Prismatic Aether: Items and Prices

[DarionLeonidas]

This is just an opinion that Prismatic Aether's might be a little too hard to get, and/or the effects items are commensurately overpriced.

 

Costumes are generally very reasonable, but 250 for a Sepia tone/B&W filter or an aura make getting that extra touch of QoL for a character a bit of a drag, especially for new creations.

 

(Yes, I know about farming. 🙂)

 

So, I'm just suggesting that PAs could maybe be made easier to get and that the higher-end items be made a little cheaper.

 

Cheers!

[Glacier Peak]

On 10/19/2024 at 8:37 AM, DarionLeonidas said:

This is just an opinion that Prismatic Aether's might be a little too hard to get, and/or the effects items are commensurately overpriced.

 

Costumes are generally very reasonable, but 250 for a Sepia tone/B&W filter or an aura make getting that extra touch of QoL for a character a bit of a drag, especially for new creations.

 

(Yes, I know about farming. 🙂)

 

So, I'm just suggesting that PAs could maybe be made easier to get and that the higher-end items be made a little cheaper.

 

Cheers!

Prestige costumes are entirely cosmetic, thus have no bearing on gameplay. They're meant to be something that players strive for over a period of time, not an instant gratification (though that option exists for those with enough inf). 

 

Random drop rates at any level for mission completion are high enough, as are the rewards for weekly strike targets, advanced difficulty content, and the conversion rate from Monstrous Aether to Prismatic Aether. And lastly, the market rate fluctuations are healthy and demonstrates real-time supply and demand in game. If there were no Prismatic Aethers on the market, I would say that could be an indication of weak supply, but it could also be hoarding. Since there are plenty on the market (likely due to the annual Halloween event Elite Bosses dropping them for their badges), I don't support changing Prismatic Aether drop rates. 

Edited October 20 by Glacier Peak

[tidge]

Prismatic Aethers are a gate, but they are a gate for a cosmetic effect. They are not that difficult to come by (directly or indirectly) and unless a player commits to using them, they are going to accumulate. I've got one character that has well over 1500 self-earned Aether particles, and that character has also acted as the Aether-piggy-bank for any new characters that wanted to start early with a specific costume or effect.

 

A note about "faming" Aethers: Prismatic Aethers are in some ways the "anti-XP" reward, as they drop from completed missions, whereas XP and Inf drops from defeating critters inside a mission. Completing missions faster improves the haul of Aethers.

[Super Atom]

They already gave you an easy way to farm Aethers, it's called "Hardmode" ITF/LGTF/DrAeonSF

[Triumphant]

I do want to get at least 250, so I can get a "mini-me" costume.  My problem is I'm not patient enough to save them up and I tend to sell them on the /AH for cash, instead.  That's my deficiency though, and not any comment on the rate that they drop or any of that.  I need to trick or treat more and just start compiling them from all my characters.

[Chris24601]

Thanks to trick or treat badges I finally got enough at one time for a common costume, which I’ve decided will go to my Widow so they can have a helmet on and off look (in addition to all the other slots).

 

Yeah, the drop rate is low enough and the return on the auction house high enough when you’re funding your toons off regular gameplay (I don’t have time for farming or playing the market) that nearly all mine are up on the auction house along with all the converters I buy after I hit 30+ merits.

 

But that’s going to make actually using them on a costume for a fresh toon actually a special treat for me… something I probably wouldn’t appreciate if they were dropping often enough that I wasn’t always tempted to drop them on the market for the inf infusion (10 aether is and 20-ish million… or 2-3 archetype origin enhancements; about your only early source of good set bonuses before level 27+ and always really nice to have in the lower levels… especially recharge and recovery bonuses when you’re power and slot starved).

 

So, yeah, their present drop rate is annoying for the instant gratification part of my brain, but the “special treat” reward center of my brain I think will provide me a lot more enjoyment in the long run, so leave it alone.

[TheMoneyMaker]

There's an easy way to get prismatics.  Comes once a year and lasts for a whole month.  10 per character that you haven't already done it with.

 

Go. Knock. ToT.

[srmalloy]

2 hours ago, Triumphant said:

I do want to get at least 250, so I can get a "mini-me" costume.

From what I've seen of them, and the related 'shrunk' Monstrous Aether pets, I'm not sure that they're worth the cost, with the achondroplastic proportions of the 'mini-character' model; they just look wrong.

[Psyonico]

I had a concept for a character that used the blocky polygon costume, I was all ready to drop the inf to buy 250 aethers, then I saw it was 1500 and I noped the f out.

[Triumphant]

1 hour ago, srmalloy said:

From what I've seen of them, and the related 'shrunk' Monstrous Aether pets, I'm not sure that they're worth the cost, with the achondroplastic proportions of the 'mini-character' model; they just look wrong.

 

Yeah, they're pretty cutsie/silly looking, but I was going to make sort of humorous concept character with it.  One thing I'm curious about, is how it looks when applied to a character that uses the "huge" body style.

[Ukase]

This is just my own opinion. Prismatics are too easy to get. 

 

Spoiler

Labyrinth of Fog gives you 5 prismatics and 10 monstrous aethers (so, 3 prismatics and 1 MA left over) the first run. 

At least during this month, depending on how many alts you have, you can easily earn 1000 prismatics. I could have earned more, but most of my characters went through the ToT last year and got them. And, I've been trying to take it easy on the alt making. 

I can't speak for every server, but I know on Indom in the early evenings/late afternoon, a bunch of folks get together and earn about 70+reward merits and probably a dozen Monstrous Aethers, which can be converted into prismatics. 

On Excelsior, for reasons that escape me, as many as 14 GMs will spawn near the Talos train. (14 is just the largest number I've experienced. Maybe it's more? It's usually only about 4-5. Just depends on when someone puts the word out in lfg. 
And, sometimes, it's in Steel Canyon. I don't know the rhyme or reason, but it seems to happen often. 

I have about 10 alts currently parked on the platform in Echo:DA to clobber Adamastor. 
I realize 1 Monstrous Aether means you have to defeat Adamastor 750 times if you want the mini-mode costume. Still, while I recognize this would take forever if you only ever did Adamastor with 1 character, prismatics are tradeable. You can buy them and sell them. 

They are dirt cheap. Only 2M, when I would expect every level 50 to have about 100M after being level 50 and playing for a week - without any crafting or marketing wizardry - just playing. And, since you're 50, you do not need to spend any inf on anything else. So what else would you spend it on? Alts? 

Great - they can all visit adamastor, hit him once and get rewards. Every hour on the hour, just rotate your characters so they only tackle him once a day. 

It's easy to get prismatics if you're motivated. And you don't need to do advanced mode tfs to get them. It would be more efficient, yes. But they've given us a lot of ways to get these items. 

Do yourself a favor. Right click on your chat box and enable hero event messages and villain event messages. 
Then you can see when a GM spawns. Head to the zone, help kill the gm, get those monstrous aethers and convert to prismatics. 

I tend to earn about 15-20 prismatics a day just doing the Labyrinth of Fog and killing gms when they spawn. (not the event GMs - they don't give MAs) 

 

[tidge]

19 hours ago, Triumphant said:

 

Yeah, they're pretty cutsie/silly looking, but I was going to make sort of humorous concept character with it.  One thing I'm curious about, is how it looks when applied to a character that uses the "huge" body style.

 

Have you seen Baby New Year?

[Triumphant]

29 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

Have you seen Baby New Year?

 

I have not, no. 🤷‍♂️

[Rudra]

15 minutes ago, Triumphant said:

45 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

Have you seen Baby New Year?

 

I have not, no. 🤷‍♂️

What rock have you been hiding under and do they have any rental openings?

[Triumphant]

😁🤷‍♂️

[TheMoneyMaker]

18 hours ago, Ukase said:

This is just my own opinion. Prismatics are too easy to get. 
 

I don't know about too easy, but in addition to the ToT, and the bonus rewards for hard mode TF content, there's also a slim chance of picking up one as a reward for regular missions, and you can also pick up the Monstrous Aether particles from fighting Giant Monsters and you can convert those to regular prismatics on a 3 for 1 ratio.

[lemming]

I don't have an issue with their drop rate, I just think some of the stuff is over priced.  250 would be the top limit on price IMO

[TheMoneyMaker]

3 minutes ago, lemming said:

I don't have an issue with their drop rate, I just think some of the stuff is over priced.  250 would be the top limit on price IMO

They're not supposed to be cheap because it's a goal thing to work for, but as cosmetic enhancements only, it's entirely unneeded to compete on the same footing as everyone else.

[Laucianna]

To me they work as wonderful money sinks 💛 I've managed to collect every single one whilst still giving away millions if not billions each week to the community, I do think the 1.5k ones are not worth the Aether cost however but they are still a little accomplishment to have 😄 

[Timeshadow]

I've acquired and spent a lot of Aether Particles over the past couple months. I'll get an idea for a toon that incorporates one of the costumes and immediately start dropping millions to buy them on the AH. 

 

Obviously, the Halloween event goes a long way to cutting down the time and/or influence gating around them, which is fine if you're just looking to grab a Tier 1 costume for 10 particles. But the spike between Tier 1 and the other tiers is pretty sharp. 

 

I'm not saying it should be easy to get what you want, necessarily, but I don't think a measured reduction would do any harm. 

[golstat2003]

17 hours ago, Timeshadow said:

I've acquired and spent a lot of Aether Particles over the past couple months. I'll get an idea for a toon that incorporates one of the costumes and immediately start dropping millions to buy them on the AH. 

 

Obviously, the Halloween event goes a long way to cutting down the time and/or influence gating around them, which is fine if you're just looking to grab a Tier 1 costume for 10 particles. But the spike between Tier 1 and the other tiers is pretty sharp. 

 

I'm not saying it should be easy to get what you want, necessarily, but I don't think a measured reduction would do any harm. 

 

The devs in beta have said they DON'T want these costumes to be easy to get. You'd have to convince them. However, I would not object to them being reduced slightly.

[Ukase]

28 minutes ago, golstat2003 said:

The devs in beta have said they DON'T want these costumes to be easy to get.

This is super interesting to me. So many costume options we have, for free, unlocked out of the gate. And maybe that's why they want the player to "work"/play for some things?

I didn't agree with the introduction of the prismatic as currency. I feel the reward merit could have satisfied the same transactions, but after experiencing many of the reward structures, I'm slowly having to appear inconsistent and change my mind. Without the new loot, a number of folks might not have been motivated to try the newer content after rumors/anecdotes (some exaggerated, perhaps) about how challenging it is. 

[Shin Magmus]

In ascending order of repeatable utility and genuine speed you have:

 

< LOWEST >

- Halloween ToT leeching, pathetically standing around: 10 per char one-time-only

- Weekly Strike Targets, profitable for double merits, 1-2 per char weekly

- Random chance from any mission completion, infinite per char at all times

- Giant Monster Hunting, team activity often led from zone to zone completing several GMs, 0.33-0.66 per GM (on average), infinite per char but gated by spawn timers, daily per char only for Adamastor and Ghost of Scrapyard

- Labyrinth of Fog full clears, League activity, 8'ish per char but extra GMs can be spawned to make this more profitable

- Advanced Mode ASF, ITF, AND LGTF, team activity for decent players with actually built characters, massive rewards per char per day if speedrunning 4-star difficulty (~23 per char per day for an hour or less of gameplay)

< HIGHEST >

 

     I have 3 of my mains with a powered costume effect, totalling 750 Prismatic Aethers spent.  I've sold my fair share of them but am grinding to have the Electric Armor 250 bonus on another of my mains, currently at 150/250.  Prismatic Aether "feels fine to me."  Also this community voted against and killed 1 bonus Prismatic Aether for the AT Diversity Bonus on TFs; You only have yourselves to blame for that one. 

[Triumphant]

Quote

Advanced Mode ASF, ITF, AND LGTF, team activity for decent players with actually built characters, massive rewards per char per day if speedrunning 4-star difficulty (~23 per char per day for an hour or less of gameplay)

 

Hm... I need to train. 😁

[Seed22]

3 hours ago, Triumphant said:

 

Hm... I need to train. 😁

4* is really not that bad. It does, for speed, damn near require the meta to get those nice times of under an hr. And a lil bit of knowledge. 
 

But otherwise it’s fairly easy content.