Is there any reason to buy from anyone except your origin Quartermaster?
By
Cinkidd,
Posted on: 2010-05-19 09:52 in Player Questions
No, you're not missing anything. What you're seeing is leftover relics from the days past.
Way, way back in the old days, the stores only sold some of the enhancement types (Acc, Dmg, Rchg, End Red, just the 'important' ones) [I don't remember all of them, but you can probably look it up if you're really interested].
So if you wanted some of the more esoteric enhancers, you had to buy them from your contacts. That got changed real fast, but the contact stores were never eliminated.
Nowadays, just buy regular enhancements (TO, DO, SO) from the correct store and then get your common IOs from the market and/or invention tables.
6000+ levels gained and 8 level 50's
Hello, my name is Soulwind and I have Alt-Itis.
People still buy enhancement beside IO??? 
Honestly, I've never bought a SO, DO or TO from anyone but the "quartermaster" CoV side or "Store" CoH side 
. Still most of the time I just tough it out until 22 and start with basic IO. Before that it's drop only.
It's a hold-over from an old game mechanic where some enhancements could only be purchased through your contacts, so to get them you'd need to do missions for your origin contact to unlock their store.
Now that the stores sell all enhancements it would be nice if they'd revisit this and have the contacts sell enhancements to you at a cheaper price than stores, so unlocking the contact's store would mean something.
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Its a little outdated in the current form of the game with so many additions to the original concept of missions from contacts (as well as the advancement of crafted enhancements), but I think the idea was that of "impulse buy". Rather than running all over virtual creation, keep focused on the task at hand and grab what the contact offered, if your enhancements had gone into the red.
I personally haven't bought from them in ages, except for inspiration. I'd love for the devs to reevaluate this in light of the current game and perhaps offer either more competitive pricing from the contacts, or some sort of unique enhancements, say for example, enhancements for levels not ending in 0 or 5. That way you only pay for a single enhancement and not three per slot.
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See Power 10 enhancements.
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Originally Posted by Soulwind
Way, way back in the old days, the stores only sold some of the enhancement types (Acc, Dmg, Rchg, End Red, just the 'important' ones) [I don't remember all of them, but you can probably look it up if you're really interested].
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I think Statesman said the reason the enhancements sold by your Contacts were more expensive is due to their convenience. |
Originally Posted by Rodoan
Its a little outdated in the current form of the game with so many additions to the original concept of missions from contacts (as well as the advancement of crafted enhancements), but I think the idea was that of "impulse buy". Rather than running all over virtual creation, keep focused on the task at hand and grab what the contact offered, if your enhancements had gone into the red.
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Convenience as in:
(1) you know where your Contacts were because back in the day, the brick and mortar stores weren't marked on your minimap, and
(2) you would be coming back to your Contact on a regular basis to get more missions anyway, which really didn't make sense since by the time your Contacts opened up their full enhancements store to you, you would already be able to call them from afar.
Edit:
(3) I think the Contacts sold the non-Power-10 enhancements 5 levels earlier than a brick and mortar store too.
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This.|
Originally Posted by Rodoan
I personally haven't bought from them in ages, except for inspiration.
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Contacts are a good place to buy inspirations, but that's it.
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The real question is why do you buy anything from them anyhow? As mentioned, IOs are cheaper, give a higher bonus and don't expire and you never have to figure out which name gives what bonus.|
Originally Posted by Setsuna
Contacts mentioning they sell enhancements at heavily inflated prices when you always have open access to much cheaper enhancements at the Quartermasters kind of makes their stores pointless.. unless I'm missing something?
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Cost to buy accuracy IOs for 1 slot from level 22 to level 50 waiting until they expire to replace: ~250k but can be more expensive if you combine to make +3s or replace before they expire.
Cost for a crafted level 35 Generic Accuracy if you memorized it: 33k +salvage (Alch Silver, Scientific Theory), if you didn't memorize it: 61k +salvage.
And cheap sets are even more affordable than commons.
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I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
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This is what I would have expected them to do, and was afraid maybe they diddo IF I did "x" and/or "y." Seems like the natural thing to do, so I like this idea.|
Originally Posted by Katze
It's a hold-over from an old game mechanic where some enhancements could only be purchased through your contacts, so to get them you'd need to do missions for your origin contact to unlock their store.
Now that the stores sell all enhancements it would be nice if they'd revisit this and have the contacts sell enhancements to you at a cheaper price than stores, so unlocking the contact's store would mean something. |
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Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
The real question is why do you buy anything from them anyhow? As mentioned, IOs are cheaper, give a higher bonus and don't expire and you never have to figure out which name gives what bonus.
Cost to buy accuracy IOs for 1 slot from level 22 to level 50 waiting until they expire to replace: ~250k but can be more expensive if you combine to make +3s or replace before they expire. Cost for a crafted level 35 Generic Accuracy if you memorized it: 33k +salvage (Alch Silver, Scientific Theory), if you didn't memorize it: 61k +salvage. And cheap sets are even more affordable than commons. |
For my main who seems to have enough money to do anything except go hog wild at the black market, the cost isn't too much of an issue. For my lower level characters which don't seem to have inherited anything from Uncle Pennybags though (I don't even remember how my main got all that money), IOs are prohibitively expensive if you factor in the recipe cost.
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Absolute rubbish. Back when I was poor but had effectively unlimited respecs (more than I ever use as a 69 month vet) I would get SOs at 22 which are better than 25 IOs, and then respec at 27, get full sale price for the IOs slotted, and with the profit on the 10 in the tray purchased for peanuts from WWs, actually make a profit on upgrading from 25 to 30 SOs.|
Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
The real question is why do you buy anything from them anyhow? As mentioned, IOs are cheaper, give a higher bonus and don't expire and you never have to figure out which name gives what bonus.
Cost to buy accuracy IOs for 1 slot from level 22 to level 50 waiting until they expire to replace: ~250k but can be more expensive if you combine to make +3s or replace before they expire. Cost for a crafted level 35 Generic Accuracy if you memorized it: 33k +salvage (Alch Silver, Scientific Theory), if you didn't memorize it: 61k +salvage. And cheap sets are even more affordable than commons. |
It can be sensible to use SOs of level 25/30 and possibly even 35 if you intend to move on to set IOs in the mid to late 30s and have the respecs spare.
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With a little patience and low-ball bidding you can pick up a lot of the IOs stupidly cheap in the AH. (Especially at some levels -- almost any level 50 common IO can be got for 20,000 inf or less in a couple of days blueside.) It's even easier and more convenient now that you can bid on stacks of enhancements. And even where you can't get the enhancement, you can often pick up the recipe at well below bench cost.
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Originally Posted by Setsuna
I do use IOs when possible, but I wouldn't say they're cheaper (They aren't.. sort of. At least not in the immediate short term.) Between the recipe and crafting cost, they're roughly twice the cost of a +3 SO.
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And rather than start a new thread, an unrelated question:
Is there a way to show more than two enemy health/end bars at once? I tried to set it to Always with that popmenu thing by Lost Ninja, but that setting has no effect..
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I only IO my characters out at lvl 47. I use only what drops that I get until lvl 22 when I can use SO then I buy on levels ending in 2 and 7.|
Originally Posted by ElectroHawk
People still buy enhancement beside IO???
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That's a very sensible way to go about it if you have the respecs. However at level 25 SOs are only better than common IOs.|
Originally Posted by Minotaur
Absolute rubbish. Back when I was poor but had effectively unlimited respecs (more than I ever use as a 69 month vet) I would get SOs at 22 which are better than 25 IOs, and then respec at 27, get full sale price for the IOs slotted, and with the profit on the 10 in the tray purchased for peanuts from WWs, actually make a profit on upgrading from 25 to 30 SOs.
It can be sensible to use SOs of level 25/30 and possibly even 35 if you intend to move on to set IOs in the mid to late 30s and have the respecs spare. |
A level 24 Acc/Dam gives 38.4% total bonus, and a +3 SO gives 38.33% but it will drop as you level. A level 20 Acc/Dam/Rech also gives 38.4% total and you can slot that baby at level 17.
Assume you have three slots for an attack, you for certain want an accuracy and a damage, the third varies end for some, recharge, or a second acc or damage.
At level 22 using level 25 SOs you can have:
38.3% Acc, 38.3% Dam, 38.3% Recharge
Or you can slot:
Pulverizing Fisticuffs Acc/Dam/Rech, Focused Smite Acc/Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam
for: 52% Acc, 52% Dam, 32% Rech at level 22
When you reach level 22 those SOs are giving you:
33.3%/33.3%/33.3%
the IOs are still 52%/52%/32%
The PF costs 74k to craft and maybe 10k in salvage. The FS cost 36k to craft and maybe 2k in salvage.
Level 25 SOs cost 29.9k with some variety per style and store.
You replace those SOs even once from a store and you're over the price of the sets.
BUT, if you burn a respec and recoup all the cost and then slot sets, that is a good way to go. Probably a great idea for EATS as khelds very commonly want to respec and soldiers have no choice in the matter.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
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Target one point at the second with your mouse. Might be another way but I know that works.
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Originally Posted by Setsuna
And rather than start a new thread, an unrelated question:
Is there a way to show more than two enemy health/end bars at once? I tried to set it to Always with that popmenu thing by Lost Ninja, but that setting has no effect.. |
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
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Again, only true of unmemorized commons. A level 24 Acc/Dam/Rech Focused Smite costs 37k to craft and three salvage that can all be bought reliably for 100-500 inf. A level 25 Accuracy SO costs 29.9k. A level 25 Common Accuracy IO requires a luckcharm so that one is clearly going to be way too expensive unless you luck out and someone is selling them crafted for below cost (which happens: I bought two for 15k each a few months back).|
Originally Posted by Setsuna
I do use IOs when possible, but I wouldn't say they're cheaper (They aren't.. sort of. At least not in the immediate short term.) Between the recipe and crafting cost, they're roughly twice the cost of a +3 SO.
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| And IOs don't surpass +3 SOs until Level 40 (Although I guess you could argue 30 or 35 are "close enough.") |
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| For my main who seems to have enough money to do anything except go hog wild at the black market, the cost isn't too much of an issue. For my lower level characters which don't seem to have inherited anything from Uncle Pennybags though (I don't even remember how my main got all that money), IOs are prohibitively expensive if you factor in the recipe cost. |
One trick to watch for is that crafting costs ramp up up up, the drop when they cross a threshold and change ingredients. So the under 25 recipes like Bonesnap the 25 IO costs 76k to craft. But the 25+ ones or the 20-30 ones the level 25 (or 26) only costs 36k to craft.
Plus, people often post them on the market for less than the crafting cost. Leave a lowball bid up and see what happens. I sold 4 level 50 Def Buff common IOs for 5k each last weekend. Put them up for 1 apiece. I'm not the only one doing it either. Field crafters often don't care much what we make back, just need to clear our inventory so we can craft the next batch. =)
And I'll stop now. =)
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
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I said more than two. |
Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Target one point at the second with your mouse. Might be another way but I know that works.
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Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Very very wrong.
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DAH! Hrrrmmm. *Runs off to try and find a way.*
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Originally Posted by Setsuna
I said more than two. :P
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"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Contacts mentioning they sell enhancements at heavily inflated prices when you always have open access to much cheaper enhancements at the Quartermasters kind of makes their stores pointless.. unless I'm missing something?