One of our Apothecaries brought this up before but I can't find the thread so I'm revisiting the topic. As a crafter this is a concern to me (though it doesn't afffect me directly because I do not have a toon who is an Apothecary).
There are a couple of issues with Apothecary items on the Marketplace.
1. First Issue: Reward for different levels of potions does not appear appropriate
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It appears to me that the cost vs. reward of potions on the marketplace needs to be adjusted. I'll use as an example some potions with which I'm familiar:
Mighty Brightsurge Vial - increases Int/Wis by 35 for 1 hour, lasts through death
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2 Twilight Bloom Roots
1 Eternal Planar Dust
1 Pristine Distillate (2 Twilight Bloom Roots, 1 Tempestflower Stems)
1 Empty Runed Flask
This is a "Green" quality flask which is mis-labeled as "Blue" on the marketplace (not sure if that affects the credits offered for it).
That's a LOT of resources for one vial.
There's an upgraded version too, here's the materials for that one:
Heroic Brightsurge Vial - increases Int/Wis by 40(!) for one hour. Lasts through death
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3 Flickering Dust
2 Eternal Planar Dust
1 Mighty Brightsurge Vial
So the "Blue" quality vial takes the green one, and adds Eternals (the flickering dust is cheap). Two Eternals for 5 more Int/Wis (to me this shows that Apothecary recipes need a revisit from Trion but that's another story).
First thing that appears out of whack: On the Marketplace the reward for this vial is *the same* as for the Mighty Brightsurge Vial. This does not seem reasonable to me. It requires a higher Apothecary skill and takes more resources so it should have a greater reward.
2. Second Issue: Reward for Apothecary potions seems low relative to rewards for other professions
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Let's look at the reward for the Green ones, versus the reward for something I can make: a Band of Spells:
Band of Spells (reward 150 Hammers/150 chests)
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2 Brightshale
2 Cinerium Bars (1 Orichulum, 1 Carmintium, 1 Flux)
2 Eternal Planar Dust
1 Shimmering Core
1 Superior Polishing Agent
I can request the Brightshale and Core from the Marketplace for 1-3 credits (Brightshale is often free, and the core is 1 credit). I donated all mine to the Vault because I wanted to clean out my bank! Cinerium is cheap to make and I'm swimming in ore. The Agent is a vendor item, so the only hard to obtain resource is the Dusts. I currently have 40 Eternals in my bank, and can easily supply two for an order such as this.
If you were to buy these resources off the auction house you'd pay (price is for one of each): Brightshale (<10g), Cinerium (40g), Eternals (2.2plat), Shimmering (60g) = 6 plat. Yikes!
Let's look at the Apothecary vials again.
10x Mighty Brightsurge Vial (reward: 100 Hammers/100 Chests)
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20 Twilight Bloom Roots
10 Eternal Planar Dust
10 Pristine Distillate (20 Twilight Bloom Roots, 10 Tempestflower Stems)
10 Empty Runed Flask
Twilight Bloom Roots are moderately expensive. Tempestflower Stems are also not cheap. Flasks are vendor items. Even if you discount the plants entirely for this argument, the Apothecary STILL has to provide 10 Eternals for the flasks, versus me providing 2 Eternals for more credits! Even if the Apothecary has these plants on hand, think of the time investment for gathering 50 plants to fill one order. That's at least 17 nodes, and more likely 25. That's a TON of time considering for the band of spells I can probably get 1 Orichulum and 1 Carmintium in less than 5 minutes in Stillmoor.
Buying these mats: Twilight Bloom (50g), Eternals (2.2p), Tempestflower Stems (25g): 44.5 platinum (not a typo). fourty-four platinum!!!!
So the vials take a lot more resources, would potentially cost 7x more to make, and reward.... 2/3 as much as this ring I can make. That seems... really unfair to the Apothecaries. Even if the rewards were based only on the number of Eternals / Catalysts consumed (as these are typically the only truly hard to obtain items used), the vials seem like they should reward 5x more points than the ring. Or maybe the ring rewards way too much.
Conclusion
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I've placed and received orders for both types of vials, and to me this speaks to the dedication of our apothecaries - because with the massive costs involved, I can't see how anyone can justify handing over 10 of these vials for the current contribution points that are awarded. And as a consumer I can't see ever ordering the blue version since it's such a resource hog, and only marginally better than the green quality vials.
At any rate, it seems to me that the rewards for Apothecary items needs to be adjusted. Otherwise I feel that we're taking advantage of the generosity of our Apothecary brother and sisters.
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