So... the platinum AH is useless?

[cocopufff]

I'm a Sarlona player who's returning after like 8 years away from the game. When I used to play, you could get all sorts of very useful things from the AH, and it was used all the time. The shard exchange didn't exist.

Now... it seems like platinum is a totally dead resource. The few things that are actually useful are all posted in the shard exchange. I remember scrimping and saving platinum to buy scrolls on first life, or being able to buy a silver longbow from the auction house for a different character. Now, I've got over a million platinum from a single sale, and I've realized it's pretty much useless for any sort of in-game trading.

Honestly disappointed that the base resource of the game has been allowed to become so devalued, and the solution was to move the in-game economy over to a "you have to buy these with real money" resource instead.

 

[FaustianBargain]

Yeah, unless you’re dedicated to checking the AH constantly and get lucky on your timing you’re not going to find much. I often end up buying wildly overpriced and marginally useful stuff because otherwise there isn’t much that platinum can do for you, and overpriced AH stuff is one of the few ways to get rid of it. Makes my plat build up someone else’s problem.

 

[Tyrande]

Its not completely useless, there are still places that your character will need platinum, like enhancement tree respecs, reaper tree respecs, etc. But reaper tree respec will be going away since those trees will be going away. Other things that I can think of that need plat is epic destiny respecs and scrolls (e.g. resurrection, heal, fire shield, GH) and special potions.

You can try to farm those valuable items that was listed in the ASAH and try to get your own shards. But your character will need to purchase a minimum amount of shards in order to post the ad. One example is those filigree that everyone is looking for, or dual filigrees... or a +8 unbound constitution tome; a ring of spell storing, a PLIS ioun stone, or of those reaper and mystic dagger from House D'unrobar... or actually any reaper item.

 

[LandzerBTR]

First, welcome back.

I also am on Sarlona and I too had a multi year gap in playing and returned a couple years ago. As far as the auction house/platinum issue, this is true that a shift has made shard auctions fairly dominant. This being said, I have found that especially as a returning user I was able to find items relatively cheap on the plat auction that were once very coveted just due to the fact that the newest and most popular items are reserved for the shard auction. Although this may not be true all the time and as you well know the DDO economy comes and goes but please do not feel you need shards to get back to enjoying the game.

Anyway, I'm not discounting your experience, just throwing out there my own that was VERY similar and if you give it just a bit of time it may not seem as bad as initially thought.

Hope to see you out there in Sarlona.

 

[The Narc]

Its not completely useless, there are still places that your character will need platinum, like enhancement tree respecs, reaper tree respecs, etc. But reaper tree respec will be going away since those trees will be going away. Other things that I can think of that need plat is epic destiny respecs and scrolls (e.g. resurrection, heal, fire shield, GH) and special potions.

You can try to farm those valuable items that was listed in the ASAH and try to get your own shards. But your character will need to purchase a minimum amount of shards in order to post the ad. One example is those filigree that everyone is looking for, or dual filigrees... or a +8 unbound constitution tome; a ring of spell storing, a PLIS ioun stone, or of those reaper and mystic dagger from House D'unrobar... or actually any reaper item.

I have heard rumors that the reaper trees were being changed but is there an official notation fron SSG anywhere?

 

[Rakehell]

It is certainly less useful, but I always try and put stuff on there myself for fairly inexpensive costs that are useful to low level players to help with new players and perhaps those on the reincarnation roller coaster. Nice when you see useful items...

 

[C-Dog]

Sadly, the MOST valuable items do tend to end up on the ASE. However, any player who doesn't have shards doesn't have access to that, so will drop their items on the AH. Items like +4 Ability Tomes and higher (etc. etc) are rare on the AH, but occasionally can be found there.

To place any item on the ASE, you need 1 shard. Easiest way to get shards is to buy them (when on sale), minimum ~$5, OR to complete one of the Monster Manual objectives that reward Shards*.

(* only found in Vol's 3 & 4: https://ddowiki.com/page/Monster_Manual#Rewards )​

Once upon a time, shards were also a (very) rare drop from random chests; no longer.

 

[rabidfox]

I have heard rumors that the reaper trees were being changed but is there an official notation fron SSG anywhere?

Someday, maybe. They've talked about it being changed to automatically giving you the perks of the trees based off your reaper points instead you manually spending those points in the trees. This would let them do the leadership system where the highest reaper point person could share a percent of their points to others in a party and the game would know how to award power to those players. But they've set nothing in stone, just something they've talked about as something they're considering doing.

 

[The Narc]

Sadly, the MOST valuable items do tend to end up on the ASE. However, any player who doesn't have shards doesn't have access to that, so will drop their items on the AH. Items like +4 Ability Tomes and higher (etc. etc) are rare on the AH, but occasionally can be found there.

To place any item on the ASE, you need 1 shard. Easiest way to get shards is to buy them (when on sale), minimum ~$5, OR to complete one of the Monster Manual objectives that reward Shards*.

(* only found in Vol's 3 & 4: https://ddowiki.com/page/Monster_Manual#Rewards )​

Once upon a time, shards were also a (very) rare drop from random chests; no longer.

Because the astral shard is based on money only and never via rare chest drops, i never use the astral shard auction house and never will. Again it is up to the players to set the standards upon how the game makes money if yiu endorse and engage in astral shard auctions then you are just allowing the devs to create more future ideas surrounded around only available by spending money!!

I have never cared about cosmetics for sale as it is a cash cow for people that actually care about what their toons look like, and i am thankful for the people that think that is important.

What has always annoyed me was that there was no place to trade in or have a random drop of the alignment change token. Atleast the +1,+3,+5 and +20 hearts drop randomly. Honestly doesnt anyone else want the alignment tokens to drop?

 

[Alco]

You are correct as the gold/platinum exchange became mostly obsolete as a result of gold farmers, exploiters and (in my case) having played the game for so long that I have accumulated a massive about of plat that I store on mules - Every so often I have to do a transfer to prevent being plat capped again. This is why DDO has tried to create plat sinks such as the portable hole coin lord favor (it isn't a lot but I always choose the plat option) and things like reaper wings.

That is why the astral shard exchange was created - to give a more meaningful currency for in game transactions. It isn't perfect, but it is what we have.

 

[Dragavon]

Honestly disappointed that the base resource of the game has been allowed to become so devalued, and the solution was to move the in-game economy over to a "you have to buy these with real money" resource instead.

You are not wrong. Blame beancounters at WB when they owned Turbine.

 

[SiliconScout]

I will echo that decent stuff is sometimes on there. And certainly it varies by server. I have, occasionally, fixed up an alt with AH plat items. That said I have 5.5 million in my bank and close to 12 million on all my mule toons so needless to day it's not a currency I over value either.

It would be nice though if there was some crazy conversion numbers that people could bleed plat out of the economy with. A vendor that dropped 2d3+2 astral shards for a million plat would probably take a lot of it out of the economy relatively quickly. I'd probably peel off a minimum of 12-15 million in that game alone.

Also Hardcore has a pretty active Plat AH, it's funny because things sometimes are posted at "live server" AH pricing (ie 12k for an OK level 5 weapon) and they never sell but you can do alright there if you want to keep an eye open.

 

[erousted8]

Platinum is basically useless. Unless you deliberately avoid looting it from chests/selling vender trash, you'll have plenty to pay for tree respecs/item repairs/the other 3 things plat is good for.

The problem is not really the currency's fault. There are also precious few uses for astral shards. The core problem is a while back the game went balls to the wall into BtA everything, to the point where there's nothing to trade.

 

[Silverfox]

Platinum is basically useless. Unless you deliberately avoid looting it from chests/selling vender trash, you'll have plenty to pay for tree respecs/item repairs/the other 3 things plat is good for.

The problem is not really the currency's fault. There are also precious few uses for astral shards. The core problem is a while back the game went balls to the wall into BtA everything, to the point where there's nothing to trade.

The only vendor trash loot worth anything are double slot items for crafting and special material items for DR breaking at best.

The core of the problem was people doing what they do and selling multiple copies of the same item.

At this point we should all consider ourselves lucky that every item, mat, and loot drop are not BTA or BTC.

 

[Buddha5440]

Most of all the dual augment blanks I use for crafting have come from the Plat AH.

I also use it to top off my Thieve's Tools and have even used it in the past for some Guild Amenities.

You can also use it to make AS as a dual augment item can go for a decent return.

 

[misterski]

Platinum is basically useless. Unless you deliberately avoid looting it from chests/selling vender trash, you'll have plenty to pay for tree respecs/item repairs/the other 3 things plat is good for.

The problem is not really the currency's fault. There are also precious few uses for astral shards. The core problem is a while back the game went balls to the wall into BtA everything, to the point where there's nothing to trade.

Would be nice if they could bring back bta or btc on equip. I've looted several such items in older content. Unfortunately those would just end up on the ASAH probably :/

 

[Nebless]

I pulled stuff off the Khyber AH just 2 weeks ago and I've been buying weapons as I level up on the HC server so I'm going to say it's still working.

 

[cocopufff]

The problem is not really the currency's fault. There are also precious few uses for astral shards. The core problem is a while back the game went balls to the wall into BtA everything, to the point where there's nothing to trade.

Likely because they wanted to encourage people to buy expansion packs AND the shared bank. Like... kind of sad to see how many issues have been brought in because they're trying to get people to spend money.

 

[PaleFox]

I'm finding nice stuff on the plat AH all the time.

Sometimes random generated loot is even a best in slot.

You just have to go out and look for it.

Btw, I also sell nice things on the plat AH.

Oh, and on the Hardcore server the plat AH absolutely is a must have feature.

 

[Nachtmeister]

The problem is not really the currency's fault. There are also precious few uses for astral shards. The core problem is a while back the game went balls to the wall into BtA everything, to the point where there's nothing to trade.

/signed.

Both AHs have gotten boring in the last few years. Only collectibles, ingredients and filigrees is what i even look at. ALll the other items that COULD have been found in the AH in days gone by are now all BtA.