Spending habits .... Accounting 101 :)

Good day all! Here we are again and I wanted to knock out another "tips and tricks" post before my lunch hour expires. So let's see what damage we can do

In this post, I want to look at spending habits. No, I'm not your mom and no I'm not going to require you to send me an Excel spreadsheet of all the itemized usage of your Gold and FSP

What I am going to do is look at the general cost of spending FSP vs what you actually get vs where it can really benefit you and the guild. For today's post, we are going to take the max limit that you can sell FSP for in the Marketplace, that being 100k. I understand that you can purchase FSP cheaper and for the most part, I end up paying between 95 - 99k per FSP I purchase. However, for simplicities sake, I want to use the 100k marker to give FSP a gold value for our comparisions.

Now the first question that some of you may be asking is:

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"Why in the world are you spending your hard earned cash for FSP vs giving it to the guild or keeping it on hand?"

To that I say, "None of your damn business!". LOL....just kidding Seriously, there are a few reasons that I do this. First, with the newely implemented guild tax, I am "donating" around 40-55k per day from the tax because of my level and amount of stamina I burn in a day hunting. As I level higher, that amount will also increase in proportion. If the guild leaders feel that I need to donate more, they will address me directly Also, if I keep large amounts of cash on me (more than 100k), I make myself a PvP target. Yes, I understand that I can still be PvP'd with less than 100k. However, at my level, you begin to realize how much stamina is really worth and how little return you get for doing simple PvP for gold. It is much more rewarding to do a bounty hunt vs doing standard PvP. So, I can control (to an extent) the amount of PvPing that happens to me by not having exhorbent amounts of gold.

The other reason is if I use my gold to purchase FSP, FSP cannot be "stolen" from me in a PvP or Bounty Hunt. Also, when I purchase the FSP for less amounts, if I REALLY need the cash for myself or donations, then I can resell the FSP for a higher amount and end up making more gold out of my original investment.

So these are the reasons why I use the vast majority of my gold to buy FSP vs just holding on to it. Also, at my level, I am able to purchase at least 2 FSP per day just from the gold I receive from hunting. Then add in on top of that, the cash that I make from buying/selling in the AH, it makes it very profitable

So....let's get on with it shall we? There are quite a few things in FS that you can spend your hard earned FSP on. This is simply a guide. You can disagree with me, you can downright think I've fallen off the bananna boat (and you may be right ) but following this regiment has allowed me to level at least 1 level per day since I began. There have only been 3 days since I started FS on Nov 18, 2007 that I have not gained at least 1 level. 3. So, I would think that I'm at least on the right track

Unfortunately, I wasted 7 FSP right off the bat when I first started by putting them into +25 current stamina. What a HUGE waste!! Seriously. There is not a time that goes by that I do not kick myself in the butt for wasting those FSP. Why do I consider spending FSP on +stamina? Well, let's do the math.

Let's say that you spend 1 FSP and get 1 +25 current stamina boost. Now, let's say that you have 4x doubler on and can use the ENTIRE 25 on 1 hitting mobs and waste 0 on movement or multiple hits. So you kill 6 bad boys (4x doubler remember) for a grand total of 12,000xp and 6,000 gold. Ok, let's be generous and say that you still have Lib and Merchant enabled and they proc once. So now, you managed to jump up to 14,000xp and 7,000 gold. Wow...so you mean to tell me that you just spent 100,000 gold to gain 7,000 gold in return and some 14,000xp and all that IF you're lucky enough to hit 6 mobs, waste 0 on movement and buffs proc. Hmm...does not seem like sound math to me.

While instead, if you really are hell bent for leather and insistent that you want to blow 100,000 gold while leveling, use it to purchase a potion or two. For 100,000 you can attemp to get one of the super doubler potions which would give you WAY more xp/gold gain (see my 3x vs 4x doubler post) than spending it on +25 stamina gain. Even if you could not win the super doubler potion, I know that you could win a few conserve potions (or even buy a conserve buff) for WAY less than 100,000 and at the current proc rate of the buff, end up saving MORE than the 25 stamina you gained by using a precious FSP.

So, +current stamina gain is out the window imo. So what's next? Well, there is +gold gain per hour. In a previous post in this section, either Dizy or Kryp (forget which, sorry guys ) talks about how long it would take to gain your 1,000,000 gold on a per hour basis back from your investment. So rather than belabour something which has already been explained, simply go read that post if you are thinking about putting FSP into +gold per hour gain. 'Nuff said.

Let's consider the current +xp gain per hour. They have since increased the amount you get, making it not too bad but not too good (imo) either. At least not enough to make it worth spending your FSP on it. So let's look at the formula. The XP gain is allocated + a "bonus". The "bonus" is the xp gain x your level - 50 / 25 (rounded down). So let's do the math:

25 gain x lvl 172 = 4,300

4,300 - 50 = 4,250

4,250 / 25 = 170 bonus

So now we take our 170 bonus and add the +25 gain and we get +195xp per hour. So... for 100,000 gold we get 4,680xp per 24 hours. True, this amount will go up with each level gained, but still. So we get (again for 1,500,000 gold) as much xp in 24 hours as we would get by killing 2 1/2 mobs at "normal" xp rates with 4x doubler. So for 1,500,000 gold we gain an extra 2 1/2 mob kills per day but with 0 gold return and 0 chance for Lib to proc. Again, seriously not worth it in my opinion.

Ok, how about 1% level gain. That costs 2 FSP per 1%. So in order to gain 1 level this way, it would take you 200 FSP. 200!!!!! So, that's over 20,000,000 gold!!!! Yes, you read right. 20 MILLION gold to gain 1 level via this "upgrade". I don't even need to try to show you basic accounting principles on this one (I hope )

Now let's consider the +max stamina. If you are currently able to burn all of your stamina without any being wasted, this upgrade is not for you. Why? Because if you can currently burn all of your stamina and not waste any due to not having enough "max stamina" storage, it is useless to add more.

My recommendation is this: Put your FSP upgrades into the +stamina gain per hour. Now you may be thinking to yourself at this point:

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"He IS a madman!"

But just hear me out for a moment. I understand that you have just blown 2,500,000 gold for a single stamina gain per hour. However, let's stop and consider the ramifications of this. Within a single 24 hour period, with a single upgrade in +stamina gain, you would get 24 more stamina than you had before. Now, with that extra 24 stamina, it has just paid for your self buffing of AL and (almost, 1 stamina away) TH. So with that single +stamina gain, you get those 2 buffs for free. Every single day you play. So, with that extra 24 stamina you fight 6 more mobs (again, using 4x doubler and saying 0 used for movement). So you just gained 12,000xp and 6,000gold. Now, imagine that at +3 gain...or +6 gain...or even better +16 gain which is what I am currently at. Yes, it cost a buttload of FSP to get here, but you can look at the results. I have passed up people in the guild who play each and every day, that at one time, were around 30 - 50 levels ahead of me. Now, I am over 20 - 40 levels ahead of them. All because of the +stamina gain per hour.

Yes, I understand that this is the same principle as the +xp gain per hour. However, in this way, we gain stamina which in this game, is more precious than even FSP. With the extra stamina, I can join groups, buff people, bounty hunt, hunt to gain xp AND gold, etc and with just the simple xp gain, I only gain levels. In my opinion, it is a much better "spending habit" than the xp gain, at least until you have all 25 upgrades in the +stamina.

Now to further add to this, with every +stamina I purchase, I also purchase another +10 max stamina. Why? Because I have myself regimented and enough max stamina to be able to be away from the game for 12 hours without losing any stamina to spill over. So, if I get another +1 stamina, I am now down to less than 11 hours. 2, I'm down to 10, etc. Whereas if I spend my FSP proportionatly (bad spelling, sorry )for + max stamina to what I spend for +stamina gain, I maintain that balance ratio. Thus allowing me to "have a life" and still be able to gain mucho xp and gold when I step into the game.

There are other things that you can spend your FSP on like backspace, AH spots, etc. I will talk about these in other posts and the reasons why I have opted to take a few upgrades in these areas as well. But as I mentioned, that is another post all it's own

So hopefully you have gained some insight as to the tremendous benefit of using FSP for +stamina gain. As well as the even greater benefit to a proportional +stamina / +max stamina storage.

Ok, my lunch hour was over about 20 min ago so I gotta end this before I get my tail in a sling Until we post again.

Peace.

Phaithful