Research Assistants are coming with GU52 and many are excited about this addition. What does a Research Assistant do? These helpful NPCs allow you to update spells and combat arts without having to purchase them through traditional means or wait for a mob drop. This gives players a slightly less painful way to get upgrades which is particularly helpful for those very expensive spells.
SOE has posted a quick preview on Research Assistants as well as where you can find these guys when the GU goes live!
Quote:
The researchers are currently offering their services for Adept and Master level spells and combat arts. For skills below level 20, they only require a day to provide you with your upgrade. After level 20, the higher level the spell you require, the longer it will take them to accurately research the components, up to 30 days.
The researchers are a busy lot, so they will only provide the service for you on one character per account. After all, they want to be able to help everyone!
Should you choose to discontinue research on a specific spell and change to a different one, the time your researcher has already spent on your behalf will be applied to the new spell.
Not really sure how I feel about this. I'm going to have to wait and see. Selling CA/Spell upgrades is a MAJOR source of Income for me. I've never been greedy with my pricing and have always considered it almost like a service.
Having the game mechanic knowledge and ability to solo heroic mobs, not to mention hunting named mobs is my favorite in game activity, I've always counted on having a nice supply of Masters for sale at any given time to fund my army of alts. I also make good money selling the equipment that drops but it seems more and more of the good stuff is no-trade these days.
__________________
"That is strength, boy! That is power! What is steel compared to the hand that wields it? Look at the strength in your body, the desire in your heart, I gave you this! Such a waste. Contemplate this on the tree of woe. Crucify him!"
I know what you mean. I don't think it will completely kill the market though. For capped characters it will take 30 days to gain a upgrade and to be honest, the only ones I'd wait that long on are ones I can't find on the broker for decent prices anyway.
For lower level CAs and spells, it might become just about worthless to sell them on the broker but they weren't worth all that much to begin with.
I do think it will add a level of competition that will end up driving down some of the prices of high level spells. Why pay 100p for a rare master upgrade when you can just wait out the Research Assistant?
It seems like people have so much plat these days that it doesn't matter to them anyways. As I think about it more I don't think it will stop the old school players from purchasing.
What's 1-2p for a master as you level up an alt if you have thousands of plat. Hell, what's 100p at lvl cap if you have thousands of plat. So your probably right, people with money aren't going to wait around for 30 days when they can just spend some plat.
__________________
"That is strength, boy! That is power! What is steel compared to the hand that wields it? Look at the strength in your body, the desire in your heart, I gave you this! Such a waste. Contemplate this on the tree of woe. Crucify him!"
I do like they require you have the lower tier spell to upgrade from. You can't get a master 1 unless you have and adept for example. That will make the lower drops or crafted spells still important.
__________________
Say Yoho - Everything spins around and suddenly I'm elsewhere...
M. Scott Adams (Not Dilbert, Adventure!) http://www.msadams.com
It's great for ppl like me, who come in and out of the game every few months. Keeping up with spell upgrades alone drains my wallet faster than anything, and more often than not, I have to settle with an App2. After almost 5 years now, the economy (at least on my server) is far from newbie/casual friendly.
__________________ benjamin j. de la durantaye
"machail"
Executive Editor
TenTonHammer http://www.tentonhammer.com
Considering how ridiculous the market prices are on many masters, and the way farmers and broker stalkers abuse the system, I'm all for the research assistants. Let the masters sit on the broker at outrageous prices forever for all I care.
It will be nice for getting that class defining Master that is always super overpriced on the brokers, like my last Charm for my Coercer.. I'm so not paying 600p for it.
Things like Dispatch for Brigs.. Pets for Conj/Necro's.. Big hitting spells for Wizzy's. And of course my heals for my Warden.
__________________
"That is strength, boy! That is power! What is steel compared to the hand that wields it? Look at the strength in your body, the desire in your heart, I gave you this! Such a waste. Contemplate this on the tree of woe. Crucify him!"
EQ2 Research Assistants Preview
Linear Mode
