December Stocking Drops
After the long wait and initial hiccups with the gems. Here is what stockings are dropping
Bought 10 Fancy Stockings
Bought 5 Grand Stockings (guaranteed gems)
Overall, the grand ones are quite underwhelming for what you are paying. Seriously, the loot in them needs to be better than Token of the Creator and Brooch of the Tempest and bookbinder's trinket. You are paying quite a bit more for these compared to fancy ones to have garbage in them (roughly $50/ stocking)
Bought 10 Fancy Stockings
| S1 | Collar of Taming | 15 Betting Tickets | |
| S2 | Ivory Dice | Vorpal Key | Gem |
| S3 | Propaganda Pamphlet | Truesilver Kegs | Gem |
| S4 | Ivory figurine | Truesilver Kegs | |
| S5 | Grease | Armband of Celerity | Gem |
| S6 | Grease | Magnifying Glass | |
| S7 | Token of Creator | Vorpal Key | Gem |
| S8 | Propaganda Pamphlet | Truesilver Axe | Gem |
| S9 | Arti Vial | Botanical Guidebook | |
| S10 | Bookbinder's Trinket | Vorpal Key | Gem |
Bought 5 Grand Stockings (guaranteed gems)
| S1 | Boomerang | Token of Creator |
| S2 | Orb of suppression | Gloves of Harvesting |
| S3 | feathered armband | Propaganda Pamphlet |
| S4 | Gem of Cloaking | Bookbinder's trinket |
| S5 | feathered armband | Brooch of the Tempest |
Overall, the grand ones are quite underwhelming for what you are paying. Seriously, the loot in them needs to be better than Token of the Creator and Brooch of the Tempest and bookbinder's trinket. You are paying quite a bit more for these compared to fancy ones to have garbage in them (roughly $50/ stocking)
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Comments
I'd like to know - are the loot tables distinctly different? Is there overlap? Are the tables actually the same and drop rates are fudged per stocking type? Need these questions answered before I can safely buy and.. honestly.. that kinda stuff should be in our announce posts.
I'd like to know especially what the Extravagant loot table looks like and why it is so much more expensive. It needs to beat 10 fancy stockings in yield or it isn't as intelligent a purchase. Do extravagant stockings hold only artifacts? What's the deal there?
EDIT: This entire issue could be avoided if we just got rid of the concept of 'dud' rolls. I'm giving this game my IRL cash - why are you going to make my gained value a gigantic Question Mark because you included a bunch of useless duds on the loot table that don't sell for anything? See: @Zerin and her 2x familiar roll.
745?.. plus I ended up trading my bookbinder's trinket too, dunno how much that was worth. Plus 1 100cr artifact and a 1 150cr artifact. Have not sold my gems yet.
Otherwise it does look like Fancy is the way to go. In fairness too, that familiar stocking also gave me a Gem of Cloaking so it balanced out. I just thought it was funny that familiars would be in there at all.
You open an extravagant chocolate brown and white stocking and find a Scorpion's Tail, a multi-facet gem and a wand of reflection inside!
That tail is worth 400 credits before tradein, 300 after tradein. That wand is 200 before tradein and 132 after tradein.
I got a total of 332 bound credits for $130. Complete rip off.
I can spend $10 more and get 400 unbound credits for $140 off the website before the 30% bonus at the moment. I effectively paid 0.39 cents per credit acquired for this stocking.
Every fancy stocking has pulled a 66 credit tradein item at least with a 50% chance for a gem. One extravagant stocking can get you 8(plus 1 bonus I am not counting) fancy stockings. That's a min of 528 tradein not including gems or the bonus stocking.
I took one for the team since no one wanted to drop $130 to test out the extravagant, but wow was that underwhelming.
You say, "My bottle is empty."
Jeremy raises an eyebrow questioningly.
Jeremy slaps you on the cheek.
If I could, I’d open fancy ones instead of grand ones knowing the drop rates confirmed by Jeremy.
I'm happy.
You say, "My bottle is empty."
Jeremy raises an eyebrow questioningly.
Jeremy slaps you on the cheek.
I also understand that giving away free things and upping the value of prizes/lowering the cost of good stockings is all a hit to Imperian's bottom line.
But I do lament the changes to the promotion since last year. Specifically the removal of the 1 free stocking for everyone, and substituting stockings for every X credits you buy for the 30% credit sale.
I'm not a gambler by any means - I prefer finite value for my money - so it would just be fun to be able to participate in opening stockings without having to specifically buy a chance with real money.
The only people to blame, however, is ourselves. If we didn't buy them, it would be clear that they should try a different tact. Unfortunately, as we elect to spend our money on a % chance of a better prize than the worth of our purchase, this is the predicament one finds oneself in.
A touch of self refectlion is necessary here. One shouldn't choose to gamble and then complain about the outcome.
I came back after not having played since 2012. The single biggest overwhelming change was the veritable stream of promotional items et al which all seemed to have been borne out of this incessantly popular gambling mechanic. The players created the monster - and what business wouldn't cater to the demands of the player base.
We're not offered the type of transparency that I think is fair here. The closest thing we go so far is.. you get 20% on reg giftbags for a gem, 50% on fancy, and 100% on grand and extravagant.
Why not publish wheel numbers or drop rates in percentages? Because it would totally hurt them when we realize how low the chances are of us to pull anything exceptional. Hell, I have a better chance on 'sucker bets' at the casino than I do here and the great thing about that is, I have a chance to win RL money and not just some virtual item.
And these types of promotions really do prey on certain types of people. August phylacteries triggered me so hard I've been on a RL bender since. I am typing this from a casino hotel I've been checked into for the entirety of December pretty much.
I don't really like the direction that the gaming industry as a whole has shifted to these 'loot box' type of micro transactions, but that is really a discussion for another day.
But you're right @Justus, I don't complain about losing at the RL casino(I do, but not to this extent) so I don't see why I am complaining here. I think the difference in my mind is the lack of transparency and it is someone behind the code that is manipulating numbers for these outcomes, versus pure luck I can get from a deck of cards or a spin of a roulette wheel.
I think I am just going to chill out on these gambling promos from now on, because yeah, we have no one to blames but ourselves for continuing to buy in.
You say, "My bottle is empty."
Jeremy raises an eyebrow questioningly.
Jeremy slaps you on the cheek.
The logical part of my mind recognises that I might as well set fire to my money, because even if I get a fantastic return it's going to be a very fleeting feeling of elation. I prefer the concept of knowing what you're getting when you pay for it - and I think the current route is destructive.
Gambling will always be a draw for people with addiction issues, and what better community than a typical young gaming community which arguably hides a large number of addictive personalities.
You say, "My bottle is empty."
Jeremy raises an eyebrow questioningly.
Jeremy slaps you on the cheek.
tl;dr Justus is right, and you should boycott this crap.
You open a grand green and silver stocking and find a fire pendant, a gem of radiant offerings and a multi-facet gem inside!
You open a grand green and silver stocking and find a Heartwood Bow, a gem of radiant offerings and a multi-facet gem inside!
You open a grand green and silver stocking and find a festive peppermint-stick vial, a multi-facet gem and a wand of reflection inside!
You open a grand green and silver stocking and find a bookbinder's trinket, a deep red boomerang and a multi-facet gem inside!
You open a grand green and silver stocking and find a bookbinder's trinket, a multi-facet gem and a silver ring of meditation inside!
You open a grand green and silver stocking and find a feathered armlet, a multi-facet gem and an ebony figurine inside!
You open a grand green and silver stocking and find a mask of lifevision, a multi-facet gem and a translucent glass box inside!
You open a grand green and silver stocking and find a bucket of wheel grease, a deep red boomerang and a multi-facet gem inside!
You open a grand green and silver stocking and find a multi-facet gem, a pair of Renascent Armguards and a translucent glass box inside!
You open a grand green and silver stocking and find a Brooch of the Tempest, a Vorpal Knife and a multi-facet gem inside!
I traded in everything except the grease and the special gems, made 2261 cr and still have ~1k in gems and two special stockings to open when those come around. Good artefacts too, so if you weren't actually just trading in anything that's a lot better than my yield, which I'm very happy with.
I also have these bookbinding trinkets and the peppermint vial, but have no idea what those are.
Essentially, not including gems I got ~2300 cr for the price of 1500. With the gems its more like 3k+. If you actually needed some of those artefacts probably more like 3600-3800 ish (ballpark figure accounting for duplicates). No idea if we have more extravagant info yet (I steered clear because of earlier concerns), but grand seem great to me. I avoided fancy because what I really want are the gems so that guaranteed gem roll was my initial hook.
For a suggestion, maybe consider making extravagants always give two gems. I'd have considered them if this was the case, but as the primary drive behind the promotion, its hard to justify that increased cost with the same net gems as the grand stockings I feel.
Another good haul
More gems
The grand and extravagant stockings might be great, but they should probably be better gem-wise. Like grand could have 1 gem every time, and a 30% chance of a 2nd gem, and extravagant should give 2 gems.
I was tempted to get some grand, but as I primarily wanted gems, fancy worked out the best for me.
You absolutely can do well out of them!
(Ring): Lartus says, "Then it exploded."
(Ring): Zsetsu says, "Everyone's playing checkers, but Theophilus is playing chess."