Races and common items availability.

Sometimes it happens that you don't get coral or resist rings from vendors.

Other times you have like 8 coral rings 5 resist rings.


Imo it should be the case that common white items should always be available.

My worst luck races were 1h races where I didn't find a single medium flask(vedors wanted transmutes) and I couldn't buy resist rings.

So either I reached level 15 in coves or I died at merveil.

I like that idea. I don't mind that I have to get lucky to pick up boots with move speed from the vendors, but showing up after Hillock to find no Coral Rings at all is frustrating, and can be especially problematic in specific events, such as the 12-minute turbo races.

It would also be interesting if the rings cost different amounts based on the inherent attributes. For example:

White Coral Ring +20-22hp: 1 Wisdom scroll
White Coral Ring +23-24hp: 2 Wisdom scrolls
White Coral Ring +25-26hp: 3 Wisdom scrolls
White Coral Ring +27-28hp: 4 Wisdom scrolls
White Coral Ring +29-30hp: 5 Wisdom scrolls

Ideally, the vendors would always have 5 Coral rings, one at each price point, and you'd always be able to choose how powerful of a ring you'd want to purchase. I used Coral rings in this example, but this would work for anything with variable inherent attributes.

This would likely encourage racers to create a lot more characters in each race event to build up a larger stash of Wisdom scrolls. Perhaps if each character started with only 1 scroll, that would make the tradeoff more significant, and racers would be more likely to look for chests or kill mobs to get some scrolls rather than making additional characters.

I feel your pain on the flask problem as well. It'd be nice if white flasks were always available and easy to buy, even in races where you were unlucky and didn't find certain currency items. Often, I find flasks in races well before the level requirement, but the flip side of being stuck with the smallest flask for too long is a pretty significant disadvantage.

In general we have had larger participation in races that have higher elements of randomness, as opposed to races to have randomness muted.

The randomness seems to allow for two things, hope for people who otherwise feel they don't have a chance to compete, and an excuse for better players to blame losses on.

That randomness includes really short races meaning they don't have to play 3h or more.

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Qarl wrote:

In general we have had larger participation in races that have higher elements of randomness, as opposed to races to have randomness muted.

The randomness seems to allow for two things, hope for people who otherwise feel they don't have a chance to compete, and an excuse for better players to blame losses on.

Its not the general gear randomness thats the problem- i dont expect guaranteed movement boots, +1 bows, extra quicksilvers, rares, alchs etc- its when the randomness also applies to fundamental base gear without which you cant even progress. The vendor refusing to sell corals for the first 4 levels in a turbo event or not stocking any iron or sapphire rings leading up to merveil just ends the race.

Crafting recipes help to a point, but theres currently no way to make corals rings or life flasks.

The idea here is that vendors would carry all basic whites synonymous with their level, thats it. Sockets, implicits, mods etc would still be entirely random.

The hope for players who feel they generally cant compete comes from uniques, rares and to some extent, extra currency drops. Fairly sure theyre not wishing no starting corals on their competition and expecting to win that way.

I dont think this is a problem since 5 minutes into the run it doesnt really matter if you bought a coral or not. some ppl drop uniques from hillock thats already a way bigger benifit then getting a coral @lvl1.

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mki wrote:

I dont think this is a problem since 5 minutes into the run it doesnt really matter if you bought a coral or not. some ppl drop uniques from hillock thats already a way bigger benifit then getting a coral @lvl1.

Towards winning the race yes, but not towards surviving the first 10 minutes.

I truly don't expect to win races, but my biggest issue is ALWAYS flasks.

Damn, no medium life/mana flasks and I'm at Merv. Well, I've got 1 portal scroll. I'm boned.

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SL4Y3R wrote:

I truly don't expect to win races, but my biggest issue is ALWAYS flasks.

Damn, no medium life/mana flasks and I'm at Merv. Well, I've got 1 portal scroll. I'm boned.

if you at merveil with no medium flasks once, you are amazingly unlucky. twice, you must be doing something wrong.
if you check vendors every 1-2 levels there is no way you can't buy flasks. i race quite alot and i always have medium flask before rocky climb.

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zenist wrote:

if you at merveil with no medium flasks once, you are amazingly unlucky. twice, you must be doing something wrong.
if you check vendors every 1-2 levels there is no way you can't buy flasks. i race quite alot and i always have medium flask before rocky climb.

many of the (faster) players didnt go back to town frequently, sometimes not even after each reward... I also somtimes/often miss the waypoints in underground passage, rocky climb, prison, shipyard - and also notice very less luck on flasks, belts, amulets and scrolls, often. Sometimes I find more skillgems and chance orbs than anything else... ^^

sometimes you even have to face that nessa offer only magical flasks you cant pay...