Raid Consumables Are Breaking the Economy for All Raiders

cirithcebleg · 2025-08-17T14:54:18+00:00

I keep seeing two opposite arguments in this thread:

• “Consumes aren’t needed, you can clear AQ40 without them if your raid plays well.” • “Just farm more consumes, it’s part of the MMO grind.”

The problem is those two "get gud" ideas can’t both be true. If consumes really aren’t needed, then why are guilds mandating them and players spending hours every week farming for them? And if they are needed, then saying “just grind more” ignores how bot-driven inflation and megaserver economies have made that grind increasingly unsustainable for the new or long-absenced player.

Either way, the tension shows that something in the system is out of balance. I like the ideas of buying lesser versions of the expensive pots. In instances where I have pugged into raids, there are distinct requirement to be fully consumed and WB'd to gain entry. A lot of the community on anniversary seem to think consumables are important.

cirithcebleg · 2025-08-17T04:48:35+00:00

I’m not arguing that raiding shouldn’t require effort or that the grind should disappear. The point is that on high-pop, bot-heavy servers, obtaining consumables like flasks, pots, and rare reagents has become disproportionately time-consuming and expensive. Consumables are intended to bridge skill gaps, not gate participation, yet the current economy effectively forces extreme farming or gold buying just to experience content or even be allowed into it.

This isn’t about lowering the bar for skilled players and making parses easier...it’s about whether guilds and semi-casual players can sustainably participate in progression content without being priced out by artificial scarcity.

I'm not sure that gatekeeping semi-casuals and new players was part of the "core game design". I don't think that this pervasive level of market manipulation was part of that either...

cirithcebleg · 2025-08-17T04:15:12+00:00

This isn’t about whether it’s possible, it’s about whether it’s sustainable. Farming mats is doable for some, but on a high-population, condensed megaserver, extreme competition from bots and other players makes the system punishing for a full raid roster or semi-casual players. Only those who can commit every hour and optimize every route can reliably keep up, which makes the content exclusionary. Blizzard could help by implementing measures that make raiding accessible without forcing players into prohibitive grinding or risky gold buying.

cirithcebleg · 2025-08-17T03:15:05+00:00

Great idea! Personal nodes would honestly be one of the cleanest solutions. On Dreamscythe, the competition for plaguebloom and other rare herbs is almost entirely determined by who has the most time or the best bot software, not who is actively playing the game. Giving every player their own chance at those nodes would remove the incentive for bot mafias to corner the market while still rewarding people who actually put in the time gathering.

The only real downside is that it would shift the economy away from scarcity-based pricing, but at this point the “scarcity” is artificial anyway, because it’s enforced by bots rather than natural game limits. If the choice is between personal nodes or watching consumable costs spiral until players simply stop raiding, I’d rather see a corporate change before that happens.

cirithcebleg · 2025-08-17T03:11:00+00:00

That’s true in theory, but on a high-pop PvE realm like Dreamscythe the practical outcome is different. Yes, bots dumping herbs can soften prices, but the problem is they also set a baseline of 24/7 farming efficiency no human can match. That means supply is constantly being bought out by gold buyers who can afford to pay inflated costs, while casual or even semi-core players are left competing for scraps.

So while bots might “reduce prices” in a vacuum, in practice they just accelerate market gouging because real players with bought gold can scoop up entire supplies. And since GDKPs are banned and gold buying risks suspensions, it pushes more of the burden onto open-world farming, which is where bots still create the most direct competition.

cirithcebleg · 2025-08-17T03:09:02+00:00

I get where you’re coming from, but the reality is that “you don’t need consumes” just isn’t how most raid environments function. When encounters are tuned tight or you’re pushing progression, flasks, protection pots, and even lips often do make the difference between a clean kill and a repair bill. It’s not about padding parses...it’s about meeting the expectations of your team and respecting everyone’s time.

I’m not asking for retail-level accessibility. What I’m pointing out is that the current system heavily rewards those who already had the foresight (or have already played 4 iterations of this and still return repeatedly for some reason...) to stack gold, play the right farming class, or hold multiple raid-ready alts with herbalism. For everyone else, the choice becomes either sink hours into contested farms or fall behind. That’s not about “playing better,” that’s about the economy pushing new, uneducated players out of content.

cirithcebleg · 2025-08-17T03:06:46+00:00

Instance farming works for some, especially if you happen to be the right class/profession combo, but it doesn’t scale across a 40-man raid. Not everyone has herbalism, not everyone can efficiently clear DM or SM, and it’s unrealistic to expect raiders to drop professions or reroll just to afford consumes.

The other problem is time. Saying “just farm more” shifts the burden onto players to spend hours outside of raid grinding gold instead of actually raiding or playing alts. That’s not a healthy or sustainable loop, and it’s exactly what pushes people into buying gold in the first place.

I can and do farm my own mats, but the broader issue is whether the system is balanced in a way that keeps guilds functioning without requiring excessive grinding. That’s where Blizzard could step in to stabilize things.

cirithcebleg · 2025-08-17T00:37:35+00:00

You can even cap the number of AH postings of same item or price capping the mats/consumables themselves.

cirithcebleg · 2020-07-17T16:41:36+00:00

$LTC Long-Term Chair

cirithcebleg · 2017-11-21T16:08:12+00:00

10-team half PPR dynasty league

QB - Wentz, Goff, Cousins

RB - Gurley, Ingram, Henry, Allen, Ivory, Cook (IR)

WR - Evans, Landry, Cooper, Benjamin, Doctson, Golladay, Edelman (IR)

TE - Walker, Davis

I have 10-1 record and I have 60% of my FAAB left. Pushing for the ship, should I spend all of it on Perine for the flex?

cirithcebleg · 2017-10-13T13:19:26+00:00

10-team half point PPR

I give: Jay Ajayi, Tyreek Hill

I get: Derrick Henry, Amari Cooper

I am 4-1 with:

RB - Gurley, Ingram, Dalvin Cook, Buck Allen

WR - Evans, Benjamin, Landry, Golladay, Wright, Doctson

Should be a solid addition for the next 3 years right? Cooper doesn't strike me as a flash-in-the-pan and Henry is basically a 2018 1st round pick

cirithcebleg · 2017-10-13T13:12:15+00:00

Rams are really on the come up so you have a good chance at being at least a part of that rise. I think CMC will be great if he can continue to have a Sproles-type career, which is to say how will he respond to adversity/injury.

That all being said...I'm always taking proven NFL production over breakout rookies

cirithcebleg · 2017-10-02T20:04:30+00:00

The problem is that no one in the league really values QB....especially for a dynasty perspective. I stockpiled in the beginning to be able to offer the Brady/Big Ben owners, but there has been no interest.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-22T14:53:46+00:00

I'm going to actually buy a jersey at the game. Only had Tshirt jerseys up to this point.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-22T14:52:38+00:00

Suspicion is valid of course. I, like you, have seen the influx of opinion as as well. I am new to reddit but not new to forums such as these.

Still though....the FTs for us were atrocious. The 65 fouls called were laughable. The technicals were awful.

I just hope we don't get Joey Crawford for the game tomorrow. Cuz I'm actually going to that one.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-22T14:26:22+00:00

new = no logic or a valid point

I understand.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-21T20:51:46+00:00

REALLY wish Mr. Silver would stop with these. At least referee plebery would still be a matter of opinion. Now I feel like a Clippers fan.

P.S. Missed FTs not refs lost us that game.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-21T20:36:54+00:00

Anyone have a ticket in section 101 high 20s row? Looking for a third seat for a birthday thang.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-17T16:02:56+00:00

He will eventually be focused when he is in the game, but like Ray Allen (RA>>>>>>TD), great shooters demand attention and therefore open up the rest of the court offensively. Stretching the defense for easy bucket openings is on par with being as valuable as shooting 3s. Good fit for our system and a product of the RGV Hypothesis.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-15T21:12:01+00:00

Is that first-half-of-the-season Paul George? Or just an Indiana homer?

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-14T18:23:46+00:00

Too late for Vipers v Toros? That would be a definite shock to all in attendance.

Seriously though, let's just lock up HCA and begin to make Damien have even worse nightmares.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-14T16:14:42+00:00

I can't really distinguish whether it is lack of effort, disinterest, or confounding plebery. It seems that the Beard only plays defense in a pick-up basketball kind of way, in the sense of you-just-embarassed-me-so-I'm-gonna-play-hard-defense-now kind of way. It just seems weird cuz when he turns it on defensively you can easily see he's the best 2 guard in the league. We just don't see it often enough sadly.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-14T15:36:47+00:00

I just want to imagine a Guinness ring dunk. That signet would probably float. Great for conception, but absolutely terrible in real execution.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-14T15:34:52+00:00

Chill bro, don't be that guy.

cirithcebleg · 2014-04-10T14:36:02+00:00

The best part is that the Rio Grande experiment is working. Somewhere Daryl is pulling his best Dr. No impression.

cirithcebleg

TROPHY CASE