[Rayne Jade]

Originally Posted by Avery

This has undoubtedly been the single best VU ever for looting items. I don't understand why more people didn't take advantage of it. I can understand people at a certain level would battle to kill most of the mobs that dropped tons of shoes; but any team of 3 people with ML-35s or similar could have made an easy 5K PED each of markup on Boar shoes alone.

For some I am sure looting was great, for the majority it seems... not so much. I am sure the "upper class" of EU has no problem gathering 3 people with ML-35's. Again, not so much for the middle / lower class. As far as the markup on the Boar feet... That is what made a bad situation so much worse. Too many people were taking advantage of the situation we were all in. Every player (except the PoE owners which got the feet for free and I agree that they should have btw) needed to get footguards. It appeared as if once someone got their footguards it was a case of "I've got mine! Sucks to be you... and now you are gonna pay for it!" Suddenly the desparation to aquire this new armor piece was forgotten. I have always said, it is not a question of if you could get a high markup for them, it is a question of SHOULD you.

Also, if you got a Falx team together early, you would have been able to sell the first few pairs for 1k+, even 1.5k+. And believe me, they were dropping a lot. With not that many people hunting Falx, they still dropped around 200 pairs.

Falx are uber mobs... designed for the upper class. I had Boar armor. Since I will probably never be able to kill a Falx I saw the writing on the wall and switch armor sets. I addressed the markup earlier.

And Wormie, you could just check auction history on items in auction to learn which shoes are dropping the most.

Even without my Shadow and Angel loots (those are lucky drops IMO), I could have paid for shoes for all my armour sets, and still had way more than enough for paying for PoE if MA had made another decision of what to do with them.

I think it is great that you were successful, I really do! Gratz for all that. For the vast majority that luck was not realized.

There were very many opportunities this VU for everyone. Ambu had a few days of dropping a lot of Tbird, Hispis dropping Viking, etc. Even Gremlin Shoes off Bristles. If you watched things carefully enough and hunted them intensely when they started dropping them regularly, you could have made a packet.

I think the opportunity missed was for the community to come together and trade these armor parts for REASONABLE prices. MA probably looked at this as an experiment to see how we as a group would react. We showed them that while we complain loudly about an unpopular change, we will not actually do anything to tip the scales back in our favor. We all lost 1/7 of our protection. Some fortunate players were able to gain that back rather quickly. The ones that were not so fortunate got screwed by MA and again got screwed by the ones that looted these armor parts. Basically, MA now has evidence that while we make numerous threads about strikes and protests we are pretty much full of sh*t - nothing will ever come of it. They can now introduce neck guards next month and while there will be threads about the injustice of MA to take away protection again, the greater injustice will happen within EU by the resellers and fortunate few that loot those parts.

DISCLAIMER: I don't for one second imply that this was handled perfectly. I think MA should only made Shoes necessary around 9.3. That would have given people ample time for acquiring their shoes.

It was not handled correctly by MA, but there is plenty of blame within the player base too.

Originally Posted by Avery

That is true, but what I stay still stands. Every VU provides changes that almost anyone can profit from. It doesn't always require good skills or uber gear. I just don't think people look hard enough as to how they can make profit from the changes MA makes. One often has to react quickly to a number of changes though.

I understand some people are upset about Shoes, and in some cases understandly so. It's just there usually is a solution; and the whole idea behind PE is to find those solutions for ourselves That is the crux of what makes people successful.

Again, the mention of profit. In this case however, I feel it is profitting at the expense of others - price gouging, whatever you want to call it. It is no different than charging $5 for a bottle of water after a hurricane rips through your town. We had a chance to find the solution within ourselves, but the fortunate upper class did not think about the plural form, they thought singularly - not ourselves, but "myself".

Just my opinion of course... certainly this foot guard issue has changed how I view the community, particularly the names I saw (and wrote down) posting footguards in the auction for totally rediculous prices. I guess it is my own fault for starting to play too late, not having the required skills and equipment, and not being willing to pay whatever it took to "make me successful".

I think the problem here is that Avery hasn't played from our perspectives in such a long time, he can't comprehend how hard it is in todays VU.

I agree with this - I was not intending to flame you Avery - not at all. Just posting the point of view from the lower class looking up. It is now, and will forever be, a case of the "haves" and the "have-nots". We simply cannot compete with the upper class for the good loots and items. We instead must be willing to deposit huge sums to bridge that gap.