Mana Jewels - Simply not as much fun.

Ohboy

shteev said:

Fiddler said:

Since the Masterpiece Collection is getting so little love, I assume that booster crafting will be the next place to spend jewels.

You think booster crafting will involve jewels? I'm sure they've said in the past that they were planning on introducing some new currency for booster crafting [citation needed]. Whatever they finally come up with, I can't see me being able to trade in my 50 Hitchclaw Recluses for jewels.

I think he means you'll need to trade in your 50 hitchclaw recluses AND 20 jewels for whatever it is they'll let us craft. 

Gilesclone

TheDragonHermit said:

Also that was the last devs, I am guessing that there will be quite a few changes, would love to hear more about the new team's plans with that

I'd love to hear just about anything beyond "thank you for your patience".

Gunmix25

shteev said:

I spent 120j on a rare pack earlier today, and opened.... a Sifter Wurm. Trash card.

I know, I know, buyer beware, right? Y'all have no sympathy?

I'm sure you've been buying and opening packs long enough to know that the super pack is a horrible purchase in comparison to the premium pack. The same applies for elite packs. The 400j gives you a pool of only Mythics and masterpieces, whereas the 120j gives you the same pool but with rares, of which their drop rate doesn't change... meaning rares have a distinctly higher percentage drop rate overall. So yes, Jewel for Jewel, that is a dirty rotten purchase. IMHO it should be dropped, because it's a rigged purchase banking on the hopes of players that are too impatient to build towards 400j. It's like trying to win top prize at a carnival game... the odds of you actually getting a mythic or masterpiece from a 120j pack is incredibly low because it's rigged. I feel sorry only for new players who don't understand that these cheaper packs are really tinykitty purchases. And this discontentment is not a good footing for d3 if they want to garner more long time players, just sayin'

Mainloop25

They aren't terrible purchases for those not in platinum or top 25 coalitions. Mana jewel collection is excruciatingly slow for the vast majority of casual/semi competitive players. When you can't really rely on the events to give you rares, those cheaper jewel packs might be your best bet. 

Gunmix25

Mainloop25 said:

They aren't terrible purchases for those not in platinum or top 25 coalitions. Mana jewel collection is excruciatingly slow for the vast majority of casual/semi competitive players. When you can't really rely on the events to give you rares, those cheaper jewel packs might be your best bet. 

Excruciating is an understatement... only way to quickly gain any is via platinum in ToP about  100 a week at the expense of 60 crystals. that is if you can win them all.

madwren

Gunmix25 said:

I'm sure you've been buying and opening packs long enough to know that the super pack is a horrible purchase in comparison to the premium pack. 

Unless you're targeting specific rares because the mythics are underwhelming (or terrible).  Worked out great for me on the Inferno Jet / Overcome / Something pack. 

Gunmix25

madwren said:

Gunmix25 said:

I'm sure you've been buying and opening packs long enough to know that the super pack is a horrible purchase in comparison to the premium pack. 

Unless you're targeting specific rares because the mythics are underwhelming (or terrible).  Worked out great for me on the Inferno Jet / Overcome / Something pack. 

True in some cases that may be. Still though the crystals to jewels conversion rate is high. Using ToP as a scale for discussion. 60c gets you 20j. 120j elite packs equals 360c... that is the cost of a rare... but in all fairness, 400j = 1200c and that is crazy. Didn't Kiora originally cost 950c when she first came out? 

tfg76

I actually like the jewel system (although I´d like to see more frequent rotations and elite packs for all available sets, so that it would be possible to catch up with AKH for instance).

In fact, I like it so much that I think _it_ should be the booster crafting system. When it first came out, I thought for sure that was their plan. Elite packs give you some flexibility in targeting specific cards while retaining some randomness and excitement. The conversion rate should be somewhat lossy (so that if a "rare+" pack costs 120, maybe you´d get 80 for a converted rare or something). There would have to be "legacy" jewels that could be used to purchase legacy elite packs. This kind of solution seems to me to be very simple to implement (most of it already exists), and should satisfy most needs for duplicate handling.

That being said, I do think the jewel payout rate is a little low. ToTP is fine (though quite grindy), but it´s a casual event and I think the serious events should be rewarded too. The monthly 3000-bracket event gives 300 to 1-5 (in platinum), maybe the regular PvP coalition events could give 100-150 or so?

babar3355

Gunmix25 said:

madwren said:

Gunmix25 said:

I'm sure you've been buying and opening packs long enough to know that the super pack is a horrible purchase in comparison to the premium pack. 

Unless you're targeting specific rares because the mythics are underwhelming (or terrible).  Worked out great for me on the Inferno Jet / Overcome / Something pack. 

True in some cases that may be. Still though the crystals to jewels conversion rate is high. Using ToP as a scale for discussion. 60c gets you 20j. 120j elite packs equals 360c... that is the cost of a rare... but in all fairness, 400j = 1200c and that is crazy. Didn't Kiora originally cost 950c when she first came out? 

Well, you would also get 20 booster packs which have some value as well.  At 60c per booster that would be 1200c. 

Anyway, this is why I have argued that TotP is the best return on investment in the entire game, assuming you can win the games. 30c get you 5 cards and 1/20th of a mythic.  Certainly seems better than a premium pack where 300c gets you 25 cards and a rare. Rescaling, the premium pack gets you 1/2 as much value from cards and 1/10 of a rare instead of 1/20th of a mythic.

span_argoman

tfg76 said:

That being said, I do think the jewel payout rate is a little low. ToTP is fine (though quite grindy), but it´s a casual event and I think the serious events should be rewarded too. The monthly 3000-bracket event gives 300 to 1-5 (in platinum), maybe the regular PvP coalition events could give 100-150 or so?

The top two coalitions already get 75 Jewels a week from coalition ranking in the coalition events (25J from PvP, 50J from PvE). Add another 30 Jewels from Progression in the weekly Coalition PvP event and 100 Jewels from playing all 5 TotPs each week and that's 205 Jewels a week for top players. Doesn't seem too shabby. Add another 5 to 20 Jewels from Ranking rewards in the weekly Legacy PvP event. There needs to be a better basis for massively increasing the Jewel rewards specifically for top coalitions in the Coalition PvP events.

babar3355 said:

Well, you would also get 20 booster packs which have some value as well.  At 60c per booster that would be 1200c. 

Anyway, this is why I have argued that TotP is the best return on investment in the entire game for Platinum players, assuming you can win the games. 30c get you 5 cards and 1/20th of a mythic.  Certainly seems better than a premium pack where 300c gets you 25 cards and a rare. Rescaling, the premium pack gets you 1/2 as much value from cards and 1/10 of a rare instead of 1/20th of a mythic.

FTFY
See here for detailed math.