Ian Lee wrote: Marc can give you averages of auction prices for components and you could do a comparison year over year on relics and legendaries using today's auction prices.
Hey, that's me!
Yes, I can tell you exactly what you would need to "pay" in average auction costs to make recipe X. I can do this based on average auction prices from 2019 forward. But, as you suggest...
Instead of thinking in terms of dollars, where there are all sorts of variables, I would look at what $8k bundles generate since those are the "in" way for people who are into relics/legendaries to get tokens. Certainly changed over time how much of a bundle was consumed by recipes, but, at a minimum, can get an idea of what sort of proportions of TGs should go into a realistic combination of what someone getting an $8k bundle would transmute.
I actually very much agree with this line of thinking and I've brought it up several times in recipe feedback threads. From what I can tell, an 8k order right now lets you make:
- 1-ish legendary
- 2-ish relics (one of which feeds the legendary)
- Some Enhanced and Exalted
But again, this doesn't provide the full picture. A player reasonably has access to additional resources from treasure pulls. That supplements the existing recipes in all sorts of ways, from more GP to just pulling Wish rings to getting the URs you need to craft something (or trading for them).
The point about treasure not containing commons (and hence no Hide or Steel) is also well taken, but there's an alternate solution to the issue that isn't just "less of those in recipes". You could also seed treasure pool with an appropriate amount of 1x and 10x tokens to match the expected value of Hide and Steel.
Basically, my ideal world is that a player has multiple paths towards crafting:
- Play the game and get the materials through 10-packs and treasure pulls (or very lucky and pull it outright)
- Spend money, either targeted buys from auctions or just get your own 8k (1k, 2k, etc.)
- Some blend of the two approaches
The biggest challenge in my mind is that a player who isn't running max treasure will take years to accumulate the needed trade goods for a relic. Since 2020, you need around 100 trade goods per relic; that's a lot! It almost seems insurmountable to a new player to obtain by just playing the game, which is probably one reason why the auction group buys have exploded in popularity.