Does the game favour paying players?

[Jude Smith]

Does the game favour paying players while crafting gear?

I've been looking at the leaderboards this anb and noticed the top players don't generally have gear any less than level 75.
Either they are very lucky, buy lots of gems to buy lots of crafting boxes, or the game favours them because they have spent some real cash.

I myself have never spent a penny on this game and my crafting luck seems poor even though it's been maxed out since not long after crafting first came into the game.
I managed to make my full push set and got 2 level 75s the rest were max 74 mostly 72s though. I had enough left over to better my weapons and from 6 attempts I got 71, 71, 71, 72, 73, 71 then ran out of materials and gold and gems. That doesn't feel like a 50% chance to gain another level.

I also noticed while making my epic levelling gear I got all 71s. The lesser gear seems to have a lesser chance to level up in my experience. Why would this be?

[Stusmith50]

It does not favour paying players. Look up posts by Lodwig and UmbraDei to see how it works.

[LodWig]

1) Have you read this?

2)

Does the game favour paying players while crafting gear?

No.

3)

I got 71, 71, 71, 72, 73, 71 then ran out of materials and gold and gems. That doesn't feel like a 50% chance to gain another level.

In fact it is a very plausible sequence of crafts with a fair 50% chance to gain a level. The thing is, it looks like either your mastery level is in fact not maxed, or more plausibly you crafted normal (non set, non unique) or non legendary weapons. With Mastery Level 50, this sequence of crafts is impossible to get when crafting level 71, legendary, set or unique items. It is very common when crafting anything else with crafting level set to 71.

[Jude Smith]

After reading this reply you make me feel even more strongly about what I asked.

My crafting level has been max 50 since just after crafting came into the game as I said. The crafting sequence I described was while crafting legendary Malice so that also goes against what you said about it being impossible unless it wasn't a unique / set / legendary.

[Benedicto]

If you still have those gear you crafted, can you provide us screenshots while clicked to every one? That is a very impossible sequence if you understand the current crafting system.

[Kristoff]

Jude Smith Crafting a legendary 71 is supposedly as rare or almost as rare as getting a 77, although I did get three 71s in a row while crafting epic BoMs. Epic 77 gear does exist, though, because I got one from a drop.

[Jude Smith]

No I sold them straight away out of frustration. It was my last chance to push for top 100 if I'd got a decent improvement so sold them, logged out and came straight on here to post. Maybe I'm just that 1/64 unlucky crafter. I had a 77 drop two trials in a row but both were normal legendary rubbish. Maybe drops count towards your crafting luck? Maybe because I got 2 77 drops it gave me more 71 crafts.

[Kristoff]

I don't think drops count towards crafting levels, but there's always a chance that I could be wrong.

[mousse]

I've been looking at the leaderboards this anb and noticed the top players don't generally have gear any less than level 75.
Either they are very lucky, buy lots of gems to buy lots of crafting boxes, or the game favours them because they have spent some real cash.

Check out their CL. Crazy high right? That's because they probably farm TL105 in under a minute a run. That's 3 pieces of Epic/Legendary drop. Salvage a page full of that nets a lot of resources. It wouldn't surprise me if they brought 5+ L-crates to start, but once they start farming, the resources start pouring in. The game favors skilled more than spending. I once spent 6K gems on an ANB but never reach TL100, whereas skilled players have spent less than 1K gems and beat TL120.
Once you reach that elite skill level, gem become the deciding factor. Those of us with average skill, spending a ton of gem won't let us crack the top 100.

[Kristoff]

mousse I consider myself an average player, plus I have the added disadvantage of using a phone. Nhat doesn't consider himself that good, but I've seen videos of his TL runs and I think that he plays better than I do. A few months ago, I'd never even make it onto the leaderboards. Now, I regularly reach the top 250 even in ANB gold. I did it by choosing a class, abilities and developing a playing style that makes up for the deficiencies of myself and my device, and, of course, farming a ton of gems so that I can afford the unlocks, crafting boxes, and XP boosters. By refining my strategy further, I'm hoping to eventually make it to the top 100 or higher next time.

[Kristoff]

Everything else being equal, I think that playing on a reasonably powerful PC probably makes the biggest difference, because I've seen players with similar CLs, gear, stats and abilities clearing TLs faster and doing way more damage than my character is capable of. Plus, on a PC, you can move independently of your attack since you can use separate controls for movement and attack or ability casting, which makes a big difference in mob and boss fights.

[Kardinaal]

The game probably doesn’t favour paying players directly in terms of chance to craft a 77. But more gems buy more materials, this in turn means you can do more crafts, so that’s how you get rewarded.

I must say though, that’s some bad luck on the levels. So it might pay off keeping the character for more crafts outside of Anb, at least according to the stuff I read here.

[jay clarke]

My skill at the game gets me to about 150 on leaderboard if I spend around 5k of gems. As a fire lily mage it means gold is not important anymore and this gold I spent only 300 gems. I haven't crafted a 77 yet(leaving that till after Anb) and have only just managed to get to to 105. Big difference from usual outcome. I didn't buy any crates only 1 companion etc. How ever good you are spending gems is needed for high finishes you have to decide whether it is worth it.

[RAFERS102]

Jude Smith , if you ever get a craft sequence like that again, always screenshot it. There may have been connection errors or even your profile could have been corrupted. Getting multiple 71's in a row whilst crafting Legendary set items has never happened to a player in this game since crafting lv50 was introduced. So the devs would have probably been able to look at what was going on. To be fair, Travis might be able to look at your game files and see what was going on.

[LodWig]

I maintain what I wrote: This craft sequence is impossible, with a ML of 50, if the crafted items were legendary Malices level 71. Even if using a PC, because the GFEM shields against a bad RNG. Even if that toon did some craft when the ML was between 25 and 49. (But I think this is an event toon for the current ANB right?)

Are you sure you set the craft level to 71?

If yes, then I see no other explanation than a bug or a corrupted profile. I definitely not think the devs would in any way favor paying customer by tweaking the RNG results. Especially do it in secret, instead of stating it is one perk you can buy. And if the secret is because they fear litigation (some countries have laws regulating paid gambling) then why would they take the risk (assuming this is the only barrier they would consider before infringing).


I strongly suggest you contact Travis so the devs can have a look at your profile and see if something is corrupted.

[Jude Smith]

The fact that you're going as far as to tell me to see the devs about this has got me thinking now. Could it have been so simple as I had the level set to 70 not 71 caused all this. I thought I had it set right but I can't be certain. I've been switching between my main and anb chars and crafting on both. Maybe I f'd up. I'll remember to screenshot if I see anything like this again. I didn't realise it would cause such a fuss. Sorry if I stressed anyone out with this.

[Splendor]

Yeah, as others have stated, if your ML is 50, a sequence like you got is impossible. It has nothing to do with paying vs. not paying. At ML 50, crafting leg set/unique 71s, you will generally get 32 72s, 16 73s, 8 74s, 4 75s, 2 76s, 1 77, and 1 71 per 64 crafts. Therefore, something is wrong with this picture.