I figure that title is bound to get me the most spam comments I can possibly get, aside from maybe “how to level from 1-80 in an hour” or some other similar title. When you get down to the nitty gritty of EQ2 you really don’t need money for a whole lot. If you’re used to running instances your master spells will drop and there are quite a few zones that have masters on smart loot, in both RoK and TSO. Then there are the research assistants and their monthly (or less if they’re lower level) masters available to players, gear that comes from questing (a la shard runs) and if you’re a raider you’re taken care of pretty well too. There are repair bills but then there are also raids that pay a nice amount, and if your guild sells gear at all chances are you’re used to a guild split every so often.
If you don’t have a plethora of alts chances are you can see some fairly good coin from doing quests and selling items – of course alts are expensive, to gear them out and purchase their masters (or expert skills) on top of the ones you’re trying to gain for your main can be a little annoying. Multiply this by 10+ (yes, some of us have that many alts) and it’s a very expensive hobby. So how do you off set that cost?
One of my main methods of making coin is to craft. On most servers this would not be a good form of income, in fact on most other (non rp servers I’m talking here) servers it’s better to actually sell the rare components rather then to craft something from it and try to sell that. Whether it is due to the number of people per server who harvest or some other factor I’m not quite sure – anyhow – on Antonia Bayle most of my coin comes from selling items in the 20-60 level range. It seems like everyone has an alt, and everyone wants to twink them out.
I can buy severed fir for 12g a shot (some times lower) create a bow or club from it and put it for sale for anywhere between 25-50g (as noted on my sales log) and it will typically sell on the same day that I’ve put it for sale. The problem is knowing the market, and figuring it out. It takes some time. I’ve always known lower level items sell exceptionally well on the roleplay servers since I’ve played there, there’s simply more people between those levels then end game.
Cloth is another good seller (or leather I suppose) there’s lots of druids and brawlers leveling through the ranks, and I always find a short supply of woven gear for my own characters, so I figured putting some up for sale would be a good thing. Furniture also sells pretty well, there are a lot of avid house decorators out there who run out of this item or that and when budget isn’t a huge issue they don’t mind purchasing that last item from the broker.
I’ve never found it that hard to make money in EQ2, I have had over 500p at one point in time and I don’t really try to make coin or at least I haven’t in quite some time. It wasn’t until I was looking over my reserves yesterday that I noticed I was well below 20p between both my accounts, and that had to change. Now if only I’d stop creating all these alts who seem to take coin from me before I make it to the bank..
Tuvogg: Surely the buy low, sell higher principle is just good business? :)
Stargrace: As an EQII newb who’s interested in the economic aspects of the game, this article is very much appreciated!
just undercut anyone who is competing with you on the broker by one copper lol xD
I would only ever make Adept3 (Expert) skills to order, there is no way you can second guess the market. As for potions etc, i just check the market every couple of days and make only what is currently fetching a good price. I will admit to the slightly naughty practice, that if someone undercuts me by an insane amount, say a potion sells well at 9g and someone pops dozens on at 3g, i will buy them and put them back on the broker at a decent price. Mc in T8 will also depend on getting a good supply of smoldering dusts, try advertising to bulk buy say 200, someone may give you a bonus. Also remember that 2 scintillating dusts can be combined into one smoldering for 5g. Often this is cheaper than buying smoldering dust first,
hey Stargrace dont know if you have seen this tool out there for “store parser” but check it out if you want, i use a older version and i really like it. it gives you the ability to track what your selling and see what you are making.
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=421608
pretty neat if i say so myself.
Well keep up all the good work.
Chubby
Yeah, I have the alt bug big time. I want to eventually know how to play every class in the game, so I made one of each class. (Which, of course, means that I have 24 characters.)
I’m with you Stargrace. I don’t think making money in most MMOs is hard – just needs a little time and strategy. Still, often tons of money is just pointless. Take WoW for instance. Once you hit a certain level, there is very little need for cash.
I have the “must twink all 12 alts” bug myself. I harvest as I run around and use whatever rares I find to offset, but still end up buying about half my gear. I have a jeweler who makes all my scout Experts, at least, but even with that, I seem to be perennially broke. In T8 I find I can have my toons be self-sufficient, but before that it seems like I just fly up in level too fast anymore to gain appreciable coin.
And then on my 80’s I can go run a couple of TSO instances and come home with over 10p in a couple of hours and I’m left wondering where it all came from.
I’m surprized that there is room for that much of a markup on low level goods on AB. I’d always presumed that low population was what allowed players to charge 3-4 times the cost of the rare for mid-level gear on LDL. That said, Lyriana has never been hard-pressed to afford anything that I really wanted to buy.
My personal wealth management plan was basically:
– Harvest everything
– Broker every non-loam rare (loams got turned into her spells, and only got brokered if there was literally nothing left in the tier that I was still using), and every collectable that I did not already have.
This left me with more than enough cash to buy health potions, food/drink, top tier non-rare boxes and backpacks (I did this sometime around T3), and handcrafted gear for every slot that I couldn’t craft my own stuff for. I had cash left over for buying rare loams if I had a spell I really wanted to upgrade right away, buying a complete set of T8 mastercrafted gear (I’ve never worn any of it previously) to sit in my bank waiting until level 72, and even to buyout the occasional collection item (e.g. the missing last piece of the Bristlebane collection that supposedly did not have a rare component).
My Sarnak Warden is technically an alt, but he’s been mostly self sufficient on largely the same model. His combat arts scale with level, and I don’t need to grandmaster his nuke spells, so I went with tailoring instead of becoming a sage. I have to buy him a 2-handed hammer every 10 levels or so (I may even spring for a MC one once I get into the tiers that take a little longer to clear out, it’s not even worth it in T1-3), and I guess there’s no reason NOT to turn any rare pelts I happen to harvest into mastercrafted armor. Beyond that, the bar on self-sufficiency is really rather forgiving on a new player, as long as they understand how to set their upgrade priorities. My most likely third character will most likely be either a brawler or a wizard, either of whom could get their armor from the Warden and make their own spells for even more self-sufficiency.
I will say that it is a bit disappointing that consumables – food/drink and potions – don’t have much of a markup to speak of. I took the time to level a provisioner into the late 20’s, but ultimately decided that it was not worth continuing the profession. The total amount of money it costs me to buy these items from someone else is trivial compared to the income I can make by harvesting during the time it would take me to level the relevant crafting alts. I’m sure it’s a very different picture once you get to endgame and can sell rare consumables to raiders, but getting there is more of the challenge. (Remember too that the time you spend harvesting, the time you spent NOT harvesting while leveling the profession, and the potential sale price of the rares you brew into potions all come out of your profits from selling MC alchemy products.)
I need to get better at this, I’m perennially broke. I keep trying to sell “Skills” (my highest crafter is an alchemist) but on LDL they sell for trivial amounts. Like if an NPC will buy something for 1 gold 99 silver, people will put that item on the broker for 2 gold. Why bother!!?
Sounds like Tuvogg has a better plan. Maybe I’ll try selling potions and poisons.
I left EQ2 for a year at the time of ROK and returned just before TSO probably with a couple of hundred plat. I now have 3 fully kitted level 80s and nearly a 1000 plat still left in the bank. What is my secret? Craft and sell consumables, stuff that has to be bought every day/week. In my case mostly T8 MC potions and poisons. Also when crafting, dont buy any materials off the broker that you can gather yourself or get a hireling to do for you. Grab every shiny you see and sell it the lower level ones are rarer and sell for more almost always