Runners Gone Wild

I've played Prophecies for little over a year now and I'm working on my 5th character now and it really amazes me how much runners are charging these days for a droks run. Granted I understand that not only has Factions been out a while now, but now Nightfall is here too and I can see how much it's changed the "running economy" in Prophecies (at least with Droks runs). In Beacon's Perch there still seems to be a fair amount of people looking for runs still, but there is very, very few runners right now. I can only assume these people are spending more time playing other campaigns now.

A couple months ago you could go into Beacon's Perch and easily get a 2-3k or sometimes a free test run if you were lucky. Now I'm rarely even finding any runners and those I do see are charging 8-10k for runs. I haven't seen anything cheaper!!!

I guess that's supply and demand for ya, but man talk about price gouging. I can afford those runs, but I refuse to pay someone that amount. I refuse to get raked across the coals like that. Oh well, maybe Santa will be nice and get me Factions and/or Nightfall.

The Drok's run was made harder by skill updates, and now AI updates too. Add to the fact that the population in Tyria overall is less, and a lot of runners are probably enjoying Elona, and that is why there are few runners, and those left charge more money.

I love the people standing in LA asking 5k for a run to Ascalon.

offtopic, since you posted your own answer (price and demand):

If you want to continue the storyline I recommend Factions first then Nightfall.
But content-wise, I think Nightfall is a lot better. Also it will get you heroes that can get you through Factions easily.

with the AI updates, the avicara/ice golum/grawl from the first cave can follow you all the way to dreadnaughts drift, if you lucky, the first ice golum you see can follow for 5 minutes too its crazy.

I really don't think this is an issue for anyone that owns factions or nightfall. All you have to do is get to lions arch then port over. Droks runs are useless unless prophecies is the only chapter you own. If you port over to cantha all you have to do is walk up to Kaineng and you have to do a couple of quests in elona to get to the consulate docks. Max armor is available at either place and you can save that 8-10K and probably have your armor faster than most runners can get you to droks anyways.

Drok Run now is only useful for Capture some Prophecie elites.

Ya...I didn't realize that the Droks runs were made harder by the last update. I definetely would like to get Factions and then Nightfall. Thanks for the info.

I'm not suprised at how much runners are charging so much as I am at how dependant people are on runners. I actually saw someone looking for a run from the frontier gate to the ruins of surmia once >_<

Droksruns are easy... they still are... I'm still at least 3/4 on my ranger down from my 9/10... ok so I guess it *has* gotten harder...

but seriously, all you guys who are complaining that its impossible now are just wannabe runners who shouldn't be running in the first place.

It's not easy, and I dont believe anyone said it was impossible.
Oh how i aspire to be a runner, i'll have to contend with the meager life of a 'wannabe'...

Well...

You've always got the choice of actually playing the game you paid money to have the privilege of playing rather than having someone else cart you around.

One of the reasons... at least I think it is because I did this...

With Prophecies and Factions together all I needed to do was get myself to Lion's Arch. From there I took the ship to Cantha and bought me the high lv armor equal to that of Droks and it didn't cost me anything in running fees. I think everyone else is doing this too which has dropped the demand for drok runners.

Well, the guys been playing at least a year and is on his 5th char... I dunno about you, but playing through the storyline 5 times would just be boring and repetative to me. Playing the PvE game isnt just restricting to playing through the storyline.. he payed for the game, he can do what he wants with it. Dont be so harsh on the guy,

Also, like someone said before, getting the armor from kaining center saves a lot of money, if you have factions anyways... 10k, although a bit overpriced, It seems that price will stick, since the new AI "improvement".

Yeah you pretty much said it there. I'm not offended by that other guy's comments....its rather typical of someone who might assume that I'm too lazy to play the game by following the storyline.

I love guild wars, but at the moment I'm stuck with an old computer and unfortunately I can't really splurge and get some nice Alienware or what not and the latest games right now. Therefore, I continue to play the game over and over and over..... I suppose I could give PvP a try, but PvP has never really interested me much.

Off Topic - I think runners in Prophecies are great. I didn't mind dying 30 secs out of the gate, because it meant being able to sit back and watch the runner. There's that enjoyment that comes when you watch an expert at their job.

And while the droks runners are some of the best, my most memorable was with my monk. She had gotten as far as Nolani, but was back in Ascalon City giving away weapons collected by other characters. I logged on in the morning and there was this player offering free runs to Sanctum Cay. I thought "no, I don't have enough time before leaving for work and I'll get there eventually on my own." Then she said room for one more and I went for it. 72 minutes later, we landed in Sanctum Cay. She included Beetletun and TOA as a bonus and skipped all other mission points. And, yes, I was late for work.

On Topic - players who like to make money running will be back to Prophecies for the challenge and over time the price will lower. Will it ever drop to the old 1.5-3k, who knows. It depends on ANet who are trying to prevent bot farming. The more difficulty, the less players who can make it.

Running is almost impossible in Factions except towards the end and Nightfall's running possibilities are limited also. That only leaves Prophecies to show off running skills. And there are always new players who only have the first chapter.

Well if you've played out 5 characters, and are bored with playing the actual game, then you shouldn't mind higher prices - you can afford it. So I say, keep finding ways to make it cost even more.