Profit from Prophecies

So you're skipping large sums of money from selling items, and then claiming that Prophecies doesn't provide money? What else have you not sold? Get any bottles of dye that you decided to keep for other characters?

Yeah, I guess you did.

Too bad they nerfed farming. Was so much better when you could just run Arid Sea wreckage/Lost Strongbox/Zealot's Griffon's etc.

It's not "awefully low", it's actually pretty average, as most of the replies in here have said. Even if he were to sell the cesta, that's still 'only' 26-27k for completing an entire chapter. You can get that much gold in NF just by collecting the hidden treasures. Prophecies has the worst drops (since only about 1/3 of it is "level 20 areas"), and the worst quest rewards of the campaigns.

I'm still interested what a complete play through Factions/Nightfall will net in comparison. I can say with pretty much confidence that by the time you get off of the "noob areas" (without rushing/skipping stuff), you'll already have at or around 10k. If I had more character slots I'd try it myself, but eh...

For an experiment like this, is it fair to include such drops? Such drops are dependant on player market which is notoriously volatile and unreliable. I'd personally consider an experience that took it into account the money from random drops to be bad and invalid. Saying "I made 130k from Prophecies cos of all the great drops I managed to sell to people" really doesn't reflect accurately the value of the campaign (I realise the -50 cesta isn't random but it is subject to player trading. Its worth a lot less now than it used to be). What happens if you go to Factions and don't get any great drops and only make 60k? False impressions, experience invalidated and therefore pointless.

At any rate I don't think a campaign should HAVE to make the player rely on knowing a market (which they won't when they start) to make money. I remember hitting Droks the first time going the long way round and barely having enough cash for max armor and runes, let alone 15k armor.

Firstly, four hours a day is ALOT.

Secondly 620k in 4 years is 155k a year. Otherwise 13k a month or 430 gold a day.

In terms of time spent/reward that's crappy, it's okay now that you have 600k but think about new players that see all these flashy items which you can't even think about buying.

all the dyes mats runes etc i sold. That was the only thing i kept for myself and put in storage.

Don't like the results? Try it for yourself.

I don't think stuff like that should be counted. I can do the same test and end up getting 6 black dyes. That doesn't mean everyone is gonna have the same results. IMO, only gold drops (since the gold will be very consistant for everyone), quest rewards, and merched items should count.


People see the rather low numbers and automatically assume you must be wrong (which you aren't). I know it's pretty accurate because it's around the same amounts I make when I play through Proph.

reading this remind me how lucky I was in prophecies with my very first character , well actually I had no clue I was lucky till I realise that my mursaat hammer was very expensive then , if I don't remember bad I sold it for 250k in that time , and for me it was party ! it was the first time I had such gold ! hahaha it was fun . Also when I merched all my dyes (including more than 5 black dyes) to the merchants in pre ascalon, and then , when I reached Ascalon I realised they were very expensive Doh ! but I learn it

I just guess , after all the drops reduction , and more people into the game the drops are not the same as before and you were unlucky in your run I see , but good that you did the run , prophecies is great.

Cheers

There's going to be a certain amount of luck involved. Of course for a decent evaluation, the player should record exceptional drops ("I got X platinum, but I got 3 black dyes as drops").

There's also going to be an amount of "knowing the game" involved. Consider a brand new player. Are they going to do every single quest? Maybe. Probably not -- they may miss some. ajc2123 mentioned not doing anything outside that wasn't quest related. Do you think a new player is going to just do quests? Maybe.
Really? And how many people have done what the OP did? Play through without spending any cash on armor, skills, weapons, et cetera? Have you? If you haven't, then how can you really know how much money you made from the chapter?

I bring this up because I've never had a problem with money in Prophecies. But I also spend very little. So my point is that unless someone is being very careful about what to spend and what not to spend, it's very easy to buy sets of armor you don't need (for example, buying armor in Ascalon and then again in Quarrel Falls and then in Ventari's when you could go with collector armor or skip some intermediate sets).

I see tons of wailing about "Prophecies drops are so low" but since I've never had a problem with it, I have to wonder what people are doing. And yes, in my experience the 22 platinum sounds awfully low.
Working on it. Started a new character last night, but I don't have the time to play like I once did, so this project will take me a while.

My biggest criticism of this is the fact that you provide a number, then had a whole bunch of "oh yeah, I forgot to mention this" posts. Since your character opened storage, I have to wonder how careful you were about the rest of it.

Did you identify white items? Did you sell dye to the trader, or players? Did you use a salvage kit only when you needed a crafting material? (and I can't think why you'd need the material if you're going with collector armor/weapons)

Out of curiosity, how long did this whole process take you?

It's actually pretty easy to know how much money I made. Take what I currently have and add anything that I spent to the total. I used weapons from storage (yes, -50 gold for storage, lol...), and tomes for skills. The ONLY thing I bought was max armor from droks (all other armor was collector), which subtracted a few k from my grand total of 24k or so. Ive played multiple characters all the way through proph, from years ago to recently, and the earnings have been pretty consistant for me...around 22-25k, with the exception of a lucky drop every so often.

I'm not really saying I had a "problem" with money. My point was (besides agreeing that the OP's test seemed pretty acurate) basicaly that the amount made in proph is signifcantly less than what is made in Factions or NF, and there is no denying that, really.

But yeah, back to my original point...adding small amounts of gold, or tradeable rewards to some of the proph quests would have been nice. ^_^

I don't see why we're making such a fuss about proving this wrong. Fact of the matter is, you just dont make alot in Prophecies. I couldn't fathom coming close to the 50K or more I made in Nightfall through it's campaign.

The missions and bonuses don't reward gold, the quests don't reward gold. It's pretty rough.

No Nkuvu was right. I was too leinient with my post. One reason is this was done a while ago, another was because it was late at night. Ill post more details in THIS message later today.

Green these days are cheap. You can buy 1k perfect green axe, perfect green healing staff. And i know there are more.

You see, gold in prophecy is not expected to come from quests/missions reward. ITS NOT A BAD NEWS. That's how we started 4 years ago and we lived by it.

You see, items back then cost a lot. Black dye sells for 10k for example, but there are people who can afford that. Why? because there was no shortage of gold. The only people who were short of gold are those who do not know how to "raise" their money.

You see, i can be poorer than OP if i choose to be poor (ie never accept anything and never pick anything). But that's not how this game is played. if the OP is trying to point out that there is not much money from quests/missions compared to other 2 campaigns, then, there is nothing to proved because we already know that as soon as they came out.

I do not disregard the observation of the op, but we already know that. But don't make it appear like this is a new discovery.

I hope there will be no new thread telling us that experience from Prophecy is too low compared to other campaigns.

When I first played through Prophecies (not counting the last three missions, I left those for a very long time) I made about that much. If I recall correctly -- it's been years. That's why I'm questioning the OP so much. His (or her) experience doesn't seem to match my own.

I just want to make sure we're all on the same page when comparing campaigns.

I'm going to remake the character I started last night, since I think I bought some ID kits, but I'm not positive (and that character hasn't even left pre-searing, so not a big time investment at all). I also think I want to change from ranger to necromancer, I have too many rangers and not enough necromancers.

So for this experiment, I'll be using the following ground rules:

• No storage. Don't even open the chest.
• No gold spent on runes, armor, skills, or weapons. All weapons from drops/collectors, whichever is better. All armor from collectors. Skills only from quests.
• Heroes are acceptable, but any gold received while unlocking those heroes will be recorded and disregarded from the total. Although I actually plan to just unlock a few, so I don't have to deal with (shudder) Alesia. It won't be hard to go to Eye of the North to unlock Ogden and Gwen and Vekk and just not pick up anything along the way. Also note that heroes will generally use their default skill bar, any additional skills for them will be recorded.
• Complete as many quests as possible in Prophecies. After three and a half years of playing, I still haven't done the Defend Droknar's/North Kryta/Denravi quests, so I don't expect to do those on the new character. Same with Last Day Dawns. Any known quests skipped will be mentioned.
• Any sale to another player will be mentioned. If I sell the -50 grim cesta, for instance, its price will be recorded. Additionally, any exceptional drops (black and white dyes, for instance) will be recorded.

Anything I've missed?

For the record, I can't think that having heroes will alter the gold outcome -- except it will make me less likely to want to jump out of a window. If I don't buy skills for heroes and don't rely on account-wide skill unlocks, having a level 20 Ogden along once I reach Lion's Arch (and from there, EotN) shouldn't alter things except to make the game a little easier to play through.

The account I'll be playing on does have the Game of the Year, but I won't be using any of those weapons.

I can't think of any reason I'd be salvaging for materials, so I don't think I'll be buying salvage kits. This will be different from a typical player, who will probably want to salvage for armor. This may alter the amount of gold I get -- if I'm selling items rather than salvaging, but not spending on armor... I'm not sure how that will impact the outcome.

Only thing I can think of, is that if you are planning on using heros, I don't see how using a GoTY weapon could affect anything, if you'd want to use one. It wouldn't affect your earnings in any way. Would just make things a bit easier, same as the heros.

I find it hard to believe you only got 22k throughout the entire game. you must be very unlucky, indeed. i remember having just over 25k during the first crystal desert mission - and at that point i had already bought max armor as well as a couple weapons and numerous skills. also i mostly stuck with the primary quests. oh and i also sold my -50 cesta to the merchant because i didn't know at the time it could fetch 5k.

Well if I get a nice weapon as a drop, I'd be inclined to use it if I wasn't using the GotY weapons. If I was using the GotY weapons, I'd be selling it instead -- which would change the final outcome by inflating the amount of gold I'd receive.

If you don't spend money on heroes (no skills, no special weapons, no runes for their armor), the cash outcome won't be any different than if you used henchies.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Artisan

Salvage kits allow you to pick up more drops by converting them to materials. These can then be converted to rare materials for profit.

I knew this was common knowledge. What I wanted out of this was to know what a player who spent next to nothing and did all quests possible (cept for titans and FoW/UW) can expect to buy at the end of the campaign.

Not even a set of 15k armor.

Wisdom and Treasure hunter was made accountwide

A fair point, but you'd have to be careful to salvage appropriately. (i.e., don't salvage for crafting materials from low-level drops (pre-searing bows, for example) especially if the crafted material isn't worth much)

Salvaging for space is questionable on profit. But personally I don't have problems with inventory space when out doing normal quests and missions. Inventory only fills up completely for longer trips in areas without merchants.

I skimmed, so perhaps this was already mentioned but I missed it. If you're objective is to obtain as much gold in Prophecies as possible, then make sure you...

Identify all items from the Crystal Desert onward. This trick will increase the value of white items from 1 gold to 2x the value of the initial merchant offer price. Since an ID costs 4 gold, you can potentially lose money on some items, but overall on average you will increase your income significantly. Experimental data about this used to be detailed at GW OGaming (R.I.P.), and IIRC it found that players would tend to see about 30% improved income by doing this.

This trick works in other campaigns as well after a certain point. In Nightfall, the break-even point is around Vabbi. In Factions, it is probably past Kaineng. Once the merchant starts offering 40 gold or more per white, it's generally the point where the "White ID trick" starts making you money.

sorry for off topic, but:

I said different account, not different character.

You end up saving a decent amount of cash by intelligently using skills you get for free, and waiting until you have the quest to unlock a skill instead of buying it. It's just a different method of reward. In the end, the rewards for some quests will end up saving you 1, 2...sometimes 3k by providing you with skills you may otherwise have had to buy from a skill trainer.

This. Compare the number of skills you receive through quests in Prophecies to the number in Factions or Nightfall, and you are definitely saving a good deal of money.

Something that should also be considered is that Prophecies areas are typically far easier than "corresponding" areas in Factions, Night, or Eye of the North. Although the party size only gradually increases, where as in the other campaigns you can form eight-man parties early on, a skilled player can easily go most of the game without bringing a full party. I was studying drops by region on my latest run-through on my recently remade Monk, and found that my party of four in the Crystal Desert netted me typically 1-2 golds per outing for quests and missions alike, in addition to a large number of purples and collectible drops. Several of these were perfect r9s, and easily sold to other players for 5k+ even for undesirable skins. Most of my study was in the Crystal Desert, however, I am now working on the Southern Shiverpeaks and am having similar results.

If someone is bored and has some spare time, it would be interesting to find out how many skills are acquired from quests in Prophecies (without changing secondary profession). Then see if the cash rewards in Nightfall/Factions matches that price, obviously keeping in mind that skills don't start off at one platinum.

And not that I'm going to record progress all the time, but so far my new necromancer is about done with pre-searing. Level 7, has a few quests to do in the catacombs and then choose secondary (but all of the quests for those are done). She has 1.2 platinum at the moment. One bottle of dye dropped (brown), which is being held until she goes to post to sell to the trader. I'm still skeptical that the final total will be less than 22 platinum. And speaking to Ariena's point, I'm planning on using full parties of hero/hench at all times past pre-searing.

You can check the wiki for that.

I created a warrior in Pre 25 days ago. She only does the Nicholas stuff now since she's lvl 9 and gets very little xp except from a very few foe (no charr hunting yet). She has done about half of the quests. I'll admit, I don't play her much since I'm busy with both real life and with my main account and the other campaigns.

She has 9k and a bit, 24 dyes (incl a black but no white yet ), and a good start on salvaged crafting materials to take to Post. She picks up everything worth more than 3g - which is quite a bit, actually - and sells to the merchant. No selling flowers for 200g or dyes or anything like that. Did have to buy a charr bag, though, to carry the dyes.

How can you have only 22k at the end of the game when my girl has 9k in Pre with access to nothing worth more than 60g or so at a time? Either she is incredibly lucky or you're incredibly unlucky!

I never went outside just to fight, or get items for nich (he didnt exist at the time) that you can sell any extra items. I just did quests. Didn't find any dyes. I picked up anything i found, and I left Pre with about 3k. Then it was slow until crystal desert.

I cant explain it, It just happened.

Hmmm. My girl had done her (half of) quests before Nicholas moved into his secret garden. The only fighting she did/does was/is clearing the map she after completing the quest. Oops, correction: she has yet to clear the catacombs. She *is* mighty lucky with dye drops, though!

Still, she only sells stuff to the merchant - extra "items of the day" included. And she breaks down the rest for leather, iron, etc. for later use as armor.

You've inspired me to give it a go. I think I'll use a ranger and go through using similar guidelines except for the first set of Post armor. That I will craft. Won't be too hard since my secondary account in Prophecies only and barely used at all in four years .