Salvage and drop rate of T3 components....

You ever chart on the leaderboards? Last I checked, winning tournaments on CoC is as much as a $10k investment. Sure, you can play and enjoy the game without playing, but if you do pay you will win, hence p2w.

For SOTA, winning is more nebulous, there is winning in PVP, winning in building the biggest pile of gold, and winning being the biggest and most respected crafter. It's that third category that looks p2w in this case, the best materials for crafting are salvaged from specific items, but the only folks that seem to be getting any usable quantity of those materials are using obsidian potions, the majority of which are purchased for real money. Hence spending money gives you access to the most important crafting resources, which is p2w in my book.

 

The tricky part here is what you consider an "advantage". I see some people complain that SotA is "pay to win" because you can buy a house and/or cosmetics to put in your house. I don't consider paying for housing or cosmetic items "pay to win".

For me, I consider it pay to win , if I can pay the company that makes the game real money to get an advantage that makes me more powerful. (In particular, easier for me to do difficult game content.)

What are some examples of things I WOULD consider pay to win:

• Selling gear with stats that are comparable or better than what players can make/earn in game
• Selling exp boosts
• Selling combat stat boosts (str, dex, int, attunement, skills etc)

I agree that port skirts the line on this at times, but compared to other micro transaction games I have played (LOTRO in particular) they seem very good about not selling "power" for cash.

With regard to the obsidian potion of reclamation in particular.

• I have never paid $ for one
• I usually have one running when I salvage items
• The salvage rate for rare crafting components is so low (with or without this potion) that I'm still not actually sure whether or not it is working.

If it was a night and day difference between using the potion or not I might agree that you have an argument, but since its a really bad vs really bad but maybe better...?

 

Charted on the top leaderboards? Nope, never cared to. I did get #1 on various other boards, but the top ones that most people see - Nah, I never cared for those. Like you said - I played and enjoyed the game. Placed a few times on a few different boards and got a few prizes, but I was never obsessive.

 

Only one person has mentioned salvaging enough components to work with in this thread and that same person uses obsidian potions. Could be a coincidence, but I tend to doubt it.

Well, that's why I said it was pay 2 win and not pay 2 enjoy. That's a primary feature of most successful p2w games, if the sheep aren't having a good time, they won't hang around for the wolves to munch.

 

The most amusing thing I see though in this game, SotA, is that there really is no "winning". You can have the best gear, but if you don't have the skills then you will get owned (in PvP for example) and/or you won't do the most damage (in the case of PvE). You still need to have the skills to pull off the combos and other things needed. And what "technically" is the best equipment. Each item that gives certain stats are all different and technically you could try and craft gear that will help you with the stats you primarily focus on.

For example - I'm not a very big person on Criticals. I go more for brute strength and getting higher base damage. I may splash in a little critical stuff here and there, but overall I rely more on the base damage.

Maybe the definition of Pay to Win is different for each person. Someone complaining about a drop rate on a salvaged item that only gives a little additional stats makes them want to call the game Pay to Win seems really silly to me.

 

You know what.. P2W is overblown and those who constantly complain about it need to grow up and deal with the real world and not expect a handout because they want one or think they deserve one. IF P2W is such a issue, go after people that have faster computers, better/larger monitors to see with, etc as well..

IF you cannot afford to buy what you want, then do not constantly complain about this game being P2W. This will happen when you get out of highschool and enter the real world so you will find out sooner or later what real life is about.

So far I have 37GM's in game where I have NOT paid for any leveling experience and I have 22GM's in crafting alone. This can be done without everything your complaining about and will require a LOT of hours in game... I have close to 2500 hours in SotA alone, started in release 12 and used steam option when it became available.

 

This is supposed to be a computer game bud, not an epeen contest. It should offer an even playing field regardless of personal finances just like any other types of games.

 

Well in today's internet based society you will NEVER be able to stop the "P2W" tag because people will always farm items, sell them in game, provide assistance/services, and you cannot stop it no matter how it is done. Only way to stop is is make it single player and do not allow trades at all.

 

That isn't true. WoW isn't pay to win, SotA for the most part isn't either. There are countless games that do not allow rmt to gain an in-game advantage.

 

LOL!! WOW... I know people who have paid people to level them in WoW..

 

Yes but the game itself isn't pay to win by design. There are people who use steroids in sports too. There's a difference

 

Reminder that this topic is "Salvage and drop rate of T3 components....", not P2W or anything related to that.

 

I was thinking that the reason the imbued bow strings are more rare now is because you have to find a bow that has that string and then be lucky enough to hit the jackpot when salvaging that bow. However, that's not the case. I went to the Rise last night and got some elven bows, separated them into plus and non-plus, salvaged and got an imbued bow string of speed from a batch of non-plus bows.

*shrug*

 

Yeah, I checked that earlier in the release and recorded a video of it. It doesn't matter the bow it seems.

 

0/2000+ on Elven Hilts from Estocs. No exaggeration, I just stopped counting at 2k.

I wish they would put on the tooltip what you can get from salvage, as I believe the Estocs no longer drop Elven Hilts.

 

Its probably also worth noting that even though the drop rate on the strings and hilts is very low I can still find lots of them for sale on vendors in Novia Market any time I want one. If they dropped any more often they would be fairly worthless on the resale market.

 

Well, if those in charge were a little more transparent with drop rates and the affect obsidian potions have on them, maybe we wouldn't be left to speculate.

A simple tool tip on the crafting bench when you have a salvage item highlighted giving the possible salvages with rough drop rates would solve many problems. Hiding information makes it look like you have something to hide.

 

The Obsidian Potion of Reclamation gives you a 50% boost. Says that right in the tooltip. So, if you were to have say a 0.1% chance then, with the potion, you would have a 0.15% chance.

[edit] It's a +50 salvaging skill boost.

 

WoW also has an easily attainable *Max*, then it becomes a lil bout gear and a lot about skill and team composition.
There is no * max * in SoTa.
Pretty big distinction when theres a literal line marking *end game*

Can you maybe shed some light on the OP s question that led to the discussion turning? Would help topics stay on topic, no?

 

I have armor that claims it increases my crit chance by 5%, but it doesn't, actual improvement was ~0.5% last I checked. Salvaging is a base chance plus a factor for salvaging skill plus whatever other factors the devs stuffed in. Since we don't know the math behind salvage rates, the 50% increase could mean 0.1% going to anything from 0.1005% to 50.1%.