They don't sell for as much as they used to, but with the influx of newer players, the demand for them seems to have gone up a little. 

Grab the recipes for 2-3M, craft for 500-600k, sell for what you think you can get, which lately is anywhere from 6 to 10M, depending on the impatience/generosity/clumsy fingers of the bidder. 

 

That said, the steadfast resist, the kb, the achilles heal -res, and quite a few other level 10 ios sell for 3-6M routinely. And they're a lot cheaper to craft, as I already stated. 

It takes a PvP enhancement to covert to a PvP one though, right?

[tidge]

I certainly can (and have) used the market to create a good-sized nest egg, but every character I've taken to 50+ (after my first) has only spent approximately 150M... and that has been at P2W (now START) and buying converters (and some crafting expenses).

 

Almost every slotted Enhancement has come from recipe roulette (as that character builds up the next character's nest egg) or Merits conversion. Merit conversion is a net waste, but I am rolling in merits... probably because I just play the game. I'm so lazy I use catalysts like crazy, even though I could use the AH for most of my needs.

[ZacKing]

12 hours ago, BigKahuna337 said:

And when I say massive influence I'm talking 1B+ for building my heroes.

 

If that's the level of inf you're looking to build quickly - and what "quickly" means to you is subjective - then I'd have to agree with others who've said the market is the best way to get there "quickly".  Farming is good for generating inf, but if you're relying solely on kills and good drops to sell for inf it's going to take a good while to hit the billion mark. 

 

Others have posted some great advice on stuff to sell on the market and how/where to earn them.  One thing I don't see mentioned often is running SBBs and then selling the Overwhelming Force IOs on the market.  SBBs can go very quickly with the right team, and those IOs sell for a anywhere from 3 to 10 million on the exchange, sometimes more.  The group I team with usually farm a dozen or so of them on a weekend and we'll make a nice chunk of inf just selling the IOs. 

 

Advice like "just play the game" and "it will roll in eventually" are non-starters and not helpful.  I don't think a couple of the purists here actually read and understood the OPs question.

 

One last thing, you might want to look at sharing your builds in the appropriate subforums.  You may get some good suggestions there on builds that aren't so expensive for you.

[Carnifax]

5 hours ago, tidge said:

and by using a SG base to store goodies every subsequent character should be able to nicely equip themselves from game-play drops

I'm going to admit my dense-ness here. How does one store enhancements in a base? I tried a few weeks ago but couldn't figure it out at all. 

 

 

[ZacKing]

10 minutes ago, Carnifax said:

I'm going to admit my dense-ness here. How does one store enhancements in a base? I tried a few weeks ago but couldn't figure it out at all. 

 

For this, you'll want to pay a visit to the Base Building subforum and read up on base building in the Base Building Guide.   There's also links to an excellent series of informative and helpful videos @Dacy put together on base building.  You'll learn a lot from them.

 

It's not hard at all to set up a quick base for storage of enhancements and salvage. 

[Carnifax]

8 minutes ago, ZacKing said:

 

For this, you'll want to pay a visit to the Base Building subforum and read up on base building in the Base Building Guide.   There's also links to an excellent series of informative and helpful videos @Dacy put together on base building.  You'll learn a lot from them.

 

It's not hard at all to set up a quick base for storage of enhancements and salvage. 

 

Gone there but there's no mention of how to store enhancements. I know there are salvage racks but I'm stumped on where Enhancements can go. Searching the page for enhancement returned nothing either. 

 

Edit : Ignore me, found it by speeding through a video! Off I go for Attempt #2

Edited February 29 by Carnifax

[lemming]

I don't know about 1b+ on cost.  I just went thru a couple of my builds and maybe would get up to that if I went thru the auction house for all of it?

 

For example: An electrical/MA blaster of mine has for enhancements:

PVP: 7

Very Rare: 24

Regular: 40  (Luck of the gambler, Numina, etc...)

Basic IO: 5

ATO: 12

Winter: 6

 

Now if went out and bought all those via the auction house at buy it now prices, maybe a billion.   Since I tend to collect a lot of recipes, etc... I tend to craft and sometimes convert, so I might have bought around 50 million (and spent a bunch on crafting, but still cheaper than buying outright)

[Sovera]

33 minutes ago, Carnifax said:

 

Gone there but there's no mention of how to store enhancements. I know there are salvage racks but I'm stumped on where Enhancements can go. Searching the page for enhancement returned nothing either. 

 

Edit : Ignore me, found it by speeding through a video! Off I go for Attempt #2

 

You seem to have found it, but just in case it's the enhancement table. How DO you transfer IOs without tables, Carni??

 

Edited February 29 by Sovera

[Snarky]

34 minutes ago, Sovera said:

 

You seem to have found it, but just in case it's the enhancement table. How DO you transfer IOs without tables, Carni??

 

you can email them to yourself...

 

or start an alternate account.  this will allow you to make a farmer to self PL, and also provides flexibility when transferring awkward amounts of things.