There is no one best thing. It depends on what your character needs, what your level is, what you currently have, whether you want rare recipe sets, etc.
For example, if you have a level 30-50 character that's outfitted with SOs or common IOs, and you want to use uncommon IOs for most of your powers, the Bronze reward roll is really quite fabulous. With a few thousand tickets you can make your character quite powerful. For 75 tickets a level 50 Bronze roll gives you a shot at uncommons like Crushing Impact and Doctored Wounds that can sell for millions, and many rares. Since these drop at a frequency relative to their use in the game, it is likely that you will be able to use many of these recipes on your character, and that other players will be interested in buying the ones you don't use. Of course, you'll still get many that people don't want (pets, stuns, sleeps, Detonation, Cleaving Blow, etc.), but in my experience you get pretty decent stuff. For a few thousand tickets I've gotten 7 Crushing Impacts and 3 Steadfast Pro: KB protection, plus oodles of other recipes I used or sold. In my experience, the Bronze roll is the most cost effective use of tickets, but then I don't insist on having rares and ultra-rares in every power.
If everyone did what you planned to do (get rare salvage and sell it on the market), the supply of said salvage would increase and its price will drop, and it will soon be uneconomical.
All market-based schemes are dependent on supply and demand, and when either changes the viability of these schemes changes. Large-scale get-rich-quick schemes always wind up changing the direction of the market, in the game and in real life. When everyone was playing MA exclusively the price of high-tier common salvage went through the roof because no one was farming it anymore. Then it dropped again when the latest wave of fear spread and people started playing regular content.
If all you're interested in is getting lots of influence through the market, there is no one answer: you have to see what's in high demand and then supply it. But the act of supplying it in any quantity will reduce demand and lower the price. Meanwhile others will be doing the same. So your tactics will have to change or cycle over time.
I tend to use tickets to buy salvage I need, rather then buying it from the consignment house.
Gold rolls in general aren't worth it unless you really need something in there. 4000 is a lot of tickets.
Personally, I've been making bank using the silver rolls and selling anything I can't use on the markets. Bronze roll however is also really cheap and has some good stuff in there.
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I'm just curious what the opinons are about the best thing to purchase with your AE tickets.
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Love.
I would go with bronze, when you get a recipe you'd like to use then switch to purchasing the salvage needed to make it. For the common salvage parts, roll until you get the ones you need. You shoul have enough excess to sell on the market to cover your crafting costs with good change left.
I buy SOs for my MA only characters with tickets, but common salvage is more rewarding. The above approach can make it more like a little sub-game than just a money grind.
Thanks for your help guys. I went mostly with the silver rolls and got a few items I was aving for!
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I buy SOs for my MA only characters with tickets, but common salvage is more rewarding. The above approach can make it more like a little sub-game than just a money grind.
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I think buying SOs with tickets is a terrible waste. SOs essentially last only five levels, while IOs last forever. Because so many people are going for badges, you can usually get crafted IOs on the market for the price of trainers at level 10-15.
If you can't find cheap IOs, you can generally get common recipes on the market for quite reasonable prices, and then get your salvage with tickets.
If you stage your IO crafting to increase your powers' accuracy as your base to-hit declines, you can actually wind up saving influence by using IOs instead of SOs. You don't need to swap out all your IOs like you do with DOs and SOs -- you can keep the lower level ones until you have the funds to replace them.
For example, when you hit level 12 put a level 15 accuracy IO in each of your attack powers and three or four level 15 damage IOs. When you hit level 17, replace one of your damage IOs with a level 20 accuracy IO, and replace the remaining level 15 damage IOs with level 20 damage IOs as funds become available. At level 22 replace the level 15 accuracy IO with a level 25, and upgrade the damage IOs when feasible. Over the life of an SO, a level 25 IO provides the same average bonus, while a level 30 IO is better for all but one or two levels (as I recall).
Another bonus for doing it this way is that you never get stuck with all your SOs going red when you level in the middle of a mission.
By the time you reach level 30-35 you should start using your tickets for bronze rolls. Then replace your level 25 IOs with level 30-35 uncommon recipe sets that you get from those bronze rolls, or recipes you buy on the market with the influence you earned from selling the bronze recipes you can't use.
For most characters, level 30-35 uncommon sets need never be replaced. Because of ED the damage (or mez effect) is essentially capped at 95% anyway, and the accuracy bonus is usually 57% to 62% for most attack powers, which is generally more than enough to peg your hit chance at 95% even when running on invincible.
If you can't find IOs for sale on the market and you already have a 50, consider going for the crafting accolade. Once you memorize a recipe, you craft it at half the cost and you don't need a recipe. This winds up making IOs cheaper than SOs in most cases (especially if you have the salvage). If your characters are in the same supergroup you can place the crafted IOs in storage and retrieve them with any of your alts.
Good ideas, Rodion, and I'll agree with all but:
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If you can't find IOs for sale on the market and you already have a 50, consider going for the crafting accolade. Once you memorize a recipe, you craft it at half the cost and you don't need a recipe. This winds up making IOs cheaper than SOs in most cases (especially if you have the salvage). If your characters are in the same supergroup you can place the crafted IOs in storage and retrieve them with any of your alts.
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I just ran my main toon (with Field Crafter) to RWZ to compare prices -- level 50 damage and healing SO's are two of the most expensive at 60,000 inf each.
BASE cost to craft those level 50 IO's is 464,400, my 'memorized' cost is 232,200 (plus salvage, which I might or might not have.)
That's not exactly half the cost -- the IO is more like 3.87x the cost of the same SO (which also appears to hold true with cheaper SO/IO's like Defense Buff at 3.8714x).
"But it wasn't anything some purples and oranges and lots of screaming in fear couldn't handle." -- Werner
30 level 50's: 12 scrappers, 7 other random melee types, 11 blaster/blapper/support squishies, two accounts, and a TON of altitis since 4/28/04
Ticket Vendors are great in AE. And I agree with alot of what is said. the question is what is the best thing to buy with tickets. After unlocking all of the content. You can perform random recipe rolls. Gold is OK I generally roll silver and bronze and end up with a few really nice treasures. Prior to 35 I use them on enhacnements only. I was in heaven when I realized that you could outfit your toons with DO's and SO's etc.. with the tickets. I am somewhat disappointed with the Devs reacting and not doing a study prior to the Nerf. and if they did then I am even more disappointed. Now you have to run so many missions in order to get enough tickets to even 1/2 way outfit your toons. I'm thinking at least the min on the ticket bonus per Arc should be enough to adequately provide enhancements for the characters should they level in a mission. At least for some of the tougher AE missions.
I love the fact also that they sell SO's and DO's at +3's so they last for a few levels and you dont have to run to the store and put your team on hold "Hang on I have to get a few enahcements" Buying them at +3's gives you more qualtiy playing time and less time in the store purchaseing and combining. Give the Devs a 10 ++ on that one.
The things that I chiefly use tickets for are indeed buying SOs, especially during the period before level 32, when a SO is superior to any simple IO you can equip. After 32 and especially after 35, your character can do more things in PvE, and levelling in the MA becomes proportionally slower.
The other thing I get with tickets are rare and uncommon salvage which can be made to order.
I am of a disposition that makes me not fond of rolling for anything. The many times something worthless comes down the pipe loom large in memory.
<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison
I'm glad we've at least got choices with what we can do with tickets -- so far I've used most of the options!
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I am of a disposition that makes me not fond of rolling for anything. The many times something worthless comes down the pipe loom large in memory.
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That sounds as though you tend to roll like I did yesterday -- 4 of 14 bronze recipes were worth crafting for a profit, and 10 were vendor trash (including FIVE pet recipes, which are generally next to worthless blueside.) Woo. Or, 28.5% were winners if you're keeping score.
On the other hand, the day before I got 22 of 29 bronze rolls that were worth crafting, with an estimated "last five" value of a little over 110 million! (Or a remarkable 75.8% were "winners", which is about double my guesstimated average since MA launched.) So far, I've made 85 million with a few that I may have to reprice. *shrug* Over two days, I'm still over my "about 40% are keepers" average, which means I'm probably due for another awful day at the ol' ticket casino sometime soon. 
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The other thing I get with tickets are rare and uncommon salvage which can be made to order.
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That time I got 29 rolls which "paid out" over 100 million, I could have bought 5 Pangean Soils. Estimated retail value: about 5 million influence this week.
On the flip side, you got to take the money and run; I got to spend about an hour making my salvage list, bidding on salvage, doing something else while the bids "filled" (time I'm not counting here), running back to WW's to pick up salvage, running to the base and crafting, going BACK and bidding on the two items I forgot, crafting some more, and then making three trips to WW's with my "market toons" and putting everything up for sale.
An hour of drudge work during my semi-valuable "play time" -- semi-big virtual bucks.
An hour of doing whatever YOU wanted to do -- priceless! 
I might have gotten the short end of the proverbial stick there after all, huh?
"But it wasn't anything some purples and oranges and lots of screaming in fear couldn't handle." -- Werner
30 level 50's: 12 scrappers, 7 other random melee types, 11 blaster/blapper/support squishies, two accounts, and a TON of altitis since 4/28/04
I have all the unlockables stuff. I bought the badge.
I actually have nothing to buy with tickets anymore.
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Good ideas, Rodion, and I'll agree with all but:
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If you can't find IOs for sale on the market and you already have a 50, consider going for the crafting accolade. Once you memorize a recipe, you craft it at half the cost and you don't need a recipe. This winds up making IOs cheaper than SOs in most cases (especially if you have the salvage). If your characters are in the same supergroup you can place the crafted IOs in storage and retrieve them with any of your alts.
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I just ran my main toon (with Field Crafter) to RWZ to compare prices -- level 50 damage and healing SO's are two of the most expensive at 60,000 inf each.
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You got me there -- but you can't really compare SOs to level 50 IOs, which are WAY better than SOs (they give a 42.4% bonus, while a level 50 SO provides 33.3% for a level 50 character). You really should compare SO costs to crafting a level 30 (34.8%) IO.
Also, my conceit for character building is posited on switching to uncommon and rare IO sets starting in the low 30s, so I would use very few common IOs after level 35 or so (only for things like Stamina, Hasten, Health, Flight, etc). If you've got 3 level 25 or 30 IOs in Stamina, you never need to replace them with 50s. You might want to change one of them to a 40 or 50 when you get the chance, but 3 25s provide 92% bonus and 3 30s provide 95.7% (according to Mids), while 3 50s give 99%. It's just not worth the huge crafting cost for the marginal increase on most characters. But by the time you can use level 50s you're not worried about a measly half million to craft an IO anymore.
Over the lifetime of an SO, a level 30 IO is better and never wears out. If you're slotting three of any enhancement, a level 30 is the best deal because ED comes down really hard on level 50 IOs. A 50 IO is best if you only have one or two slots available; if you've got three in the same enhancement it's overkill for most characters.
I like to buy rare tech or magic salvage that has the best chance at selling at 1million inf. quickly.
I then buy bronze rolls with the remaining tickets. Mostly junk but it has been known to turn out the different uniques as well as other recipes that fetch six and seven figures.
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You got me there -- but you can't really compare SOs to level 50 IOs, which are WAY better than SOs (they give a 42.4% bonus, while a level 50 SO provides 33.3% for a level 50 character). You really should compare SO costs to crafting a level 30 (34.8%) IO.
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Well, sure, if we're comparing 50th SO's to 30th IO's, the numbers are a lot different, and you're absolutely right: A level 50 damage/healing SO costs 60k, a memorized level 30 damage/healing IO has a crafting cost of 30.9k or 51.5% of the SO's cost.. Level 50 defense SO costs 42k; a level 30 defense IO (memorized cost) is only 29k or 69% of the SO.
Without prior knowledge, though, that we're mixing and matching.... <laugh>
I've said many a time that my Jeep can blow the doors off most Ferraris and Lamborghinis in a drag race. Heck, depending on the model, I'll race for cash, pink slips, or anything else they can dream up. And yes, I'm quite serious!
...of course, I get to pick the track and the day. Countachs, Diablos, and Murciélagos don't run so well in the mud, and don't even get me started on the creeks and log crossings.
But, we can't buy exotic imported supercars with MA tickets either, which is where we got started here.
"But it wasn't anything some purples and oranges and lots of screaming in fear couldn't handle." -- Werner
30 level 50's: 12 scrappers, 7 other random melee types, 11 blaster/blapper/support squishies, two accounts, and a TON of altitis since 4/28/04
I usually roll 10-14 Bronze and more recently 20-24 Bronze.
I'll get the pile of crapola like Horrors or such and then come out with a few Steadfast KB, Steadfast Res/Def, Karam KB and some smaller but nice items such as Adjusted Targeting or Detonations.
Enough to supply my friend with his needs and to turn the Crushing Impacts et al. into some pocket change.
I get Rare salvage as well once in a while. Took a few Silver rolls and was meh. Take gold rolls when I have a LOT of tickets on me, usually in the 35-39 or 40-44 range.
Questions about the game, either side? /t @Neuronia or @Neuronium, with your queries!
168760: A Death in the Gish. 3 missions, 1-14. Easy to solo.
Infinity Villains
Champion, Pinnacle, Virtue Heroes
Currently, I'm buying rare arcane salvage that's going for at least 1 million on the market. It helps that my friends and I are playing almost exclusively MA missions right now. Taking a character from level 1 is a joy -- by the time I'm 25, I have enough influence to craft or buy level 25 IOs that I can keep until the 40s, and by then I have enough to upgrade and even toss in some sets. I also don't have to worry about running to sell as often.
I'm just curious what the opinons are about the best thing to purchase with your AE tickets. I bought two seperate gold class rolls and got recipies I thought were lame (both pets). Personally, I think I'm better off buying *certain* salavage and selling it. Then using the proceeds to purchase something cool. (and to me something cool is a nifty shinny IO I can use)
Thoughts?