I recently got a legendary arrow type recipe from a loot drop. I was excited, as now I could craft a legendary, and arrows are a type of gear you need a lot of anyway.
Then I looked at the material requirements.
Now, I understand legendary's are endgame content, and endgame content should take a while. But this.. mother of holy what the jez it was expensive.
900 Guay Planks
400 Silk
200 Arch Tools
At current global market prices, it would cost something like 150-200K to make A SINGLE ARROW. VENDORS, traditionally the least cost effective means of acquiring stuff, sell legendary's that cost like 15% of that. People sell the more desirable legendary's (likely acquired from loot drops or quest rewards) for around half of that.
The alternative would be, "Make the materials yourself!"
Here's the problems with that:
1.) I don't have the recipes for all the stuff
I could just play a ton and hope for them, or buy them on the Global Market. But global market recipes are often stupid pricey. And some simply aren't available.
2.) Even if I did, it would take forever.
All those materials are epic. Meaning they take 6 HOURS to make a single unit.
1500 total mats x 6 hours a mat yields 9000 production hours. That's over a year of production. Per arrow.
Now, you may say, wait, that isn't the total picture. You're right. The one year figure would only be correct if I made them from a single production facility, which isn't the case.
What if I spec'd one of my civs to make this arrow?
2 of the materials come from the advanced manufacturer's, which you are limited to 2 of. This would be the rate limiting step. 3600 production hours, 2 facilities, ... 75 days. Holy nope.
What if I spec'd my entire account to make this arrow?
Start-up costs would escalate dramatically, as I would need multiples of all those expensive epic recipes. 6 current civs. 3600 production hours, 12 facilities, 12.5 days. After I spent like upwards of 1mil on material recipes-which I don't have, I got like 3k right now- it would still take nearly two weeks for a single arrow. That I could sell for 100k. Maybe. It would take months to get my starting investment back.
The only way this would work is if the game had some sort of joint stock system for legendary production, or a banking system. But no such mechanic exists, and nor should it. It's likely a waste of development time, as the cost of the legendary is simply too much.
The kicker is I could likely make about 200k or more by selling the materials directly.
No, I am not considering multiple accounts.
In conclusion, legendary crafting is a massive value removed sink. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but the reality is there is no profit in crafting legendary's. The only reason to do so would be to help a rich clanmate out or something.
I'll stick with loot.
Then I looked at the material requirements.
Now, I understand legendary's are endgame content, and endgame content should take a while. But this.. mother of holy what the jez it was expensive.
900 Guay Planks
400 Silk
200 Arch Tools
At current global market prices, it would cost something like 150-200K to make A SINGLE ARROW. VENDORS, traditionally the least cost effective means of acquiring stuff, sell legendary's that cost like 15% of that. People sell the more desirable legendary's (likely acquired from loot drops or quest rewards) for around half of that.
The alternative would be, "Make the materials yourself!"
Here's the problems with that:
1.) I don't have the recipes for all the stuff
I could just play a ton and hope for them, or buy them on the Global Market. But global market recipes are often stupid pricey. And some simply aren't available.
2.) Even if I did, it would take forever.
All those materials are epic. Meaning they take 6 HOURS to make a single unit.
1500 total mats x 6 hours a mat yields 9000 production hours. That's over a year of production. Per arrow.
Now, you may say, wait, that isn't the total picture. You're right. The one year figure would only be correct if I made them from a single production facility, which isn't the case.
What if I spec'd one of my civs to make this arrow?
2 of the materials come from the advanced manufacturer's, which you are limited to 2 of. This would be the rate limiting step. 3600 production hours, 2 facilities, ... 75 days. Holy nope.
What if I spec'd my entire account to make this arrow?
Start-up costs would escalate dramatically, as I would need multiples of all those expensive epic recipes. 6 current civs. 3600 production hours, 12 facilities, 12.5 days. After I spent like upwards of 1mil on material recipes-which I don't have, I got like 3k right now- it would still take nearly two weeks for a single arrow. That I could sell for 100k. Maybe. It would take months to get my starting investment back.
The only way this would work is if the game had some sort of joint stock system for legendary production, or a banking system. But no such mechanic exists, and nor should it. It's likely a waste of development time, as the cost of the legendary is simply too much.
The kicker is I could likely make about 200k or more by selling the materials directly.
No, I am not considering multiple accounts.
In conclusion, legendary crafting is a massive value removed sink. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but the reality is there is no profit in crafting legendary's. The only reason to do so would be to help a rich clanmate out or something.
I'll stick with loot.
