Michaleo
Essences for fun and profit
Note: prices of items on AH will vary. The prices mentioned in this post were during the last week of February on Landroval.
After I was able to get or craft enough essences for Michaleo, Nodread and Wrytune, the only ones I didn't have enough of were Supreme Essences of Morale. Those are only drops, and they currently sell for around 300g on AH. It's hard for me to justify spending my retirement savings on them, so I looked around for other ways to raise funds. It turned out that I had a lot of gold hidden in essences I had no use for. I also had the ability to craft some valuable essences.
An essence recipe upgrades a Major Essence to a Greater Essence, or a Supreme Essence if it crits. The recipe uses a Universal Solvent and an Emerald Shard, plus some ordinary mats. Using Westemnet tools, the base crit chance is 30%. If you use a Westemnet Journal (which needs an Emerald Shard to make), the crit chance is 65%. Also using a Westemnet craft lore scroll brings the crit chance to 79%.
The essence recipes can be purchased for 50 or 75 Amroth Silver Pieces or 30 or 45 Minas Tirith Silver Pieces. (The stat essence recipes are more expensive). Westemnet craft journal recipes can be purchased for 20 Westemnet Iron Coins in Aldburg or 25 Minas Tirith Silver Pieces in Minas Tirith. Since I had a bunch of Westemnet Iron Coins and Amroth Silver Pieces that I didn't have a use for, the essence and journal recipes were not an issue for me.
The main cost was the two Emerald Shards (one for the craft journal) and the Universal Solvent. Emerald Shards and Universal Solvents have both been around 20g on AH recently. Emerald Shards can also be bought for 148 Medallions and 312 Marks. Taking into account the 79% crit chance (or 21% non-crit chance), assuming you bought the solvent and shards on AH for 60g, the average cost to get a Supreme would be about 75g. (A non-crit Greater won't be worth a lot, but most are worth something).
One good thing is that the essence and journal recipes can be traded and don't require rep to use, so if you don't have the level-cap crafter you need, you can have someone else do the actual crafting. (Lower-level crafters that are Westemnet tier can craft them, but won’t be able to have the 79% crit chance. I have a Scholar, Weaponsmith, Tailor and Cook if you need one.)
Of course, you are taking a risk by crafting essences, since the random number generator might not generate the expected number of crits for you. Or you might get lucky and get more.
The most valuable essence at the moment (besides the Supreme Morale, which cannot be crafted) is Supreme Physical Mastery. I crafted and sold several for 160-200g each. Supreme Agility has sold for 150-160g, Supreme Will for 125g, Supreme Tactical Mastery 100g.
If you don't want to craft essences, you may have value in your vault. I have also sold many of my Greater essences. Some are not worth much, but Greater Physical Mastery, Tactical Mastery, Agility, Will, and Might have sold for 30-40g. Greater Critical Rating and Tactical Mitigation have sold for 20g. Supreme Vitality sold for 35g.
Because they can be used for upgrades, some Major essences are worth more than Greater. I saw Major Physical Mastery essences that sold for 70-75g. If you don't want to take the risk of a non-crit after buying the recipes, solvent, and shards, that's an option.
This week I sold most of my Greaters (counting Supreme Fate as a Greater, since it only sells for 35g) for 1,400g. Of the 44 essences sold, 4 were non-crits from crafting, but the rest were drops so that’s almost all profit.
I crafted and sold 12 Supremes (plus the 4 non-crits) and sold a Supreme drop. Those 13 Supremes sold for 1,990g. Deducting the 960g for the shards and solvents for the 16 crafting attempts yields a net profit of 1,030g.
I was surprised that I had more value in the Greaters that required no work or risk than in the high-priced Supremes I could craft. The demand for essences will decline over time (since the supply continues from drops, and eventually players have filled their slots with the best they can get). I certainly would have made more money if I had done this 3 months ago. Things will change radically (but we don’t yet know how) when they raise the level cap and, presumably, add higher-level essences.
by Michaleo on 2016-02-26 02:07:34