FourSpeed

I also believe the market is distinctly healthier due to the merger, and
feel that really supports what many here argued for as a key benefit in
the first place.

There is still supply weakness in the mid-range sector, and I'd really love
to see the devs address that to some degree, but overall, it's healthier
now than it has ever been post AE & R-Merit introduction (imho).


Regards,
4

Hilarious.

Dumple and Goat especially made me laugh -- "casual group" indeed...

It's true.

Granny is only L2, has not arrested a mob (outside of the tutorial), and
refuses to run in SG mode -- and I'm still allowed in -- Thanks Guys!!!

I'm not sure I'm in support of Uncle Fulmen's "Mad Science Project" per se,
(in fact, I worry a bit about that altruism streak of his ) but reading
that thread and seeing the OP cry foul, is indeed all the reward (and
motivation) my Ebil self requires to be involved with this massive "exploit"...

Now, *that* is what I call entertainment. Pure Win.


Cheers,
4

PS> In the SGmotd I've taken to adding our position # on whatever date I
check it (typically every day or two), so you can see our recent progess
at a glance just by logging in (we were at #14 this morn - as goat posted above).

I have to concur with the others (ie. Fulmens, Ironblade, etc.)

Alkirin, you are mish-mashing fundamental terms here, so let's toss out
some definitions...

Cornering: is the attempt to purchase, and control, the supply of a
particular niche and thereby dictate (typically with intent to raise) pricing.

Flipping: is the act of buying items at one price and then, re-selling them
at a higher price.

Cornering, is by necessity a short-term gamble. Why? Simple: you have
limited storage, limited funds, and minimal control over other players. If I
try to corner a niche, I'd buy as much of it as I can, sell a few (to myself)
to paint the tape and set a price floor, set protective bids to maintain
supply control, and then sell for profit at my newly established pricing...

It's a boatload of effort to manage, and is easily broken - how? Cheap Sellers.
People who see a high price and dump their "stock" will kill the cornerer.
Every Time.

So, while getting in is fairly straightforward, getting out in time is harder,
and overextending control duration is usually a guarantee to lose your shirt.

On the other hand, Flipping has one criterion which dictates it's viability
and duration -- price spread. It's not a gamble at all.

As long as the ability to buy above the current floor and sell below the
current ceiling produces a profit (after fees), flipping is viable (possibly for
years as some of us have done).
No cornering attempt has ever done that profitably over that kind of timeframe.

The thing you fail to grasp consistently is the earlier statement: buy above
floor, sell below ceiling... Clearly, that cannot raise pricing - instead, it
narrows the price range -- ie. it stabilizes price.

The ultimate endpoint would be a fixed amount. If widgets were always
1000 inf, no matter what, they could not, in fact, be profitably flipped.
End of Story.

So, the only way to kill a flipper is: buy above his bid price and sell below
his list price... How does it kill him? It further squeezes the price range
towards that fixed price endpoint - eliminating profit.

You could still potentially try to corner that niche (it would still be possible,
but meaningless if the price is, in fact, fixed), but you couldn't flip it profitably.

Now, I'll agree that cornering could be construed as an "attack" on a niche,
but flipping is only considered an attack by the superstitious and or
ignorant (ie. lacking in knowledgeable understanding).


Regards,
4

Simply put, it all comes down to perspective.

To a low level character selling TO drops for 30 or 40 inf a pop, 100K seems
like a crazy-high amount.

For the guy crafting & selling purples (where even the crafting cost alone is 600K),
100K is loose pocket change, especially when the expected profit is ~20-50M or more.

While "idiocy" is certainly possible, I'd say that scale/perspective is a far liklier
rationale...


Regards,
4

No need to feel dumb. The market can be pretty overwhelming at first.

As far as riches, there is no doubt that marketeering is indeed the quickest
way to consistent riches... Of course, you can also combine that with other
things, like farming, tf's etc, but if you use only one approach, the market is
the hands-down winner.

In terms of getting involved with the Market you've already taken a good
first step by posting your question here.

I'd recommend you read some of the marketing guides, and then give it a whirl.

Start small, and slow, and ramp up more as you learn more...


Regards & GL,
4


PS> If you want a very simple and safe way to start, I'd
recommend the guide I wrote (in my signature) as a
good, early approach (but read the others too - they're
all helpful)

Interesting thread.

I have a Blaster who's already an incarnation of Loki - so he'd certainly qualify
from an Incarnate's perspective.

Not sure (RP-wise) how any of my other toons would though...


On the other hand, a certain morality mission informs me that my Brute
becomes the last living god so, perhaps the Incarnate system is simply
the means by which he begins to achieve it.


Regards,
4


PS> For Kheldians, one might presume that the other planets & species
they have encountered also worshipped gods (as humans do), so I'd think
it viable to "invent" one from those cultures (since we don't have any real
info to select from) if you wanted to go that route. <shrug>

Everyone has already covered the salvage case. It's typically very volatile,
and quite sensitive to various in-game events/playstyles (ToT in this particular
case).

As for mid-level recipes over the past year or so, there were some dev
changes to the game which (I believe) set up a vicious cycle that pretty
much tanked supply of most standard set recipes at all but at (or near) max level.

Specific contributors (imho):

* AE - two ways...
a> non dev-choice missions don't drop them (they only drop insps & tix)
b> AE PL-ing churns out a lot of L50s (who rarely, if ever create/contribute
mid-level supply since they aren't playing standard content)

* R-Merits - random rolls generate at your character level, so unless you
actively farm merits and/or level cap your toon (ie. shut off XP), that
typically means you don't get many random rolls until high level, so only
max-level recipes get generated with any significant frequency.

* Task Forces - they removed the random recipe for completing these,
and give R-merits instead. So, recipes generated at the tf level stopped
appearing.

All of these factors accumulate to substantially reduce the mid-level supply.

After awhile, persistent shortages at those levels helped foster a player
attitude that "it's easier to stick with SO's or Commons until high levels",
which in turn meant reduced demand, so even when there are some, sales
are slow and prices are low, leading to players simply deleting or vending
most typical mid-level recipes, and in-turn completing the cycle by
extending the shortages.

The end (and current) result, is that most mid-level recipes are pretty
rare or unavailable, and typically only include pure junk, or extremely
expensive premium recipes that are kept by players or snapped up very
quickly.

That said, it is still possible to get them, but it requires patience and lead
times of weeks typically... I usually start putting out bids for them around
L15 or so, and usually get most of them by the time I'm around L25-L30.

Most folks, simply aren't that patient and simply defer until their toons get
into the L40's or so (again, perpetuating the cycle).


Regards,
4

Has it actually been two full years since I originally wrote this guide? Wow!

So many things have changed in the game and I-19 is looming right around
the bend with even more additions to come.

Some key changes since 2008 (for perspective) are Dual builds, Praetoria/Going Rogue,
and Alignment Merits, to name just a few.

Two other noteworthy changes are the consolidation of the Hero and Villain markets
into one single market for all players (Hero, Villain, and Praetorian), and Gleemail.

In re-reading the full thread today, I couldn't help but chuckle over all the negative
posts along the way...

Guess what guys? The "doom" didn't happen... (told ya so! )

One thing that has not changed in all that time is this strategy.

Once again, I called on my good buddy "MCF" to put down his pina colada and hit
the markets for another quick 10 Million or so.

Here are the results of those runs:

Granny has been selling her jewelry and other assorted baubles to contribute
throughout the weekend.


Cheers,
4

I'm with Silverado and others that reco SS/WP Brute.

Built right, it's completely unkillable by most mob groups.

Stalkers are easy to solo also, because they pick and choose when (or
even if) a battle occurs.

However, I wouldn't call it "relaxing" per se, because once you DO get into
a fight, you generally need to be paying tactical attention.

Short of a couple specific mobs (sappers, etc.) the Brute doesn't care
what you're fighting... Just press 1-2-3 till it's dead (or, till they're dead)
and wander on to the next batch at whatever pace you're comfy with...


Regards,
4

Paragonwiki has an excellent graph covering enhancement strength (presumably,
that's the link ZombieMan posted, but I didn't check it).

In case he supplied a different link the one I'm talking about is here

As an approximate rule of thumb though, you can use these estimations.

For Single Attribute enhancements

L10 IO's dominate over TO's
L15 IO's kick DO's butt...

L25 is slightly less than an even level SO
L30 is appx equivalent to a +1 SO
L35 is appx equivalent to a +2 SO
L40+ is better than a +3 SO

For Dual Attribute enhancements

L20+ Dual Set IO's exceed +3 SO's (in pairs -- ie. 2 L20 Acc/Dmg IO's are
better than a +3 Acc SO and a +3 Dmg SO)


For Frankenslotters

You can usually max the core attributes of a power in 5 slots and gain an
additonal 1.5-2 SO's worth of other benefit with L25 set IO's (not even
counting set bonuses)

ie. for an attack, for instance, you can typically get 60%/90% (Acc/Dmg)
along with 30-50% Rch and/or Erdx in 5 slots.


Regards,
4

I'd have to chime in with "Take Rage"

It's simply too helpful not to...

The crash is a 10 second pita, no doubt - until you recall these few points.

1> For folks with Build-Up, the *benefit* is only 10 seconds.. Rage is 50...

2> During the crash, Vet powers (Blackwand, Nem Staff, Sands of Mu) still
work at full strength... Cast those during the crash, and you're pretty
much through it.

3> You can double-stack it pretty easily - seeing a 300% damage buff
in a fight seems like a pretty useful thing to me...

In the end, you can do without Rage just fine - but if you want "uber" -
you want Rage.


Regards,
4

As a 90%+ soloist, I'll throw in another vote that pretty much any AT
can solo reasonably well (I've run a bunch of them).

In terms of "unconventional" - ie. AT's you may not expect to solo well, I'd
offer the Burn Aura/Ice Melee tank...

I'm not sure if it's "best", but mine runs the wall in Cimoera (sp) almost
effortlessly (even back when Burn still had it's fear component - Ice Patch
is a beautiful thing)

On top of that, he's darn near indestructible (as tested against Lusca,
Pylons and others). While he can't defeat those, they can't defeat him either.


Regards,
4