Improved Economy?

[Energizeric]

I just wanted to say that the AL economy has been hugely improved since last week's expansion release.

Many players will notice the declining prices of all the arcane pets and arcane shards. However, what has accompanied them is an increase in the price of farmable items such as vials and bars.

Once before in a discussion I suggested that the most exclusive items in the game should be farmable, but require a really long and difficult grind to get. Much of the feedback I received in that post was that these items would become very common because no matter how hard the grind, tons of players would be willing to do it.

However, that is exactly what improves the game, when tons of players are playing long hours and always farming.

What many of you may have noticed is the inverse pricing relationship that crafting items have within a particular recipe. For example, when the price of an arcane shard drops, the price of the dragonite bar goes up. Why? The arcane ring is still the best ring in the game, so demand for the ring has not changed. So when more shards are on the market, the limiting factor for crafting a ring no longer is the supply of shards, but instead is now the supply of bars. And because these can be farmed, it creates tons of opportunities for any player who is willing to grind to earn a nice amount of gold.

Likewise, the same inverse relationship is seen with the arcane fossil and vials. As plenty of fossils are on the market for sale, the limiting factor for crafting Nekro eggs has become the supply of vials, another item which can be farmed.

So while this will indeed result in more arcane rings and Nekro pets being in circulation, I think it is a good thing for the game!

In the future I would like to see more top tier exclusive items structured in this same way. Let one crafting component come from locked crates, but make them common enough so that the limiting factor for crafting is instead an item that can be farmed, but not easily. Adding new items like this on a regular basis will keep farming alive and well, something that we missed much of the last year.