It appears that the Pliers of Clangorum auction is turning out to be controversial!

As some people have noted, there was an envoy report requesting us to change our credit policies regarding transferring runes. The report was rejected primarily because credit policies shouldn't be addressed in envoy reports and we did not want to set that precedent. Even so, I was sympathetic to those who wanted a less expensive way to transfer runes.

When the suggestion came up for an artifact to allow transferring artifact runes, I liked that solution assuming it could be priced right. I had a credit number in mind where I would consider putting it up for sale as a standard artifact. Auctions provide a good measure of what players are willing to pay for artifacts so, if the item sold for the number I had in mind, I would be willing to make it a standard artifact. Otherwise we would keep it as an auction-only item (or even retire it if the interest was too low to approach my price point).

Without knowing what that price point is, would players rather I remove the pliers from the auctions and make them standard? Or would you rather see what they go for in the auction even if that means they may not become a standard item? For that matter, what do you think they will go for?

Higher end warriors will love it, and given there's only three atm, I say 1000+.

I would say make them a standard artifact and pull them off the auctions. Price I would suggest would be 500-1000 credits...if you are doing 1000 credits, you know you'll be marketing this only to warriors or people with credits to burn. Under might allow for people with runes on jewelry/elemental wands/shields to pull them off and put them on different ones (new custom items or change of mage/druid guild) to consider purchasing them.

I would dare to say that the pliers will be easily be up there in the 2k-3k range. The auction is going to show how much they are desired.

I would be surprised if it was under 1000cr worth (I'm with Raz that it should be at least 1000cr if not higher, assuming warriors are being the main people these is for). Warriors are the group that saves the most from getting these. I would say keep them in the auctions and see what happens.

I personally feel like they will go for 2k+; they're far more economical than +1 trade artifacts.

But the price will be lower given that there are 3 vs. 1; the high spenders will be able to spread out more.

That's kind of the problem with auctions for pricing. Too many items and the value is deflated, too many and it is inflated; and that number fluctuates based on how many people there are who 1) Really want an item and 2) Have a pile of credits.

I feel like the +1 trade artifact could have gone for even more than it did, but those of us who won had kind of 'outpriced' others from the market.

I would definitely say make it a regular item, you have a ball park now of where to set the pricing and people will still buy them, and they'll still buy new runes as they need them.

Estarra,

This isn't about the factoids that Lehki and Eventru pointed out in the other thread. While true, that parallel should not be applied to weapon runes.

-No other class comes remotely close a warrior's cost of having to switch a set of weapon runes
-Such a steep cost hinders flexibility in spec , which has led me personally to frustration and has driven me away from the game on more than one occasion
-I personally saw report 556 as an elegant way to change things using your own system but I understand your explanation. It seems clear you're giving us a choice of two specific options, so I hope this can be changed to a standard artifact at a reasonably cheap price, not because we don't mind paying bundles of credits for things in Lusternia, but because it should have been easy and more fair to switch specializations like everyone else can.

Edit: For the other questions, I see them on auction being easily 2500++ credits apiece, when they should really be a small fraction of that. High tier knight combat requires them absolutely, and I find gouging knights any further to be extremely excessive.

I agree on a 500 cr range for them, as at that point, even those without weapon-runes could be interested in purchasing them.

I edited it Kira, after paying so much even that seems excessive to me. I could possibly.. stomach.. 500cr though for the ability to enjoy the game as another spec without any further huge losses. Then again, it's still absurd IMO.

Well... Another way to do it would be to have two levels; one that removes just jewelry/keg/cube runes, and one that removes all runes.

@Ixion: Agreed!

Standard artifact, please!

I don't think weapon runes were a good idea in the first place. I'd much rather see them as jewelry runes and just make weapons eligible for non-decay customization. That ship has long sailed, though.

Agree with Ixion.

It also makes switching from monk to knight or knight to monk worthwhile.

I think anything above 500 for them would still be too much considering skillflex costs as well as learning the actual skills. Personally, I'd price them about 250 and make them easily accessible to everyone. Not everyone has a full set of runes, but some people do have one or two.

1000-1500 is a good price for them provided ou pull them from the auction and make them a standard artie. Then I can bid on other things.

250 seems more reasonable, but considering that I've already paid to swap rune sets at least twice I cringe at any number beyond 100cr honestly, a number which would ease the burden a select few of us have endured over the past several years as through and through knights. Short version, I'm probably biased towards a lower end of the spectrum for said reason.

Edit: Why not tie it in with doctoral cords? 1000cr for free flex. Free flex means free switching specs. For knights that means runes too, so cords = flex+ rune swap to be congruent to all classes.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy that artied knights have to spend 1000+ credits in order to switch specializations when the rest of the game can do it for a tiny fraction of that cost.

Maybe make two polls in the discussion -> First poll would be wether to make the pliers a standard artifact right away (pull them from the auctions) or keep the auctions going, the second would be giving credit price ranges (100, 250, 500, 1000, 1500) and have people let you know what they would pay for them that way.

Hurf, I'd pay more , but the arguments for 500 are pretty compelling when you compare it to other classes.

What people will pay and what people should pay remain quite divergent numbers in this case. I know a few who would pay a truckload for the pliers in auction in their current form. That doesn't mean they should have to in the first place.