2 billion per enhancer

Several of us have answered.

Completely? I'd say years. More importantly, I'd say keep tweaking content so there's new stuff that's better so people who "completely" purpled a few months ago are not quite up to the best stuff available.

I would want to try to make it as likely as possible that every character in the game has potential to be further improved from content now available in the game, at every time, because that's what makes MMOs keep players -- the possibility of further progression.

People don't play MMOs to finish characters, but to develop characters. Once development stops, it's no longer fun.

The best part is that almost nobody would choose that route. What I consider sensible players will pick the lowest-hanging fruit from each system. Some market interaction will get you most of the most inexpensive stuff. Some merit earning can be used to obtain things that are maximally expensive and/or low-supply on the market. Playing the game will earn you some drops you can sell or maybe use, some inf and some reward merits. Using the whole system instead of insisting on using only one part of it while ignoring all the others always collapses the time significantly.

Yes.

One of them is a statement about reality, the other is the answer to your question of "what should it be like?".

In the real world, multiple people appear to have done this for multiple alts, so it must be taking under a year for people who are really focused on it. In the hypothetical world of how the game would be designed if I were in charge, there would be new things introduced over time which improve the available options, so that those characters would still have room to progress. Oh, wait. That'd be something like the Incarnate system.

Consider what they've now announced. Imagine that you have a character that is "finished". As of Issue 19, that character will no longer be finished -- there will be better stuff available. You get that stuff. As of Issue 20, that character will again no longer be finished -- there will be better stuff available.

See a pattern?

That's the intended design -- always room for improvement.

As it happens, people who work at it now can get characters fully kitted out with whatever it is that they think they want, but they do have to be willing to seriously work at it.

No, even if we stipulate to that, you're still ignoring random drops and looking only at a-merits. You're ignoring reward merits (which allow you to get an a-merit every day) and AE tickets. So even if we completely avoid the market, your numbers are still off by at least a factor of two. (For that matter, they're especially far off on PvP IOs, since the recommended way to get those is PvP, not marketing or a-merits.)

This is a great place for a discussion of the actual reality of the game. It is not a great place for you to constantly move goalposts and not be able to handle careful reasoning from a stable set of premises which have been identified explicitly. You keep adding and removing premises.

But do it wrong.

First off, no, you're told that your claim is pants-on-head retarded, because it is. There is no favoritism in the market, it is not rigged.

Secondly... I think you're missing a key point. You don't have to use the market, but if you apply the "learning about your environment" skills we take for granted in kittens, puppies, and small children, you can easily use the market to hugely reduce the amount of time it takes you to get the build you want.

Since that works even in the current market, despite your implausible and totally unevidenced claims that it's "rigged", it is very relevant to the question of how long it will take people to get enhanced.

There are a couple of reasons that the off-market methods matter:

1. They tell us what the devs think should be the amount of effort it takes to get certain things.
2. They provide a "safety valve" -- a point at which you can have a guarantee of getting a specific thing.
3. When coupled with even the most naive use of the market (list everything you get that you don't need for 1 inf, bid average of last 5 bids on anything you want and leave the bid there for a week), they give you justified confidence that you can, and will, get everything you want in a reasonable amount of time.

Don't like to use the market? You're welcome to use slower methods, but if you do, don't complain that they're slower -- that is why people suggested the market. Think the market is "rigged"? Yeah, whatever, that's tinfoil hat territory. You've repeatedly demonstrated that you simply don't comprehend how the market works -- for instance, you asserted that all else being equal, bids fill in chronological order, but this is simply not true.

The market isn't rigged. It's a bit weird and opaque, and it's certainly a bit counterintuitive. But... Last night, thanks to AE farms, common salvage was again selling for ridiculous prices. I wanted some things which had last 5 bids from 50k to 100k. I put in bids on several of them at 1234 or 12345. I went on with the rest of my shopping. In about an hour, I had complete sets of suitable I/O enhancements for two level 20 characters, all level 22-23, good set bonuses, except for I think three slots on one of them. For those, I left bids up overnight. I paid 5-10% of the "going rate" for most of the salvage by the simple expedient of placing bids and waiting a few minutes.

There is nothing rigged here. It's well-documented, there are detailed guides available, and it works exactly the same for everybody.

15 PvP I/Os seems pretty high. I'm not sure I've ever seen someone who isn't primarily a full-time PvPer do that. As to whether it's possible? Sure. Might want to have an alt or two for market slots, but there's nothing unbelievable about it.

the Goat has three powers fully slotted with PvP IOs, not because I PvP with him but because he bought them when they first came out assuming the value would go way, way up. And also I liked the bonuses.

I'm probably going to sell 'em all off after my I19 respec and replace 'em with purples, just because I can. =P

I've seen a build or two do it. The -KB protection is pretty attractive in the DR sets for builds like Fire and Dark Armors.

The guy I know who did that (I'm not sure he had 15, but he had around 10) is a PvPer, but the character in question was not built for PvP.

Edit: This assumes you want a significant amount of KB protection. The character in question is a MA/FA Scrapper who can go to town on yellow Mitos at Hamidon Raids protected solely by IO-provided KB protection.

DM/Invuln? The second-most recharge-intensive build in the game? LOL. I feel like Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride: "You keep using these words. I don't think they mean what you think they mean."

You need help with your build more than you need to have twenty or more of the most extravagant items in the game. But hey, suit yourself. I'll just content myself playing characters that are two or three times more effective than yours for a tiny fraction of the cost.

That said, you've just proven how silly your premise is. You admit you're chasing the dragon (whatever that's supposed to mean), perhaps even to spite your own mechanical effectiveness. You admit that you may never catch the dragon, even though you (claim to) already have five purple sets. Still, you insist that they should be easier to obtain.

It never occurs to you that your build is the problem, and not the price of the enhancements. This thread is a monument to ignorance. People keep offering you good advice -- about the market, about builds, about making money even without marketeering. You blindly refuse to acknowledge any of it.

Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze Nice build

Possible sure, but that would be one terrible build.

The realm of possibility in this game is pretty freaking huge. however the edge cases shouldn't be held as the expectation.

'Chasing the dragon" is a term from the days of the opium dens. Basically it means 'a waste of time.'

The OP has recognized that his build is a waste of time yet he still insists upon this course of action. It is a poor decision compounded by another poor decision yet he feels that he is insulted that his route, while possible, is the slow and long road to hell.

There is nothing left for anyone to do at this point but to point and laugh. The better people tried to dissuade him from making the journey, but he has insisted. He probably wants to call himself a martyr for a greater cause.

Right now I'm just hoping he posts this 'letter' that he said he would write to the devs. I really hope it is printed so they can put it up in their common room and have ample 'discussion' about the nature of his proposal and secret cabal of evil marketeers that have cornered the market.

Although some people have said it is important to refute the OP's claims because they are so wrong headed, I'm pretty sure anyone walking into this thread now gets the idea that the OP hasn't got a grasp on reality when it comes to the market and builds. The horse has been flayed to the bone.

I assume it is a concept / roleplay build. and maybe he is frustrated that he can't make Dr. recharge

instead of putting all this energy into his own build he should be befriending a team of 7 kins/ so that he is always at max recharge regardless of his build.

maybe he could call it Snow White and the 7 really speedy people of small stature

I sure hope some of the staff at PS are reading this and laughing as much as I am.

I demand the satisfaction of seeing the bone made into powder so fine it will seep between the grains of dirt and sand on which it rests.

Actually, I think this whole thread has been because he spent a great amount of time farming the stupid way without bothering to check if he was farming the stupid way. He made 2.5 billion and spat out his binkie when he found out that it wasn't enough inf.

But yeah, the system is rigged FOR farmers.

You are such a pimp, man. Awesome.

True story. My first 50 was a dark melee/Inv scrapper. He ran on SOs for 4 years (2 years before the IOs/markets and 2 years after). I only upgraded him to common IOs and a couple cheap set IOs. He doesn't die unless I stop paying attention to what I am doing.

I guess I should be crying that he is unplayable since I haven't put billions into his build.

Feh. I bet you did something ridiculous with him, like take Hasten.

Not only that but I put 2 level 50 common Recharge IOs in Hasten.

See, when you exploit like that, I don't know how anyone can take you seriously. Supply and demand? LOL, crazy talk.

Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze Nice build