From 0 to full build using the Market - An example

[Lyrium]

Day 5

I did Agent Watkins Story Arc. I collected some debt. Those Vahzilok spawns are not easy as a lone Blaster, I promise. The good thing is that Endurance is infinite now! Even with Sprint and Stealth active

 

The good thing is that I got 40 merits so now I can do some work! But first, let's do some crafting, as I was lucky with the drops

 

Also, something sold while I was dying... I mean, blasting baddies away

 

The store keeps growing:

 

And things keep being sold:

 

Let's bid on some more things. I leveled to 23 so I have more slots (I got Boxing at 22 so no new powers). One more slot in Hasten and Fly. Why Fly? Because with a mere slot, I can get the Zephyr ranged defense bonus. Now that endurance is not a problem, let's start building some defenses.

 

I was trying to lowbid (last 5 sales were 2mill) but...

 

Looking at the build and at was is coming, I placed another bid for Lotg Recharge (and filled immediately at 4mill... how cheap are these things now?) and for a Steadfast Unique.

 

As always, all the crap goes to the /ah or vendor. I placed bids for salvages for 20 enhancements (I have merits now!) and that's all.

 

End of Day 5 - Current Status 

- 21 enhancements for sale

- Biding on some not-so-cheap stuff

- A LotG recharge waiting to be slotted

- Level 23

- 591,556 influence (back to being poor!)

 

Changes in the build

Edited March 23 by Lyrium

[Lyrium]

Day 6

Today is going to be quick. I have the entire day occupied IRL, so I will log in quickly to check the status and leave

 

Yay money!

 

Yay things bought

 

Let's craft, convert, and list 20 enhancements

 

I ran out of converters, so I only listed 15 enhancements. 2 sold

 

I placed bids for 10 more salvages, at some point I will get more merits!

I canceled my bids for the Kheldian ATOs and put new ones, for a bit more money. I also put a bid for Numina's unique

 

Final Status:

[Bionic_Flea]

Suggestion:  I assume you are buying the Kheldian ATOs to convert to your AT and then slot them.  While this is a good idea, you could also buy 3 super packs for the amount you are currently bidding.  The packs average about 1.2 ATOs per pack, but you will also get possible merits, brainstorms, converters, boosters, catalysts, inspirations, temp powers, etc.  -- all of which can be sold or used on your character.  I would guess that you would get 3 or 4 ATOs, although it is possible to get zero.  And there is also a chance that you could get exactly what you are looking for, saving you the converters to use on something else.

[Lyrium]

17 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

Suggestion:  I assume you are buying the Kheldian ATOs to convert to your AT and then slot them.  While this is a good idea, you could also buy 3 super packs for the amount you are currently bidding.  The packs average about 1.2 ATOs per pack, but you will also get possible merits, brainstorms, converters, boosters, catalysts, inspirations, temp powers, etc.  -- all of which can be sold or used on your character.  I would guess that you would get 3 or 4 ATOs, although it is possible to get zero.  And there is also a chance that you could get exactly what you are looking for, saving you the converters to use on something else.

I think I've never bought a superpack. I'll think about this, after all, this is the perfect place to make those experiments

 

Thanks!

Edited March 24 by Lyrium

[Zect]

Superpacks are a net gain in the long term (and give a lot of useful stuff that can’t be gotten anywhere else) but I don’t recommend them for people who have only enough inf to buy a handful. If you buy only 3, there is a small but not negligible chance that 1 or 2 of them will fail to give any ATIO at all. I think the minimum I would suggest people buy is a 10-stack. 

[Lyrium]

Day 6

Gotta love Sunday morning, after everyone has been playing during Friday & Saturday 

Instant 25million

 

And some useful stuff in the bought tab...

 

I'm going to refresh those ATOs bids, and work on getting merits!

[Lyrium]

Day 6

 

Although I had a lot pauses and interruptions IRL, it has been a good morning. I did Roy Cooling Story Arc, Yin TF, and killed Adamastor. That's a good bunch of merits

 

I crafted 12 enhancements (got two uncommon recipes, cheap to craft), got the 2 kheldian ATOs, and started converting

The ATOs turned into Corruptor and Tanker, which should net me 2 extra millions at least. Sadly I didn't get Blaster ones.

 

The store keeps growing!

 

Things that sell

 

And level 27! This is a nice milestone, all enhancements (except purples) are available now. Time for Respec 😉 

 

After Respec, I bought Reveal, because why not. Then I got into a shopping buy it now spree (and remember, if you want to be efficient, don't pay buy it now prices), and bought two sets of Thunderstrike (1mill each piece) and 2 sets of Artillery (700k each piece)

 

Unused IOs are back to the /ah for 1inf (again, not efficient)

Current Build:

 

In bags:

- 1x LotG Recharge

- 1x Preventive Medicine: Heal

 

Time to empty bags, place some bids (salvages and enhancements)

This is what I'm currently bidding on:

 

Current status after respec:

Awesome jump in Ranged defense! (without stealth) I'm going to change my settings to +0x3, with Bosses, and see how it goes

 

Oops! I forgot about Hasten! Let's get two more IOs (50k each)

 

Current Status

- Level 27

- 2,405,668 inf

 

Current plan

Slot the rest of ranged attacks (with Thunderstrike/Artillery until I get ATOs), then work on ranged defenses, then other powers, then Purples, and finally, some catalyst. All of this before level 50

 

Edited March 24 by Lyrium

[Yomo Kimyata]

6 hours ago, Zect said:

Superpacks are a net gain in the long term (and give a lot of useful stuff that can’t be gotten anywhere else) but I don’t recommend them for people who have only enough inf to buy a handful. If you buy only 3, there is a small but not negligible chance that 1 or 2 of them will fail to give any ATIO at all. I think the minimum I would suggest people buy is a 10-stack. 

 

You don't have to be an advanced user to work with superpacks, but it helps.

 

It is generally not a good idea to buy a few packs, then convert the ATOs you get into the ones that you want for your character -- you can certainly do it, but it's significantly more cost efficient to sell what you have and buy what you want.  I will generally buy superpacks on new characters, and convert the ATOs I don't need or aren't good selling items (like Kheldian) into something that will move quickly and at a good price.  The real value of superpacks is that they put the goodies in your Character Items menu, which is accessible by every character on your account, at all times, even in missions or your base.  You'll never need to buy one-off unslotters or catalysts again, and being able to access inspirations is a leeeeetle cheaty!

[Lyrium]

4 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

You don't have to be an advanced user to work with superpacks, but it helps.

 

It is generally not a good idea to buy a few packs, then convert the ATOs you get into the ones that you want for your character -- you can certainly do it, but it's significantly more cost efficient to sell what you have and buy what you want.  I will generally buy superpacks on new characters, and convert the ATOs I don't need or aren't good selling items (like Kheldian) into something that will move quickly and at a good price.  The real value of superpacks is that they put the goodies in your Character Items menu, which is accessible by every character on your account, at all times, even in missions or your base.  You'll never need to buy one-off unslotters or catalysts again, and being able to access inspirations is a leeeeetle cheaty!

So, if I understand you correctly, you say that buying superpacks will be roughly equal to buying the ATOs I need, and I will get some other stuff along the way. It pains me to expend 10 million in a gamble (in this character, I mean), but I'll think about it

 

I may log in with another character and buy 10 packs and see what happens 🤔

[Yomo Kimyata]

17 minutes ago, Lyrium said:

So, if I understand you correctly, you say that buying superpacks will be roughly equal to buying the ATOs I need, and I will get some other stuff along the way. It pains me to expend 10 million in a gamble (in this character, I mean), but I'll think about it

 

I may log in with another character and buy 10 packs and see what happens 🤔

 

More or less.  It's not a double-your-money kind of play, but it's useful.

[Monty Haull]

33 minutes ago, Lyrium said:

So, if I understand you correctly, you say that buying superpacks will be roughly equal to buying the ATOs I need, and I will get some other stuff along the way. It pains me to expend 10 million in a gamble (in this character, I mean), but I'll think about it

 

I may log in with another character and buy 10 packs and see what happens 🤔

As Yomo had said, buying a few is not recommended.  You can expect, on average, 1.2 ATOs per pack.  Meaning you could get 2 ATOs, 1 ATO or, 0 ATOs.  Best to buy a lot to cover yourself.  

[Lyrium]

Day 6

 

 

That's all for now. Time to rack some XP

[Lyrium]

Day 6

I did Croatoa's first SA (Gordon Bower), killed Lusca, killed Eochai and Jack. A good bunch of XP and merits. I went to craft and convert another 10 enhancements, but since I have a lot of merits, I did 20 instead. 

 

My current bids

 

I got to level 30! That means some slots and two more powers. I got evasive maneuvers at 28, for another LotG mule, and Time Lord at 30 (which got the other 3% defense unique)

 

I need to think what I want to do with those slots... get another Thunderstrike set? Try to get a full blaster ATO set? I'll decide it tomorrow

 

End of day 6

42 enhancements for sale

50 millions in bids for Shield Wall recipe, 2x LotG, 6x Kheldian ATO, 1x Blaster ATO (one can dream)

59 recipes waiting to be retrieved and crafted 

1x Preventive Medicine: Heal waiting to be slotted

Level 30

545,743 inf

[Lyrium]

Day 7

A quick lunch break check

 

Got an ATO!

 

Converted and listed:

 

I'm going to be out for a few days, so I'm going to try some low bids on Blaster ATOs. I canceled all Kheldian bids and bid on most Blaster ATO (9/12, I don't have enough money for more... yet)

Current bids:

 

Current inf:

[Lyrium]

Day 7

Bit by bit, in small chunks of time, I did Croatoa's second Story Arc (or rather, I failed at the "Prevent 30 creatures from going through the portal". How do you win that one?)

 

I'm crafting and converting 20 more enhancements

Some stuff is selling, and that's good, because I ran out of money for listing:

 

And more things sold

 

42 enhancements for sale, 42 recipes pending to be crafted and listed, 15 merits left, 44 converters left, level 31. Biding on 10 ATOs, and some other things. More news at night (EU time 😛)!

Edited March 25 by Lyrium

[Hedgefund]

1 hour ago, Lyrium said:

I failed at the "Prevent 30 creatures from going through the portal". How do you win that one?)

Here's my mini-guide.

 

Run straight to the portal (it will have a waypoint), hopefully you're stealthy enough to get there without drawing fire, if not, chew a purple insp or two but it's important to get there ASAP.

 

Kill off anyone near the portal.

 

Wait a moment, the first wave should be coming very soon after you've done the above.  Try to fight some distance away (100 feet, let's say) from the portal, ideally using an AOE to get all the mobs attention, they can be very focused on getting to the portal otherwise.  You have Snow Storm and that's perfect for this.  Blizzard of course is perfecter.

 

From this point, you can choose the long way (stay at portal and only fight mobs that are trying to escape) or the quick way (fight a few mobs in the field, run back to portal before next escape attempt, repeat).

 

Regardless of whether you choose the long or short way, I'd suggest going down the left path, as you stand at the portal looking out onto the field and defeating a couple of spawns, then go back to portal.  The reason I say that even if you're electing to camp the portal, is so you can hedge up further on the right path where 95% of the mobs will go through.  If you proactively get rid of the ones on the left side, you don't have to worry about them sneaking down that path.

 

If I'm actually doing the mission I use the "short way" where I kill 2-3 spawns then run back, always with an eye to the portal's direction so if I see someone attempting to escape I can switch gears real quick to head them off.

 

My "real talk" guide for how I do this mission - set the difficulty to +4 and autocomplete.

[Lyrium]

Day 7

More sales!

 

Nothing else to show for now, let's get some more XP and merits!

[Lyrium]

Day 7

Kelly Nemmers Story Arc (Croatoa III) done. Posi 2 done (and it's the WST!). Level 34 achieved, 16 more to go! Two powers completely unslotted... I need those Blaster ATOs...

 

Crafting, converting and listing 20 more recipes, brb.

All listed!

 

And sales:

 

 

 

Current build status:

 

I'm feeling the pain of those two empty attacks. I need to fix that. I'm going to cancel all my current enhancement bids

(yay!)

 

Let's spend it!

 

Already working

I was trying to get those ATOs cheaper, but I really need them. In the end, bidding what I need is my usual way of doing things. I try to get the maximum benefit with the smallest time devoted to crafting/converting/ah. That means I'm not as money-efficient as I could be, but is good enough to make enough money for builds and more. And I promise is very time efficient. At the beginning it takes more time if you don't know the AH, what sells, what not. But I can craft, convert, and list 20 enhancements in 10minutes. I'm not a marketeer, I'm just someone who crafts for 10mins to avoid hours of farming 😛 

 

 

As far as Unique enhancements, I still need some stuff (2x LotG, 1x Shield Wall, 1x Scaling Resist, 1x Max HP) These, and slotting defenses, are my next priority. Then it will only be Purples and Catalysts.

Since Weave is also empty, one more bid:

 

 

To end the day, I have to empty bags/trays, and bid on some more recipes.

 

Current Status

- Level 34

- 3,635,222 influence

(one of those "selling" is not an enhancement, is a recipe)

Edited March 25 by Lyrium

[Lyrium]

Also, I reviewed the build (because I noticed I was missing one LotG +7.5%)

 

This is how it looks now (I didn't make it cheaper, don't worry, the challenge is still valid 🙂 )

EDIT: And I'm gonna swap the slotting for the two cones (Frost Breath and Static Discharge). SD looks wider... it's probably more usable

Edited March 26 by Lyrium

[Lyrium]

Day 8

I have some free time in the morning, so let's do some heroic deeds!

 

Tasty sales

 

And tasty purchases! (and notice the jump in money for the sales)

 

After a Respec, the build looks much better

 

No changes in the rest of slots/powers

 

I put some bids for another Artillery set (Frost Breath will need it soon) and instafilled

 

Let's bid for some more enhancements, for the future

Instabought

 

And poor again, but I have something of a defense now!

[Lyrium]

Day 8

Salamanca has been saved! I finished the last Croatoa SA, and killed Seed of Hamidon.

 

Also, I got a nice drop that I'm gonna craft and sell:

 

Additionally, I got my last ATO! No pic sorry, I was so excited that I forgot. All ATOs slotted now!

 

Back to do some crafting. Another 20 enhancements

 

Once again, I run out of money while posting. Luckily something already sold

 

It happened again so I'm going to cancel the bid for Scaling Damage Resist

 

When I finished listing I got the rare salvage I was missing to craft the Panacea, so I also crafted and listed it. 

 

After that, I will empty my bags, collect sales, refresh double XP

 

 

I could place back the bid for Reactive Defenses

 

 

Current Status: Level 35

[Lyrium]

Day 8

Pre-dinner check

 

Everything has been bought as of now

 

I'm going to review the build and see if I can get everything missing except purples. I'll end up buying things I don't need, mark my words!

 

Bids:

Bought

 

Only purples missing! (and some catalyst, I want everything upgraded at the moment I hit 50). And boosters for the level 50 Recharge IOs

 

Edited March 26 by Lyrium

[357trall]

Just thought I would throw out a tip about getting recipes early on. At level 7 go to the AE and do some missions for tickets, every 60 tickets gets you a low level recipe. I like to turn my EXP off and do missions for 300-500 tickets each, Bads in Space works well for this. Save up a couple thousand and turn them in for 40 or so useable level 10 recipes. Just don't fight EB in the AE, they don't drop tickets.

[Andreah]

On 3/24/2024 at 2:20 PM, Monty Haull said:

As Yomo had said, buying a few is not recommended.  You can expect, on average, 1.2 ATOs per pack.  Meaning you could get 2 ATOs, 1 ATO or, 0 ATOs.  Best to buy a lot to cover yourself.  

Sorry for being a little late to replying here.

 

Everything everyone above said about Superpacks is spot-on. 

 

Now I'll add a little more info. First. our lovely friend Bopper has a thread on Superpacks drops, and it's excellent material to go over:

 

If you scrub this, you'll find that the 1.2079 ATO's per pack is broken out with these chances:

• Zero ATO: 15.47%
• One ATOs: 48.28%
• Two ATOs: 36.26%

If you only buy a couple packs, you can get a fair number of those unlucky 15% events. But if you buy a few more at a time, they'll be more than balanced out by the higher 36% chance of two.  I recommend to my friend to buy them ten or twenty at a time -- these generally average out nicely. Maybe I'll calculate a chart sometime.

[Lyrium]

Day 8

I started Levantera's SA to unlock Vanguard tickets, but before I finished the first mission I joined a team running the last mission to unlock Patron Power Pools so I joined that. Afterwards I killed Kronos Titan and then I ran a Manticore. Sorry Levantera, maybe tomorrow.

 

All of this meant some Reward Merits, some Badges, and a lot of XP. I'm level 38 now, approaching the final stage. The main powers are all slotted, and I only need to improve defensive powers now. Let's see the build

 

- One slot missing in Frost Breath, and Ice Blasting will be done until I can slot Purples

 

- On the other hand, Temporal Manipulation is... lacking

 

About pools:

- Sprint has Celerity: Stealth

- Health and Stamina are slotted

- Hasten has 2 level 30 IOs, good enough until 47

- Hover is missing a pair Red Fortune

- Same as Stealth

- Tough is missing 3x Unbreakable Guard (one being the +HP Unique)

- Weave missing 2x Red Fortune, 2x Reactive Defenses (1 being the Scaling Resist Unique)

- Charged Armor is missing 3x Unbreakable Guard

 

More good news: All enhancements except Purples are now bought. Well, to be exact, I'm still missing a level 50 Flight IO and a level 50 Jumping IO, for Swift & Hurdle. But I got 4x level 50 Recharge IOs. Everything else is waiting to be slotted

 

Also, something I like to do when I'm close to finish a build. I have a put a 1inf bid on everything I'm missing (except for the crafted IOs). This will help me avoid having to check the build every time I open the /ah (yes, my memory is bad). Whoah, I'm missing a Ragnarok, I'll fix that afterwards

 

Now, guess what? Exactly! Time to craft, convert, and list. 20 recipes

 

More stuff for sale

 

And more stuff sold (the Basilisk was a missclick, I forgot a zero and listed it for 100k instead of 1mill)

 

I have 32millions now, that means I can start putting bids on purples

 

Current Status

- Level 38

- 847,508 inf