Curse

Eldin · Mar 17, 2008, 07:05 PM // 19:05

OH NO! An item that can be gotten easily with noobish Ursan Whoring is now cheaper and can be RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOd more by noobs thanks to their noobish Ursan Whoring?

Geez. You guys started it with your Ursan crap. Well technically ANet, but whatever.

P.S. Why is it DoA is almost dead (American district) everytime I'm there despite Ursan having conquered the world?

The Way Out · Mar 17, 2008, 07:11 PM // 19:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eldin

OH NO! An item that can be gotten easily with noobish Ursan Whoring is now cheaper and can be RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOd more by noobs thanks to their noobish Ursan Whoring?

Geez. You guys started it with your Ursan crap. Well technically ANet, but whatever.

P.S. Why is it DoA is almost dead (American district) everytime I'm there despite Ursan having conquered the world?

A quick point...

Ecto dropped significantly around the time of the first 55 monk... not because of Ursan... (and I doubt the 55 was even at fault for it).

Because people choose to farm DoA in the European Districts.

I like having cheap ecto... and have not seen a problems with the reduction of cost.

GloryFox · Mar 18, 2008, 12:42 AM // 00:42

Armbraces are not cheap enough IMO. After the first Dupe issue they should have changed the trader to only 1 gem set for one tormented item. 15 was the second most absurd thing they could have done 25 was the most absurd thing they did. They guaranteed that if someone could dupe in the game they were going to do it. Greed is a powerful motivator. They should have removed the greed aspect and made the items more accessible.

Now Tormented weapons are not a symbol of skill and ability but a symbol of beating the system.

I also suspect there are accounts with more ECTO's than steel ingot's in the game. With ANET monitoring who has what I suspect people are being more conservative about who and what they spend their money on. Least they drive the price down too far.

Think about it we have had UW and FOW open for long periods of time and yet the price of ECTO has been stable. WHY?

Martin Alvito · Mar 18, 2008, 01:01 AM // 01:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by GloryFox

Think about it we have had UW and FOW open for long periods of time and yet the price of ECTO has been stable. WHY?

1. They have hardly been stable.
2. However, the price of ecto moves within well-defined trading ranges, except when significant exogenous shocks to the system (trader reset, Hard Mode, new campaign) occur.

Why? The market for ecto is highly liquid. Lots of buyers and sellers are available at any given time. Buying a stack at a slightly-less-than-fair price (overpay by 100/unit, or 25k) is virtually instantaneous; the reverse is also true if you sell at 100/unit or so below the bottom of the trading range.

Result: stable expectations and few sell-to-trader and buy-from-trader transactions. If these prices move out of the range, actors correct the situation almost instantly, by selling to trader for more than value (if trader price too high) or buying below value if prices are too low.

This behavior is very similar to that of real-world commodities or securities markets. Further, the disequilibrium behavior (few transactions and massive price shifts) resulting from changes in expectations is also similar. See: mortgage-backed securities market since mid 2007.

Eldin · Mar 18, 2008, 02:54 AM // 02:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by GloryFox

Think about it we have had UW and FOW open for long periods of time and yet the price of ECTO has been stable. WHY?

FYI Ectos were 12k+ back when the game first came out.

Kikuta · Mar 18, 2008, 03:22 AM // 03:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eldin

FYI Ectos were 12k+ back when the game first came out.

Gone are the days when the price lingered around the 11-13k mark

MsMassacre · Mar 18, 2008, 03:34 AM // 03:34

Armbraces can only be used for one very specific purpose; torment weapons. It was inevitable that their value was going to nosedive once those weapons reached a saturation point within the community, and we're pretty much there. To illustrate my point, lets compare the USES of ectos and armbraces:

Ectos can only be used for FOW armor and ugly stupid chaos gloves, but armor is dyable, and mix-and-matchable and the stats are customizable. Demand remains high, because no matter how common fow armor becomes on some profs (I'm looking at YOU, monks!) people still find a way to make it their own.

Torment weapons can't be dyed, aren't inscribable, and many are either hideous or have major clipping problems. Add to that the fact that anet keeps adding new weapon types which are cooler, more customizable, and often RARER than torment weapons. Sure, you could spend that cash on a torment weapon, but they're getting kinda played out. Wouldn't you rather have a dryad bow? Or an eternal sword? Or a pyroclastic axe? Or whatever the flavor of the month rare weapon is?

You want another example to prove how right I am? Well, okay then; Onyx has been in a steady spiral since GWEN was released for exactly the same reasons. All you can get for them are ugly, non-customizable destroyer weapons. Coincidence? I think not!

BOTTOM LINE;
If you want armbraces to have value again, add a tormented armor suit that requires 1 armbrace per piece. Then you'll see some sustained value in them and sustained player counts in doa.

Fire Childe · Mar 18, 2008, 03:44 AM // 03:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eldin

FYI Ectos were 12k+ back when the game first came out.

Nah they didnt get that expensive until some time after the Rare Materials Trader went live. People camped the trader and noticed Obsidian Shards were tradeable (before this event, Obsidian Shards were not known to drop anywhere). Admittedly I was one of the people refreshing the trader window every second the moment it went live buying up all the Ecto and Shards on the cheap. But they got progressively more expensive as the trader price regularised.

I do remember early on in release that ecto dropped quite regularly in stacks of 4 in the Labyrinth in Underworld. I also remember trading them for 500g a pop which was a bit cheaper than black dye at the time. Then again there was alot less money in the game then compared to now - even still I remember wanting dye my dude's armour black but remember being put off by the price. Black Dye was always comparitively expensive enough to make you think twice about buying it.

Anon-e-mouse · Mar 18, 2008, 04:05 AM // 04:05

The other thing that people are forgetting is that Ecto's have another use other than FoW armour.

They're used as currency for 100K+ trades. This is a pretty big reason why people still want Ecto's, and why their price is relatively stable.

Oh and btw, I don't think the armbrace market is in that dire a depression. I saw at least two traders in Spamadan over the weekend asking for more than the OP was saying prices had fallen to.

GloryFox · Mar 18, 2008, 05:13 AM // 05:13

Quote:

FYI Ectos were 12k+ back when the game first came out.

Yes I know, that's how I made my first mil when it peaked at 18k. That was around two years ago. Point is this commodity has been farmed to death even more than other commodities and still it stays at 4-5k. It's been that way for quite a while now even though I know quite a few people who have stock piles of the stuff. Anyhow ECTO's are off topic and we can discuss it on another thread. It does irk me that hey nerfed ecto drops unlike the beginning when they dropped like four leaf clovers on St. Patrick's day weekend in the UW and certain other missions.

I still say arm braces should be going down since everyone and his or her duper friend spread the arm braces around. Furthermore only Destroyer weapons really mean anything now and days. It would have been better overall to only require one set for one weapon.

Can't wait until GW2 when everyone starts even.

HawkofStorms · Mar 18, 2008, 05:36 AM // 05:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anon-e-mouse

Oh and btw, I don't think the armbrace market is in that dire a depression. I saw at least two traders in Spamadan over the weekend asking for more than the OP was saying prices had fallen to.

Traders in Spamadan are hardly reliable. Just because they were selling and trying to rip people off didn't mean anybody was buying. 90% of the trade spam is a complete and utter rip off (req 11 long sword, only 100k... right).

Ensign · Mar 18, 2008, 06:17 AM // 06:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anon-e-mouse

They're used as currency for 100K+ trades. This is a pretty big reason why people still want Ecto's, and why their price is relatively stable.

This is the main reason for stable ecto prices - its value as a trade currency, not for what you can use it for in game.

A thought experiment that helps confirm this: what do you think the ratio, in game, of ectos to shards is? I would hypothesize that it is likely greater than 10:1 at this point. Ectos are power farmed and hoarded; Shards are sold to the trader and bought when people cash in ectos for Fissure Armor.

Before Chaos Gloves existed, I used to speculate what would happen if there were ever a great ecto confidence crisis. The nominal reason they're valuable is that you can use them to craft Fissure Armor, but if it ever came down to it and people went to cash them in en masse they'd find that Shards are by far the scarcer of the two materials.

Mr. Undisclosed · Mar 18, 2008, 08:44 AM // 08:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by HawkofStorms

Traders in Spamadan are hardly reliable. Just because they were selling and trying to rip people off didn't mean anybody was buying. 90% of the trade spam is a complete and utter rip off (req 11 long sword, only 100k... right).

The same would go for what the op said about the crash then wouldn't it?

enmitee · Mar 18, 2008, 09:27 AM // 09:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by MsMassacre

Torment weapons can't be dyed, aren't inscribable, and many are either hideous or have major clipping problems. Add to that the fact that anet keeps adding new weapon types which are cooler, more customizable, and often RARER than torment weapons. Sure, you could spend that cash on a torment weapon, but they're getting kinda played out. Wouldn't you rather have a dryad bow? Or an eternal sword? Or a pyroclastic axe? Or whatever the flavor of the month rare weapon is?

You want another example to prove how right I am? Well, okay then; Onyx has been in a steady spiral since GWEN was released for exactly the same reasons. All you can get for them are ugly, non-customizable destroyer weapons. Coincidence? I think not!

shows how much you know, torment weapons ARE inscribable. And a pyroclastic axe is relatively cheaper if not the same price of an armbrace. the weapons dont have major clipping problems aside from the shield and focus. and imo, i dont like holding NPC weapons that much anymore. and destroyer weapons ARE inscribable as well. they just look like complete crap and monument fodder.

Petition: Make torment weapons dyeable.

Lawrence Chang · Mar 26, 2008, 12:40 AM // 00:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by enmitee

shows how much you know, torment weapons ARE inscribable. And a pyroclastic axe is relatively cheaper if not the same price of an armbrace. the weapons dont have major clipping problems aside from the shield and focus. and imo, i dont like holding NPC weapons that much anymore. and destroyer weapons ARE inscribable as well. they just look like complete crap and monument fodder.

Petition: Make torment weapons dyeable.

I agree.... why do Tormented items have to be purple? I think this is the main issue why people don't like them. Imagine the Chaos Axe stuck on one color, interest would drop, followed by the price. Boy would i love to wield a blue/green/red glowing Tormented Shield

.

havok019 · Mar 26, 2008, 08:35 PM // 20:35

Gemsets appear to be relatively stable @ $12-13k a set. It takes 15 sets to make an Armbrace so that should be (high end) $195k. Ectos fluctuate but have recently been trading for around $4.7k. So if we assume the value of an Armbrace is $195k and we regularly trade by spamming "100k + ??? Ectos", it's reasonable to conclude we should be trading near 100k + 20 ectos at the moment. But we are not.

The problem is that we have sellers who are undercutting the market and selling for under 15 ectos, which is where we get buyers offering us 6, 8, 10 ectos. I'll discount slightly, but as long as Gemsets are still ranging in the 12-13k range, I'm not selling an Armbrace below 15 ectos and you shouldn't either.

evolution shadow · Mar 26, 2008, 08:59 PM // 20:59

Remove please sorry

Arv X · Mar 26, 2008, 09:23 PM // 21:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawrence Chang

I agree.... why do Tormented items have to be purple? I think this is the main issue why people don't like them. Imagine the Chaos Axe stuck on one color, interest would drop, followed by the price. Boy would i love to wield a blue/green/red glowing Tormented Shield

.

because you cant dye the glowing torment of abbadon.... idk it doesnt really fit with margo being purple if tormented weps can change color

DaCatInDaHat · Mar 26, 2008, 09:35 PM // 21:35

please go cry in some other forum, planet, universe

-Loki- · Mar 26, 2008, 11:30 PM // 23:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by kooomar

100k+40? Try 100k+200, I bought my torment shield for 100k+180 back when ectos were 10k each, now torment items are trash sadly...

So weapons are only good in this game if they are worth a few hundred ectos? Shit, here I was thinking weapons were good based on stats in this game.