Does Anet still have a resident economist and/or a trading post dev/dev team?

[maxwelgm.4315]

Charms of skill are currently priced at almost 6g each with a rising trend. More worrying, the supply is basically 0/fully controlled by whoever got to them first. The fact this happened is not in itself an issue - it was expected to happen, which is where the question in the topic title comes in.

Did Anet intend to shake up the economy for whatever reason by announcing a key information a month ahead of time? Why not release the relic requirements beforehand as well if their intent was not to cause a TP rush? Surely it would be best to make a decision about whether to craft a legendary rune if we knew what we would be exchanging in terms of effort by not just waiting to craft the relic the "normal" way - a way we don't know what it even will be, not even initial details like we have for the armor. The only sound explanation I can think of if they didn't just want to mess up with TP prices on purpose, is that it's simply not even an afterthought and they just don't consider the TP in any decision whatsoever anymore. This is a neutral fact to most players and great news if you'd want to try banking big in the future by playing around announcements like yesterday.

I know this is also not a big deal, it's just some fictitious economy in some 10 year old MMO, but it's still part of the game so I'd like to know the thought process behind it if any!

[purp.1806]

You've got 30 days to farm mats that take 5 days of playing to receive.

[Cuks.8241]

What do you mean mess up. This is working as intended if you want free market. 

Besides we had speculative info quite some time ago. I stocked on extra charms months ago because I assumed price will go up due to legendary relic. 

[DanAlcedo.3281]

If the charms are worth alot, then people will start farming them. 

It's not like the tp is the source of them. 

 

[Shuzuru.3651]

I mean, it's not like they said since the relic announcement that there will be compensation for legendary rune...

[Danikat.8537]

I'm sure they'll have someone keeping an eye on the trading post, but managing the impact of changes on the games economy doesn't mean ensuing prices all stay roughly the same all the time.

They've often made changes deliberately to impact item prices, like changing how may of a material are needed for refinement or recipes, or making it possible to salvage ectoplasm into crystalline dust at a time when ectoplasm was relatively cheap and crystalline dust was expensive. In other situations I suspect they decide it's worth the effect on the economy because the other benefits outweigh the impact on item prices, or they predict how much the prices will change and decide it's within acceptable parameters.

In this case my guess is they knew it would cause charms to get more expensive but expected that to be a short-term change, and decided it was worth it so people who have made or are planning to make legendary runes know what to expect. Especially people who have 6 and might be thinking about making a largely useless 7th rune just in case the compensation is worth it.

[LSD.4673]

2 hours ago, purp.1806 said:

You've got 30 days to farm mats that take 5 days of playing to receive.

5 days? No way. I salvage everything and have kept every one of them dumb rune essences from the day they were introduced (besides crafting 6 Runes of the Water the other week). After crafting 50 for the Gift of Runes, i have less than a handful of each type left. 

[enigmatic.3576]

2 hours ago, LSD.4673 said:

5 days? No way. I salvage everything and have kept every one of them dumb rune essences from the day they were introduced (besides crafting 6 Runes of the Water the other week). After crafting 50 for the Gift of Runes, i have less than a handful of each type left. 

There's a difference between farming something and passively trying to get it.

[Dibit.6259]

4 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

If the charms are worth alot, then people will start farming them. 

It's not like the tp is the source of them. 

 

They are only obtained via salvaging runes and unidentified gear and are not a guaranteed drop. You can also combine 3 charms in mystic forge with philosophers stone to get a random charm. Charm of Skill is the hardest to get. I think (at least before this increase) it was cheaper to buy them from tp that try luck with salvaging.

[Doggie.3184]

5 hours ago, Shuzuru.3651 said:

I mean, it's not like they said since the relic announcement that there will be compensation for legendary rune...

Yes and it ended up better than expected thankfully. People had a lot of time to make them~ I made mine back in EoD release cuz my Thief finally had more than 1 build for first time since HoT.

[Astralporing.1957]

As far as i know the person responsible for that left Anet somewhere in 2017, and we haven't heard anything about his replacement ever since.

[Kiki.9450]

I'm sure when they initially announced there was going to be a legendary relic given free to those who crafted six runes that the prices jumped a bit then too, but I wasn't paying attention at the time. Prices probably jumped more just now due to the "wait only one is needed? WeLl Ok ThEn!" response and a bunch of people decided to go make their one rune now. Also, "*ding ding* this is your reminder that the deadline to create your legendary rune is fast approaching!"

Also friendly PSA to anyone making their one rune now: don't forget you can save some gold using buy orders, if you're preferring to buy everything off the TP! 🙂 Those buy orders are getting filled fast.

[Mistwraithe.3106]

I don't see any way of announcing it which doesn't result in the exact same thing, it's a free market in action. Unless OP is saying he wanted Anet to privately just let him know first so he could beat the market? 🙂

[Solvar.7953]

I suppose if this was announced earlier to stretch out the time period to say 6 months for people to make the legendary rune, that would help stabilize things some.  With only about 1 month or so, players are going to be in a bit of rush to get it done.  The fact that is actually a cutoff will also hurt new players - effectively everyone who makes a legendary rune before March gets a free legendary relic, anyone who makes a legendary rune after that is just out of luck.

But I also don't think anyone (other than anet) knows the precise recipe/cost that the legendary relic will take.  It is possible it might not be super expensive, so if the only thing you wanted was a legendary relic, making that might end up being cheaper than making a legendary rune.

 

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Kiki.9450 said:

I'm sure when they initially announced there was going to be a legendary relic given free to those who crafted six runes that the prices jumped a bit then too, but I wasn't paying attention at the time. Prices probably jumped more just now due to the "wait only one is needed? WeLl Ok ThEn!" response and a bunch of people decided to go make their one rune now. Also, "*ding ding* this is your reminder that the deadline to create your legendary rune is fast approaching!"

Also friendly PSA to anyone making their one rune now: don't forget you can save some gold using buy orders, if you're preferring to buy everything off the TP! 🙂 Those buy orders are getting filled fast.

Would they not have then just said each rune you make will take you 15% of the way towards a legendary relic coming to a total of 105% with 7 crafted instead of saying significant progress tho?

[Dezzie.5903]

3 hours ago, Mistwraithe.3106 said:

I don't see any way of announcing it which doesn't result in the exact same thing, it's a free market in action. Unless OP is saying he wanted Anet to privately just let him know first so he could beat the market? 🙂

The better move on ANet's part would have been to release the recipe for the Legendary Relic at the same time they made the announcement about the free one. That way players could decide for themselves which path to take. As it stands now with the TP's prices skyrocketing I'll wager it'll be cheaper to craft the Legendary Relic than a Legendary Rune.

[Dezzie.5903]

I would like to add that this announcement has negatively impacted players who were already trying to craft Legendary Runes. They will see the price significantly increase compared to before.

It really feels like ANet didn't fully think through the consequences of this decision and instead focused on making the current owners of full Rune sets happy.

[firedragon.8953]

After the next update, the cost of legendary runes will begin restabilize For those who are crafting runes, they can just wait a month. They could probably even sell of their collected mats now at a premium and repurchase them cheaper later.

[Ashen.2907]

1 hour ago, firedragon.8953 said:

After the next update, the cost of legendary runes will begin restabilize For those who are crafting runes, they can just wait a month. They could probably even sell of their collected mats now at a premium and repurchase them cheaper later.

This.

And to the people buying my mats at a premium, my wallet thanks you.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

The way I see it, this is a one time opportunity to get Legendary Relics and future-proof all of your builds for whatever updates and expansions get launched next.  As the game gets bigger, the chances of players not buying every xpac gets bigger, so making the rune now can provide great benefits in the distant future.  

[Linken.6345]

36 minutes ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

The way I see it, this is a one time opportunity to get Legendary Relics and future-proof all of your builds for whatever updates and expansions get launched next.  As the game gets bigger, the chances of players not buying every xpac gets bigger, so making the rune now can provide great benefits in the distant future.  

It will not since you have to buy every mini expansion after soto to get the relic for said mini exp.

[Cyninja.2954]

1 hour ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

The way I see it, this is a one time opportunity to get Legendary Relics and future-proof all of your builds for whatever updates and expansions get launched next.  As the game gets bigger, the chances of players not buying every xpac gets bigger, so making the rune now can provide great benefits in the distant future.  

There seems to be a misunderstanding here on your part.

The legendary relic, no matter how one acquires it, will behave the same way. That is: new relics from expansions going forward will need to get unlocked.

The currenty frenzy is because a lot of players are assuming that crafting 1 rune and getting the relic for free is a better deal than crafting the relic after the patch. Also crafting 1 rune seems more achievable than crafting 6-7 (even if current prices since SotO have made the price nearly tripple).

If it was me: I'd wait for the legendary relic to release, then decide if it's worth it at the time, or wait for prices to drop (and maybe having to wait a few weeks/months for prices to drop). Then again I already have legendary runes and am not affected if this turns out to be bad advice.

[Tiamat.8254]

1 hour ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

If it was me: I'd wait for the legendary relic to release, then decide if it's worth it at the time, or wait for prices to drop (and maybe having to wait a few weeks/months for prices to drop). Then again I already have legendary runes and am not affected if this turns out to be bad advice.

This makes no sense. How will it not be worth it? Current relics are soul bound on use meaning you can't even swap them between characters. The legendary relic negates this entirely, not only getting rid of the soul bound relics that take up inventory, but if players are like me and store unused ones in the bank it frees up my bank space too. On top of that being able to swap the relic abilities as you see fit, that's such a boon to being able to try builds out. Not sure how legendary relic is not going to be worth it. 

Edited January 27 by Tiamat.8254
Making quote shorter

[Cyninja.2954]

28 minutes ago, Tiamat.8254 said:

This makes no sense. How will it not be worth it? Current relics are soul bound on use meaning you can't even swap them between characters. The legendary relic negates this entirely, not only getting rid of the soul bound relics that take up inventory, but if players are like me and store unused ones in the bank it frees up my bank space too. On top of that being able to swap the relic abilities as you see fit, that's such a boon to being able to try builds out. Not sure how legendary relic is not going to be worth it. 

Easy to answer:

Current cost of 1 Legendary Rune: 812 gold

Pre SotO costs per legendary Rune around 350 gold

Pre announcement cost per legendary Rune (clearly driven by legendary armor and SotO price increases): around 600 gold

"Worth it" is a value judgement which can be based around the cost to create something. Should prices fall to pre hype level or should the legendary relic on its own not cost a significant amount (which too would put pressure on the price of materials), it might be worth waiting in regards to crafting 1 Rune or the Relic.

Now prices might spike even more, especially once the relic AND the armor release. The question thus becomes: do players expect these prices to last and even increase, or not?

One factor which might affect this is how new relic effects are unlocked/implemented. If we have to craft something every year (aka with every new mini expansion), thus demanding continuous resources, prices will likely equalize at a higher price point (though maybe still below the current hype levels). If not, well then eventually demand will decrease.

EDIT:

and while talking possibilities: if the legendary relic does not require charms, and once released is not rewarded any longer for crafting at least 1 legendary rune (this we already know will happen, unless the developers amend this and tell us otherwise), the demand for charms will drop like a rock in water. Ultimately giving a possibility that crafting a legendary rune and relic comes out cheaper than getting the relic for free. Now that is all speculation, as mentioned, but those are realities which affect the "worth it" consideration now.

Edited January 27 by Cyninja.2954

[disForm.2837]

Everyone is talking about gold value of crafting the legendary relic could be cheaper than current legendary runes cost.  And this will probably be the case.

But what about the time component? Because if we go by trinket/armor style, we are looking at a significant time investment on top of the gold. Even Regalia amulet, zero gold cost, took us quite a bit of time between all those episodes, metas and JP.