Gold sink: Stat buff potion

[aj2000]

I haven't seen this mentioned, but when I saw the first stat buff potion awhile ago in a beta play-through I immediately thought that this was a gold sink mechanism (and an effective one at that).

I haven't checked whether you can buy them in beta but that means little, I am almost certain that you can buy some of them in the final game regardless (maybe not the best ones), and this would certainly be a great gold sink mechanism especially if priced right. Beta may be too low level anyway, I see it as something that begins to be available starting in mid NM - early hell, since it should be priced to be reasonably pricey for a Hell farmer anyway. If you have low level versions (say 10% boost) for a cheap price that a Act 1 normal char can buy easily, high level farmers will just go with a weaker but much much cheaper buff potion often.

Sufficiently expensive but effectively balanced I'd want this to be an almost mandatory expenditure in Inferno (and parts of hell), costly to the point that you have to farm easier levels to save up enough gold just to do a buffed run in inferno.

Well I could go on for paragraphs but I'll refrain, the implications are pretty apparent and self-explanatory after all.

So anyone know more about buff potions and can share more info on it? I've only seen stat buff potions, are there other types of buff potions?

[AlabasterFilth]

In the beta, there are only 2 stat buff potions atm:

Minor Elixir of Resilience (http://i.imgur.com/z7hUD.jpg) and Minor Elixir of Heroism (http://imgur.com/sfAax)

I'm sure there will be multiple tiers of this, based on the 'minor' prefix. At least 3 tiers probably.

You can buy these two at vendors in town.

[Bigfish]

I wouldn't be surprised if a magic find one pops up at some point.

[TheOatman]

In my latest blog post I said:

"Furthermore, there is no item destruction or loss in softcore. Items may be broken down into crafting components or traded for gold but unless intentionally abandoned in the game world, stuff does not just disappear or produce useless outputs. There is no equivalent of carbon dioxide producing oil in the Diablo universe."

I deliberately ignored temporary buff potions, but they could potentially become a significant gold sink that produces nothing permanent. Their value depends entirely on how you use the "increased productivity" time they bought you, kind of like oil.

Most people will probably waste these way too freely.

[Bigfish]

Sufficiently expensive but effectively balanced I'd want this to be an almost mandatory expenditure in Inferno (and parts of hell), costly to the point that you have to farm easier levels to save up enough gold just to do a buffed run in inferno.

I like the idea that these can be used to gain an edge. I don't like the thought of them being mandatory for Inferno. Mandatory buffs that game balance is built around make prep time kind of a pain. I recall old school WoW where people would do Dire Maul runs and Onyxia head turn ins and Hakkar turn ins before raids. It all seemed a bit excessive and detracted from the fun.

Also, no one would farm an easier level to get the gold to farm inferno.

Assuming it takes N gold to get the buffs for Inferno, said run would have to return 2N + X (where X is some amount less than N).

If Inferno payed off less than N, why farm Inferno?

If Inferno pays less than 2N, you're covering the cost of your runs, but you could farm the easier level without buffs and still make more profit.

If Inferno pays exactly 2N, you don't see a difference in profit. Chances are you farm the easier level just because its safer.

If you farm 2N+X in Inferno, you wouldn't farm the easier level. You just re-invest N in to your required potions, and make another run for more profit.

[Naviaras]

Bigfish take a look at the last few lines you wrote. I think you dropped a word. I get the gist of your post but it might cause confusion with others.

[Bigfish]

Thanks, fixed.

[Neinball]

This was a suggestion of mine in one of our earlier podcasts, don't even remember which # it was but it was months ago.

I thought it would be a good use not only as a gold sink but a material sink as well, instead of having to purchase them from a vendor they're made by the mystic. That way it'll use up gold but also use up crafting materials and take a few items out of the market. My original suggestion was to have really high end elixirs require you to salvage legendaries but now I think the mats from a few blues or maybe a rare would suffice.